Autonomous driving device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9914463-B2
Application number	US-201615077001-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 22, 2016
Priority date	Mar 23, 2015
Publication date	Mar 13, 2018
Grant date	Mar 13, 2018

Abstract

Disclosed is an autonomous driving device in which a threshold value for switching to manual driving which is used for switching the driving state from autonomous driving to manual driving with respect to a value indicative of a degree to which of any of a steering operation is carried out, an acceleration operation, and a braking operation by the driver is calculated by a calculation unit of the autonomous driving device according to the surrounding environment of the host vehicle recognized by an environment recognition unit. Thereby, the ease of switching the driving state from autonomous driving to manual driving conforms to a surrounding environment of the host vehicle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An autonomous driving device configured to execute autonomous driving of a host vehicle, and switch a driving state from autonomous driving to manual driving when a value indicative of a degree to which any of a steering operation, an acceleration operation and a braking operation is carried out by a driver of the host vehicle during the autonomous driving is equal to or greater than a threshold value for switching to manual driving, the device comprising:
an operation amount acquirer configured to acquire the value indicative of a degree to which the operation is carried out during the autonomous driving;
an environment recognizer configured to recognize a status of a surrounding environment of the host vehicle;
a calculator configured to calculate the threshold value for switching to manual driving; and
a controller configured to execute autonomous driving, and to switch the driving state from autonomous driving to manual driving when the value indicative of the degree to which the operation is carried out is equal to or greater than the threshold value for switching to manual driving,
wherein the calculator is configured to calculate the threshold value for switching to manual driving according to the status of the surrounding environment recognized by the environment recognizer,
wherein the environment recognizer is configured to recognize an obstacle around the host vehicle as information relating to the status of the surrounding environment, and
wherein the calculator is configured to calculate the threshold value for switching to manual driving which becomes lower when a distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle becomes smaller.

2. The autonomous driving device according to claim 1 , wherein
the calculator is configured to calculate the threshold value for switching to manual driving as a function of the distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle, the function comprising:
when the distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle is equal to or less than a first distance threshold, the calculator calculates the threshold value for switching to manual driving as a first threshold value; and
when the distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle exceeds a second distance threshold, the calculator calculates the threshold value for switching to manual driving as a second threshold value,

wherein the second threshold value is larger than the first threshold value.

3. The autonomous driving device according to claim 2 , wherein
the function comprises a stepwise function, and
the first distance threshold and the second distance threshold are equal.

4. The autonomous driving device according to claim 2 , wherein
the first distance threshold is less than the second distance threshold, and
the function comprises:
when the distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle is equal to or lower than the second distance threshold and exceeds the first distance threshold, the calculator calculates the threshold value for switching to manual driving which decreases from the second threshold value to the first threshold value as the distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle becomes smaller.

5. The autonomous driving device according to claim 4 , wherein
when the distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle is equal to or lower than the second distance threshold and exceeds the first distance threshold, the calculator calculates the threshold value for switching to manual driving which linearly decreases from the second threshold value to the first threshold value as the distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle becomes smaller.

6. The autonomous driving device according to claim 4 , wherein
when the distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle is equal to or lower than the second distance threshold and exceeds the first distance threshold, the calculator calculates the threshold value for switching to manual driving which non-linearly decreases from the second threshold value to the first threshold value as the distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle becomes smaller.

7. The autonomous driving device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the environment recognizer is configured to further recognize a type of the obstacle around the host vehicle as information relating to the status of the surrounding environment, and
wherein, when the distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle is a first distance and the obstacle is a pedestrian, the calculator is configured to calculate a threshold value for switching to manual driving as being lower than the threshold value when the distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle is the first distance and the obstacle is another vehicle.

8. The autonomous driving device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the environment recognizer is configured to further recognize movement state of the obstacle around the host vehicle as information relating to the status of the surrounding environment, and
wherein, when the distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle is a first distance and the obstacle is a moving object, the calculator is configured to calculate the threshold value for switching to manual driving as being lower than the threshold value when the distance between the obstacle and the host vehicle is the first distance and the obstacle is a stationary object.

9. The autonomous driving device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the environment recognizer is further configured to recognize a road width of a road on which the host vehicle is travelling as information relating to the status of the surrounding environment, and
wherein, when the environment recognizer does not recognize an obstacle, the calculator is configured to calculate a threshold value for switching to manual driving which is lower, the narrower the width of the road.

10. The autonomous driving device according to claim 9 , wherein
the calculator is configured to calculate the threshold value for switching to manual driving as a function of the road width, the function comprising:
when the road width is a first width corresponding to a minimum width in which the host vehicle can travel, which is a predetermined value based on a size of the vehicle, the calculator calculates the threshold value for switching to manual driving as a first threshold value;
when the road width exceeds a second width, the calculator calculates the threshold value for switching to manual driving as a second threshold value;
when the road width is equal to or less than the second width and exceeds the first width, the calculator calculates the threshold value for switching to manual driving which linearly decreases from the second threshold value to the first threshold value as the road width becomes narrower.

11. The autonomous driving device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the environment recognizer is configured to recognize whether or not the host vehicle is travelling on an intersection or a parking lot as information relating to the status of the surrounding environment based on one or more of map information and position information of the host vehicle, and
wherein, when the environment recognizer does not recognize the obstacle, and when the environment recognizer recognizes that the host vehicle is travelling on the intersection or the parking lot, the calculator is configured to calculate the threshold value for switching to manual driving as being lower than the threshold value when a case where the environment recognizer does not recognize that the host vehicle is travelling on the intersection or the parking lot.

12. The autonomous driving device according to claim

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Otsuka Kohei

Classifications

• B60W2540/12

  Brake pedal position · CPC title

• B60W2552/20

  Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments · CPC title

• B60W2540/18

  Steering angle · CPC title

• B62D15/025

  Active steering aids, e.g. helping the driver by actively influencing the steering system after environment evaluation (B62D1/28 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60W50/10 Primary

  Interpretation of driver requests or demands · CPC title