13959 results about "Vehicle driving" patented technology

A method of evaluating the driving behavior in a vehicle. The method includes determining values of a plurality of parameters of the operation of a first vehicle in a first road segment, determining values of the plurality of parameters for one or more second vehicles in a second road segment having similar properties to those of the first road segment, comparing the determined values of the first vehicle and the one or more second vehicles and providing an evaluation of the driving behavior of the first vehicle, responsive to the comparison.

An alert system for a vehicle includes a video display, an interior visual alert device disposed at an interior rearview mirror assembly, a driver side visual alert device disposed at a driver side exterior rearview mirror assembly and a passenger side visual alert device disposed at a passenger side exterior rearview mirror assembly. A control is operable to activate at least one of the alert devices in response to a detection of an object rearward of the vehicle. The alert devices are viewable by the driver of the vehicle when activated and are operable to guide or prompt the driver to check the images captured by a rearward facing camera and displayed in the vehicle cabin by the video display so that the driver can verify the nature and type of a potential hazard rearward of the vehicle.

A system and method for analyzing and evaluating the performance and attitude of a motor vehicle driver. A raw data stream from a set of vehicle sensors is filtered to eliminate extraneous noise, and then parsed to convert the stream into a string of driving event primitives. The string of driving events is then processed by a pattern-recognition system to derive a sequence of higher-level driving maneuvers. Driving maneuvers include such familiar procedures as lane changing, passing, and turn and brake. Driving events and maneuvers are quantified by parameters developed from the sensor data. The parameters and timing of the maneuvers can be analyzed to determine skill and attitude factors for evaluating the driver's abilities and safety ratings. The rendering of the data into common driving-related concepts allows more accurate and meaningful analysis and evaluation than is possible with ordinary statistical threshold-based analysis.

Method and arrangement for controlling a subsystem of a vehicle dependent upon a sensed level of driver inattentiveness to vehicle driving tasks. A variable characteristic is measured, on a substantially real-time basis, which correlates to the driver's inattentiveness. The level of inattentiveness is assessed based at least in part on the measurement. The performance of a subsystem of the vehicle, such as cruise control or lane keeping support, is tailored, based thereupon, to assure that behavior of the vehicle appropriately matches the driver's present level of inattentiveness. The subsystem's operation is controlled in an effort to avoid or prevent the establishment of driving conditions that become inherently more dangerous as the driver's level of inattentiveness increases.

Devices, systems, and methods are disclosed for altering permitted settings of a vehicle according to a driver identified through short range wireless communication. The vehicle captures a unique identifier from a wireless communication device of the driver of the vehicle. This unique identifier is used to reference a database to determine the identity of the driver as well as settings for the driver created by a controlling authority. The controlling authority may be, for instance, a parent or employer of the driver. The settings may limit certain devices within the vehicle and/or the vehicle itself. Speed control settings, radio settings, wireless communication device settings, and various other settings are all possible to limit distractions to the driver. Further, the settings may be influenced by the number or identities of passengers within the vehicle.

A vigilance monitoring system to determine the alertness of a driver of a vehicle. The system uses one or multiple sensors located at the driver-vehicle interface (steering wheel, accelerator, brakes). The sensor monitors the magnitude and frequency of the force (or displacement) exerted by a driver at the driver interface. A time derivative of the force or displacement profile is created. The variability of the time derivative of the force/displacement data from the general trend of the data as obtained by an optimized moving average of the data. An intelligent control system measures the variability and compares with an alertness rating scale to determine the alertness score of the driver and issue warning signals and actions as appropriate.

