Virtual Camera Lane Change View for Blind Spot Visibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles lack effective visual notifications for lane changes, potentially leading to passenger anxiety due to blind spots and unclear surroundings during lane changes.
Innovation Solution
A system that adjusts the position and pitch of a virtual camera's perspective to provide a natural view of surroundings, including highlighting obstructing objects and visual indicators for lane changes, ensuring passengers are informed without blind spots.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a default fixed virtual camera position is used, then the system is simple and stable, but passengers cannot see the surroundings clearly during lane changes causing anxiety
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual camera position is changed from static to dynamic, adjusting automatically based on vehicle operations. The system detects lane change events and dynamically repositions the virtual camera to provide optimal viewing angles, making the display adaptive to different driving scenarios while maintaining simplicity through automated control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary detection of lane change intentions and proactively adjusts the virtual camera position before the actual lane change occurs. This anticipatory adjustment ensures that passengers have clear visibility of surrounding objects and trajectory information exactly when needed, reducing anxiety in advance.
2Loss of information
If the virtual camera position is adjusted frequently to show all surroundings, then passenger visibility improves, but the system becomes complex and computationally intensive
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuously adjusting the virtual camera position, the system applies local adjustments only when specific conditions are met (lane change detection). The camera position remains default during normal driving and shifts locally to optimized positions only during lane change events, minimizing complexity while maximizing information visibility when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system detects lane change intentions in advance and prepares the optimal camera position beforehand. This preliminary detection and preparation approach ensures that when a lane change occurs, the virtual camera is already positioned to show the most relevant information, avoiding the need for complex real-time adjustments during the actual maneuver.
3Loss of information
If the virtual camera pitch is adjusted to look more towards ground, then lane change trajectory becomes visible, but the default viewing perspective is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual camera pitch angle is made dynamic, switching between default and trajectory-focused positions based on vehicle operations. During lane changes, the pitch adjusts to emphasize the ground and trajectory path; during normal driving, it returns to the default perspective. This dynamic adjustment maintains ease of operation by preserving the familiar default view while providing enhanced trajectory visibility when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The system detects lane change intentions and proactively adjusts the camera pitch to highlight the trajectory path before the maneuver begins. This preliminary adjustment ensures that passengers can see the projected path and surrounding objects clearly during the lane change, then automatically returns to the default pitch after the maneuver completes, preserving the normal viewing experience.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects of the disclosure relate providing a lane change notification when a vehicle is to perform a lane change. One or more computing devices may generate and display a video, where the video is generated from a perspective of a virtual camera at a default position and default pitch. The one or more computing devices may receive an indication that the vehicle is to perform a lane change from a first lane to a second lane and adjust, after the vehicle receives the indication, the default position and default pitch of the virtual camera to an updated position further above the vehicle relative to ground than the default position and an updated pitch directed more towards the ground than the default pitch. The video may be generated and displayed from the perspective of the virtual camera at the updated position and updated pitch.