Travel controller and travel control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12428039-B2
Application number	US-202318448362-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 11, 2023
Priority date	Aug 26, 2022
Publication date	Sep 30, 2025
Grant date	Sep 30, 2025

Abstract

A travel controller of a vehicle that can travel on a road under autonomous driving control detecting two-wheelers, including bicycles, located in surroundings of the vehicle from surrounding data representing the surroundings of the vehicle generated by a surrounding sensor mounted on the vehicle, determining whether a target road on which the vehicle was traveling when the surrounding data in which a two-wheeler was detected was generated is a shared road on which travel by bicycles is permitted, when it is determined that the target road is a shared road, notifying a driver of the vehicle of a transition demand demanding transition in control of the vehicle from autonomous driving control to manual driving control requiring driving operations by the driver of the vehicle, and when it is determined that the target road is not a shared road, not notifying the driver of the transition demand.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A travel controller of a vehicle that can travel on a road under autonomous driving control comprising a processor configured to:
detect a two-wheeler, comprising a bicycle, located in surroundings of the vehicle from surrounding data representing the surroundings of the vehicle generated by a surrounding sensor mounted on the vehicle,
input the surrounding data to a classifier that is trained to classify two-wheeled moving objects from surrounding data and output a confidence rate indicating a degree of certainty that a detected moving object is a bicycle,
discriminate that the detected two-wheeler is a bicycle when the confidence rate output by the classifier is greater than a confidence rate threshold and not a bicycle when the confidence rate is not greater than the confidence rate threshold,
determine whether a target road on which the vehicle was traveling is a shared road on which travel by bicycles is permitted when the two-wheeler is detected,
when it is determined that the detected two-wheeler is a bicycle and the target road is a shared road, notify a driver of the vehicle of a transition demand demanding transition in control of the vehicle from autonomous driving control to manual driving control requiring driving operations by the driver and change the control of the vehicle from autonomous driving control to manual driving control,
when it is determined that the detected two-wheeler is not a bicycle and the target road is a shared road, not notify the driver of the transition demand, and
when it is determined that the target road is not a shared road, not notify the driver of the transition demand.

2. The travel controller according to claim 1 , wherein the processor does not notify the driver of the transition demand when a when it is determined that the detected two-wheeler is a bicycle and the target road is a shared road and the detected two-wheeler is located behind the vehicle and a distance between the vehicle to the detected two-wheeler increases as time elapses.

3. A travel control method of a vehicle that can travel on a road under autonomous driving control, comprising:
detecting a two-wheeler, comprising a bicycle, located in surroundings of the vehicle from surrounding data representing the surroundings of the vehicle generated by a surrounding sensor mounted on the vehicle,
inputting the surrounding data to a classifier that is trained to classify two-wheeled moving objects from surrounding data and output a confidence rate indicating a degree of certainty that a detected moving object is a bicycle,
discriminating that the detected two-wheeler is a bicycle when the confidence rate output by the classifier is greater than a confidence rate threshold and not a bicycle when the confidence rate is not greater than the confidence rate threshold,
determining whether a target road on which the vehicle was traveling is a shared road on which travel by bicycles is permitted when the two-wheeler is detected,
when it is determined that the detected two-wheeler is a bicycle and the target road is a shared road, notifying a driver of the vehicle of a transition demand demanding transition in control of the vehicle from autonomous driving control to manual driving control requiring driving operations by the driver and changing the control of the vehicle from autonomous driving control to manual driving control,
when it is determined that the detected two-wheeler is not a bicycle and the target road is a shared road, not notifying the driver of the transition demand, and
when it is determined the target road is not a shared road, not notifying the driver of the transition demand.

4. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having a computer program for travel control stored therein, the computer program causing a computer mounted on a vehicle that can travel on a road under autonomous driving control to execute a process comprising:
detecting a two-wheeler, comprising a bicycle, located in surroundings of the vehicle from surrounding data representing the surroundings of the vehicle generated by a surrounding sensor mounted on the vehicle,
inputting the surrounding data to a classifier that is trained to classify two-wheeled moving objects from surrounding data and output a confidence rate indicating a degree of certainty that a detected moving object is a bicycle,
discriminating that the detected two-wheeler is a bicycle when the confidence rate output by the classifier is greater than a confidence rate threshold and not a bicycle when the confidence rate is not greater than the confidence rate threshold,
determining whether a target road on which the vehicle was traveling is a shared road on which travel by bicycles is permitted when the two-wheeler is detected,
when it is determined that the detected two-wheeler is a bicycle and the target road is a shared road, notifying a driver of the vehicle of a transition demand demanding transition in control of the vehicle from autonomous driving control to manual driving control requiring driving operations by the driver and changing the control of the vehicle from autonomous driving control to manual driving control,
when it is determined that the detected two-wheeler is not a bicycle and the target road is a shared road, not notifying the driver of the transition demand, and
when it is determined the target road is not a shared road, not notifying the driver of the transition demand.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kuroda Ryusuke
• Aoki Kenichiro
• Okubo Tadashi
• Fujiki Takuya
• Sugiura Tetsuro
• Goto Kunio

Classifications

• B60W2420/403

  Image sensing, e.g. optical camera · CPC title

• B60W2554/4026

  Cycles · CPC title

• B60W2050/146

  Display means · CPC title

• B60W2554/80

  Spatial relation or speed relative to objects · CPC title

• B60W50/14

  Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention · CPC title