Driving assistance device, driving assistance method, and recording medium
Patent Information
- Application Number
- PCT/JP2025/005689
- Authority / Receiving Office
- WO · WO
- Patent Type
- Applications
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2025-02-19
- Publication Date
- 2026-08-27
Smart Images
Figure JP2025005689_27082026_PF_FP_ABST
Abstract
Description
Driving Support Device, Driving Support Method, and Recording Medium , ,
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[0001] The present invention relates to a driving support device, a driving support method, and a recording medium.
[0002] Patent Document 1 discloses an electronic control device that can execute a fail operation suitable for the cause of an abnormality and the situation around the vehicle when an abnormality occurs in an autonomous vehicle. According to this document, this electronic control device acquires at least one of vehicle information of the vehicle itself, surrounding environment information regarding the surrounding environment of the vehicle, and road information regarding the road on which the vehicle travels, and detects an abnormality occurring in the vehicle during autonomous driving based on a first driving plan for reaching a destination by autonomous driving of the vehicle. When the abnormality is detected, this electronic control device identifies the cause of the abnormality and determines the situation around the vehicle based on at least one of the content of the abnormality, the vehicle information, the surrounding environment information, and the road information. Then, based on the cause of the abnormality and the situation around the vehicle, this electronic control device determines a target stop position for stopping the vehicle among the places where the vehicle can stop, and changes the first driving plan to a second driving plan for stopping the vehicle at the target stop position.
[0003] International Publication No. 2018 / 235470
[0004] As a cause for the automatic driving function or the driving support function not operating properly, in addition to an abnormality in the vehicle itself, there is a case where the road becomes unsuitable for the automatic driving function or the driving support function. For example, when debris scatters on the road, the automatic driving function or the driving support function may not be able to recognize the road properly and may not operate correctly. In this regard, the electronic control device of Patent Document 1 has a problem that it cannot detect an abnormality in the road and cannot set a second driving plan.
[0005] An object of the present disclosure is to provide a driving support device, a driving support method, and a recording medium that can present appropriate countermeasures for a vehicle traveling on a road that is in a state unsuitable for an automatic driving function or a driving support function or heading towards such a road.
[0006] From the first perspective, a driver assistance device is provided that includes an acquisition means for acquiring information on the road conditions in the vehicle's path, a determination means for determining whether or not an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement based on the information on the road conditions, and a proposal means for selecting a safe place where the vehicle can be parked and proposing it to the driver if it is determined that an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement.
[0007] From a second perspective, a driving assistance method is provided that acquires information on the road conditions in the vehicle's path, determines whether or not an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement based on the information on the road conditions, and if it is determined that an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement, selects a suitable parking location for the vehicle and proposes it to the driver.
[0008] From a third perspective, a recording medium is provided that contains a program that causes a computer to perform the following: a process of acquiring information about the road conditions in the vehicle's path; a process of determining whether or not an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement based on the information about the road conditions; and, if it is determined that an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement, a process of selecting a safe place to park the vehicle and proposing it to the driver.
[0009] According to this disclosure, it will be possible to provide a driver assistance device, a driver assistance method, and a recording medium that can suggest appropriate countermeasures to vehicles traveling on or heading towards roads that are in a condition unsuitable for autonomous driving or driver assistance functions.
[0010] This is a diagram showing one configuration of the present disclosure. This is a flowchart showing the operation of the present disclosure. This is a diagram for explaining the operation of the present disclosure. This is a diagram showing one configuration of the present disclosure. This is a diagram for explaining the determination operation of the present disclosure. This is another diagram for explaining the determination operation of the present disclosure. This is another diagram for explaining the determination operation of the present disclosure. This is a flowchart showing the operation of the present disclosure. This is a diagram showing another configuration of the present disclosure. This is a flowchart showing another operation of the present disclosure. This is a diagram showing the configuration of the computer constituting the driver assistance device of the present disclosure.
