Control device of vehicle, control method of vehicle and computer program

Abstract

To suppress incorrect operation of an accelerator pedal from accelerating a vehicle unnecessarily.SOLUTION: A control device 4 of a vehicle 100 is configured to determine that an accelerator pedal of the vehicle 100 is incorrectly operated when a predetermined determination condition is satisfied; restrict portion or the whole of driving force of the vehicle 100 that is generated in accordance with a step-on amount of the accelerator pedal, when determining that the accelerator pedal is incorrectly operated; and relax the determination condition when operation support for automatically accelerating and decelerating the vehicle 100 is executed, more than when the operation support is not executed.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

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

[0002] Patent Document 1 discloses a conventional cruise control device that determines whether the accelerator pedal is mistaken for the brake pedal based on the depression state of the accelerator pedal. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-170232 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] When a driver accelerates or decelerates with his or her foot on the accelerator pedal or brake pedal, the driver can drive the vehicle while experiencing a match between the driver's pedal operation and the vehicle behavior, making it less likely that the driver will accidentally depress the accelerator pedal. On the other hand, when a driving assistance system, such as adaptive cruise control, is being implemented in which the vehicle is automatically accelerated or decelerated, the driver tends to continue to keep his or her feet off both the accelerator pedal and the brake pedal. In such a state, if an event requiring sudden braking occurs, the driver may accidentally depress the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal because the driver does not experience a match between the pedal operation and the vehicle behavior. In other words, when a driving assistance system, in which the vehicle is automatically accelerated or decelerated, is being implemented, the driver is more likely to accidentally depress the accelerator pedal compared to when the driving assistance system is not being implemented.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has as its object to prevent the vehicle from being unnecessarily accelerated due to an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above problems, a vehicle control device according to one aspect of the present invention is configured to determine that the vehicle's accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated when predetermined judgment conditions are met, and when it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, to limit some or all of the vehicle's driving force generated in accordance with the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal, and to relax the judgment conditions when driving assistance is being implemented that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle compared to when driving assistance is not being implemented.

[0007] In addition, a vehicle control method according to one aspect of the present invention determines that the vehicle's accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated when predetermined judgment conditions are met, and when it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, limits some or all of the vehicle's driving force generated in accordance with the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal, and relaxes the judgment conditions when driving assistance is being implemented, which automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle, compared to when driving assistance is not being implemented.

[0008] In addition, a computer program according to one aspect of the present invention determines that the accelerator pedal of a vehicle has been erroneously operated when predetermined judgment conditions are met, and when it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, limits some or all of the vehicle's driving force generated in accordance with the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal, and when driving assistance is being implemented that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle, relaxes the judgment conditions compared to when driving assistance is not being implemented. [Effects of the Invention]

[0009] According to these aspects of the present invention, it is possible to prevent the vehicle from being unnecessarily accelerated due to an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vehicle according to a first embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2]5 is a flowchart illustrating a process for setting a determination condition for determining an erroneous operation of an accelerator pedal according to the first embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3] 10 is a flowchart illustrating a process for setting a determination condition for determining an erroneous operation of an accelerator pedal according to a second embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] 10 is a flowchart illustrating a process for setting a determination condition for determining an erroneous operation of an accelerator pedal according to a third embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, like components are designated by like reference numerals.

[0012] (First embodiment) FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a vehicle 100 according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

[0013] The vehicle 100 includes a surrounding sensor 1, a vehicle sensor 2, an actuator 3, and a control device 4. The surrounding sensor 1, the vehicle sensor 2, the actuator 3, and the control device 4 are communicatively connected to each other via an in-vehicle network 7 that complies with a standard such as a controller area network.

[0014] The surrounding sensor 1 is a sensor for generating surrounding data that represents the situation around the vehicle 100. In this embodiment, the surrounding sensor 1 includes one or more external cameras 11 for capturing images of the surroundings of the vehicle 100.

[0015] The external camera 11 captures the surroundings of the vehicle 100 at a predetermined frame rate (for example, 10 [Hz] to 40 [Hz]) and generates a surrounding image showing the surroundings of the vehicle 100. Every time the external camera 11 generates a surrounding image, it transmits the generated surrounding image to the control device 4 as surrounding data.

