Driving evaluation device

Abstract

To make determination of dangerous driving easily convincing to a driver.SOLUTION: A driving evaluation device for detecting and evaluating dangerous driving stores a position and a time at which the dangerous driving is detected as a dangerous driving position and a dangerous driving time, and adjusts a weight of the dangerous driving on the basis of dangerous driving eyewitness information within a predetermined distance from the dangerous driving position acquired from the outside and within a predetermined time from the dangerous driving time. For example, the weight is set to be larger as the age of the witness of dangerous driving is lower, the witness is larger in the order of pedestrian, bicycle rider, and car rider, the type of road is larger in the order of community road, main road, and expressway, the weight is larger on weekdays than on holidays, and the weight is larger in the school commuting time zone than in other time zones.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a driving evaluation device, and more particularly to a driving evaluation device that detects and evaluates dangerous driving. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, this type of driving evaluation device has been proposed to acquire dangerous driving information and driver characteristic information, group the dangerous driving information according to the driver's characteristics based on the driver characteristic information, calculate the frequency of dangerous driving as a dangerous driving score based on the dangerous driving information for each group, create a distribution of dangerous driving scores for all drivers for each group, derive an evaluation score by evaluating each driver's score against the distribution of dangerous driving scores for all drivers, and derive a conversion score by converting the evaluation score using a predetermined method as a conversion score as a relative driving evaluation result for the driver (see, for example, Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Publication No. 2022-054296 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, in the above-mentioned driving evaluation device, dangerous driving is judged by on-board equipment, so if the driver believes that he or she is not posing a danger to those around him or her, it is difficult for the driver to accept that his or her driving was dangerous.

[0005] The driving evaluation device of the present disclosure has a main purpose of making the determination of dangerous driving more convincing to the driver. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The driving evaluation device of the present disclosure employs the following means to achieve the above-mentioned main object.

[0007] The driving evaluation device of the present disclosure includes: A driving evaluation device that detects and evaluates dangerous driving, The location and time at which dangerous driving is detected are stored as the dangerous driving location and dangerous driving time, adjusting the weight of the dangerous driving based on witness information of dangerous driving acquired from outside within a predetermined distance from the dangerous driving position and within a predetermined time from the dangerous driving time; It is characterized by:

[0008] The driving evaluation device disclosed herein stores the location and time of reckless driving detection as the reckless driving location and the reckless driving time, and adjusts the weight of reckless driving based on externally acquired witness information of reckless driving within a predetermined distance from the reckless driving location and within a predetermined time from the reckless driving time. The witness information of reckless driving includes the age, gender, behavior (pedestrian, bicyclist, or motor vehicle occupant) of the witness to the reckless driving, the road type (community road, main road, or expressway), the day of the week, and the time of day, and adjusts the weight of reckless driving based on this information. In this way, adjusting the weight of reckless driving based on information from witnesses to reckless driving makes the determination of reckless driving more convincing to the driver. As a result, the driver is made aware of reckless driving and encouraged to avoid reckless driving. The weight may be set according to each item of the witness information of reckless driving, for example, the younger the witness to the reckless driving, the higher the weight; the witness is a pedestrian, followed by a bicyclist and then a motor vehicle occupant; the road type is community road, followed by main road, followed by expressway; the weight is higher on weekdays than on holidays; and the weight is higher during school commute times than during other time periods. Additionally, reports of dangerous driving may also be reported by the driver himself. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram showing an outline of the configuration of an automobile 20 equipped with a driving evaluation device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 2] 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a dangerous driving determination and storage process executed by the main ECU 30. [Figure 3] 10 is a flowchart showing an example of a risky driving weighting process executed by the main ECU 30. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0010] Next, a mode (embodiment) for carrying out the present disclosure will be described. Fig. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of the configuration of an automobile 20 equipped with a driving evaluation device according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in the figure, the automobile 20 of the embodiment includes a drive unit 22, a brake unit (braking unit) 24, a steering unit 26, and an electronic control unit (hereinafter referred to as "main ECU") 30. The main ECU 30 corresponds to the driving evaluation device.

[0011] The drive unit 22 is configured as a device that rotates and drives its output shaft 22a. Examples of such a device include a motor, an inverter, and a battery to make the automobile 20 an electric vehicle, an engine, an automatic transmission, and a fuel tank to make the automobile 20 a conventional engine-powered vehicle, a hybrid vehicle to make the automobile 20 a hybrid vehicle, and a hydrogen tank, a fuel cell, a motor, an inverter, and a battery to make the automobile 20 a fuel cell vehicle. The output shaft 22a of the drive unit 22 is connected to drive wheels 28a and 28b via a differential gear 27. The drive unit 22 is controlled by a drive unit electronic control unit (hereinafter referred to as "drive ECU") 23. The drive ECU 23 is configured by a microcomputer. Signals from various sensors required for controlling the drive unit 22 are input to the drive ECU 23. The drive ECU 23 also outputs various control signals for controlling the drive unit 22. The drive ECU 23 calculates the rotation speed N of the output shaft 22a of the drive unit 22 based on the rotation position θ from a rotation position detection sensor (not shown) attached to the output shaft 22a. The drive ECU 23 communicates with the main ECU 30 via a communication port.

