Cooperative vehicle monitoring

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11482109-B2
Application number	US-202016806907-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 2, 2020
Priority date	Mar 2, 2020
Publication date	Oct 25, 2022
Grant date	Oct 25, 2022

Abstract

In an example, a method captures, at a first connected vehicle situated in a travel path segment, first sensor data describing an environment proximate to the first connected vehicle. The environment includes a first unconnected vehicle. The method wirelessly receives, via a communication network at the first connected vehicle from a second connected vehicle situated in the travel path segment, second sensor data describing one or more operating characteristics of the first unconnected vehicle. The method estimates, using the first sensor data and the second sensor data, a vehicle action of the first unconnected vehicle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
capturing, at a first connected vehicle situated in a travel path segment, first sensor data describing an environment proximate to the first connected vehicle, the environment including a first unconnected vehicle;
wirelessly receiving, via a communication network at the first connected vehicle from a second connected vehicle situated in the travel path segment, second sensor data describing one or more operating characteristics of the first unconnected vehicle;
determining, using one or more of the first sensor data captured by the first connected vehicle and the second sensor data, one or more operating characteristics of a second unconnected vehicle situated in the travel path segment;
estimating, using the first sensor data and the second sensor data, a vehicle action of the first unconnected vehicle; and
determining a vehicle action of the second unconnected vehicle using the vehicle action of the first unconnected vehicle and the one or more operating characteristics of the second unconnected vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first connected vehicle is located proximate to the first unconnected vehicle in the travel path segment; and
the first unconnected vehicle is obscured from being captured by one or more sensors of the first connected vehicle and at least partially unobscured from being captured by one or more sensors of the second connected vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle action of the first unconnected vehicle includes one or more of an excessive braking action, a non-indicated lane change action, a traffic impeding action, a speeding action, and a tailgating action.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, for a connected vehicle associated with the travel path segment, a vehicle instruction based on the vehicle action of the first unconnected vehicle; and
transmitting the vehicle instruction to the connected vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
assigning a temporary identifier for the first unconnected vehicle; and
transmitting the temporary identifier of the first unconnected vehicle and an alert notification describing the vehicle action of the first unconnected vehicle to one or more connected vehicles associated with the travel path segment, wherein the temporary identifier indicates one or more of:
a vehicle attribute of the first unconnected vehicle and a vehicle attribute of a proximate vehicle located proximate to the first unconnected vehicle, and
a vehicle location of the first unconnected vehicle relative to the proximate vehicle;

monitoring the first unconnected vehicle;
updating the temporary identifier of the first unconnected vehicle based on a vehicle attribute of a different proximate vehicle and a vehicle location of the first unconnected vehicle relative to the different proximate vehicle; and
transmitting the updated temporary identifier of the first unconnected vehicle to the one or more connected vehicles associated with the travel path segment.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accumulating the one or more operating characteristics of the first unconnected vehicle at a plurality of timestamps; and wherein
estimating the vehicle action of the first unconnected vehicle is based on the accumulated one or more operating characteristics of the first unconnected vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a relative location of the second connected vehicle relative to the first connected vehicle and the first unconnected vehicle includes one of:
the second connected vehicle is situated behind the first connected vehicle in a neighboring lane of the first connected vehicle;
the second connected vehicle is situated between the first connected vehicle and the first unconnected vehicle in one of a neighboring lane and a same lane of the first connected vehicle; and
the second connected vehicle is situated in front of the first unconnected vehicle in one of the neighboring lane and the same lane of the first connected vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, using the first sensor data captured by the first connected vehicle, the one or more operating characteristics of the second unconnected vehicle situated in the travel path segment, the second unconnected vehicle located proximate to the first connected vehicle;
determining, using the first sensor data and the wirelessly received second sensor data, that the first unconnected vehicle is a preceding vehicle of the second unconnected vehicle; and
determining a vehicle following pattern of the second unconnected vehicle based on the one or more operating characteristics of the second unconnected vehicle and the one or more operating characteristics of the first unconnected vehicle.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein determining the vehicle following pattern of the second unconnected vehicle includes:
determining, using the one or more operating characteristics of the second unconnected vehicle and the one or more operating characteristics of the first unconnected vehicle, a second vehicle action of the second unconnected vehicle that was caused by a first vehicle action of the first unconnected vehicle;
updating a set of vehicle actions associated with the second unconnected vehicle to exclude the second vehicle action from the set of vehicle actions; and
determining the vehicle following pattern of the second unconnected vehicle using the updated set of vehicle actions associated with the second unconnected vehicle.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, using the first sensor data captured by the first connected vehicle, the one or more operating characteristics of the second unconnected vehicle situated in the travel path segment, the second unconnected vehicle located proximate to the first connected vehicle;
determining, using the first sensor data and the wirelessly received second sensor data, that the first unconnected vehicle is a neighboring vehicle of the second unconnected vehicle; and
determining a lane change pattern of the second unconnected vehicle based on the one or more operating characteristics of the second unconnected vehicle and the one or more operating characteristics of the first unconnected vehicle, wherein
determining the lane change pattern of the second unconnected vehicle includes:
determining, using the one or more operating characteristics of the second unconnected vehicle and the one or more operating characteristics of the first unconnected vehicle, a second vehicle action of the second unconnected vehicle that was caused by a first driving action of the first unconnected vehicle;
updating a set of vehicle actions associated with the second unconnected vehicle to exclude the second vehicle action from the set of vehicle actions; and
determining the lane change pattern of the second unconnected vehicle using the updated set of vehicle actions associated with the second unconnected vehicle.

11. A first connected vehicle comprising:
a wireless transceiver;
one or more sensors; and
one or more processors coupled to the wireless transceiver and the one or more sensors via a communication bus, the one or more processors being configured to perform operations including:
capturing, using the one or more sensors, first sensor data describing an environment proximate to the first connected vehicle situated in a travel path segment, the environment including a first unconnected vehicle;
wirelessly receiving, via the wireless transceiver from a second connected vehicle situated in the travel path segment, second sensor data describing one or more operating charact

Assignees

• Toyota Eng & Mfg North America
• Toyota Motor Eng & Mfg North America Inc

Inventors

• Yang Hao
• Oguchi Kentaro

Classifications

• G08G1/163

  involving continuous checking · CPC title

• G08G1/096791

  where the origin of the information is another vehicle · CPC title

• G08G1/20

  Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles · CPC title

• G08G1/096741

  where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle · CPC title

• G08G1/166 Primary

  for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes · CPC title