[0016] Instead of or in addition to the external camera 11, a distance measurement sensor that measures the distance to targets such as other vehicles and pedestrians present around the vehicle 100 may be provided as the surrounding sensor 1. Examples of distance measurement sensors include a LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) 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.

[0017] The vehicle sensor 2 is a sensor for generating vehicle data that represents the status of the vehicle 100. In this embodiment, the vehicle sensor 2 includes a speed sensor 21 that detects the traveling speed of the vehicle 100, and an accelerator stroke sensor 22 that detects the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal of the vehicle 100. The vehicle sensor 2 transmits each acquired data to the control device 4 as vehicle data.

[0018] The actuator 3 is a device used for driving control of the vehicle 100. In this embodiment, the actuator 3 includes an acceleration actuator 31 (for example, at least one of an engine and a motor) that controls acceleration of the vehicle 100, a brake actuator 32 (for example, a hydraulic actuator) that controls braking of the vehicle 100, and a steering actuator 33 (for example, a steering motor) that controls steering of the vehicle 100.

[0019] The control device 4 is an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) including a communication unit 41, a storage unit 42, and a processing unit 43.

[0020] 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, 2, etc. to the processing unit 43. The communication unit 41 also outputs various signals output from the processing unit 43 to the actuator 3, etc.

[0021] The storage unit 42 has a storage medium such as a hard disk drive (HDD), a solid disk drive (SSD), or a semiconductor memory, and stores various computer programs and data used for processing by the processing unit 43.

[0022] The processing unit 43 has one or more central processing units (CPUs) 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 further include other arithmetic circuits such as a logic operation unit, a numerical operation unit, or a graphics processing unit. The processing unit 43 executes processing in accordance with the computer programs, thereby functioning as the target detection unit 51 and the driving assistance unit 52, and operating as a functional unit (module) that realizes predetermined functions. In the following description, when processing is described using each of the functional units 51 and 52 as the subject, it indicates that the processing unit 43 is executing a program that realizes each of the functional units 51 and 52.

[0023] The following describes the specific processing carried out by the control device 4. That is, the details of the functional units 51 and 52 realized by the processing unit 43 executing processing according to a program will be described.

[0024] The target detection unit 51 detects targets present around the vehicle 100 based on the surrounding data received from the surrounding sensor 1. For example, the target detection unit 51 sequentially inputs surrounding images received from the external camera 11 into a classifier to detect areas in the surrounding images where targets such as other vehicles, motorcycles, pedestrians, and buildings are depicted, and the types of targets depicted in those areas. The classifier may be, for example, a convolutional neural network (CNN) having multiple convolution layers connected in series from the input side to the output side. The target detection unit 51 estimates the distance from the external camera 11 to the target using the standard target sizes stored in the memory unit 42 for each type of target and the size of the target detected in the surrounding images, and calculates the position and speed of the target by tracking the target detected in the surrounding images over time. Note that the target detection method is not limited to the above method, and various known detection methods may be used.

[0025] The driving assistance unit 52 provides various driving assistance to the driver of the vehicle 100. In this embodiment, the driving assistance unit 52 provides driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100. One example of such driving assistance is follow-up control, which automatically performs driving operations related to acceleration and braking by controlling the acceleration actuator 31 and the brake actuator 32, and performs follow-up driving while maintaining an appropriate inter-vehicle distance from a preceding vehicle. If the driver performs a brake operation during follow-up control, the follow-up control is stopped and the driving operation is switched to that by the driver.

[0026] Furthermore, the driving assistance unit 52 performs driving assistance to ensure the safety of the driver. One example of such driving assistance is acceleration suppression control, which, when an accelerator pedal operation (hereinafter referred to as "accelerator operation") is performed, determines that the accelerator operation is due to an erroneous operation such as an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal if a predetermined determination condition is met, and limits part or all of the driving force of the vehicle 100 generated according to the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal to suppress acceleration due to the erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal.

[0027] Here, when the driver accelerates or decelerates the vehicle 100 with his / her foot on the accelerator pedal or brake pedal, the driver can drive the vehicle 100 while experiencing a match between the driver's pedal operation and the vehicle behavior, making it less likely that an erroneous operation such as accidentally depressing the accelerator pedal will occur. On the other hand, when a driving assistance system, such as tracking control, is being implemented in which the acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle 100 are automatically performed, the driver tends to continue to keep his / her feet off both the accelerator pedal and the brake pedal. In such a state, if an event requiring sudden braking occurs, the driver may accidentally depress the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal because he / she does not experience a match between the pedal operation and the vehicle behavior. In other words, when a driving assistance system, such as tracking control, is being implemented in which the acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle 100 are automatically performed, the driver is more likely to accidentally depress the accelerator pedal than when the driving assistance system is not being implemented.

