Vehicle control device, vehicle control method, and computer program product

Abstract

The present invention suppresses unnecessary acceleration of a vehicle due to misoperation of an accelerator pedal. A control device (4) for a vehicle (100) is disposed so as to determine that an accelerator pedal of the vehicle (100) has been erroneously operated when a predetermined determination condition is satisfied, and so as to limit part or all of the driving force of the vehicle (100) generated in accordance with the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal when it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated. In the implementation process of driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating a vehicle (100), the determination condition is relaxed compared with when the driving assistance is not implemented.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a vehicle control device, a vehicle control method, and a computer program product. Background Art

[0002] As a conventional travel control device, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-170232 discloses a travel control device that determines whether an accelerator pedal and a brake pedal are incorrectly depressed based on the depression state of the accelerator pedal. Summary of the Invention

[0003] When the driver places their foot on the accelerator or brake pedal while accelerating or decelerating, they can steer the vehicle while personally feeling the alignment between their pedal operation and vehicle behavior. This reduces the likelihood of erroneous operation, such as accidentally depressing the accelerator pedal. On the other hand, when automated driving assistance, such as follow-up control, is implemented, there is a tendency for the driver to permanently remove their foot from both the accelerator and brake pedals. In this state, if emergency braking is required, the driver, unable to personally feel the alignment between their pedal operation and vehicle behavior, may mistakenly depress the accelerator pedal for the brake pedal and immediately depress it. In other words, when automated driving assistance is implemented, erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal is more likely than when such assistance is not implemented.

[0004] The present invention has been achieved in view of this problem, and an object of the present invention is to suppress unnecessary acceleration of a vehicle due to erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal.

[0005] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a control device of a vehicle involved in one embodiment of the present invention is configured to determine that the vehicle's accelerator pedal has been incorrectly operated when a specified judgment condition is met, and when it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been incorrectly operated, limit part or all of the vehicle's driving force generated corresponding to the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal, and during the implementation of driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle, relax the judgment conditions compared to when no driving assistance is implemented.

[0006] In addition, a vehicle control method involved in one embodiment of the present invention is that, when a specified judgment condition is met, it is determined that the accelerator pedal of the vehicle is incorrectly operated. When it is determined that the accelerator pedal is incorrectly operated, part or all of the driving force of the vehicle generated corresponding to the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal is restricted, and during the implementation of driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle, the judgment conditions are relaxed compared to when no driving assistance is implemented.

[0007] Furthermore, according to one embodiment of the present invention, a computer program product including a computer program is provided. The computer program causes a computer to execute the following processing: determining that an accelerator pedal of a vehicle has been erroneously operated when predetermined determination conditions are met; limiting, when the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, a portion or all of the vehicle driving force generated in accordance with the amount the accelerator pedal has been depressed; and relaxing, during the implementation of driving assistance for automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle, the determination conditions compared to when driving assistance is not being implemented.

[0008] According to these aspects of the present invention, it is possible to suppress unnecessary acceleration of the vehicle due to erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] Figure 1 It is a schematic configuration diagram of a vehicle according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 This is a flowchart illustrating a determination condition setting process for determining an accelerator pedal erroneous operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 This is a flowchart illustrating a determination condition setting process for determining an accelerator pedal erroneous operation according to the second embodiment of the present invention. Figure 4 This is a flowchart illustrating a determination condition setting process for determining an accelerator pedal erroneous operation according to a third embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0010] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, the same reference numerals are given to the same components.

[0011] (First embodiment) Figure 1 It is a schematic configuration diagram of a vehicle 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

[0012] Vehicle 100 includes surrounding sensors 1, vehicle sensors 2, actuators 3, and control device 4. Surrounding sensors 1, vehicle sensors 2, actuators 3, and control device 4 are communicably connected via an in-vehicle network 7 conforming to the Controller Area Network standard.

[0013] The surrounding sensor 1 is a sensor for generating surrounding data indicating the situation around the vehicle 100. In the present embodiment, the surrounding sensor 1 includes one or more external cameras 11 for capturing images of the surroundings of the vehicle 100.

[0014] The external camera 11 captures the surroundings of the vehicle 100 at a predetermined frame rate (e.g., 10 [Hz] to 40 [Hz]) and generates a surrounding image that maps the surroundings of the vehicle 100. Each time the external camera 11 generates a surrounding image, it transmits the generated surrounding image to the control device 4 as surrounding data.

