Driving support apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017291598-A1
Application number	US-201715482083-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 7, 2017
Priority date	Apr 8, 2016
Publication date	Oct 12, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A driving support apparatus for a hybrid vehicle including an engine and a motor, in which the engine starts running when any one of parameters indicating a state of the hybrid vehicle reaches an engine start threshold set for the parameters, the driving support apparatus includes a current value acquiring section that acquires current values of the parameters, a margin calculation section that calculates margin levels for the current values of the parameters for keeping the engine stopping using the current values of the parameters and the engine start thresholds, and an output section that outputs the smallest margin level of the calculated margin levels.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A driving support apparatus for a hybrid vehicle including an engine and a motor, in which the engine starts running when any one of parameters indicating a state of the hybrid vehicle reaches an engine start threshold set for the parameters, the driving support apparatus comprising:
a current value acquiring section that acquires current values of the parameters; a margin calculation section that calculates margin levels for the current values of the parameters for keeping the engine stopping using the current values of the parameters and the engine start thresholds; and an output section that outputs the smallest margin level of the calculated margin levels.

2 . The driving support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the margin calculating section calculates one of the margin levels by dividing a differences between one of the current values of the parameters and a corresponding engine starting threshold by a difference between a value most distant from the corresponding engine starting threshold within a possible value range of the one of the current values and the corresponding engine starting threshold.

3 . The driving support apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a display unit that includes a display area in which an area corresponding to the smallest margin level is displayed with a color difference from that of the other regions.

4 . The driving support apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a display unit that includes a display area in which an area corresponding to the smallest margin level is displayed with a color difference from that of the other regions.

5 . The driving support apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein when the smallest margin level is the maximum value, the area has the maximum area, and
when the smallest margin level is the minimum value, the area is substantially zero.

6 . The driving support apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein when the smallest margin level is the maximum value, the area has the maximum area, and
when the smallest margin level is the minimum value, the area is substantially zero.

7 . The driving support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the parameters include at least one of a state of charge of a battery of the hybrid vehicle, a value of required output to the hybrid vehicle, a voltage of the battery, a temperature of the battery;

8 . The driving support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the output unit outputs a notification to a driver of the hybrid vehicle when the parameter corresponding to the smallest margin level changes during traveling.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Motors Corp

Inventors

• Murase Masahiro
• Saito Jun

Classifications

• B60W2510/246

  Temperature · CPC title

• B60W20/20

  Control strategies involving selection of hybrid configuration, e.g. selection between series or parallel configuration · CPC title

• B60W10/08

  including control of electric propulsion units, e.g. motors or generators · CPC title

• B60W2510/244

  Charge state · CPC title

• B60W20/10

  Controlling the power contribution of each of the prime movers to meet required power demand · CPC title