[0028] Therefore, in this embodiment, the conditions for determining an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal when driving assistance such as tracking control is being implemented, in which acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle 100 are performed automatically, are made different from the normal conditions for determining an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal when the driving assistance is not being performed, so that when an accelerator operation is performed, the accelerator operation is more likely to be determined to be an erroneous operation when driving assistance is being performed, in which acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle 100 are performed automatically, than when the driving assistance is not being performed. This makes it possible to prevent the vehicle 100 from accelerating against the driver's will due to an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal during driving assistance in which acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle 100 are performed automatically.

[0029] In this embodiment, when driving assistance is not being implemented in which the vehicle 100 is automatically accelerated or decelerated, if an obstacle is detected within a predetermined distance in front of or behind the vehicle and the driver applies a sudden accelerator pedal operation, it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been operated incorrectly.

[0030] When driving assistance is being implemented in which the acceleration and deceleration of vehicle 100 is performed automatically, the accelerator pedal is determined to have been operated erroneously simply when the driver performs a sudden acceleration operation on the accelerator pedal. This is because, regardless of whether there are obstacles in front of or behind the vehicle, when the acceleration and deceleration of vehicle 100 is being performed automatically, it is considered that the driver will rarely perform a sudden acceleration operation, even if he or she performs a sudden braking operation when he or she senses danger.

[0031] In this embodiment, when driving assistance is being implemented in which the vehicle 100 is automatically accelerated or decelerated, the condition that an obstacle target object be detected within a predetermined distance in front of or behind the vehicle is eliminated in determining whether the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, thereby loosening the conditions for determining whether the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, making it easier to determine that the accelerator operation is an erroneous operation when the accelerator is operated. In other words, when driving assistance is being implemented in which the vehicle 100 is automatically accelerated or decelerated, the number of conditions for determining whether the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated is reduced compared to when the driving assistance is not being implemented, thereby loosening the conditions for determining whether the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated.

[0032] The method for determining whether the driver's accelerator operation constitutes a sudden acceleration operation is not particularly limited, and any known method may be used. For example, if one or both of the following conditions are met: the accelerator pedal depression amount is equal to or greater than a predetermined amount; and the accelerator pedal depression speed is equal to or greater than a predetermined speed, the driver's accelerator operation can be determined to constitute a sudden acceleration operation. In this case, the accelerator pedal depression amount may be substituted with the value of a parameter (e.g., the opening degree of the engine throttle valve) that is correlated with the accelerator pedal depression amount.

[0033] 2 is a flowchart illustrating the process of setting the determination conditions for determining an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal according to this embodiment, which is performed by the driving assistance unit 52 and, in turn, the control device 4. The control device 4 repeatedly executes this routine at a predetermined calculation period ΔT.

[0034] In step S1, the control device 4 determines whether or not driving assistance, such as tracking control, is being performed to automatically accelerate and decelerate the vehicle 100. If driving assistance, such as tracking control, is being performed to automatically accelerate and decelerate the vehicle 100, the control device 4 proceeds to processing in step S2. On the other hand, if driving assistance, such as tracking control, is not being performed, the control device 4 proceeds to processing in step S5.

[0035] In step S2, the control device 4 determines whether an emergency braking operation is being performed. An emergency braking operation is a braking operation that is automatically performed when sudden deceleration is necessary for some reason, such as when avoiding a collision with an obstacle that has jumped out in front of the vehicle, and is a braking operation that results in a deceleration equal to or greater than a predetermined deceleration. If an emergency braking operation is being performed, the control device 4 proceeds to processing in step S3. On the other hand, if an emergency braking operation is not being performed (that is, if an accelerator operation or a normal braking operation (a braking operation that results in a deceleration less than a predetermined deceleration) is being performed or these operations are not being performed), the control device 4 proceeds to processing in step S4.

[0036] In step S3, the control device 4 prohibits the execution of the accelerator pedal erroneous operation determination for the following reasons.

