Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.

Toyota

Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing N.a. (tema)

Derek Stanley Caveney

Vladimeros Vladimerou

Rohit Pandita

John-Michael McNew

William Dunbar

Lorenzo Caminiti

Kenneth P Laberteaux

Michael Edward Samples

John Michael McNew

Kentaro Oguchi

Takamasa Higuchi

Michael R James

Michael James Delp

Miles J Johnson

Paul Timothy Fanson

Heishiro Toyoda

Andrew James Frantz

Stephen L Robertson

Gregg J Overfield

Jeffrey Clark Lovell

Mehmet Ali Guney

David A Hamilton

Jeff B Rogers

Systems, methods, and other embodiments described herein relate to improving identification of available parking spaces in congested zones. In one embodiment, a method includes, responsive to receiving trajectory information about movement of a searching vehicle, estimating a search time spent by the vehicle seeking parking in a location. The method includes aggregating, when the search time satisfies a time threshold, the search time with observed times associated with additional entities parking in the location. The method includes updating a parking map according to the observed times when the observed times satisfy a parking threshold indicating a lack of available parking in the location. The parking map identifies active regions where parking is presently lacking. The method includes providing the parking map with the active regions to identified vehicles proximate to locations associated with the active regions.

Systems and methods for activation of intelligent parking availability functions

Systems, methods, and other embodiments described herein relate to controlling a trailer without the presence of a physical connection. In one embodiment, a method includes in response to receiving a signal to initiate hitchless maneuvering of a trailer separately from a controlling vehicle, acquiring control inputs to maneuver the trailer from an input device within the controlling vehicle. The method includes communicating, from the controlling vehicle to the trailer, the control inputs to maneuver the trailer. The method includes in response to receiving feedback from the trailer indicating the trailer is within a requested position, sending a control signal to stop the trailer.

Systems and methods for controlling a trailer separately from a vehicle

Systems and methods of collision detection are provided which combine the concept of collaborative support with common/existing in-vehicle imaging and proximity sensor technologies. In particular, an 'intermediary' vehicle may signal one or more objects (e.g. other vehicles, pedestrians, etc.) which are within the line of sight of the intermediary vehicle (and thus its imaging and proximity sensors), but not within the line of sight of each other, to a potential collision between the two objects.

Collaborative support for obstructed line of sight scenarios

The systems and methods described herein disclose detecting obstacles in a vehicular environment using host vehicle input and associated trust levels. As described here, measured vehicles, either manual or autonomous, that detect an obstacle in the environment will operate to respond to the obstacle. As such, those movements can be used to determine if an obstacle exists in the environment, even if the obstacle cannot be detected directly. The systems and methods can include a host vehicle receiving prediction data about an evasive behavior from one or more measured vehicles in a vehicular environment. A trust level can then be established for the measured vehicles. An obscured obstacle can be determined using the evasive behavior and the trust level which can then be mapped in the vehicular environment. A guidance input can then be created for the host vehicle using the obscured obstacle and the trust level.

Avoidance of obscured roadway obstacles

A method and system generates a collision warning to a driver of a host vehicle. The system includes an on-board sensor of the host vehicle to detect presence of a preceding vehicle, wireless communication circuitry to establish wireless communication with a remote vehicle, and processing circuitry to detect existence of a slow remote vehicle ahead of the host vehicle, track an immediately preceding vehicle ahead of the host vehicle, confirm that the slow remote vehicle is affecting the host vehicle's lane speed of traffic by detecting that the immediately preceding vehicle is decelerating. When it is determined that, that the remote vehicle is sow, display an information message indicating the existence of the slow remote vehicle, and output, when the remote vehicle is slow and the preceding vehicle is decelerating, the collision warning as an audio sound and a visual message.

Apparatus and method for extended forward collision warning

Distributed control of vehicles with coordinating cars that implement a cooperative control method, and non-coordinating cars that are presumed to follow predictable dynamics. A cooperative control method can combine distributed receding horizon control, for optimization-based path planning and feedback, with higher level logic, to ensure that implemented plans are collision free. The cooperative method can be completely distributed with partially synchronous execution, and can afford dedicated time for communication and computation, features that are prerequisites for implementation on real freeways. The method can test for conflicts and can calculate optimized trajectories by adjusting parameters in terminal state constraints of an optimal control problem.

Cooperative driving and collision avoidance by distributed receding horizon control

A lane identity in a roadway in which a vehicle is traveling can be determined. The roadway can include a plurality of lanes. The determining can include generating a lane identification confidence belief indicating a probability that the vehicle is in a particular lane of the plurality of lanes of the roadway. Generating the lane identification confidence belief can be based on: any detected lane crossings, the number of lanes in the roadway, the lane marker type to a left side and to a right side of the vehicle at the current position of the vehicle or ahead of the current position of the vehicle in a forward direction of travel of the vehicle, and a weighted average of an instantaneous lane identification confidence belief and a lane identification confidence belief prior to a current sample time period.