[0011] First, an overview of one embodiment of this disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. In this disclosure, the drawings are associated with one or more embodiments. The reference numerals in the drawings appended to this overview are provided for convenience as examples to aid understanding and are not intended to limit this disclosure to the illustrated embodiments. In addition, the connecting lines between blocks in the drawings and other references referred to in the following description include both bidirectional and unidirectional lines. Unidirectional arrows schematically indicate the flow of the main signal (data) and do not exclude bidirectionality. The program is executed via a computer device, which includes, for example, a processor, a storage device, an input device, a communication interface, and a display device as needed. This computer device is also configured to communicate with devices (including computers) inside or outside the device via the communication interface, whether wired or wireless. In addition, there are ports or interfaces at the input / output connection points of each block in the figures, but these are omitted from the illustration.
[0012] In one embodiment, this disclosure can be realized by a driving assistance device 10 comprising an acquisition means 11, a determination means 12, and a proposal means 13, as shown in Figure 1. More specifically, the acquisition means 11 acquires information regarding the road conditions in the vehicle's path. As information regarding the road conditions in the vehicle's path, for example, road traffic information published by organizations such as the Japan Road Traffic Information Center, or information obtained from cameras and sensors installed on the roadside can be used.
[0013] The determination means 12 determines, based on information regarding the road conditions, whether or not an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement. Here, "events that hinder the vehicle's movement" can include road closures due to traffic accidents or construction, road damage due to natural disasters, traffic congestion that would take a predetermined amount of time to pass through, as well as road obstructions that could cause the vehicle's autonomous driving function or driver assistance function to malfunction.
[0014] If the suggestion means 13 determines, as a result of the above determination, that an event has occurred that is hindering the vehicle's movement, it selects a safe place where the vehicle can be parked and suggests it to the driver. Examples of safe places selected by the suggestion means 13 include parking lots where rest can be taken, gas stations where refueling and charging are available, highway parking areas, and service areas. Various methods can be considered for selecting a safe place. If the vehicle in question is a route bus or freight train traveling on a fixed route, a method can be adopted in which a safe place pre-set near the fixed route can be selected. If the vehicle in question is a taxi or private car traveling on an unspecified route, a method can be adopted in which a safe place located near the vehicle's position obtained by GPS (Global Positioning System) or the like can be selected.
[0015] The above-described driver assistance device 10 may be implemented as a function of an in-vehicle terminal installed in the vehicle, or it may consist of a server or roadside device that communicates with the in-vehicle terminal of the vehicle and provides guidance to an evacuation site.
[0016] The driver assistance device 10, configured as described above, operates as follows. First, the driver assistance device 10 acquires information about the road conditions in the vehicle's path (step S01 in Figure 2).
[0017] Next, the driver assistance device 10 determines, based on the information regarding the road conditions, whether or not an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement (step S02 in Figure 2). If it is determined that no event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement, the subsequent processing is omitted (No. in step S02 in Figure 2).
[0018] If the above determination determines that an event is occurring that is hindering the vehicle's movement (Yes in step S02 of Figure 2), the driver assistance device 10 selects a suitable parking location for the vehicle and proposes it to the driver (step S03 of Figure 2).
[0019] Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 3, the driver assistance device 10 of the present disclosure guides the driver to a safe place P instead of the destination G when an event occurs in the path of the vehicle V that would obstruct the vehicle V's movement. The driver sees this guidance and moves the vehicle V to the safe place P. This allows the vehicle to rest if it is carrying passengers or livestock. Furthermore, if the vehicle is carrying fresh or frozen goods, the vehicle can prevent these goods from spoiling by supplying power or taking emergency measures at the safe place.
[0020] [First Embodiment] Next, a first embodiment of providing guidance to a vehicle equipped with an autonomous driving function to move to an evacuation site will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Figure 4 is a diagram showing one configuration of the present disclosure. Referring to Figure 4, a configuration is shown in which a driver assistance device 100 that provides driving assistance to vehicle V, a road information server 200, and an evacuation site management server 300 are connected via a network 400. Furthermore, in the following description, vehicle V will be described as an autonomous vehicle equipped with an autonomous driving function that can be switched to manual driving as needed. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the driver of vehicle V will be at least one of the following: a security officer who is on board vehicle V and drives as needed, or a remote control officer who can remotely control vehicle V.
[0021] The road information server 200 provides road traffic information, including congestion information on expressways and general roads, construction information, accident information, broken-down vehicle information, and fallen object information, in response to requests from the driver assistance device 100. The road information server 200 also manages the passable lanes on roads in the service area and the lane change history of vehicles on said roads over a certain period of time, and makes this information available to the driver assistance device 100. This passable lane information and lane change history can be obtained from information from cameras and sensors connected to the road information server 200.
