Traffic lane guidance system for vehicle and traffic lane guidance method for vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9851216-B2
Application number	US-201415028196-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 8, 2014
Priority date	Oct 9, 2013
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

A lane guidance system for a vehicle for guiding a vehicle to a recommended lane in which the vehicle is recommended to run out of traffic lanes included in a route from a first point to a second point through the use of an output unit mounted on the vehicle includes: a calculating unit that calculates a predicted value of an occurrence probability of sudden lane change as information indicating the occurrence probability of sudden lane change when the vehicle runs in sections corresponding to a plurality of links; a setting unit that sets the recommended lane on the basis of the predicted value; and a generating unit that generates guidance information for the recommended lane and that outputs the guidance information to the output unit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle for guiding a driver of the vehicle to a recommended lane in which the vehicle is recommended to run from among traffic lanes included in a route from a current point of the vehicle as a first point to a destination point of the vehicle as a second point, comprising:
a vehicle component mounted on the vehicle to output guidance information for the driver: and
a processor configured to:
calculate, when the vehicle runs in sections corresponding to a plurality of links, a predicted value indicating an occurrence probability of sudden lane change in the links by connecting a plurality of nodes corresponding to traffic lanes in a traveling direction of the vehicle and a direction intersecting the traveling direction of the vehicle, for each of the plurality of links on the basis of statistical information acquired from a plurality of vehicles and an information quantity of the statistical information;
calculate an addition value in the links set by connecting the plurality of nodes in the direction intersecting the traveling direction of the vehicle, the addition value being greater than an addition value in the links set by connecting the plurality of nodes in the traveling direction of the vehicle;
set a recommended lane on the basis of a sum of the predicted value and the addition value; and
output guidance information output guidance information via the vehicle component to the driver according to the recommended lane.

2. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the vehicle component is a human machine interface.

3. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 2 , wherein the human machine interface is one of a display and a speaker.

4. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 2 , wherein the processor is further configured to include a traffic lane included in the route in which the total sum of the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change is minimized by applying a Dijkstra's algorithm to the predicted value of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change calculated for each link included in the route from the first point to the second point.

5. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to set the traffic lane included in the route in which the number of links set by connecting the plurality of nodes in the direction intersecting the traveling direction of the vehicle is minimized under the condition not including the link in which the predicted value is greater than a predetermined threshold value in the route from the first point to the second point as the recommended lane.

6. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to set a weighting value for the addition value and gradually increases the weighting value set for the addition value as a distance from a point, at which a steering operation frequency of the vehicle is greater than a predetermined threshold value, decreases in the route from the first point to the second point.

7. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine a second addition value which is different from a first addition value as the addition value to be added to the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change when the addition value is the first addition value and sets the second addition value, when an appropriateness of personal driving characteristics for sections corresponding to the links is relatively high, to be smaller than that when the appropriateness is relatively low, and
wherein the recommended lane is set on the basis of the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change to which the first addition value and the second addition value are added.

8. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 7 , wherein the processor is further configured to classify information acquired from the plurality of vehicles as information of elements of personal driving characteristics into a plurality of driving characteristic information groups, classify information of elements of lane characteristics into a plurality of lane characteristic information groups, and set the second addition value to be added to the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change, when an appropriateness of the driving characteristic information groups and the lane characteristic information groups is relatively high, to be smaller than that when the appropriateness is relatively low.

9. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 7 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine a third addition value which is different from the first addition value and the second addition value as the addition value to be added to the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change and sets the third addition value, when an appropriateness of vehicle characteristics for sections corresponding to the links is relatively high, to be smaller than that when the appropriateness is relatively low, and
wherein the processor sets the recommended lane on the basis of the predicted values of the occurrence probability of sudden lane change to which the first addition value, the second addition value, and the third addition value are added.

10. The traffic lane guidance system for a vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the nodes include a plurality of positions spaced in the traveling direction of the vehicle in the traffic lanes of a route portion between neighboring points of intersection in the route from the first point to the second point.

11. A traffic lane guidance method for a vehicle of guiding a driver of the vehicle to a recommended lane in which the vehicle is recommended to run from among traffic lanes included in a route from a current point of the vehicle as a first point to a destination point of the vehicle as a second point through the use of a vehicle component mounted on the vehicle to output guidance information for the driver and a processor, the method comprising:
calculating, using the processor, when the vehicle runs in sections corresponding to a plurality of links, a predicted value indicating an occurrence probability of sudden lane change in the links by connecting a plurality of nodes corresponding to traffic lanes in a traveling direction of the vehicle and a direction intersecting the traveling direction of the vehicle, for each of the plurality of links on the basis of statistical information acquired from a plurality of vehicles and an information quantity of the statistical information;
calculating an addition value in the links set by connecting the plurality of nodes in the direction intersecting the traveling direction of the vehicle, the addition value being greater than an addition value in the links set by connecting the plurality of nodes in the traveling direction of the vehicle:
setting a recommended lane on the basis of a sum of the calculated predicted value and the addition value; and
outputting guidance information via the vehicle component to the driver according to the recommended lane.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Okada Hiroki
• Neyama Ryo

Classifications

• G01C21/3446

  Details of route searching algorithms, e.g. Dijkstra, A*, arc-flags or using precalculated routes · CPC title

• G01C21/3658 Primary

  Lane guidance · CPC title

• B62D15/021

  Determination of steering angle · CPC title