Vehicle Priority Management for Safe Lane Insertion
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Solution Overview
Problem
In situations where a vehicle needs to change its path to merge with another vehicle already on the path, such as on highways, the waiting vehicle is often reluctant to yield, leading to potential collisions and congestion, as existing solutions only allow passive yielding by the waiting vehicle.
Innovation Solution
A method that manages priorities between waiting and inserting vehicles by configuring the waiting vehicle with two states - yield and lock priority states, allowing real-time dynamic management through a device linked to the vehicle, which receives priority state information and generates yield instructions or messages to facilitate safe passage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the waiting vehicle is instructed to yield passively to the inserting vehicle, then the inserting vehicle can merge into the path, but the waiting vehicle may be in a hurry and cannot actively choose when to yield, leading to potential collisions and congestion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic priority management where the waiting vehicle can switch between lock priority state and yield priority state in real-time. This allows the driver to actively choose whether to yield or maintain their path, transforming the static passive yielding into a dynamic decision-making process that adapts to the driver's current needs and traffic conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the priority state parameter of the waiting vehicle between two distinct states (lock priority and yield priority). This parameter change enables the waiting vehicle to communicate its yielding willingness to the inserting vehicle, allowing the driver to control when yielding occurs while maintaining system coordination.
2Reliability
If vehicles slow down for the insertion to avoid collisions, then safety is improved, but additional congestion is created
Solution Approach 1:
The waiting vehicle receives and processes priority state information before the actual insertion maneuver occurs. This preliminary establishment of priority state allows the inserting vehicle to plan its insertion timing and speed accordingly, enabling smoother merges that minimize the need for abrupt slowing down and reduce congestion while maintaining safety.
3Extent of automation
If a centralized system manages priority states dynamically, then real-time control and coordination are improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a centralized priority management server as an intermediary that coordinates between waiting vehicles and inserting vehicles. The server receives priority state information from waiting vehicles and manages insertion requests, providing real-time control and coordination while keeping the individual vehicle systems relatively simple through standardized communication protocols.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of managing priorities between at least a waiting vehicle and an inserting vehicle, at least the waiting vehicle being configured to be associated with at least two priority states, a yield priority state and a lock priority state, indicating whether or not the vehicle is available to yield the passage, the method comprises the following steps, implemented by at least a device linked to the first vehicle: —reception of a priority state information by the waiting vehicle; —upon reception of an insertion request received from the inserting vehicle, if the priority state information corresponds to the yield priority state, generation of a yield instruction for the waiting vehicle and generation of a yield confirmation message for the inserting vehicle; —sending of the yield confirmation message to the inserting vehicle. This method improves the security of the lane where the emergency vehicles need to be inserted.