[0012] The brake device 24 is configured as a well-known hydraulically driven brake device, and is configured to be able to apply braking forces resulting from the brake depression force applied by depressing the brake pedal 51 and braking forces resulting from hydraulic pressure adjustment to the drive wheels 28a, 28b and the driven wheels 28c, 28d. The brake device 24 is driven and controlled by a brake electronic control unit (hereinafter referred to as "brake ECU") 25. The brake ECU 25 is configured by a microcomputer. The brake ECU 25 controls the braking forces resulting from the brake depression force applied by the brake device 24 and braking forces resulting from hydraulic pressure adjustment. The brake ECU 25 communicates with the main ECU 30 via a communication port.

[0013] The steering device 26 is mechanically connected to a steering wheel (not shown) and the drive wheels 28 a, 28 b via a steering shaft, and is equipped with a steering actuator. The steering device 26 steers the drive wheels 28 a, 28 b based on the driver's operation, and also assists the driver's operation by driving the actuator based on a steering signal from the main ECU 30.

[0014] The main ECU 30 is composed of a microcomputer. For example, an ignition signal from an ignition switch 40, a vehicle speed V from a vehicle speed sensor 41, wheel speeds from wheel speed sensors 42, an acceleration α from an acceleration sensor 43, a yaw rate Yr from a yaw rate sensor 44, a road gradient θr from a gradient sensor 45, and a steering angle θh from a steering angle sensor 46 are input to the main ECU 30. In addition, the main ECU 30 also receives a shift position SP from a shift position sensor 48 that detects the position of a shift lever 47, an accelerator opening Acc from an accelerator pedal position sensor 50 that detects the amount of depression of an accelerator pedal 49, and a brake pedal position BP from a brake pedal position sensor 52 that detects the amount of depression of a brake pedal 51.

[0015] The main ECU 30 outputs a control signal to the steering device 26, a display control signal to the display device 58, a communication control signal to the communication device 70, etc. The main ECU 30 communicates with the drive ECU 23, the brake ECU 25, etc., as well as with a periphery recognition electronic control unit (hereinafter referred to as "periphery recognition ECU") 55 and a navigation device 60.

[0016] The periphery recognition ECU 55 is configured with a microcomputer. Signals indicating information about the vehicle and its surroundings (e.g., inter-vehicle distances D1, D2 between the vehicle and other vehicles ahead and behind the vehicle, and the vehicle's running position in the lane on the road) are input to the periphery recognition ECU 55 from a periphery recognition device 56. Examples of the periphery recognition device 56 include a camera, millimeter wave radar, quasi-millimeter wave radar, infrared laser radar, and sonar.

[0017] The navigation device 60 includes a main body 62 with a built-in control unit, a GPS antenna 64 that receives information about the current location of the vehicle, and a display 66. The control unit of the main body 62 has a storage medium (e.g., a hard disk or SSD) that stores map information and the like. The map information includes service information (e.g., tourist information, parking lots, etc.) and road information for each driving section (e.g., between traffic lights and between intersections) stored as a database. The road information includes distance information, road width information, number of lanes information, area information (urban or suburban), type information (general road or expressway), gradient information, legal speed limit, number of traffic lights, turning radius of each curve, etc. The display 66 displays various information such as information about the current location of the vehicle and the planned driving route to the destination, and is configured as a touch panel display that allows the user to input various instructions. The display 66 can also serve as the display device 58. When a destination is set by a user operating the display 66, the main body 62 of the navigation device 60 sets a planned driving route from the current location of the vehicle to the destination based on map information stored in the main body 62 and the current location and destination of the vehicle obtained from the GPS antenna 64, and displays the set planned driving route on the display 66 to provide route guidance.

[0018] The main ECU 30 communicates with an information management center 100 via a communication device 70 and acquires various information from the information management center 100. The information management center 100 communicates with a plurality of other devices 110 and acquires various information from the plurality of other devices 110. Examples of the other devices 110 include mobile terminals such as smartphones and in-vehicle devices.

[0019] Next, the operation of the automobile 20 of this embodiment configured as described above, particularly the operation when weighting dangerous driving, will be described. Fig. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of dangerous driving judgment storage processing executed by the main ECU 30, and Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of dangerous driving weighting processing executed by the main ECU 30. The dangerous driving judgment storage processing is executed repeatedly, and the dangerous driving weighting processing is executed when it is determined in the dangerous driving judgment storage processing that dangerous driving has been performed. The following will explain each step in order.