[0015] Alternatively, a distance measuring sensor may be provided as the surrounding sensor 1 in place of or in addition to the external camera 11. This distance measuring sensor measures the distance to entities such as other vehicles and pedestrians that are present around the vehicle 100. Examples of distance measuring sensors include a laser radar (LiDAR) that emits radar light and measures distance based on the reflected light, and a millimeter-wave radar sensor that emits radio waves and measures distance based on the reflected waves.

[0016] The vehicle sensor 2 is a sensor for generating vehicle data indicating the status of the vehicle 100. In this embodiment, the vehicle sensor 2 includes a speed sensor 21 for detecting the traveling speed of the vehicle 100, an accelerator stroke sensor 22 for detecting the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal of the vehicle 100, and the like. The vehicle sensor 2 transmits the acquired data to the control device 4 as vehicle data.

[0017] The actuator 3 is a device used to control the travel of the vehicle 100. In this embodiment, the actuator 3 includes an acceleration actuator 31 (e.g., at least one of an engine and a motor) for controlling the acceleration of the vehicle 100, a brake actuator 32 (e.g., a hydraulic actuator) for controlling the braking of the vehicle 100, and a steering actuator 33 (e.g., a steering motor) for controlling the steering of the vehicle 100.

[0018] The control device 4 is an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) including a communication unit 41 , a storage unit 42 , and a processing unit 43 .

[0019] The communication unit 41 includes an interface circuit for connecting the control device 4 to the in-vehicle network 7. The communication unit 41 supplies various data received from the sensors 1 and 2 to the processing unit 43. The communication unit 41 also outputs various signals output from the processing unit 43 to the actuator 3 and the like.

[0020] The storage unit 42 includes a storage medium such as a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), an SSD (Solid Disk Drive), or a semiconductor memory, and stores various computer programs and data used for processing in the processing unit 43 .

[0021] The processing unit 43 has one or more CPUs (Central Processing Units) and their peripheral circuits, and executes various computer programs stored in the storage unit 42. The processing unit 43 is, for example, a processor. The processing unit 43 may also have other arithmetic circuits such as a logic operation unit, a numerical operation unit, or a graphics processing unit. The processing unit 43 functions as an entity detection unit 51 and a driving assistance unit 52 by executing processing according to the computer program, and acts as a functional unit (module) that realizes the specified function. In the following description, when the processing is described with each functional unit 51, 52 as the subject, it means that the processing unit 43 is executing the program that realizes each functional unit 51, 52.

[0022] Hereinafter, the content of the specific processing performed by the control device 4 will be described. Specifically, the content of each functional unit 51 and 52 realized by the processing unit 43 executing the processing according to the program will be described.

[0023] The entity detection unit 51 detects entities existing around the vehicle 100 based on the surrounding data received from the surrounding sensor 1. The entity detection unit 51 detects areas representing entities such as other vehicles, two-wheeled vehicles, pedestrians, and buildings in the surrounding images, and the types of entities represented in the areas, for example, by sequentially inputting the surrounding images received from the external camera 11 into the recognizer. The recognizer can be, for example, a convolutional neural network (CNN) having a plurality of convolutional layers connected in series from the input side to the output side. The entity detection unit 51 uses the standard size of the entity stored in the storage unit 42 according to the type of entity and the size of the entity detected in the surrounding image to estimate the distance from the external camera 11 to the entity, and tracks the entity detected in the surrounding image along a time series to calculate the position and speed of the entity. In addition, the method of detecting the entity is not limited to this method, and detection can be performed by various well-known methods.

[0024] The driving assistance unit 52 provides various driving assistance functions for the driver of the vehicle 100. In this embodiment, the driving assistance unit 52 provides driving assistance by automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100. An example of this type of driving assistance is following control, which automatically performs driving operations related to acceleration and braking by controlling the accelerator actuator 31 and the brake actuator 32, thereby performing following driving while maintaining an appropriate inter-vehicle distance from the vehicle ahead. If the driver brakes during following control, following control is terminated, and the vehicle resumes driving operations.

