Driving Assistance Voice Approval Timing for Driver Awareness

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing driving assistance systems fail to ensure that drivers are appropriately informed of the contents of voice operation processes when they perform approval operations before the completion of the announcement, leading to potential misalignment between the driver's intentions and the executed operations.

Innovation Solution

The system includes an electronic control unit that outputs a first announcement informing the driver of the voice operation process, requests an approval operation, and executes the process only when the approval is completed, or outputs a third announcement to inform the driver of the executed process if the approval is made during the first announcement.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of time

If the system stops outputting the first announcement when the approval operation is performed, then the response time is improved, but the driver may not be appropriately informed of the contents of the voice operation process

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveresponse timeVSAvoiddriver awareness of voice operation process contents

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of timeVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The system outputs the first announcement in advance to inform the driver of the voice operation process contents before executing the operation. This preliminary information provision ensures the driver is aware of what will be executed, even if the approval operation is performed during the announcement playback.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system provides feedback to the driver through the first announcement, informing them of the contents that will be executed based on their voice input. This feedback mechanism ensures the driver can verify the system correctly understood their intent before approval is processed.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Loss of information

If the system completes outputting the first announcement before executing the voice operation process, then the driver is fully informed, but the overall process time increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedriver awareness of voice operation process contentsVSAvoidoverall process time

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The first announcement is output as a preliminary action to inform the driver of the voice operation process contents. The system allows the approval operation to be processed during or after the announcement playback, rather than requiring complete playback before any processing begins.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system dynamically handles the timing relationship between the first announcement and approval operation processing. It can execute the voice operation process either during or after the announcement playback depending on when the approval is received, making the process flexible rather than rigid.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

3Ease of operation

If the system requests approval operation before completing the first announcement, then the ease of operation is improved, but the driver may approve without realizing the contents

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveapproval operation convenienceVSAvoiddriver understanding of voice operation process contents

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The system outputs the first announcement as a preliminary action to inform the driver of the voice operation process contents before requesting the approval operation. This ensures the driver has information about what will be executed, even if they provide approval during the announcement playback.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The first announcement serves as feedback to the driver, informing them of the contents that will be executed based on their voice input. This feedback is provided before the approval request, ensuring the driver has awareness of what they are approving.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS12434730B2Driving assistance apparatus, driving assistance method, and computer-readable storage medium storing driving assistance program

Publication Date: 2025.10.07 TOYOTA JIDOSHA KK

AI summary

A driving assistance apparatus executes a moving control to autonomously control a moving of a vehicle. The apparatus outputs first and second announcements and executes a voice operation process when the approval operation is performed. The first announcement is to inform a driver of contents of the voice operation process planned to be executed for the moving control in accordance with utterance contents of the driver acquired by voice recognition. The second announcement is to request the driver to perform an approval operation to approve the informed contents. The apparatus completes outputting the first announcement and execute the voice operation process, or stops outputting the first announcement, execute the voice operation process, and output a third announcement to inform the driver of the contents of the executed voice operation process when the approval operation is performed while the first announcement is output.