Vehicle On-Board Unit Throttle Release Warning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle safety communication systems, such as the Emergency Electronic Brake Light application, only provide warnings after a preceding vehicle has applied its brakes, failing to alert following vehicles of potential braking situations when the brake lights are obstructed, and do not offer advance warnings based on throttle release data.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle on-board unit that receives and analyzes throttle release data from preceding vehicles to determine the relevance of potential braking situations, selectively alerting the driver of a host vehicle through visual, auditory, or haptic warnings, even when the brake lights are blocked from view.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If brake lights are used to warn following vehicles of braking situations, then warning capability is improved, but visibility is lost when brake lights are obstructed by trucks or terrain obstacles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces wireless communication as an intermediary medium to transmit brake warning information. Instead of relying on direct visual contact with brake lights, the system uses wireless messages (via DSRC or cellular networks) to convey braking status from the preceding vehicle to the following vehicle, bypassing physical obstructions entirely
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical/optical brake light system with an electronic wireless communication system. The brake light mechanism (physical light source requiring line-of-sight) is substituted with electronic data transmission that can penetrate or go around obstacles, eliminating the fundamental limitation of visual obstruction
2Loss of information
If wireless communication systems are used to transmit vehicle data, then information exchange capability is improved, but data relevance and accuracy deteriorate due to receiving all types of data including irrelevant information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and processes individual data elements (PIDs) from the incoming wireless message stream. The system selectively extracts throttle release data and brake status data while filtering out irrelevant information, converting the raw data stream into specific, actionable warning signals based on predefined relevance criteria
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different processing rules to different data elements within the wireless message. Each PID (Parameter Identifier) is evaluated against specific relevance criteria, with throttle release data triggering one type of warning and brake status data triggering another, allowing precise, context-specific responses rather than uniform processing of all data
3Loss of time
If advance brake warning systems activate brake lights in response to rapid gas pedal disengagement, then early warning capability is improved, but warning effectiveness is lost when brake lights are blocked from view
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses wireless communication as an intermediary to transmit the advance warning signal. When the system detects rapid throttle release indicating potential braking, it immediately transmits a wireless warning message to following vehicles, providing the same early warning function as activated brake lights but without requiring visual line-of-sight
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary detection of throttle release data to predict potential braking situations before the driver actually applies brakes. By monitoring throttle position changes and predicting braking intent, the system can issue wireless warnings in advance, maintaining the time advantage of preliminary detection while eliminating the visual obstruction problem
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle on-board unit of a host vehicle is configured to communicate with other vehicle to alert the driver of a potential braking situation in a preceding vehicle. The vehicle on-board unit has an incoming message receiving section, an incoming message relevancy section and a driver warning section. The incoming message receiving section receives a preceding vehicle message containing throttle release data of a preceding vehicle located in front of the host vehicle. The incoming message relevancy section performs a relevancy determination of the throttle release data received. The driver warning section selectively alerts a driver of the host vehicle of a potential braking situation of the preceding vehicle based upon the relevancy determination.