Vehicle Control System Inhibition Unit for Hazardous Conditions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vehicle control systems fail to maintain an appropriate level of driving support during transitions from automated to manual driving, particularly in challenging conditions such as nighttime or adverse weather, leading to potential difficulties for vehicle occupants in recognizing and managing the surrounding environment.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle control system that includes a recognition unit for assessing the vehicle's surroundings, a control unit for executing driving support through steering and acceleration/deceleration, a reception unit for receiving occupant instructions, and an inhibition unit that prevents the reduction or inactivation of driving support when the surroundings are deemed hazardous or predicted to become so, ensuring continuous support in critical situations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the driving support is deactivated or reduced in functionality upon receiving an instruction from the vehicle occupant, then the ease of operation is improved by allowing manual driving, but the reliability deteriorates when the surrounding status is hazardous or recognition accuracy is degraded
Solution Approach 1:
The inhibition unit applies preliminary anti-action by predicting future hazardous surrounding statuses or recognition degradation before they occur, and preemptively preventing the deactivation or reduction of driving support functionality. This counteracts the potential harmful effect of manual driving initiation in inappropriate conditions, resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs feedback by continuously monitoring surrounding status through the recognition unit and using this information to dynamically control whether driving support can be deactivated. The feedback loop ensures that manual driving instructions are only permitted when recognition accuracy is sufficient and surrounding conditions are safe, thereby maintaining reliability while allowing ease of operation when appropriate.
2Device complexity
If the driving support is deactivated or reduced in functionality, then the device complexity is reduced by removing automated control, but the ease of operation deteriorates when the vehicle occupies need time to recognize the surrounding status
Solution Approach 1:
The inhibition unit performs preliminary action by assessing whether the surrounding status is appropriate for manual driving before allowing the transition. By predicting future hazardous conditions or recognition degradation, the system prepares in advance to maintain driving support functionality, preventing situations where the driver would need to quickly adapt to manual control in unsafe conditions.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the recognition unit operates in challenging conditions such as nighttime or adverse weather, then the adaptability is improved by maintaining automated driving, but the measurement precision deteriorates due to degraded sensor detection accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses feedback from the recognition unit to continuously monitor recognition accuracy levels. When measurement precision deteriorates below acceptable thresholds due to nighttime or adverse weather conditions, the feedback mechanism triggers the inhibition unit to prevent deactivation of driving support, thereby maintaining adaptability while compensating for reduced measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies parameter changes by dynamically adjusting the thresholds or criteria for allowing manual driving based on environmental conditions. In challenging conditions with degraded sensor accuracy, the parameters for permitting manual control are made more stringent, ensuring that automated driving support is maintained until recognition precision improves sufficiently.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle control system includes: a recognition unit (16, 321, or 322) recognizing a surrounding status of a vehicle; a control unit (200 or 300) executing driving support for the vehicle by controlling one or both of steering and acceleration/deceleration of the vehicle on the basis of the surrounding status recognized by the recognition unit; a reception unit (40 or 80) receiving an instruction relating to the driving support from a vehicle occupant of the vehicle; and an inhibition unit (130) inhibiting inactivation or reduction in functionality of the driving support using the control unit in a case in which a surrounding status of the vehicle is a predetermined surrounding status, or the predetermined surrounding status in the future is predicted in a case in which an instruction for inactivation or reduction in functionality of the driving support is received by the reception unit.