Drive Planning for Safe Shoulder Stops After 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 time and location-specific vehicle travel permissions.
Innovation Solution
A drive planning device that assesses driver issues and environmental conditions to create a driving plan, moving the vehicle to the shoulder only if a predetermined safe condition is met, which includes no approaching vehicles on the shoulder, thereby ensuring safety by stopping the vehicle on the shoulder when possible.
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 quickly stop without additional assessment, but the vehicle may collide with other vehicles approaching from behind on the shoulder
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary assessment of the shoulder environment (detecting approaching vehicles, evaluating safety conditions) before executing the stopping action. This allows the vehicle to only move to the shoulder when it is confirmed safe, preventing collisions while still enabling quick stopping when conditions permit.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the shoulder environment for approaching vehicles and safety conditions, using this feedback to dynamically adjust the stopping decision. If the shoulder becomes unsafe during the process, the system can switch to stopping in the traffic lane instead.
2Reliability
If the vehicle moves to the shoulder when a driver issue arises, then the vehicle can stop in a safer location away from traffic, but the vehicle may collide with other vehicles if the shoulder is not actually safe
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection and assessment of the shoulder environment before initiating the move-to-shoulder maneuver. It checks for approaching vehicles and evaluates whether the shoulder is currently safe for stopping, only proceeding when conditions are verified to be safe.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediate safety assessment step between the decision to stop and the actual movement to the shoulder. This intermediary evaluation acts as a mediator that verifies shoulder safety conditions are met before allowing the vehicle to transition to the shoulder stopping location.
3Reliability
If the system assesses shoulder safety conditions before stopping, then the vehicle can avoid collisions with approaching vehicles, but the system complexity increases due to additional assessment requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the existing automatic control device's surrounding information detection capabilities for multiple purposes: both for normal collision avoidance during driving and for assessing shoulder safety conditions before stopping. This multi-functional use of existing sensors reduces the need for additional dedicated assessment hardware.
Solution Approach 2:
The automatic control device uses its own existing detection systems and surrounding information to perform the safety assessment, rather than requiring a completely separate assessment system. The device serves its own safety assessment needs using its built-in capabilities.
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.