[0037] That is, for example, it is possible that an emergency braking operation may be automatically performed unnecessarily, for example, in response to a plastic bag in front of the vehicle. Therefore, if an emergency braking operation is automatically performed unnecessarily, it is desirable to have the driver depress the accelerator pedal so that the emergency braking operation can be quickly stopped and the vehicle can be re-accelerated. However, if the determination of an accelerator pedal erroneous operation during an emergency braking operation is not prohibited, when the driver performs an accelerator pedal operation to suddenly accelerate the vehicle, the operation will be determined to be an accelerator pedal erroneous operation. As a result, the vehicle 100 will not be able to re-accelerate as the driver wishes.

[0038] In step S4, the control device 4 relaxes the judgment conditions for judging whether the accelerator pedal has been operated erroneously compared to the normal judgment conditions when driving assistance in which the vehicle 100 is automatically accelerated or decelerated is not being implemented, and performs the judgment of whether the accelerator pedal has been operated erroneously under the relaxed judgment conditions. .

[0039] In step S5, the control device 4 performs an accelerator pedal erroneous operation determination under normal determination conditions.

[0040] As described above, in this embodiment, the normal determination condition when driving assistance in which acceleration and deceleration of vehicle 100 is automatically performed is that an obstacle target has been detected within a predetermined distance in front of or behind the vehicle, and the driver has performed a sudden acceleration operation by depressing the accelerator pedal. A determination condition that is more relaxed than this normal determination condition is one in which the condition that an obstacle target has been detected within a predetermined distance in front of or behind the vehicle has been removed from the normal determination condition, that is, the normal determination condition is simply that the driver has performed a sudden acceleration operation by depressing the accelerator pedal.

[0041] In this way, in this embodiment, by changing the number of judgment conditions for determining whether the accelerator pedal has been operated erroneously when driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100 is being implemented and when such driving assistance is not being implemented, it is made easier to determine that an accelerator operation is an erroneous operation when the accelerator is operated.

[0042] However, by keeping the number of judgment conditions for determining accelerator pedal erroneous operation the same, and changing the strictness (threshold) of the judgment conditions for determining accelerator pedal erroneous operation when driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100 is being implemented and when such driving assistance is not being implemented, it is possible to make it easier to determine that an accelerator operation is an erroneous operation when it is performed.

[0043] For example, the judgment condition for determining whether the accelerator pedal is being operated incorrectly can be set to a condition that the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal, the depression speed, or any of the predetermined parameters correlated with the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, whether or not driving assistance is being implemented to automatically accelerate or decelerate the vehicle 100.When driving assistance is being implemented to automatically accelerate or decelerate the vehicle 100, the predetermined threshold can be made smaller compared to when the driving assistance is not being implemented, so that when the accelerator is operated, it is more likely that the accelerator operation will be determined to be an incorrect operation.

[0044] In this case, the value of the predetermined threshold when driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates vehicle 100 is not being implemented may be set to infinity, for example, so that accelerator pedal erroneous operation determination is not actually performed when the driving assistance is not being implemented. As a result, accelerator pedal erroneous operation determination is not actually performed when driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates vehicle 100 is not being implemented, and therefore, when an accelerator operation is performed, the accelerator operation is more likely to be determined to be an erroneous operation when the driving assistance is being implemented.

[0045] The control device 4 of the vehicle 100 according to the present embodiment described above is configured to determine that the accelerator pedal of the vehicle 100 has been erroneously operated when predetermined judgment conditions are met, and when it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, to limit some or all of the driving force of the vehicle 100 generated in accordance with the amount of depression of the accelerator pedal, and to relax the judgment conditions for erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal when driving assistance is being implemented that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100 compared to when the driving assistance is not being implemented.

[0046] As described above, during the implementation of driving assistance in which the acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle 100 are automatically performed, such as tracking control, the driver tends to keep his or her feet off both the accelerator pedal and the brake pedal, which makes it easy for the driver to erroneously operate the accelerator pedal. Therefore, during the implementation of driving assistance in which the acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle 100 are automatically performed, as in the present embodiment, by relaxing the criteria for determining an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal, when an accelerator operation is performed, the accelerator operation is more likely to be determined to be an erroneous operation. Therefore, during the implementation of driving assistance in which the acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle 100 are automatically performed, it is possible to prevent the vehicle 100 from accelerating against the driver's will due to an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal.

