Nio USA, Inc.

Nio Technology (Anhui) Co., Ltd.

Bo Guo

Xiaodong Liu

Systems of an autonomous vehicle and the operations thereof are provided. Autonomous vehicles may rely on data inputs, processes, and output commands. Errors due to translation errors, failed or faulty equipment, connections, and other components may cause a dynamic vehicle path to approach a dynamic safe zone or vice versa. If so, a warning message may be sent and processed by the motion control system, when the vehicle is responding to commands correctly, or actuator control, when the vehicle is not responding to commands correctly. Should a safe zone be redrawn to exclude the vehicle's path, a failure message is sent to the appropriate system for mitigation.

Vehicle path-planner monitor and controller

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to switching a driving mode of a vehicle. A mode change request from one of a plurality of sources to switch the vehicle from a first driving mode to a second driving mode is received. In response to receiving the mode change request, a status of the vehicle is accessed, and a confirmation request is transmitted to the one of the plurality of sources. Verification of the confirmation request is made, and a driving transition mode is initialized from the first driving mode to the second driving mode based on the status of the vehicle. In response to adhering to safety conditions or safety boundaries within a duration of time, a switching signal is sent to the control system of the vehicle to switch the vehicle from the first driving mode to the second driving mode.

Methods and systems to enhance safety of bi-directional transition between autonomous and manual driving modes

A vehicle control unit (e.g., a control unit for an automobile) receives feedback from an intelligent voltage/current sensor and a DC/DC controller. The DC/DC controller comprises a first switch for controlling power from a primary power source (e.g., low voltage power supplied from a high voltage battery). The intelligent voltage/current sensor senses power output from the primary power source. The vehicle control unit processes feedback from the intelligent voltage/current sensor and/or the DC/DC controller to determine if a failure has occurred in the primary power source. In response to determining the failure in the primary power source, the vehicle control unit disables the power from the primary power source using a second switch (e.g., a switch in a relay).

System and method for providing ASIL D fail operational power systems in automated vehicle applications

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to using Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) decomposition and a functional deployment strategy to redundantly distribute functionality across existing controllers. Accordingly, each of a plurality of non-redundant controllers of the vehicle can execute a plurality of functions. The controllers can comprise a vehicle controller and a controller for each of a plurality of different powertrain systems. The plurality of functions can comprise one or more functions for each of the plurality of powertrain systems and each of the functions can execute on multiple controllers. When a failure of one controller occurs, this can be detected either by a controller's build-in internal monitor or by a two-way comparison or three-way voting by external controllers. The functions executing on the failed controller can be transitioned to other controllers based on prior execution of those functions by the other controllers.

Highly-integrated fail operational e-powertrain for autonomous driving application

Embodiments include a power device for an electric vehicle. The power device includes a first bus associated with a first voltage, and a second bus associated with a second voltage, different than the first voltage. The power device includes a plurality of switching elements coupled to a first battery, a second battery, the first bus and the second bus. On/off states of the plurality of switching elements control electrical connections to the first bus, the second bus, the first battery and the second battery according to an operation mode.

Power systems and methods for electric vehicles

Systems of an autonomous vehicle and the operations thereof are provided. Autonomous vehicles may rely on data inputs, processes, and output commands. Errors due to translation errors, failed or faulty equipment, connections, and other components may cause a dynamic vehicle path to approach a dynamic safe zone. If so, a warning message may be sent and processed by the motion control system, when the vehicle is responding to commands correctly, or actuator control, when the vehicle is not responding to commands correctly. Should the vehicle's path approach the safe zone, a failure message is sent to the appropriate system for mitigation.

The system can diagnose sensor issues for a vehicle that can perform automatic driving functions based on areas where sensors overlap coverage and sensor performance limitation (SOTIF (Safety Of The Intended Functionality) in ISO 26262). First, the system can identify sensor overlap zones for advanced driver assistance systems/automated driving (ADAS/AD) applications that can be used for multiple sensor correlation and diagnostics. Once the zones have been identified, the system can define detailed multiple sensor correlation and diagnostics (e.g., the same kind of sensor, different kind of sensors, two-way plausible check, three-way voting, etc.). Finally, verified sensor output may be used in monitoring sensor fusion/deep neural network (DNN) outputs within defined a monitor zone.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Bo Guo