Accompanying vehicle selection system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11294395-B2
Application number	US-201916530142-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 2, 2019
Priority date	Aug 31, 2018
Publication date	Apr 5, 2022
Grant date	Apr 5, 2022

Abstract

An accompanying vehicle selection system includes: a first vehicle that is provided with a driver's seat; a plurality of second vehicles that have different functions from the first vehicle, and that are configured to travel in accompaniment with the first vehicle; and a control unit that is provided in the first vehicle, and that determines, based on input information, which vehicle from among the plurality of second vehicles is to travel in accompaniment with the first vehicle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An accompanying vehicle selection system comprising:
a first vehicle that is provided with a driver's seat;
a plurality of second vehicles that have different functions from the first vehicle, and that are configured to travel in accompaniment with the first vehicle; and
a control unit that is provided in the first vehicle, and that determines, based on an input destination, which vehicle from among the plurality of second vehicles is to travel in accompaniment with the first vehicle,
wherein the control unit proportionally increases a number of second vehicles that are to accompany the first vehicle, as a distance to the input destination increases.

2. The accompanying vehicle selection system according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit determines a second vehicle input by an occupant of the first vehicle as being an accompanying vehicle.

3. The accompanying vehicle selection system according to claim 1 , wherein a vehicle including a vehicle cabin interior that functions as a living room is included among the plurality of second vehicles.

4. The accompanying vehicle selection system according to claim 1 , wherein a vehicle including a vehicle cabin interior that functions as a toilet and bathroom is included among the plurality of second vehicles.

5. The accompanying vehicle selection system according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit controls each of the plurality of second vehicles to follow the first vehicle, using vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

6. The accompanying vehicle selection system according to claim 1 , wherein the first vehicle and each of the plurality of second vehicles is configured so as to be able to be physically linked to each other in a case in which the first vehicle and the second vehicles are in a stopped state.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yamada Yoshinori
• Ito Masaki
• Inoue Shotaro
• Muguruma Akihiro
• Ikeda Michio

Classifications

• G05D1/0287 Primary

  involving a plurality of land vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling (traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00, particularly anticollision systems G08G1/16) · CPC title

• H04W4/46

  for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V] · CPC title

• B60P3/32

  comprising living accommodation for people, e.g. caravans, camping, or like vehicles (tents or canopies, in general E04H15/00) · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• G08G1/22 Primary

  Platooning, i.e. convoy of communicating vehicles · CPC title