Method and apparatus for determining lane identification in a roadway

An apparatus and method for generating a collision warning to a driver of a host vehicle. The method estimates geometry of a lane of a road in which the host vehicle is traversing and further identifies, via a non-line-of-sight sensor, at least one remote vehicle traversing ahead of the host vehicle in the estimated lane of the road. The host vehicle tracks, via a line of sight sensor, a preceding vehicle traversing directly ahead of the host vehicle in the estimated road-lane and detects a speed of a slowest remote vehicle of the at least one identified remote vehicles. The host vehicle predicts a motion of the preceding vehicle based on the detected speed of the slowest remote vehicle and an inter-vehicle distance, and generates a warning to the driver of the host vehicle based on the predicted relative motion of the preceding vehicle to the host vehicle.

Apparatus and method for providing an extended forward collision warning

A vehicle subject to autonomous operation includes one or more autonomous support systems configured to support autonomous operation, a feedback system configured to provide feedback in an interior portion of the vehicle and a confidence appraisal system in communication with the one or more autonomous support systems and the feedback system. During autonomous operation, the confidence appraisal system monitors, based on operational statuses of the one or more autonomous support systems supporting the autonomous operation, confidence in the autonomous operation, and operates the feedback system to provide feedback in the interior portion of the vehicle. The feedback corresponds to the confidence in the autonomous operation, and varies with changes to the confidence in the autonomous operation, to continuously apprise a driver of the confidence in the autonomous operation.

Apprising a driver of confidence in operation of a vehicle

An automated driving system and methods are disclosed. The automated driving system includes a perception system disposed on an autonomous vehicle. The automated driving system can detect, based on images captured using the perception system, a traffic officer wielding a traffic signal device such as the traffic officer's hand, or a wand, sign, or flag. The automated driving system can also determine whether the traffic officer is directing a traffic signal to the autonomous vehicle with the traffic signal device, and if so, determine whether content of the traffic signal is recognized. If the content of the traffic signal is recognized, the autonomous vehicle can respond in a manner consistent with the content of the traffic signal. If the content of the traffic signal is not recognized, the autonomous vehicle can respond by treating the traffic signal as a stop signal.

Autonomous vehicle detection of and response to traffic officer presence

A computer-implemented method for the automated driving of a vehicle. The method may include coordinating a planned vehicle path using a path planner application. The path planner application may receive information based on inputs to sensors disposed on the vehicle. The method may include sending a command to one or more vehicle systems to control the vehicle to follow the planned vehicle path. While the vehicle follows the planned vehicle path, the method may include receiving an indication that the path planner application is not meeting a threshold performance level. After receiving the indication that the path planner application is not meeting the threshold performance level, a command is sent to one or more vehicle systems to control the vehicle to follow a temporary and irregular full vehicle movement to alert a vehicle driver. The temporary and irregular full vehicle movement may be a full vehicle side-to-side wobbling movement.

Method to gain driver's attention for autonomous vehicle

A method and apparatus for determining a lane identity of a vehicle travelling in a roadway where the roadway contains a plurality of lanes is determined based on information from sensors associated with the vehicle and map data for detecting the lane marker type to a left side and right side of the vehicle, any lane crossings during travel of the vehicle along the roadway, a history of lane marker type up to a predetermined travel distance along the roadway, and the lane marker type at the instantaneous position of the vehicle in the roadway. The lane identity method and apparatus outputs a confidence belief identifying the probability that the vehicle is traveling in one particular lane of the roadway.

A method and apparatus to predict the most probable path of a vehicle along a roadway which may contain a junction splitting the roadway into a rootpath and one or more sub-paths, each containing one or more lanes. The method and apparatus also process vehicle sensor information pertaining to driver corrections, road boundary detection, lane marker detection, map information availability, and road surface quality at the current position of the vehicle as well as from previous passes of the vehicle past the same location and other vehicles passing the same location to provide a warning to the driver to retake control of the vehicle if information used by the automatic vehicle control will become unavailable a predetermined travel distance ahead of the current position of the vehicle.

Method and apparatus for predicting most probable path of vehicle travel and vehicle control loss preview

A platoon model allows improved prediction of preceding vehicle future state. In this context, the preceding vehicle is a vehicle immediately ahead of the host vehicle, and the dynamic state of the preceding vehicle was predicted based on data received from one or more vehicles in the platoon. The intelligent driver model (IDM) was extended to model car-following dynamics within a platoon. A parameter estimation approach may be used to estimate the model parameters, for example to adapt to different driver types. An integrated approach including both state prediction and parameter estimation was highly effective.

Growing community of inventors

Plymouth, MI, United States of America

Derek Stanley Caveney