Vehicle control system, vehicle control method, and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11465645-B2
Application number	US-202016801194-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 26, 2020
Priority date	Feb 28, 2019
Publication date	Oct 11, 2022
Grant date	Oct 11, 2022

Abstract

A vehicle control system includes: a recognizer that recognizes a surrounding environment of a vehicle; and a driving controller that performs speed control and steering control of the vehicle automatically on the basis of a recognition result obtained by the recognizer. When the vehicle is moved to a boarding position at which an occupant boards the vehicle and is stopped, the driving controller stops the vehicle on the basis of at least one of weather information at the boarding position, a state of the occupant recognized by the recognizer, and an environment of the boarding position recognized by the recognizer and determines a stopping position of the vehicle according to the environment of the boarding position or the state of the occupant when the weather information is a predetermined state.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle control system comprising:
a part of a program implemented by a processor using instructions stored in a memory that recognizes a surrounding environment of a vehicle; and
a driving controller that performs speed control and steering control of the vehicle automatically on the basis of a recognition result obtained by the part of the program implemented by the processor using the instructions stored in the memory,
wherein when the vehicle is moved to a boarding position at which an occupant boards the vehicle and is stopped, the driving controller stops the vehicle on the basis of at least one of weather information at the boarding position, a state of the occupant recognized by the part of the program implemented by the processor using the instructions stored in the memory, and an environment of the boarding position recognized by the part of the program implemented by the processor using the instructions stored in the memory and determines a stopping position of the vehicle according to the environment of the boarding position or the state of the occupant when the weather information is a predetermined state,
wherein the state of the occupant includes an appearance of the occupant, and
wherein when the appearance of the occupant recognized by the part of the program implemented by the processor using the instructions stored in the memory is an appearance which is not to be exposed to an external environment, the driving controller determines whether the vehicle can be stopped at a position at which the occupant is not influenced by the external environment, and
when the driving controller determines that the vehicle cannot be stopped at the position at which the occupant is not influenced by the external environment, the driving controller has the vehicle wait until the vehicle can be stopped at the position at which the occupant is not influenced by the external environment.

2. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 , wherein
the environment of the boarding position includes the presence of eaves at the boarding position, and
when the weather information indicates that the weather at the boarding position is bad, the driving controller determines the stopping position of the vehicle on the basis of the presence of eaves recognized by the part of the program implemented by the processor using the instructions stored in the memory and the state of the occupant.

3. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 , wherein
the environment of the boarding position includes a degree of sunlight at the boarding position, and
when the degree of sunlight recognized by the part of the program implemented by the processor using the instructions stored in the memory is determined to be equal to or larger than a predetermined reference value, the driving controller stops the vehicle at a position at which the occupant is not hit by sunlight.

4. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 , wherein
the environment of the boarding position includes a degree of sunlight at the boarding position,
the system further includes the part of the program implemented by the processor using the instructions stored in the memory that estimates the degree of sunlight at the boarding position in each time period, and
when the degree of sunlight estimated by the part of the program implemented by the processor using instructions stored in the memory is determined to be equal to or larger than a predetermined reference value, the driving controller stops the vehicle at a position at which the occupant is not hit by sunlight.

5. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 , wherein when a plurality of boarding positions are present, the driving controller stops the vehicle near a boarding position of which the environment is recognized to include the presence of eaves by the part of the program implemented by the processor using the instructions stored in the memory.

6. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 , wherein
when an influence of an external environment recognized by the part of the program implemented by the processor using the instructions stored in the memory equivalent is larger than a predetermined reference, the driving controller executes a process of determining a stopping position of the vehicle.

7. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a device that communicates with a terminal device carried by the occupant that notifies the terminal device of various pieces of information including weather information, wherein
the driving controller moves and stops the vehicle at a boarding position at an instruction time instructed by the occupant, and
when the weather information indicates that the weather at the instruction time is bad, the device that communicates with the terminal device carried by the occupant notifies the terminal device of information proposing to change the instruction time.

8. The vehicle control system according to claim 7 , wherein
the device that communicates with the terminal device carried by the occupant sends a notification to the terminal device, the notification asking whether the occupant will board the vehicle at a boarding position at which the occupant is not influenced by the external environment or a boarding position at which the occupant is influenced by the external environment, and
the driving controller stops the vehicle at a position at which the occupant is not influenced by the external environment or a position at which the occupant is influenced by the external environment on the basis of information acquired from the terminal device in response to the notification of the device that communicates with the terminal device carried by the occupant.

9. The vehicle control system according to claim 8 , wherein
when the vehicle is moved to a boarding position at which an occupant boards the vehicle and is stopped, the device that communicates with the terminal device carried by the occupant does not send the notification if congestion is not expected at a boarding position at which the occupant is not influenced by the external environment.

10. The vehicle control system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an illumination controller that controls an illumination provided in the vehicle, wherein
when the vehicle is moved to the boarding position by the driving controller and the occupant of the vehicle is recognized by the part of the program implemented by the processor using the instructions stored in the memory, the illumination controller lights the illumination according to a predetermined lighting mode to notify the occupant of arrival of the vehicle.

11. A vehicle control method for causing a computer to execute:
recognizing a surrounding environment of a vehicle;
automatically performing speed control and steering control of the vehicle on the basis of a recognition result;
when the vehicle is moved to a boarding position at which an occupant boards the vehicle and is stopped, stopping the vehicle on the basis of at least one of weather information at the boarding position, a recognized state of the occupant, and a recognized environment of the boarding position; and
determining a stopping position of the vehicle according to the environment at the boarding position or the state of the occupant when the weather information is a predetermined state,
wherein the state of the occupant includes an appearance of the occupant, and
determining whether the vehicle can be stopped at a position at which the occupant is not influenced by the external environment when the appearance of the occupant recognized is an appearance which is not to be exposed to

Assignees

• Honda Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yamane Katsuyasu
• Shoda Yasushi
• Noguchi Junpei
• Hara Yuki
• Mimura Yoshitaka
• Yamanaka Hiroshi
• Taguchi Ryoma
• Takada Yuta
• Sugihara Chie
• Motegi Yuki
• Shibauchi Tsubasa

Classifications

• B60W2555/20

  Ambient conditions, e.g. wind or rain · CPC title

• G06V2201/10

  Recognition assisted with metadata · CPC title

• G06V20/58

  Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads · CPC title

• B60W60/0013

  specially adapted for occupant comfort · CPC title

• B60W10/04

  including control of propulsion units · CPC title