Heads-Up Display Prioritization for Autonomous Driving Awareness
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Solution Overview
Problem
In autonomous driving vehicles, the display of multiple traffic lanes and vehicles can be overwhelming for occupants, leading to anxiety and annoyance due to excessive information.
Innovation Solution
A display control device and method that acquires and displays information about peripheral target objects and objects requiring caution within the subject vehicle lane and outside lanes, using a heads-up display and meter display to prioritize and emphasize objects outside the lane for control implications, with optional color differentiation and perspective changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If images of multiple traffic lanes and multiple vehicles are displayed on the display section, then situational awareness is improved, but occupant annoyance increases due to excessive information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and displays only the critical subset of information from the complete peripheral environment. Specifically, it identifies and displays objects requiring caution (those with implications for control) while omitting or de-emphasizing other peripheral objects that do not affect control decisions. This selective extraction resolves the contradiction by providing sufficient situational awareness information without overwhelming the occupant with excessive data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different display qualities to different objects based on their relevance to control. Objects requiring caution are displayed with higher emphasis (e.g., larger size, different color, or prominent position) while other objects are displayed with standard or reduced emphasis. This local differentiation allows the system to highlight critical information without uniformly increasing overall information density, thereby maintaining occupant comfort while improving situational awareness.
2Loss of information
If images of peripheral target objects outside the subject vehicle lane are displayed, then complete peripheral awareness is improved, but occupant anxiety increases due to excessive information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only those peripheral objects that have implications for vehicle control and displays them prominently, while excluding or minimizing display of peripheral objects without control implications. This selective extraction provides adequate peripheral awareness for safety-critical situations while avoiding the display of non-critical information that would contribute to occupant anxiety.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of displaying all peripheral objects and filtering out anxiety-causing information, the patent inverts the approach by defaulting to displaying only control-relevant objects and selectively adding other peripheral objects only when they have control implications. This inverted strategy inherently prevents anxiety-causing information overload while maintaining necessary peripheral awareness.
3Measurement precision
If information about all detected objects is displayed, then measurement completeness is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts a simplified subset of detected objects (those requiring caution) for display purposes, maintaining complete detection capability but selectively presenting only control-relevant information. This extraction approach preserves measurement completeness for safety while simplifying the display control logic by focusing on a specific subset of objects with clear identification and display rules.
Data Source
AI summary
A display control ECU includes an information acquisition section and a display control section. The information acquisition section acquires information relating to a peripheral target object that is present ahead of the vehicle and in a subject vehicle lane in which the vehicle is currently traveling, and information relating to an object requiring caution that is present outside of the subject vehicle lane and having implications for control during the autonomous driving. The display control section displays an image of the peripheral target object, regarding which information has been acquired by the information acquisition section on a heads-up display provided inside a cabin of the vehicle, and additionally displays on the heads-up display an image of the object requiring caution in a case in which information relating to the object requiring caution has been acquired by the information acquisition section.