Driving support apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12240461-B2
Application number	US-202318479942-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 3, 2023
Priority date	Oct 25, 2022
Publication date	Mar 4, 2025
Grant date	Mar 4, 2025

Abstract

The driving support apparatus performs deceleration control of the vehicle. The driving support apparatus includes: a sensitivity setting unit configured to set an actuation sensitivity of a deceleration control; a deceleration execution unit configured to execute the deceleration control based on the actuation sensitivity; and a brake operation detection unit configured to detect a brake operation by a driver. The sensitivity setting unit changes the actuation sensitivity based on a control execution count which is the number of executions of the deceleration control and a driver operation count which is the number of operations of the brake operation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A driving support apparatus for performing a deceleration control of a vehicle, comprising:
a sensitivity setting unit configured to set an actuation sensitivity of the deceleration control;
a deceleration execution unit configured to execute the deceleration control based on the actuation sensitivity; and
a brake operation detection unit configured to detect a brake operation by a driver of the vehicle,
wherein the sensitivity setting unit changes the actuation sensitivity based on a control execution count, which is a number of times the deceleration control has been executed by the deceleration execution unit, and a driver operation count, which is a number of times the brake operation has been detected by the brake operation detection unit.

2. The driving support apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sensitivity setting unit changes the actuation sensitivity such that the deceleration control by the deceleration execution unit is easily executed when a ratio of the control execution count to a sum of the control execution count and the driver operation count is equal to or less than a first threshold.

3. The driving support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the sensitivity setting unit calculates a brake override count which is the number of brake operations performed by the driver during the deceleration control, based on an execution state of the deceleration control by the deceleration execution unit and a detection result of the brake operation detection unit, and further changes the actuation sensitivity based on the number of brake overrides.

4. The driving support apparatus of claim 3 , further comprising a scene determination unit configured to determine, based on at least one of a traveling state of the vehicle and a surrounding environment of the vehicle, whether or not a brake override necessary scene in which the brake operation by the driver is necessary during execution of the deceleration control by the deceleration execution unit,
wherein the sensitivity setting unit calculates a total brake count, which is a total number of times a brake of the vehicle is actuated based on the control execution count, the driver operation count, and the brake override count, calculates a necessary scene brake count, which is the number of times the brake override is performed during the brake override necessary scene, and changes the actuation sensitivity to easy execution of the deceleration control by the deceleration execution unit when a ratio of the number of times obtained by subtracting the necessary scene brake count from the control execution count to the total brake count is equal to or less than a second threshold.

5. The driving support apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an accelerator operation detection unit configured to detect an accelerator operation by the driver,
wherein the sensitivity setting unit determines presence or absence of an accelerator override in which the accelerator operation is performed by the driver while the deceleration control is being executed based on an executing state of the deceleration control by the deceleration execution unit and a detection result of the accelerator operation detection unit, and returns the actuation sensitivity to a state before the change when an occurrence frequency of the accelerator override with respect to the control execution count increases to exceed a predetermined third threshold before and after the actuation sensitivity is changed.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kondo Kumiko
• Kawamata Shinya
• Ito Shogo

Classifications

• B60W40/08

  related to drivers or passengers · CPC title

• B60W2540/10

  Accelerator pedal position · CPC title

• B60W2540/12

  Brake pedal position · CPC title

• B60W30/18109 Primary

  Braking · CPC title

• B60W50/10 Primary

  Interpretation of driver requests or demands · CPC title