Autonomous Vehicle Route Zoning for Safe Occupant Boarding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous driving vehicles face challenges in ensuring a safe getting-on experience for occupants, particularly when traveling on routes with many steep slopes or curves, as sudden braking can affect the riding feeling, necessitating the determination of suitable areas for safe travel based on driving environment information.
Innovation Solution
A traffic information determination device and system that acquires driving environment information to differentiate between first and second allowable areas for autonomous vehicle travel, allowing travel in the second allowable area when a person is on board, ensuring a safe getting-on experience while allowing travel in the first allowable area when no person is present.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the autonomous driving vehicle travels in an area where information on surroundings can be acquired accurately, then the safety of traveling is improved, but the riding feeling deteriorates due to sudden braking on steep slopes or curves
Solution Approach 1:
The allowable area is divided into two distinct types: a first allowable area where traveling is permitted only when no person is on board, and a second allowable area where traveling is permitted even when a person is on board. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by spatially separating routes optimized for safety (first allowable area) from routes optimized for comfort (second allowable area), allowing the system to select appropriate areas based on occupancy status.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically determines and updates the first and second allowable areas based on real-time driving environment information, including road gradients, curvature, and other safety-critical parameters. This dynamic adjustment allows the vehicle to adapt its permitted travel areas according to current conditions, optimizing both safety and riding experience based on the operational context.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the autonomous driving vehicle is restricted to travel only in areas suitable for occupied travel, then the riding feeling is improved, but the flexibility of route selection deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a multi-functional area classification framework where the first allowable area serves as a superset that includes both the second allowable area (optimized for occupied travel) and additional areas (optimized for unoccupied travel). This universal structure allows the vehicle to access a broader range of routes when unoccupied while maintaining access to comfort-optimized routes when occupied, thereby resolving the contradiction between comfort and flexibility.
3Productivity
If the autonomous driving vehicle travels on routes with many steep slopes or curves, then the efficiency of travel is improved, but the safety of occupants deteriorates due to sudden braking
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality differentiation by identifying specific geographic areas with adverse road characteristics (steep slopes, sharp curves) and designating them as first allowable areas only. This local characterization allows efficient travel on challenging routes when unoccupied while protecting occupants by restricting access to these specific problematic areas when occupied, thus resolving the contradiction between travel efficiency and occupant safety.
Data Source
AI summary
A traffic information determination device includes a server configured to acquire driving environment information that may affect safety of traveling of a vehicle to be subjected to autonomous driving control, determine a first allowable area in which traveling of the vehicle is allowed, and in which traveling of the vehicle is not allowed when a person gets on the vehicle, based on the driving environment information, and determine a second allowable area in which traveling of the vehicle is allowed, and in which traveling of the vehicle is allowed even when the person gets on the vehicle, based on the driving environment information.