[0025] Furthermore, the driving assistance unit 52 implements driving assistance to ensure the driver's safety. An example of such driving assistance is acceleration suppression control. When an accelerator pedal operation (hereinafter referred to as "accelerator operation") is performed, if a predetermined determination condition is met, the acceleration operation is determined to be caused by an erroneous operation such as accidental depressing. The control limits part or all of the driving force of the vehicle 100 generated in accordance with the amount of accelerator pedal depression, thereby suppressing acceleration caused by the erroneous accelerator operation.

[0026] When the driver places their foot on the accelerator or brake pedal while accelerating or decelerating, they can steer vehicle 100 while personally feeling the alignment between their pedal operation and vehicle behavior. This reduces the likelihood of erroneous operation, such as accidentally depressing the accelerator pedal. On the other hand, when driving assistance, such as follow-up control, is implemented to automatically accelerate or decelerate vehicle 100, the driver tends to maintain a state where their foot is removed from both the accelerator and brake pedals. In this state, if emergency braking is required, the driver may mistakenly depress the accelerator pedal for the brake pedal, as they lack the ability to personally feel the alignment between their pedal operation and vehicle behavior. In other words, when driving assistance, such as follow-up control, is implemented to automatically accelerate or decelerate vehicle 100, erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal is more likely to occur than when such driving assistance is not implemented.

[0027] Therefore, in this embodiment, the criteria for determining an accelerator pedal misoperation during the implementation of driving assistance for automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100, such as follow-up control, are differentiated from the normal criteria for determining an accelerator pedal misoperation when such driving assistance is not being implemented. This allows an acceleration operation to be more easily determined as an accelerator misoperation when driving assistance for automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100 is being implemented than when such driving assistance is not being implemented. This prevents the vehicle 100 from accelerating against the driver's will due to an accelerator pedal misoperation during driving assistance for automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100.

[0028] In addition, in this embodiment, when an entity that serves as an obstacle is detected within a specified distance in front of or behind the vehicle and the driver performs a sudden acceleration operation on the accelerator pedal without implementing driving assistance for automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100, it is determined that the accelerator pedal is incorrectly operated.

[0029] Furthermore, when automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100, if the driver suddenly accelerates the accelerator pedal, the accelerator pedal is determined to have been incorrectly operated. This is because, regardless of whether there are obstacles in front of or behind the vehicle, when automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100, the driver rarely performs sudden acceleration, even if they suddenly brake when sensing danger.

[0030] As described above, in this embodiment, when automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100, the requirement that a physical obstacle be detected within a predetermined distance in front of or behind the vehicle is eliminated from the determination of erroneous accelerator pedal operation. This relaxes the criteria for determining erroneous accelerator pedal operation, making it easier to determine that an accelerator operation is an erroneous accelerator operation. Specifically, when automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100 is implemented, the number of criteria for determining erroneous accelerator pedal operation is reduced compared to when this driving assistance is not implemented, thereby relaxing the criteria for determining erroneous accelerator pedal operation.

[0031] Furthermore, the method for determining whether a driver's acceleration operation qualifies as a sudden acceleration operation is not particularly limited, and the determination may be made using a known method. For example, the driver's acceleration operation may be determined to qualify as a sudden acceleration operation if either or both of the accelerator pedal depression amount is greater than a predetermined amount and the accelerator pedal depression speed is greater than a predetermined speed. In this case, the accelerator pedal depression amount may be replaced with a parameter correlated with the accelerator pedal depression amount (e.g., the engine throttle opening).

[0032] Figure 2 This is a flowchart illustrating a determination condition setting process for determining erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal according to the present embodiment, which is performed by the driving support unit 52 and the control device 4. The control device 4 repeatedly executes this routine at a predetermined calculation cycle ΔT.

[0033] In step S1, the control device 4 determines whether the vehicle 100 is currently being assisted in automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100, such as by following control. If the vehicle 100 is currently assisted in automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100, the control device 4 proceeds to step S2. On the other hand, if the vehicle 100 is not currently assisted in automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100, the control device 4 proceeds to step S5.

