Automatic driving device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9886852-B2
Application number	US-201614992124-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 11, 2016
Priority date	Jan 19, 2015
Publication date	Feb 6, 2018
Grant date	Feb 6, 2018

Abstract

An automatic driving device includes a position acquisition unit configured to acquire position information on another automatically-driving vehicle and another manually-driving vehicle, a route searching unit configured to search a route, a calculation unit configured to calculate a ratio of the number of the other automatically-driving vehicles to a total number of all other vehicles on the route for each route based on the position information on the other automatically-driving vehicle and the position information on the other manually-driving vehicle when a plurality of routes is searched, a selection unit configured to select the route wherein the other automatically-driving vehicle ratio calculated by the calculation unit is highest as a route for the host vehicle to travel, and a control unit configured to control automatic driving of the host vehicle so travel along the selected route.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device configured to select a route from a first point to a second point and perform an automatic driving of a host vehicle so as to travel along the selected route, the device comprising:
a first position acquisition unit configured to acquire position information on other vehicles that perform automatic driving;
a second position acquisition unit configured to acquire position information on vehicles besides the other vehicles that do not perform automatic driving;
a route searching unit configured to determine a plurality of routes from the first point to the second point based on map information;
a calculation unit configured to calculate a ratio of the number of the other vehicles that perform automatic driving to a total number of all other vehicles on the route, which includes all of the other vehicles that do not perform automatic driving and all of the other vehicles that perform automatic driving, for each one of the plurality of routes based on the position information acquired by the first position acquisition unit and the position information acquired by the second position acquisition unit;
a selection unit configured to select a route from among the plurality of routes in which the other vehicle ratio calculated by the calculation unit is the highest as a route for the host vehicle to travel; and
a control unit configured to control the host vehicle such that the host vehicle travels along the route selected by the selection unit.

2. The device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the selection unit is further configured such that if a plurality of routes in which the other vehicle ratio is the highest exists, the selection unit selects the route in which the number of the other vehicles besides the other vehicles that perform automatic driving is the smallest as the route for the host vehicle to travel.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the first position acquisition unit is configured to acquire the position information on all other vehicles that perform automatic driving within a predetermined range from each of the plurality of routes determined by the route searching unit.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the vehicles besides the otHher vehicles that do not perform automatic driving are manually-driving vehicles.

5. The device of claim 4 , wherein the total number of all other vehicles on the route for each one of the plurality of routes is the sum of all other vehicles that perform automatic driving and all of the manually-driving vehicles on each route.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Urano Hiromitsu

Classifications

• G08G1/0112

  from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD] · CPC title

• G01C21/3453 Primary

  Special cost functions, i.e. other than distance or default speed limit of road segments · CPC title

• G08G1/0125

  Traffic data processing · CPC title

• G01C21/3492

  employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical (traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968) · CPC title

• G08G1/015 Primary

  with provision for distinguishing between two or more types of vehicles, e.g. between motor-cars and cycles · CPC title