[0022] The evacuation location management server 300 manages the locations of facilities that can serve as evacuation locations for vehicles in the service area, and provides information on the nearest evacuation location from the vehicle's current location in response to a request from the driver assistance device 100.
[0023] The driver assistance device 100 comprises an acquisition unit 101, a determination unit 102, and a proposal unit 103. The acquisition unit 101 acquires road traffic information from the road information server 200 as information on the road conditions along the route, including congested sections of expressways and general roads, construction information, accident information, broken-down vehicle information, fallen object information, etc., and provides it to the determination unit 102. The acquisition unit 101 also acquires traffic flow information from the road information server 200 as information on the road conditions along the route, and provides it to the determination unit 102. This traffic flow information includes the lane change history (vehicle movement) of vehicles in each lane. The route of vehicle V may be determined by acquiring location information from vehicle V, or it may be acquired from another device that manages the operation of the vehicle (operation management server), etc. The acquisition unit 101 corresponds to the acquisition means 11 described above.
[0024] The determination unit 102 determines, based on the information provided by the acquisition unit 101, whether or not an event that hinders the driving of vehicle V has occurred for a certain period of time or longer. This determination of "whether or not an event that hinders the driving of vehicle V has occurred for a certain period of time or longer" can be made by the following method.
[0025] (1) Method of determination from road traffic information - Traffic congestion information - Lane restriction information (construction, accidents, fallen objects, etc.) - Broken-down vehicle information (road shoulder, traffic lane) - Infrastructure failure (communication interruption with vehicles, information server down, power outage, etc.) If any of these target sections are within a predetermined distance in the direction of travel from the current location of vehicle V, the determination unit 102 determines that an event has occurred that has hindered the movement of vehicle V for a certain period of time or longer. For example, if vehicle V is traveling on an expressway, the determination unit 102 can determine whether or not an event has occurred that has hindered the movement of the vehicle for a certain period of time or longer, based on the traffic congestion information for each section of the expressway provided as road traffic information.
[0026] In addition, regarding lane closures and broken-down vehicles, not all lanes are impassable, so the determination unit 102 determines that no event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle V's movement if it is possible to address the issue by changing lanes.
[0027] (2) Method of determination from traffic history analysis Based on the traffic history of each lane on the road that vehicle V is traveling on over a certain period of time, the passable lane (passable lane) can be identified. If vehicle V needs to travel in a lane other than this passable lane, the determination unit 102 can determine that an event has occurred that has hindered the vehicle V's travel for a certain period of time or longer. For example, as shown in Figure 5, there may be cases where obstacles OB are scattered on the left side of the road and passing vehicles are avoiding them. In addition, there may be cases where vehicle V is an autonomous vehicle and is using the white line on the left side for its autonomous driving. In such cases, the determination unit 102 determines that an event has occurred that has hindered the vehicle V's travel for a certain period of time or longer. Similarly, as shown in Figure 6, there may be cases where oil has leaked on the left side of the road and the white line is difficult to recognize due to dirt ST. In this case as well, the determination unit 102 can determine that an event has occurred that has hindered the vehicle V's travel for a certain period of time or longer. In this way, the determination unit 102 can determine whether or not an event that hinders the vehicle's movement has occurred for a certain period of time or longer, based on the movement of a vehicle located on the road in the direction of travel of the vehicle V.
[0028] Furthermore, if the determination unit 102 finds from the lane traffic history that a certain lane has been avoided despite it being a passable lane, it determines that an abnormality has occurred in that lane. For example, suppose both lanes (A) and (B) in Figure 7 are passable lanes. On the other hand, if there are no vehicles traveling in lane (A) due to the presence of a broken-down vehicle V1, the determination unit 102 determines that an abnormality has occurred in lane (A). In this case as well, if vehicle V needs to travel in lane (A), the determination unit 102 determines that an event has occurred that has hindered the movement of vehicle V for a certain period of time or longer. In this way, the determination unit 102 can determine that an event has occurred that has hindered the movement of the vehicle in a passable lane for a certain period of time or longer, when there is no traffic history of the preceding vehicle in that lane. Note that in both cases (1) and (2) above, the determination unit 102 may also acquire information from roadside cameras and sensors to confirm that an event has occurred that has hindered the movement of vehicle V for a certain period of time or longer.
