Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Denso Corporation

Kazuhiro Morimoto

Katsuhiro Matsuoka

Shin Tanaka

Kazunori Kagawa

Satoru Niwa

Akihisa Yokoyama

Yuka Sobue

Junichi Wakita

Chika Yoshioka

Ryuji Okamura

Yuta Ikezawa

Yu Hiei

Takatoshi Tosa

Chika Morimoto

Takayuki Kondoh

Yoshikazu Toyama

In a road type determination apparatus, an image information acquiring unit acquires image information in which an image of a travel road on which a vehicle is traveling is captured. A scene determining unit determines a traveling scene of the travel road based on the image information. An ordinary road likelihood calculating unit calculates an ordinary road likelihood that indicates that a type of the travel road of the vehicle is an ordinary road based on the traveling scene. A limited-access road likelihood calculating unit calculates a limited-access road likelihood that indicates that the type of the travel road of the vehicle is a limited-access road based on the traveling scene. A type determining unit determines the type of the travel road of the vehicle based on the ordinary road likelihood and the limited-access road likelihood.

Road type determination apparatus and driving assistance apparatus

When an own vehicle is highly likely to collide with an obstacle, a notification of prompting a driver to carry out a collision avoidance operation is appropriately given. When an output request for collision avoidance support information exists, a notification ECU notifies of the collision avoidance support information irrespective of absence/presence of an output request for vehicle-infrastructure cooperation support information. When the output request for the collision avoidance support information does not exist and the output request for the vehicle-infrastructure cooperation support information exists, the notification ECU notifies of the vehicle-infrastructure cooperation support information. Thus, when the conditions for the notification of the vehicle-infrastructure cooperation support information and the collision avoidance support information are simultaneously satisfied, the vehicle-infrastructure cooperation support information is inhibited from being notified and the collision avoidance support information is notified.

Driving support apparatus

A vehicle control apparatus of the invention determines whether or not an informing condition is satisfied. The informing condition becomes satisfied when a particular situation regarding an own vehicle traveling that a driver of the own vehicle should be alerted occurs. The apparatus executes an informing control for alerting the driver when the informing condition is satisfied and executes a cruise control for causing the own vehicle to travel when a cruise condition is satisfied. The apparatus executes an adjustment process for forbidding the informing control and permitting the cruise control when both the informing and cruise conditions are satisfied and the own vehicle is accelerated or decelerated by the cruise control and for permitting both the informing and cruise controls when both the informing and cruise conditions are satisfied and the own vehicle is not accelerated nor decelerated by the cruise control.

Vehicle control apparatus

The invention relates to a vehicle control apparatus configured to perform a first particular situation informing for providing information depending on a first particular situation regarding a vehicle traveling where a driver of a vehicle should be alerted and the vehicle should continue to be stopped when determining that a first particular situation occurs and perform a simultaneous operation informing for providing information depending on a simultaneous operation situation where both of an acceleration operator and a brake operator of the vehicle are operated when determining that the simultaneous operation situation occurs. The vehicle control apparatus is configured to perform the first particular situation informing without performing the simultaneous operation informing when determining that both of the first particular situation and the simultaneous operation situation occur.

A vehicle control apparatus of the invention is applied to a vehicle having at least one device configured to acquire a road situation information from an outside of the vehicle. The apparatus determines whether or not a particular situation regarding a vehicle traveling occurs on the basis of the road situation information. The particular situation being a situation that a driver of the vehicle should be alerted. The apparatus can perform an informing for alerting the driver and execute a cruise control for causing the vehicle to travel automatically without an operation of an acceleration operator of the vehicle. The apparatus performs the informing when the particular situation occurs, the cruise control is not executed and the acceleration operator is operated. The apparatus performs the informing when the particular situation occurs and the cruise control is executed, independently of whether or not the acceleration operator is operated.

A limited display space provided in a vehicle is used to effectively provide driving support information to a driver. When a notification condition for driving support information is satisfied, an information processing unit generates the driving support information, and determines whether the driving support information is prioritized driving support information or non-prioritized driving support information. When the driving support information is the prioritized driving support information, the information processing unit transmits an output request for the driving support information to an HUD ECU. As a result, the driving support information is displayed on a head-up display. On the other hand, when the driving support information is the non-prioritized driving support information, the information processing unit transmits an output request for the driving support information to a meter ECU. As a result, the driving support information is displayed on a meter display.