The present invention provides a situation awareness system of a driver of a vehicle in a multi-vehicle environment, said system comprising: a. a remote central server communicatively connected to a vehicle, comprising: i. a server computer comprising a CPU, a memory, and an operating system; ii. a wireless server transceiver; iii. databases within said server computer; iv. server applications within said server computer; b. a vehicle subsystem installed in a vehicle with a driver, comprising: i. an vehicle computer having a CPU, a memory, and an operating system; ii. sensors; iii. vehicle databases; iv. a vehicle transducer to interrogate external environmental responders about the state of the environment; v. a wireless vehicle transceiver; vi. vehicle applications within said vehicle computer; vii. a situation assessment application,

A system that enables a fleet of vehicles to be maintained is provided. The disclosed system allows a fleet operator to review the history of the vehicles in the fleet along with vehicle sensor data to identify earmarks in the vehicle sensor data that are predictive of faults that the vehicles have experienced. The operator develops statistical algorithms that can detect an earmark in vehicle sensor data. The system then collects vehicle sensor data and applies the statistical algorithms the vehicle data to determine if a potential fault is going to occur in a vehicle. In response to determining that a potential fault is going to occur, the disclosed system automatically alerts the vehicle driver, automatically schedule a maintenance visit, automatically check the fleet inventory for components required for a maintenance visit and order unavailable components, and automatically dispatch the components to the mechanic.

The information available to a driver of a vehicle is greatly expanded using wireless communications (e.g., using Bluetooth wireless communication devices). In one embodiment, information regarding an adjacent vehicle such as a brake light, a turn light, speed, distance, direction, etc., is transmitted from one vehicle to a nearby or adjacent other vehicle. The received information is used in any appropriate manner, such as causing the receiving vehicle to change vehicle speed or brake, to turn to avoid a collision, etc. In a second embodiment, roadside wireless transceivers collect information regarding passing vehicles, and central database is compiled relating to a traffic conditions. The traffic condition information can be passed back to the passing vehicles for appropriate use, e.g., causing the driver to slow down, or even causing a navigation device in the receiving vehicle to manually prompt for or automatically recalculate a best route to an intended destination. In yet another embodiment, broadcast transmitters can be established at signs and other significant locations transmitting information to passing vehicles. The broadcast information may be as simple as indicating the existence of the sign, or depending upon the range of the particular wireless transmitter, the existence of a particular sign, bump in road, curve, etc., can be forewarned far in advance of when the driver will actually see the relevant object. Alternatively, the broadcast information may be quite detailed, e.g., containing a detailed itemization and directions to a large number of gas stations, restaurants, etc., reachable from a particular exit from a highway.

A vehicle drive assist system comprises a camera for picking up an image of an area existing in an advancing direction of a vehicle; display means for displaying the image picked up by the camera; steering angle detecting means for detecting a steering angle for steering the vehicle; traveling path predicting means for predicting a traveling path of the vehicle on the basis of the steering angle detected by the steering angle detecting means; and drive assist means for overlaying on the display means drive assist information containing the vehicle predictive traveling path predicted by the traveling path predicting means and guide lines prolonged from the lines defining the width of the vehicle body on the image of the area existing in the vehicle advancing direction.

A system for providing stand-off biometric verification of a driver of a vehicle at a control gate while the vehicle is moving, including an RFID vehicle tag reader, an RFID personal tag reader and a facial detection and recognition (verification) system. The RFID vehicle tag reader scans and reads data from an RFID vehicle tag of the vehicle that is trying to pass through the gate. The RFID personal tag reader reads data from an RFID personal tag carried by personnel who are driving in the vehicle. The facial detection and verification system scans and reads facial images for the driver. All the data and facial images detected by the reader are sent to a computer for further processing (final face verification).

In information presentation controlling apparatus and method, a detecting section detects a running state of a mobile body and a running environment thereof, a mental fatigue calculating section calculates a mental fatigue that an operator of the mobile body (specifically, a vehicle driver) suffers due to an operation of the mobile body (an automotive vehicle) from a result of detection by the detecting section, a producing section produces the information to the operator of the mobile body, and an information presentation controlling section controls the information to be produced to the operator of the mobile body through the producing section in accordance with the mental fatigue calculated by the mental fatigue calculating section.