[0029] Furthermore, the determination unit 102 described above may be composed of a large-scale language model capable of performing image analysis or a VLM (Vision-Language Model). In this case, the determination unit 102 may determine that an event hindering the vehicle's movement has occurred for a certain period of time or longer, using, in addition to the information obtained from the road information server 200, images of the road taken by a camera installed on the roadside as input. As an example of the VLM, for example, LLaVA (Large Language and Vision Assistant) can be used.
[0030] If the determination unit 102 determines that an event is occurring that is hindering the movement of vehicle V for a certain period of time or longer, the proposal unit 103 searches the evacuation location management server 300 for an evacuation location close to the current location of vehicle V. During this search, the proposal unit 103 may also send information such as the size of vehicle V, in addition to the location of vehicle V, to the evacuation location management server 300 as search conditions. In this way, information on an evacuation location suitable for vehicle V can be obtained.
[0031] Once the search results are obtained, the suggestion unit 103 presents the evacuation location to the driver of vehicle V (security officer or remote control operator). The suggestion unit 103 can transmit the evacuation location information to the vehicle's onboard terminal or the remote control operator's terminal using methods such as vehicle-to-infrastructure communication or a mobile communication network. Furthermore, the presentation of the evacuation location can take various forms used in route guidance, etc. For example, the location of the evacuation location can be displayed on the map of the vehicle V's car navigation system, and a message such as "There is an obstacle on this road ahead. Switch to manual driving and move to the evacuation location." can be output.
[0032] Furthermore, road traffic information may include congestion information for service areas or parking areas, or congestion information for service areas or parking areas may be obtainable from the evacuation location management server 300. In this case, the proposal unit 103 may select an available service area or parking area from among the aforementioned service areas or parking areas as an evacuation location.
[0033] Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Figure 8 is a flowchart showing the operation performed by the driver assistance device 100 of this embodiment at regular intervals. First, the driver assistance device 100 acquires road traffic information and traffic flow information from the road information server 200 (step S001).
[0034] Next, the driver assistance device 100 determines whether or not an event that would hinder the vehicle V's movement has occurred in the vehicle V's path for a certain period of time or longer (step S002). If it determines that no event that would hinder the vehicle V's movement has occurred (No. in step S002), the driver assistance device 100 omits the subsequent processing.
[0035] On the other hand, if the above determination determines that an event has occurred that hinders the movement of vehicle V for a certain period of time or longer, the driver assistance device 100 searches for an evacuation location near the current location of vehicle V from the evacuation location management server 300 (step S003).
[0036] Finally, the driver assistance device 100 presents the searched evacuation location to the driver of vehicle V (safety officer or remote control operator) (step S004). The driver of vehicle V refers to the location of the evacuation location and any accompanying messages to decide whether or not to move to the evacuation location.
[0037] As described above, according to this embodiment, a vehicle V equipped with an autonomous driving function can detect road abnormalities that may interfere with its autonomous driving at an early stage and be guided to take evacuation.
[0038] [Second Embodiment] Next, a second embodiment will be described in which a relocation space reservation function is added to the driver assistance device 100. Figure 9 is a diagram showing another configuration of the present disclosure. The differences from the driver assistance device 100 of the first embodiment shown in Figure 4 are that a parking management server 300a is provided instead of a relocation space management server 300, and a reservation unit 104 is added to the driver assistance device 100a. The other configurations are almost the same as in the first embodiment, so the differences in operation will be explained below.
[0039] The parking management server 300a manages the location and availability of parking lots that can serve as evacuation sites for vehicles in the service area. The parking management server 300a also provides information on the nearest parking lot with available spaces from the target vehicle's current location, in response to a request from the driver assistance device 100a. Furthermore, the parking management server 300a has a function to accept reservations for parking spaces in designated parking lots, in response to requests from the driver assistance device 100a. The parking lots managed by the parking management server 300a may include not only general parking lots but also reservable parking spaces located in highway service areas and parking areas. These parking spaces may also include those equipped with charging facilities.