[0020] When the dangerous driving determination storage process is executed, the main ECU 30 first inputs the acceleration α, yaw rate Yr, steering angle θh, etc. (step S100) and performs a process of determining whether dangerous driving has occurred based on the input acceleration α, yaw rate Yr, and steering angle θh (step S110). This determination can be made, for example, when a sudden braking operation that causes the acceleration α to fall below a threshold αref, a sharp turning operation that causes the yaw rate Yr to exceed the threshold Yref, or a sudden steering operation that causes the change in steering angle θh Δθh to be equal to or greater than the threshold θref has occurred. It should be noted that the dangerous driving determination may also be made by analyzing data from the surroundings recognition device 56. If it is determined that dangerous driving has occurred (step S120), the main ECU 30 stores the location and time when the dangerous driving occurred together with a weight value of 1 (step S130), and then terminates this process. On the other hand, if it is determined that dangerous driving has occurred (step S120), this process terminates.

[0021] 3, the location and time at which the dangerous driving was determined to have occurred are input (step S200), and a predetermined time is waited for after the dangerous driving was determined to have occurred (step S210). The predetermined time can be 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or the like.

[0022] After a predetermined time has elapsed, the information management center 100 acquires witness information about dangerous driving, which indicates that the dangerous driving was witnessed within a predetermined distance from the location where the dangerous driving was determined to have occurred and within a predetermined time from the time when the dangerous driving was determined to have occurred (step S220). The witness information about dangerous driving includes the location where the dangerous driving was witnessed, the time, the age, gender, and behavior of the witness (pedestrian, bicyclist, or car occupant), the type of road (communal road, main road, or expressway), the day of the week, and the time of day. Such witness information about dangerous driving is received by the information management center 100 from the other device 110 via communication. The witness information about dangerous driving also includes information from the driver who was determined to have engaged in dangerous driving.

[0023] The system then determines whether or not witnessed dangerous driving information has been acquired from the information management center 100 (step S230). If witnessed dangerous driving information has been acquired from the information management center 100, the system changes the weight of the dangerous driving based on the acquired witnessed dangerous driving information and stores the changed weight (step S240), terminating this process. The weights can be set according to each item of witnessed dangerous driving information, for example, the younger the witness to the dangerous driving, the higher the weight; the witness is a pedestrian, a cyclist, and a car occupant; the road type is residential road, main road, and expressway, in that order; the weight is higher for weekdays than for holidays; and the weight is higher for school commuting hours than for other time periods. Note that if witnessed dangerous driving information cannot be acquired from the information management center 100, the weight is not changed.

[0024] The driving evaluation device of the embodiment described above stores the location and time at which dangerous driving was determined to have occurred, and acquires eyewitness information from the information management center 100, which indicates that dangerous driving was witnessed within a predetermined distance from the location at which dangerous driving was determined to have occurred and within a predetermined time from the time at which dangerous driving was determined to have occurred.The device then changes the weight of dangerous driving based on the acquired eyewitness information and stores the changed weight.In this way, by adjusting the weight of dangerous driving based on information from witnesses to dangerous driving, the determination of dangerous driving can be made more convincing to the driver.As a result, the driver can be made aware of dangerous driving and encouraged to avoid dangerous driving.

[0025] In the automobile 20 of the embodiment, the drive ECU 23 is used to control the drive device 22, and the brake ECU 25 is used to control the brake device 24. However, all or part of the functions of the drive ECU 23 and the brake ECU 25 may be performed by the main ECU 30.

[0026] The above describes the form for carrying out the present invention using an embodiment, but the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment in any way, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be carried out in various forms within the scope that does not deviate from the gist of the present invention. [Industrial Applicability]

[0027] The present invention can be used in the manufacturing industry of driving evaluation devices. [Explanation of symbols]

[0028] 20 Automobile, 22 Drive unit, 22a Output shaft, 23 Drive unit electronic control unit (drive ECU), 24 Brake unit, 25 Brake ECU, 26 Steering unit, 27 Differential gear, 28a, 28b Drive wheels, 28c, 28d Driven wheels, 30 Main electronic control unit (main ECU), 40 Ignition switch, 41 Vehicle speed sensor, 42 Wheel speed sensor, 43 Acceleration sensor, 44 Yaw rate sensor, 45 Gradient sensor, 46 Steering angle sensor, 47 Shift lever, 48 Shift position sensor, 49 Accelerator pedal, 50 Accelerator pedal position sensor, 51 Brake pedal, 52 Brake pedal position sensor, 55 Surrounding recognition ECU, 56 Surrounding recognition device, 58 Display device, 60 Navigation device, 62 Main body, 64 GPS antenna, 66 Display, 70 Communication device, 100 Information Management Center, 110 Other Devices.

Claims

[Claim 1] A driving evaluation device that detects and evaluates dangerous driving, The location and time at which dangerous driving is detected are stored as the dangerous driving location and dangerous driving time, adjusting the weight of the dangerous driving based on witness information of dangerous driving acquired from outside within a predetermined distance from the dangerous driving position and within a predetermined time from the dangerous driving time; A driving evaluation device characterized by:

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