Drive Planning for Safe Shoulder Stop Under Driver Incapacitation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current automatic control systems in vehicles may inadvertently cause collisions by stopping in a traffic lane when a driver issue arises, as it cannot always be assumed that the shoulder is a safe location due to varying conditions such as travel permissions and presence of other vehicles.
Innovation Solution
A drive planning device that assesses driver issues and environmental conditions to create a driving plan, moving the vehicle to a safe shoulder only if predetermined safety conditions are met, such as no approaching vehicles on the shoulder, thereby ensuring safety by either stopping on the shoulder or in the traffic lane based on these conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If the vehicle is stopped in the traffic lane when a driver issue arises, then the vehicle can be stopped quickly without additional assessment, but the risk of collision with approaching vehicles increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary assessment of shoulder safety conditions (detecting approaching vehicles, evaluating weather, road conditions) before executing the stopping action. This preliminary evaluation ensures that the vehicle only moves to the shoulder when it is safe to do so, preventing collisions while still enabling quick response to driver issues.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the stopping plan based on real-time environmental conditions. If shoulder conditions are unsafe (approaching vehicles detected), the system dynamically switches from a shoulder-stop plan to a traffic lane stop plan, optimizing both safety and response time based on current circumstances.
2Reliability
If the system assesses shoulder conditions before stopping, then the safety of the stopping location is improved, but the time required to create the driving plan increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs a focused assessment of only the critical safety parameters needed for shoulder stopping (presence of approaching vehicles, basic weather/road conditions) rather than a comprehensive analysis of all possible factors. This partial assessment approach provides sufficient safety assurance while minimizing the time required to create the driving plan.
Data Source
AI summary
A drive planning device has a processor configured to assess whether or not there is a problem with the driver and to assess whether or not a predetermined condition has been met based on information for the surrounding environment of a vehicle, and to create a first driving plan in which the vehicle is moved to the shoulder and stopped when it has been assessed that there is a problem with the driver and the predetermined condition has been met, or to create a second driving plan in which the vehicle is stopped in the traffic lane in which the vehicle is traveling when it has been assessed that there is a problem with the driver and the condition assessment unit has assessed that the predetermined condition has not been met.