[0040] If the determination unit 102 determines that an event hindering the vehicle V's operation has occurred for a certain period of time or longer, the suggestion unit 103a searches the parking management server 300a for a parking lot near the vehicle V's current location. During this search, the suggestion unit 103a may also transmit information such as the size of the vehicle V and whether charging equipment is required to the parking management server 300a as search conditions, in addition to the vehicle V's location. Once the search results are obtained, the suggestion unit 103a presents the parking lot to the driver of the vehicle V (security officer or remote control operator).
[0041] The reservation unit 104 receives a parking reservation request from the driver (security officer or remote control operator) who has been presented with the parking lot. This reservation request may include the vehicle ID V, information on the designated parking space, the reservation time, etc. When the reservation unit 104 receives a reservation request for the presented parking lot from the driver (security officer or remote control operator), it makes a reservation for the parking space for the vehicle V with the parking management server 300a. The reservation request does not necessarily have to include the vehicle ID V, information on the designated parking space, the reservation time, etc. In this case, the parking management server 300a may make a reservation for an available parking space and set a predetermined reservation time, and then transmit the result to the reservation unit 104. The reservation unit 104 corresponds to a reservation means for reserving the available parking lot in response to a request from the driver.
[0042] Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining another operation of the present disclosure. The operations up to steps S001 to S002 in FIG. 10 are the same as those in the first embodiment, so the description thereof will be omitted. As a result of the determination in step S002, if it is determined that an event that inhibits the running of the vehicle V has occurred for a certain period or longer, the driving support device 100a searches for an available parking lot near the current location of the vehicle V from the parking lot management server 300a (step S103).
[0043] Next, the driving support device 100a presents the searched parking lot to the driver (security guard or remote operator) of the vehicle V (step S104). The driver of the vehicle V refers to the location of the parking lot and the accompanying message, and determines whether to reserve the parking lot.
[0044] When the driving support device 100a receives a reservation operation for the parking lot from the driver (security guard or remote operator) (Yes in step S105), the driving support device 100a requests the parking lot management server 300a to reserve a parking space (step S106). In this way, since a safe evacuation place is surely secured, the driver (security guard or remote operator) can move with confidence.
[0045] As described above, each embodiment of the present disclosure has been described. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and further modifications, replacements, and adjustments can be made without departing from the basic technical idea of the present disclosure. For example, the network configuration, the configuration of each element, and the data representation form shown in each drawing are examples for assisting the understanding of the present disclosure, and are not limited to the configurations shown in these drawings.
[0046] For example, in the above-described embodiment, an example in which the driving support devices 100 and 100a guide an evacuation place for one vehicle V has been described. However, the driving support devices 100 and 100a can also guide an evacuation place for a plurality of vehicles V. At that time, the driving support devices 100 and 100a may assign a priority order to the vehicles for which the evacuation place is to be guided based on the situation in which each vehicle V is placed. By doing so, it becomes possible to preferentially guide the vehicle V that is highly likely to need to move to an evacuation place or the like to the evacuation place.
[0047] Further, the driving support devices 100 and 100a may be mounted on the vehicle V. As a mounting form on the vehicle V, for example, as a function of a car navigation terminal, a function corresponding to the driving support devices 100 and 100a may be incorporated. In this case, as the position information of the vehicle V, the position information obtained from the GPS unit of the vehicle V can be used.
[0048] Further, in the above-described embodiment, the vehicle V has been described as an autonomous vehicle, but the vehicle V may be a non-autonomous vehicle. Further, the application range of the present disclosure is not limited to vehicles traveling on narrow roads. For example, the vehicle may be a vehicle of a new transportation system such as an AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle), an AGT (Automated Guideway Transit), or the like.
