Virtual Engine Sound System Failure Detection and Warning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electric and hybrid vehicles equipped with virtual engine sound systems (VESS) pose a safety risk due to lack of awareness for pedestrians, especially visually impaired individuals, as they produce minimal noise, and failures in the VESS, such as disconnection of wires, go unnoticed by drivers and pedestrians, potentially leading to accidents.
Innovation Solution
A method and device that send a failure message to the vehicle's cluster, display a warning screen on the navigation unit, turn on headlights, emit a warning sound through a buzzer, and boost engine sound pressure when a VESS unit failure is detected, guiding the driver to a repair shop and increasing pedestrian awareness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If VESS unit fails (e.g., wire disconnection), then the system cannot emit virtual engine sound, but the failure goes unnoticed by drivers and pedestrians
Solution Approach 1:
The VESS unit implements a feedback mechanism where the control unit receives status information from speaker units and actively monitors their operational state. When a speaker unit fails to respond or returns error status, the control unit detects this through the feedback loop and generates appropriate failure notifications to inform the driver of the system malfunction.
Solution Approach 2:
The VESS unit performs self-diagnosis by having the control unit send test signals to speaker units and evaluate their responses. The system automatically detects wire disconnections, speaker failures, and other malfunctions without external intervention, enabling the system to self-identify and report its own operational status and failures.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If VESS unit is equipped to emit virtual engine sound, then pedestrian awareness is improved, but failure in VESS unit creates safety risk
Solution Approach 1:
The control unit performs preliminary monitoring and detection of potential failures before they completely disable the VESS system. By continuously checking speaker unit status and wire integrity, the system can identify emerging problems and alert the driver in advance, allowing for preventive action before safety is compromised.
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains continuous feedback monitoring of speaker units and wire connections to ensure the VESS system remains operational and reliable for pedestrian safety. Any deviation from normal operation triggers immediate notification to the driver, ensuring the safety function is maintained.
3Loss of information
If multiple warning methods are implemented (cluster message, navigation screen, headlamps, buzzer, sound pressure boost), then driver awareness of failure is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control unit serves multiple functions: it manages virtual engine sound emission, monitors speaker unit status, detects wire disconnections, and controls various warning outputs (cluster display, navigation system, headlamps, buzzer, sound pressure adjustment). This multi-functional design consolidates complexity into a single control unit rather than requiring separate systems for each function.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines multiple warning mechanisms (visual display on cluster, navigation screen messages, headlamp flashing, buzzer alerts, and sound pressure boosting) into a unified failure notification system controlled by a single control unit. This integration allows the system to coordinate multiple warning methods simultaneously or sequentially based on the detected failure type, improving information delivery while managing complexity through centralized control.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for providing information about a failure in a virtual engine sound system (VESS) unit for a vehicle includes sending a VESS unit failure message to a cluster, and displaying the failure message on the cluster. In the unit failure information providing method, VESS unit failure information may be provided by the use of a navigation unit or electric/electronic subassemblies.