In accordance with various embodiments of the disclosed subject matter, a method and a system for vision-centric deep-learning-based road situation analysis are provided. The method can include: receiving real-time traffic environment visual input from a camera; determining, using a ROLO engine, at least one initial region of interest from the real-time traffic environment visual input by using a CNN training method; verifying the at least one initial region of interest to determine if a detected object in the at least one initial region of interest is a candidate object to be tracked; using LSTMs to track the detected object based on the real-time traffic environment visual input, and predicting a future status of the detected object by using the CNN training method; and determining if a warning signal is to be presented to a driver of a vehicle based on the predicted future status of the detected object.

A radar system is described for use in vehicular applications. The radar system is particularly suited to backup warning systems and lane-change warning systems. The radar minimizes many of the problems found in the prior art by providing programmable delays and programmable gain. The radar uses a range search algorithm to detect and sort targets at various ranges within the field of view of the radar. Each target range corresponds to a particular delay and gain setting. The radar searches for targets at the various ranges by running a target search algorithm. For each target range, the search algorithm causes the proper time delay and gain setting. Targets within the selected range are detected and catalogued. Speed of the targets is obtained through Doppler processing. A display is used to warn the driver of the vehicle of the presence of targets at the various ranges. The warning may be visual and/or audible. When used in a lane-change system, issuance of an audible warning is based on the speed of the vehicle.

Provided is a technology for helping safe driving and realizing automatic driving of vehicles, or for counting the number of passing vehicles on the road or monitoring those passing vehicles for their driving. Using a plurality of cameras mounted in a vehicle or provided above a road, even if the relationship between the road plane and the respective cameras constantly changes in relative position or posture due to camera vibration or a change in road tilt, any obstacles located on the road such as other vehicles ahead, parked vehicles, and pedestrians on the road are detected without confusing those with textures including white lines, road signs, paint, road stains, and shadows of roadside objects, all of which do not disturb vehicle driving. An obstacle detection device 10 is structured by an image input section 11 for receiving images from a plurality of image pick-up devices 101, a correspondence detection section 12 for finding a plurality of pairs of corresponding points from the received right and left images, the slope degree calculation section 13 for calculating a slope degree of a plane including the corresponding points, and a result determination section 14 for determining as there being an obstacle when the calculated slope degree is larger than a predetermined value.

In system and method for improving operator driving assistance of an automotive vehicle, at an indication of acceleration timing and magnitude and the lane change timing, a lane change necessity is calculated and a lane change trigger signal is produced while the host vehicle is operated on a road that has at least three lanes and, at the calculation of the lane change necessity and at the production of the lane change signal, a new lane change trigger signal is prohibited to indicate until a forward lane change operation is deemed to be completed, in a case where the vehicle is traveling on a multiple number traffic lane road.

Arrangement for obtaining information about objects in an environment around a vehicle, e.g., in blind spots of the driver of the vehicle, including one or more light emitting components arranged on the vehicle for emitting infrared light into the environment around the vehicle and receivers arranged on the vehicle for receiving infrared light from the environment around the vehicle. The information about the objects is obtained based on analysis of the received infrared light by a processor, e.g., the distance between the vehicle and the object, the velocity of the object and the identity of the object. Pattern recognition techniques are preferably used to obtain the desired information. Control of the vehicle can be effected based on the detection of particular objects and their position and velocity, e.g., an audio or visual warning device or a steering wheel control device.

A control apparatus of a vehicle is provided. In the control apparatus, an unable-to-drive state of the driver of the vehicle is detected or determined. The unable-to-drive state is a state where the driver is unable to drive the vehicle. When the emergency that the driver has become the unable-to-drive state is detected or determined, the detection or determination result is notified to the outside. A leading vehicle which is adapted to leading the vehicle based on the notification, is recognized. Automatic follow-up running control is performed wherein the vehicle is made to automatically follow the leading vehicle.