[0049] (Regarding Hardware Configuration) In each embodiment of the present disclosure, each component of each device indicates a functional unit block. Some or all of the components of each device are realized by an arbitrary combination of an information processing device 900 and a program as shown in FIG. 11, for example. FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the information processing device 900 that realizes each component of each device. The information processing device 900 includes, as an example, the following configurations: - CPU (Central Processing Unit) 901 - ROM (Read Only Memory) 902 - RAM (Random Access Memory) 903 - Program 904 loaded into RAM 903 - Storage device 905 that stores program 904 - Drive device 907 that reads and writes to recording medium 906 - Communication interface 908 connected to communication network 909 - Input / output interface 910 that performs input / output of data - Bus 911 that connects each component
[0050] Each component of each device in each embodiment is realized by the CPU 901 acquiring and executing a program 904 that realizes these functions. That is, the CPU 901 in Figure 11 executes a data acquisition program and a determination program, and performs update processing of each calculation parameter held in the RAM 903, storage device 905, etc. The program 904 that realizes the functions of each component of each device is, for example, stored in advance in the storage device 905 or ROM 902, and read by the CPU 901 as needed. The program 904 may be supplied to the CPU 901 via a communication network 909, or it may be stored in advance in a recording medium 906, and the drive device 907 may read the program and supply it to the CPU 901.
[0051] There are various variations in how each device is implemented. For example, each device may be implemented by any combination of a separate information processing device 900 and a program for each component. Alternatively, multiple components of each device may be implemented by any combination of a single information processing device 900 and a program. In other words, each part (processing means, function) of the above-described driving support device can be implemented by a computer program that causes a processor mounted on the device to execute the above-described processes using its hardware.
[0052] Furthermore, some or all of the components of each device are realized by other general-purpose or dedicated circuits, processors, etc., or combinations thereof. These may be made up of a single chip or multiple chips connected via a bus.
[0053] Some or all of the components of each device may be realized by a combination of the circuits and programs described above.
[0054] When some or all of the components of each device are implemented by multiple information processing devices or circuits, these multiple information processing devices or circuits may be centrally located or distributed. For example, the information processing devices or circuits may be implemented in a form in which each is connected via a communication network, such as a client-and-server system or a cloud computing system.
[0055] The embodiments described above are preferred embodiments of this disclosure and do not limit the scope of this disclosure to these embodiments alone. That is, a person skilled in the art can modify or substitute the embodiments described above to construct various modified forms without departing from the gist of this disclosure.
[0056] Some or all of the above embodiments may also be described as follows, but are not limited to these.
[0057] [Note 1] A driver assistance device comprising: an acquisition means for acquiring information on the road conditions in the vehicle's path; a determination means for determining whether an event that hinders the vehicle's movement has occurred for a certain period of time or longer based on the information on the road conditions; and a proposal means for selecting a safe place where the vehicle can be parked and proposing it to the driver if it is determined that an event that hinders the vehicle's movement has occurred. [Note 2] In the driver assistance device described above, the road is an expressway, the acquisition means acquires congestion information for each section of the expressway as the road conditions, and the determination means can be configured to determine whether an event that hinders the vehicle's movement has occurred for a certain period of time or longer using the congestion information for each section of the expressway. [Note 3] In the driver assistance device described above, the safe place is a service area or parking area on an expressway, and the proposal means can further be configured to select the safe place from among the service area or parking area based on congestion information of the service area or parking area and propose it to the driver. [Note 4] The determination means of the above-described driving assistance device may be configured to determine whether or not an event that obstructs the vehicle's movement has occurred for a certain period of time or longer, based on the movement of a vehicle located on the road in the direction of the vehicle's travel. [Note 5] The acquisition means of the above-described driving assistance device may be configured to acquire information on the passable lanes of the road and the travel history of a preceding vehicle on the road, and the determination means may be configured to determine that an event that obstructs the vehicle's movement has occurred in the lane if there is no travel history of a preceding vehicle in the passable lane. [Note 6] The selection means of the above-described driving assistance device may be configured to select an available parking lot based on parking lot availability information and the vehicle's location information, and propose it to the driver. [Note 7] In the above-described driving assistance device, the evacuation area is a reservable parking lot, and the device may be configured to further include a reservation means for reserving the reservable parking lot in response to a request from the driver.[Note 8] A driving assistance method comprising: acquiring information on the road conditions in the vehicle's path; determining, based on the information on the road conditions, whether or not an event has occurred that obstructs the vehicle's movement for a certain period of time or longer; and, if it is determined that an event has occurred that obstructs the vehicle's movement, selecting a safe place where the vehicle can be parked and proposing it to the driver. [Note 9] A recording medium that stores a program causing a computer to execute: a process for acquiring information on the road conditions in the vehicle's path; a process for determining, based on the information on the road conditions, whether or not an event has occurred that obstructs the vehicle's movement for a certain period of time or longer; and, if it is determined that an event has occurred that obstructs the vehicle's movement, selecting a safe place where the vehicle can be parked and proposing it to the driver. The forms described in each of the above notes can be combined with each other after making the necessary modifications. For example, a configuration that combines the contents of Note 2 and the contents of Note 3 is also included in the scope of disclosure of this specification. In this case, the driving assistance device will propose a service area or parking area to the driver as a safe place based on traffic congestion information for each section of the expressway. Furthermore, the forms described in appendices 8 and 9 above can be expanded to the forms described in appendices 2 to 7, similar to appendice 1.