[0047] In addition, the control device 4 according to this embodiment is configured to prohibit the determination of erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal when driving assistance is being performed to automatically accelerate and decelerate the vehicle 100 and the deceleration (emergency braking operation) is automatically performed so that the deceleration is greater than or equal to a predetermined value.

[0048] This allows the driver to stop unnecessary emergency braking operations and accelerate the vehicle 100 again by depressing the accelerator pedal.

[0049] Furthermore, the control device 4 according to this embodiment is configured to stop the driving assistance when it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated while driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100 is being performed.

[0050] When the driver brakes while a driving assistance system, such as tracking control, that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100 is being implemented, the driving assistance system is usually stopped and the driver is allowed to perform the driving operation. An erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal is, in other words, when the driver intended to perform a brake operation. Therefore, when it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, the driving assistance system that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100 is stopped, allowing the driver to smoothly and comfortably switch back to their own driving operation.

[0051] In this embodiment, when the control device 4 is not performing driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100, it determines that the judgment conditions for determining whether the accelerator pedal has been operated erroneously are met when all of the multiple conditions are met, and when the driving assistance is being performed, it is configured to relax the judgment conditions for determining whether the accelerator pedal has been operated erroneously by eliminating some of the multiple conditions.

[0052] However, the control device 4 may be configured to relax the criteria for determining accelerator pedal erroneous operation by reducing the predetermined threshold value when driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100 is being implemented, compared to when the driving assistance is not being implemented, for example, when the criteria for determining accelerator pedal erroneous operation include at least the condition that the accelerator pedal depression amount, depression speed, or a predetermined parameter correlated with the accelerator pedal depression amount is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value.

[0053] (Second embodiment) Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that when acceleration is being performed automatically during execution of driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100, the conditions for determining whether an accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated are further relaxed compared to when acceleration is not being performed automatically. The following description will focus on this difference.

[0054] 3 is a flowchart illustrating the determination condition setting process for determining an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal according to this embodiment, which is performed by the driving assistance unit 52 and, in turn, the control device 4. The control device 4 repeatedly executes this routine at a predetermined calculation period ΔT. In FIG. 3, the process contents from step S1 to step S5 are the same as those in the first embodiment, and therefore will not be described here.

[0055] In step S21, the control device 4 determines whether acceleration is being performed automatically while driving assistance is being performed that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100. If acceleration is being performed automatically while driving assistance is being performed that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100, the control device 4 proceeds to processing in step S22. On the other hand, if acceleration is not being performed automatically while driving assistance is being performed that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100, the control device 4 proceeds to processing in step S4.

[0056] In step S22, the control device 4 further relaxes the judgment conditions for judging whether the accelerator pedal has been operated erroneously compared to when acceleration is not being performed automatically during the implementation of driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100, and performs the judgment of whether the accelerator pedal has been operated erroneously under the relaxed judgment conditions.

[0057] For example, if the more relaxed determination condition in step S4 is that the driver has suddenly operated the accelerator pedal, as in the first embodiment, the threshold for determining whether the driver's accelerator operation constitutes a sudden acceleration operation can be made smaller than the threshold set in step S4, thereby further relaxing the determination condition in step S4. For example, if the determination of whether the driver's accelerator operation constitutes a sudden acceleration operation is based on whether the accelerator pedal depression amount, depression speed, or any of predetermined parameters correlated with the accelerator pedal depression amount is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, the predetermined threshold set in step S22 can be made smaller than the predetermined threshold set in step S4, thereby further relaxing the determination condition for determining whether the accelerator pedal has been operated erroneously.

[0058] The control device 4 of the vehicle 100 according to the present embodiment described above is configured to further relax the criteria for determining erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal when acceleration is being performed automatically during the implementation of driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100, compared to when acceleration is not being performed automatically during the implementation of the driving assistance.

[0059] It is thought that there are not many situations in which the driver needs to further accelerate by depressing the accelerator pedal when the vehicle is accelerating automatically during the execution of driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100. In other words, if the driver operates the accelerator when the vehicle is accelerating automatically during the execution of driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100, it is highly likely that this is an erroneous operation.

