Vehicle Alarm Notification Control for Driver Maintenance Settings
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Solution Overview
Problem
Drivers and vehicle users experience annoyance due to unnecessary alarm notifications for non-critical failures in vehicles, especially in scenarios like car sharing and driverless driving, where maintenance is not performed by the driver.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle system with a controller that differentiates between critical and non-critical failures, allowing it to suppress notifications for non-influential failures when the driver is not responsible for maintenance, while ensuring notifications for critical failures are still communicated to appropriate personnel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If alarm notifications are issued for all failures in on-vehicle devices, then the driver can be informed of all issues, but the driver experiences annoyance due to unnecessary notifications for non-critical failures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments alarm notifications into two categories: critical failure notifications (which are always issued) and non-critical failure notifications (which are suppressed when the driver is not responsible for maintenance). This segmentation resolves the contradiction by ensuring reliable detection of all failures while eliminating annoying non-critical notifications for drivers who cannot perform maintenance.
Solution Approach 2:
The notification system dynamically adjusts its behavior based on the maintenance responsibility setting. When the driver is responsible for maintenance, all failure notifications are issued. When the driver is not responsible for maintenance, non-critical failure notifications are suppressed. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by tailoring notification behavior to the specific operational context.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the system suppresses alarm notifications for non-critical failures when the driver is not responsible for maintenance, then driver annoyance is reduced, but the driver may miss important information about vehicle issues
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments failure information into critical and non-critical categories, ensuring that critical failure information is always communicated to the driver while non-critical information is selectively suppressed. This segmentation prevents information loss for important issues while reducing annoyance from minor notifications.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback to the driver about maintenance status and failure conditions. When maintenance is performed by others, the system feedback mechanism ensures that critical failure information is still communicated, while non-critical feedback is suppressed to reduce annoyance without losing essential information.
3Loss of information
If the system issues notifications for all failures regardless of maintenance responsibility, then complete information is provided, but the convenience of car sharing and driverless driving is reduced due to unnecessary alarms
Solution Approach 1:
The notification system dynamically adapts to different operational modes (car sharing, driverless driving, traditional ownership) by adjusting notification behavior based on maintenance responsibility settings. This dynamic adjustment maintains complete information flow when needed while improving user convenience in automated operations by suppressing non-critical notifications.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different notification qualities to different failure types based on the operational context. Critical failures receive full notification regardless of mode, while non-critical failures have their notification quality adjusted locally based on whether the driver is responsible for maintenance, thereby improving convenience without sacrificing essential information.
4Ease of operation
If the system differentiates between critical and non-critical failures and suppresses non-critical notifications, then user annoyance is reduced and convenience is improved, but the device complexity increases due to additional control logic
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements segmentation of failure types and notification logic, which organizes the control system into manageable modules. While this does increase complexity compared to a simple on/off notification system, the segmented structure makes the complexity systematic and maintainable, resolving the contradiction by providing clear benefits in user convenience that justify the organized complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle includes: an instrument panel that displays an alarm to a driver; and an ECU that controls the instrument panel based on a setting as to whether the driver is to perform maintenance of the vehicle or not. In a first setting in which the driver is to perform maintenance, the ECU controls the instrument panel to display an alarm when a failure occurs in an on-vehicle device. In a second setting in which the driver is not to perform maintenance, the ECU controls the instrument panel not to display an alarm about a failure less influencing traveling.