[0058] Furthermore, each disclosure in the above-mentioned patent documents is incorporated into this document by reference and may be used as the basis or part of this disclosure as necessary. Within the framework of this disclosure (including the claims), further modifications and adjustments to the embodiments or examples are possible based on their fundamental technical concept. Also, within the framework of this disclosure, various combinations or selections (including partial deletions) of various disclosure elements (including each element of each claim, each element of each embodiment or example, each element of each drawing, etc.) are possible. In other words, this disclosure naturally includes the entire disclosure, including the claims, and various modifications and alterations that a person skilled in the art could make in accordance with the technical concept. In particular, with respect to the numerical ranges described in this document, any numerical value or sub-range included within that range should be interpreted as being specifically described, even if not otherwise stated. Furthermore, each disclosure item of the above-mentioned cited documents may, as necessary, be used in part or in whole as part of this disclosure, in accordance with the spirit of this disclosure, and this is also considered to be included in the disclosure items of this application.
[0059] 10, 100, 100a Driving support device 11 Acquisition means 12 Determination means 13 Proposal means 101 Acquisition unit 102 Determination unit 103, 103a Proposal unit 200 Road information server 300 Evacuation area management server 300a Parking lot management server 400 Network 900 Information processing device 901 CPU (Central Processing Unit) 902 ROM (Read Only Memory) 903 RAM (Random Access Memory) 904 Program 905 Storage device 906 Recording medium 907 Drive device 908 Communication interface 909 Communication network 910 Input / output interface 911 Bus G Destination OB Obstacle P Evacuation area ST Dirt V Vehicle V1 Broken-down vehicle
Claims
1. A driving assistance device comprising: an acquisition means for acquiring information on the road conditions in the vehicle's path; a determination means for determining whether or not an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement based on the information on the road conditions; and a proposal means for selecting a suitable parking location for the vehicle and proposing it to the driver if it is determined that an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement.
2. The driving assistance device according to claim 1, wherein the road is an expressway, the acquisition means acquires congestion information for each section of the expressway as the condition of the road, and the determination means uses the congestion information for each section of the expressway to determine whether or not an event that hinders the movement of the vehicle has occurred for a certain period of time or longer.
3. The driver assistance device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the evacuation location is a service area or parking area on a highway, and the suggestion means further selects the evacuation location from among the service area or parking area based on congestion information of the service area or parking area, and suggests it to the driver.
4. The driving assistance device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the determination means determines, based on the movement of a vehicle located on the road in the direction of travel of the vehicle, whether or not an event that hinders the driving of the vehicle has occurred for a certain period of time or longer.
5. The driving assistance device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the acquisition means acquires information on passable lanes on the road and the travel history of a preceding vehicle on the road, and the determination means determines that if there is no travel history of a preceding vehicle in the passable lane, an event that hinders the driving of the vehicle has occurred in that lane.
6. The proposed means is a driving assistance device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, which suggests an available parking space to the driver based on parking space availability information and vehicle location information.
7. The driver assistance device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the evacuation area is a reservable parking lot, and further comprises a reservation means for reserving a reservable parking lot in response to a request from the driver.
8. A driving assistance method that acquires information on the road conditions in the vehicle's path, determines whether or not an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement based on the information on the road conditions, and, if it is determined that an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement, selects a suitable parking location for the vehicle and proposes it to the driver.
9. A recording medium that contains a program that causes a computer to perform the following: a process of acquiring information about the road conditions in the vehicle's path; a process of determining whether or not an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement based on the information about the road conditions; and, if it is determined that an event is occurring that would hinder the vehicle's movement, a process of selecting a safe place to park the vehicle and proposing it to the driver.