[0034] In step S2, the control device 4 determines whether it is in the process of implementing an emergency braking operation. The emergency braking operation is a braking operation that is automatically performed when it is necessary to decelerate suddenly due to some reasons, such as to avoid a collision with an obstacle rushing out in front of the vehicle, and is a braking operation in which the deceleration becomes greater than the specified deceleration. If it is in the process of implementing an emergency braking operation, the control device 4 proceeds to the processing of step S3. On the other hand, if it is not in the process of implementing an emergency braking operation (that is, if it is in the process of implementing an acceleration operation, a normal braking operation (a braking operation with a deceleration less than the specified deceleration) or when these operations are not performed), the control device 4 proceeds to the processing of step S4.

[0035] In step S3, the control device 4 prohibits execution of the accelerator pedal erroneous operation determination. The reason for this is as follows.

[0036] Specifically, it is also possible to consider situations where an emergency braking operation may be unnecessarily initiated automatically, such as in response to a plastic bag ahead. Therefore, it is desirable to allow the driver to quickly terminate the emergency braking operation by pressing the accelerator pedal in the event of an unnecessarily initiated emergency braking operation, allowing the vehicle to reaccelerate. However, if the detection of accelerator pedal misoperation during an emergency braking operation is not prohibited, then if the driver abruptly accelerates the vehicle, the operation will be determined to be an accelerator pedal misoperation. As a result, the vehicle 100 cannot be reaccelerated as the driver intended.

[0037] In step S4 , the control device 4 relaxes the determination conditions for determining erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal compared to normal determination conditions when driving assistance for automatic acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle 100 is not performed, and performs the determination for erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal under the relaxed determination conditions.

[0038] In step S5 , the control device 4 performs a determination of erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal using normal determination conditions.

[0039] As described above, in this embodiment, the normal determination conditions, when driving assistance for automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100 is not being implemented, are that an obstacle entity is detected within a predetermined distance in front of or behind the vehicle and the driver has abruptly accelerated the accelerator pedal. Furthermore, the relaxed determination conditions compared to these normal determination conditions are those that eliminate the requirement that an obstacle entity be detected within a predetermined distance in front of or behind the vehicle, i.e., that the driver only needs to abruptly accelerate the accelerator pedal.

[0040] As described above, in this embodiment, the number of determination conditions for determining an accelerator pedal erroneous operation is changed when driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is being implemented and when the driving assistance is not being implemented, thereby making it easier to determine that the acceleration operation is an erroneous operation when it is performed.

[0041] However, it is also possible to change the strictness (threshold) of the determination conditions for determining an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal by setting the same number of determination conditions when the driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is being implemented and when the driving assistance is not being implemented, thereby making it easier to determine that the acceleration operation is an erroneous operation when it is performed.

[0042] For example, the determination conditions for determining an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal may be set to the following conditions: when the driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is implemented and when the driving assistance is not implemented, the accelerator pedal's depression amount, depression speed, or any of the prescribed parameters correlated with the accelerator pedal's depression amount are all above a prescribed threshold value; when the driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is being implemented, the prescribed threshold value is reduced compared to when the driving assistance is not implemented, thereby making it easier to determine that the acceleration operation is an erroneous operation when the acceleration operation is performed.

[0043] In this case, the predetermined threshold value when driving assistance for automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100 is not being implemented may be set to, for example, infinite, so that the determination of erroneous accelerator pedal operation is substantially not performed when driving assistance for automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100 is not being implemented. Thus, when driving assistance for automatically accelerating or decelerating the vehicle 100 is not being implemented, the determination of erroneous accelerator pedal operation is substantially not performed. Therefore, when driving assistance is being implemented, it is easier to determine that an acceleration operation is an erroneous accelerator operation.

[0044] The control device 4 of the vehicle 100 involved in the present embodiment described above is configured to determine that the accelerator pedal of the vehicle 100 has been erroneously operated when a prescribed judgment condition is met, and to limit a portion or all of the driving force of the vehicle 100 generated corresponding to the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal when it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, and to relax the judgment conditions for judging the erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal compared to when the driving assistance is not implemented during the implementation of the driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100.

[0045] As described above, during the implementation of driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100, such as follow-up control, the driver tends to keep their foot off both the accelerator and brake pedals, making it easy for the accelerator pedal to be misoperated. Therefore, by relaxing the criteria for determining misoperation of the accelerator pedal during the implementation of driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100, as in this embodiment, it is easier to determine that an acceleration operation is a misoperation. Therefore, during the implementation of driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100, it is possible to prevent the vehicle 100 from accelerating against the driver's will due to misoperation of the accelerator pedal.

