Automatic Vehicle Stopping Using Map-Based Target Area Selection

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current vehicle safety systems fail to ensure safe and controlled automatic stopping of vehicles, particularly when drivers are incapacitated, as they often lack precise identification of safe stopping areas and may cause unnecessary hazards to other road users.

Innovation Solution

A method and device that utilize map data to define potential target areas for vehicle stopping based on attributes such as safety and reachability, allowing for continuous preselection and prioritization of stopping locations within an electronic horizon, and trigger automatic stopping interventions like steering and braking to ensure safe vehicle halting.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If automatic stopping is triggered without predefined target areas, then the vehicle can stop quickly, but the stopping location may be unsafe or cause hazards to other road users

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesafety of stopping locationVSAvoidtime to identify safe stopping area

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary identification and preselection of potential target areas in advance, so that when an automatic stopping event occurs, safe stopping locations are already identified and ready for immediate selection, eliminating the time delay of searching for safe areas during emergency stopping

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Productivity

If the vehicle stops at any available location, then stopping can be achieved quickly, but other road users may be unnecessarily affected or endangered

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvespeed of automatic stoppingVSAvoidhazard to other road users

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The system evaluates and selects stopping locations based on local conditions and characteristics of different areas, choosing specific target areas with favorable safety attributes rather than applying a uniform stopping approach, thereby minimizing harm to other road users while maintaining quick stopping capability

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Reliability

If multiple potential target areas are preselected and prioritized, then the most safe stopping location can be identified, but the system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvequality of stopping location selectionVSAvoidcomplexity of target area preselection and prioritization

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system uses prioritization attributes to quantify and rank different target areas based on safety parameters, transforming the complex qualitative assessment of stopping locations into a structured parameter-based evaluation system that improves selection quality while managing system complexity through standardized criteria

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS10088847B2Technique for automatic stopping of a vehicle in a target area

Publication Date: 2018.10.02 ELEKTROBIT AUTOMOTIVE GMBH

AI summary

The present disclosure relates to a method and a device for the automatic stopping of a vehicle in a target area. A method aspect of the disclosure comprises providing map data in which potential target areas for stopping of vehicles are defined by at least one attribute of map elements detecting an event that necessitates an automatic stopping of the vehicle determining a target area on the basis of the current position of the vehicle and the potential target areas defined in the map data, and triggering, on detection of the event, an automatic stopping process.