Driving support device

An intersection information acquisition unit acquires detection information by an object detection sensor including at least one of a vehicle detection sensor and a human detection sensor. A support processor performs driving support processing for outputting an alarm when the support processor determines that an own vehicle intends to cross the opposite lane and determines based on the acquired detection information that an object exists or the object is approaching in a direction in which the own vehicle travels to cross the opposite lane at the intersection. The support processor performs the driving support processing when the intersection information acquisition unit acquires detection information by the vehicle detection sensor. On the other hand, the support processor does not perform the driving support processing when the intersection information acquisition unit acquires detection information by the human detection sensor and does not acquire detection information by the vehicle detection sensor.

An alarm controller generates an alarm output instruction when an own vehicle state determination unit determines that an own vehicle intends to cross the opposite lane at an intersection, and the object state determination unit determines that an oncoming vehicle or a person exists or moves in a direction in which the own vehicle crosses the opposite lane at into the intersection. A shift position detector detects a shift lever position. When the shift position detector detects that a shift lever is in a parking position or a reverse position, the alarm controller does not generate the alarm output instruction.

A traffic signal state detection apparatus includes a first traffic signal information obtaining part that obtains first traffic signal information generated by a first infrastructure, a first output process part configured to calculate, based on the first traffic signal information from the first traffic signal information obtaining part, a second traffic signal information obtaining part that obtains second traffic signal information generated by a second infrastructure that is different from the first infrastructure, a second output process part that calculates, based on the second traffic signal information from the second traffic signal information obtaining part, and an output part that outputs one of the first and second remaining times in a situation where the first and second output demands are generated simultaneously, the output remaining time being related to one of the first and second output demands that is being continuously generated before the other is generated.

Traffic signal state detection apparatus

There is provided an vehicle alarm output apparatus comprising: a waiting state determining unit configured to determine whether an own vehicle is in a waiting state; a start determining unit configured to determine whether the own vehicle starts to travel; an other vehicle information acquiring unit configured to acquire other vehicle information related to another vehicle; an arrival time calculating unit configured to calculate a time taken for the other vehicle to reach a front end of the own vehicle; and an output unit configured to output a certain alarm upon determining the own vehicle to be in the waiting state, the own vehicle to start, and the time to be equal to or less than a first threshold value; wherein the output unit is prevented from outputting the certain alarm upon detecting the time to be equal to or less than a second threshold value.

Vehicle alarm output apparatus for intersection of roads

A drive assist device assists a driver who is driving a vehicle by showing, on a display unit, information related to an indication state of a traffic signal including a remaining time until the indication state of the traffic signal changes. The drive assist device includes a processor configured to output a representation of the remaining time to the display unit. The processor is configured to set the representation of the remaining time to a first representation when the remaining time is greater than a predetermined value and set the representation of the remaining time to a second representation when the remaining time is less than or equal to the predetermined value. The second representation differs from the first representation in at least one of brightness, saturation, and hue.

Drive assist device

An information indication apparatus installed in a vehicle, includes a vehicle's information obtainment unit to obtain a position of the vehicle; another vehicle's information obtainment unit to obtain a position of the other vehicle by inter-vehicle communication; a relative position calculation unit to calculate a relative position of the other vehicle; and an indication unit to indicate one of areas, which represent ranges of directional angles as viewed from the vehicle, that includes the existence direction of the other vehicle, when the distance is less than or equal to a first threshold, and the other vehicle is traveling towards the vehicle. When the distance is less than or equal to a second threshold set to be less than the first threshold, the indication unit does not change the area to be indicated even if the existence direction of the other vehicle changes to be included in another area.

Information indication apparatus

The present invention is a driving assistance device which provides driving assistance based on detection information of an obstacle in which an information processing amount of the driving assistance for the obstacle is changed according to a level of the driving assistance. The present invention also is the driving assistance device which provides the driving assistance to output information which can be recognized to a driver based on the detection information of the obstacle in which an information amount of the driving assistance to be presented to the driver is increased according to an increase in the level of the driving assistance.

Driving assistance device

A drive assisting device in an in-vehicle device calculates drive assisting information associated with an intersection required for drive assisting control to an assisting vehicle based on intersection information of the relevant intersection received from a road side instrument, and calculates the drive assisting information according to type of drive assisting information when performing the drive assisting control associated with the intersection based on the drive assisting information. The drive assisting device divides the drive assisting information for every type (static information and dynamic information at the intersection), and sequentially performs the calculation.

Drive assisting system

A parking assistance apparatus includes a display unit that displays an image of a scene behind a host vehicle. At least when the host vehicle moves forward or when the host vehicle is stopped, the display unit displays an indication including a plurality of kinds of trajectories along which the host vehicle is able to back up from a point at which the host vehicle is currently positioned, in a manner such that the indication is superimposed on the image of the scene behind the host vehicle.

Growing community of inventors

Toyota, Japan

Kazuhiro Morimoto