[0046] Furthermore, the control device 4 according to the present embodiment is configured to prohibit determination of erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal when deceleration (emergency braking operation) to a predetermined value or higher is automatically performed while driving assistance for automatic acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle 100 is being performed.

[0047] As a result, the unnecessary emergency braking operation can be stopped by the driver stepping on the accelerator pedal to re-accelerate the vehicle 100 .

[0048] Furthermore, the control device 4 according to the present embodiment is configured to stop the driving assistance when it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated during the driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 .

[0049] If the driver brakes while driving assistance, such as follow-up control, is being used to automatically accelerate or decelerate the vehicle 100, the driver typically stops the driving assistance and resumes driving control. In other words, the driver intends to brake when the accelerator pedal is mistakenly operated. Therefore, by stopping the driving assistance that automatically accelerates or decelerates the vehicle 100 when the accelerator pedal is determined to have been mistakenly operated, the driver can smoothly resume driving control without feeling uncomfortable.

[0050] In addition, in this embodiment, the control device 4 is configured to determine that the judgment conditions for judging the erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal are met when all multiple conditions are met when the driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is not implemented. During the implementation of this driving assistance, the judgment conditions for judging the erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal are relaxed by canceling some of the multiple conditions.

[0051] However, the control device 4 can also be configured to, for example, relax the judgment conditions for judging the erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal by reducing the prescribed threshold value compared to when the driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is not implemented, when the judgment conditions for judging the erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal include at least the condition that the depression amount of the accelerator pedal, the depression speed, or a prescribed parameter correlated with the depression amount of the accelerator pedal is above a prescribed threshold value.

[0052] (Second embodiment) Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that, when automatic acceleration is being performed while driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is being implemented, the criteria for determining whether the accelerator pedal has been improperly operated are further relaxed compared to when automatic acceleration is not being performed. The following description will focus on this difference.

[0053] Figure 3 This is a flowchart for explaining the determination condition setting process for determining the accelerator pedal's incorrect operation according to the present embodiment, which is performed by the driving assistance unit 52 and the control device 4. The control device 4 repeatedly executes this routine at a predetermined calculation cycle ΔT. Figure 3 In the embodiment, the content of the processing from step S1 to step S5 is the same as that of the first embodiment, so the description is omitted here.

[0054] In step S21, the control device 4 determines whether automatic acceleration is being performed while driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is being implemented. If automatic acceleration is being performed while driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is being implemented, the control device 4 proceeds to step S22. On the other hand, if automatic acceleration is not being performed while driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is being implemented, the control device 4 proceeds to step S4.

[0055] In step S22 , the control device 4 further relaxes the determination conditions for determining erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal compared to when automatic acceleration is not performed during the implementation of driving assistance for automatic acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle 100 , and performs erroneous operation determination of the accelerator pedal under the relaxed determination conditions.

[0056] For example, if the relaxed determination condition in step S4 is, as in the first embodiment, that the driver has abruptly operated the accelerator pedal, then the determination condition in step S4 can be further relaxed by setting the threshold for determining whether the driver's accelerator operation qualifies as abrupt acceleration to a value lower than the threshold set in step S4. For example, if the determination of whether the driver's accelerator operation qualifies as abrupt acceleration is based on whether the accelerator pedal depression amount, depression speed, or a predetermined parameter correlated with the accelerator pedal depression amount is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold, then the determination condition for erroneous accelerator pedal operation can be further relaxed by setting the predetermined threshold set in step S22 to a value lower than the predetermined threshold set in step S4.

[0057] The control device 4 of the vehicle 100 involved in the present embodiment described above is configured to further relax the judgment conditions for judging whether the accelerator pedal is operated incorrectly when acceleration is automatically performed during the implementation of driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100, compared with when acceleration is not automatically performed during the implementation of the driving assistance.

[0058] Considering that when automatic acceleration is being performed while driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is being implemented, there are few scenarios in which the driver is forced to further depress the accelerator pedal to accelerate further. In other words, when automatic acceleration is being performed while driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is being implemented, it can be said that if the driver performs an acceleration operation, there is a high possibility that the operation is an error.