[0060] Therefore, when acceleration is performed automatically during execution of driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates vehicle 100 as in this embodiment, the conditions for determining an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal are further relaxed compared to when acceleration is not performed automatically, thereby enabling erroneous operation determination to be made quickly in situations where there is a high possibility that the accelerator operation is an erroneous operation when the accelerator is operated. Therefore, it is possible to prevent vehicle 100 from accelerating against the driver's will due to an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal.

[0061] (Third embodiment) Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that, only when acceleration is being performed automatically during the execution of driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100, the conditions for determining whether or not the accelerator pedal is being operated erroneously are relaxed compared to when the driving assistance is not being performed. The following description will focus on this difference.

[0062] 4 is a flowchart illustrating the determination condition setting process for determining an erroneous operation of the accelerator pedal according to this embodiment, which is performed by the driving assistance unit 52 and, in turn, the control device 4. The control device 4 repeatedly executes this routine at a predetermined calculation period ΔT. In FIG. 4, the process contents from step S1 to step S5 are the same as those in the first embodiment, and the process contents of step S21 are the same as those in the second embodiment.

[0063] As shown in the flowchart of Fig. 4, in this embodiment, only when the vehicle 100 is automatically accelerating while driving assistance is being implemented that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle 100, accelerator pedal erroneous operation determination is performed under determination conditions that are more relaxed than the normal determination conditions when the driving assistance is not being implemented. In other words, according to this embodiment, the determination conditions for determining accelerator pedal erroneous operation are relaxed only in situations where there is a high possibility that the accelerator operation performed by the accelerator is an erroneous operation. This makes it possible to prevent the driver's accelerator operation from being determined to be an erroneous operation even when it is not an erroneous operation.

[0064] Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the above embodiments merely illustrate some of the application examples of the present invention, and it is not intended that the technical scope of the present invention be limited to the specific configurations of the above embodiments.

[0065] Also, for example, in the above embodiment, the computer program executed in the control device 4 may be provided in a form recorded on a computer-readable portable recording medium such as a semiconductor memory, a magnetic recording medium, or an optical recording medium. [Explanation of symbols]

[0066] 4. Control device 100 vehicles

Claims

1. A control device for a vehicle, When a predetermined determination condition is met, it is determined that an accelerator pedal of the vehicle has been erroneously operated, When it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, a part or all of the driving force of the vehicle that is generated in accordance with the depression amount of the accelerator pedal is limited, The system is configured to relax the determination conditions while the driving assistance that automatically accelerates and decelerates the vehicle is being performed, compared to when the driving assistance is not being performed. Vehicle control device.

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

3. Only when acceleration is automatically performed while the driving assistance is being performed, the determination condition is relaxed compared to when the driving assistance is not being performed. The vehicle control device according to claim 1 .

4. 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 conditions are relaxed by eliminating some of the plurality of conditions. The vehicle control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

5. the determination conditions include at least a condition that any one of the depression amount of the accelerator pedal, the depression speed, and a predetermined parameter correlated with the depression amount of the accelerator pedal is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value; The device is configured to relax the determination condition by reducing the predetermined threshold value while the driving assistance is being performed, compared to when the driving assistance is not being performed. The vehicle control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

6. When the driving assistance is being performed and the vehicle is automatically decelerating so that the deceleration rate is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the accelerator pedal erroneous operation determination is prohibited. The vehicle control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

7. When it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated while the driving assistance is being performed, the driving assistance is stopped. The vehicle control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

8. A vehicle control method, comprising: When a predetermined determination condition is met, it is determined that an accelerator pedal of the vehicle has been erroneously operated, When it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, a part or all of the driving force of the vehicle that is generated in accordance with the depression amount of the accelerator pedal is limited, When a driving assistance that automatically accelerates or decelerates the vehicle is being performed, the determination condition is relaxed compared to when the driving assistance is not being performed. How to control the vehicle.

9. When a predetermined determination condition is met, it is determined that the accelerator pedal of the vehicle has been erroneously operated, When it is determined that the accelerator pedal has been erroneously operated, a part or all of the driving force of the vehicle that is generated in accordance with the depression amount of the accelerator pedal is limited, When a driving assistance that automatically accelerates or decelerates the vehicle is being performed, the determination condition is relaxed compared to when the driving assistance is not being performed. A computer program that causes a computer to perform a process.

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