[0059] Therefore, as in this embodiment, when automatic acceleration is being performed during driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100, the criteria for determining whether the accelerator pedal has been misoperated are further relaxed compared to when automatic acceleration is not being performed. This allows for faster misoperation determination in scenarios where there is a high probability that the acceleration operation was misoperated. Consequently, it is possible to prevent the vehicle 100 from accelerating against the driver's will due to misoperation of the accelerator pedal.

[0060] (Third embodiment) Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that, only when automatic acceleration is being performed while driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is being implemented, the criteria for determining whether the accelerator pedal has been improperly operated are relaxed compared to when such driving assistance is not being implemented. The following description will focus on this difference.

[0061] Figure 4This is a flowchart for explaining the determination condition setting process for determining the accelerator pedal's incorrect operation according to the present embodiment, which is performed by the driving assistance unit 52 and the control device 4. The control device 4 repeatedly executes this routine at a predetermined calculation cycle ΔT. Figure 4 In the embodiment, the content of the processing from step S1 to step S5 is the same as that of the first embodiment, and the content of the processing of step S21 is the same as that of the second embodiment.

[0062] like Figure 4 As shown in the flowchart, in this embodiment, only when automatic acceleration is performed during the implementation of driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100, is the accelerator pedal misoperation determination performed using relaxed criteria compared to the normal determination criteria when this driving assistance is not being implemented. Specifically, according to this embodiment, the accelerator pedal misoperation determination criteria are relaxed only in scenarios where there is a high probability that the accelerator operation is an erroneous operation. This can prevent the driver's accelerator operation from being determined to be an erroneous operation even though it is not.

[0063] The embodiments of the present invention have been described above, but the above embodiments merely represent a part of application examples of the present invention and are not intended to limit the technical scope of the present invention to the specific configurations of the above embodiments.

[0064] In addition, for example, in the above embodiment, the computer program executed in the control device 4 can be provided in the form of a computer-readable removable storage medium such as a semiconductor memory, a magnetic storage medium, or an optical storage medium, or can be provided as a computer program product.

Claims

1. A vehicle control device, comprising: When a predetermined determination condition is met, it is determined that the accelerator pedal of the vehicle is erroneously operated. When it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, a portion or all of the driving force of the vehicle generated in accordance with the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal is limited; During the execution of the driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle, the determination condition is relaxed compared to when the driving assistance is not executed.

2. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein: When automatic acceleration is being performed during the execution of the driving assistance, the determination condition is further relaxed compared to when automatic acceleration is not being performed.

3. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein: Only when automatic acceleration is being performed during the execution of the driving assistance, the determination condition is relaxed compared to when the driving assistance is not being executed.

4. The vehicle control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: When the driving assistance is not being performed, it is determined that the determination condition is met when all of the plurality of conditions are met. During the execution of the driving assistance, the determination condition is relaxed by canceling a part of the plurality of conditions.

5. The vehicle control device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: The determination conditions include at least the following conditions: the depression amount, depression speed of the accelerator pedal, or a predetermined parameter correlated with the depression amount of the accelerator pedal are all greater than a predetermined threshold value; During the execution of the driving assistance, the determination condition is relaxed by reducing the predetermined threshold value compared to when the driving assistance is not executed.

6. The vehicle control device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: When deceleration is automatically performed such that the deceleration rate becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value while the driving assistance is being performed, the determination of erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal is prohibited.

7. The vehicle control device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein: When it is determined that the accelerator pedal is erroneously operated during the execution of the driving assistance, the driving assistance is stopped.

8. A method for controlling a vehicle, wherein: When a predetermined determination condition is met, it is determined that the accelerator pedal of the vehicle is erroneously operated. When it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, a portion or all of the driving force of the vehicle generated in accordance with the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal is limited; During the execution of the driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle, the determination condition is relaxed compared to when the driving assistance is not executed.

9. A computer program product comprising a computer program causing a computer to execute the following processing: The processing is: When a predetermined determination condition is met, it is determined that the accelerator pedal of the vehicle is erroneously operated. When it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, a portion or all of the driving force of the vehicle generated in accordance with the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal is limited; During the execution of the driving assistance for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle, the determination condition is relaxed compared to when the driving assistance is not executed.

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