Denso Corporation

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Aisin Aw Co., Ltd.

Fujitsu Ten Limited

Nobutaka Tauchi

Shojiro Takeuchi

Tetsuya Oki

Satoshi Harumoto

Hiroaki Sekiyama

Naoki Miura

Kousuke Yamaoka

Yoshio Yamatani

Takashi Shimizu

Masaki Nakamura

Kouei Kiyo

Osamu Ozaki

Kazuya Sasaki

Katsuhiko Mutoh

Hiroaki Sugiura

Junichi Nonomura

Masumi Kobana

Hideki Tanino

Kazuo Nakamura

Kei Nagiyama

Akira Tsukamoto

Keisuke Uto

Yoshiyuki Kato

Koei Kiyo

Mikinari Yokoi

A driving diagnosis information providing apparatus for a vehicle is disclosed. The driving diagnosis information providing apparatus acquires vehicle information indicative of a vehicle state, and makes a diagnosis of a driving state of the vehicle based on the vehicle information. The driving diagnosis information providing apparatus acquires, as useful information, one of announce information and helpful information. The announce information includes information to be reported to a driver of the vehicle. The helpful information includes information helpful for driving. The driving diagnosis information providing apparatus notifies the driver of diagnosis information indicative of a result of the diagnosis, and notifies the useful information in place of the diagnosis information under a predetermined condition.

Driving diagnosis information providing apparatus and system

A travel route evaluation system is provided which is capable of enhancing the driver's consciousness of traveling on the a recommended route, in order to improve a degree of attainment of purposes, such as suppression of a fuel consumption and shortening of a required time, that would be obtained by presenting the recommended route. The system includes: a route setting unit for setting a recommended route from a departure point to a destination, based on traveling environment information associated with a traveling environment of a vehicle and map data, a ratio calculation unit for calculating a recommended route travel ratio which is a proportion of the recommended route in a traveled route on which the vehicle traveled; and an evaluation information acquisition unit for acquiring evaluation information based on the recommended route travel ratio.

Travel route evaluation system and travel route evaluation program

An advice provision apparatus calculates the driving condition of the vehicle for every predetermined travel section, for the purpose of comparison with the driving condition in the previous travel section. The driving condition of the current section is evaluated in a relative manner based on the comparison of at least two travel sections, even when the absolute assessment of the driving condition is difficult. Thus, the advice provision apparatus can accurately and precisely diagnose the driving condition of the driver.

Apparatus and method for advice provision and driving condition diagnosis

An accelerator-off, fuel-cut traveling determining unit determines whether the number of engine revolutions of a vehicle is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, whether an accelerator opening rate is equal to or lower than a predetermined value, and whether a traveling state is an accelerator-off, fuel-cut traveling state where a quantity of fuel injection to an engine is 0. When it is determined that the traveling state is the accelerator-off, fuel-cut traveling state, the traveling distance adding-up unit adds up accelerator-off, fuel-cut traveling distances. A fuel-saving driving rating unit rates driving by a driver based on each of the added-up values which were added up by the traveling distance adding-up unit. A fuel-saving driving advice generating unit notifies the driver of a fuel-saving driving advice together with a rating result in accordance with the rating result. Therefore, it is possible to encourage the driver to perform early engine operation by an engine braking, and to enhance the driver's awareness of fuel saving driving.

Fuel-saving driving diagnostic device, fuel-saving driving diagnostic system, control device of prime mover, fuel-saving driving rating device, and fuel-saving driving diagnostic method

A navigation apparatus carries out a diagnosing process for vehicle behavior, for example, whether sudden accelerating operation or sudden braking operation has been done, wherein the diagnosing process is carried out based on vehicle acceleration. It is necessary to accurately calculate the vehicle acceleration in order to perform a reliable diagnosing process. The navigation apparatus calculates a difference between a first vehicle acceleration defined by an output from an acceleration sensor and a second vehicle acceleration calculated based on a vehicle speed and vehicle angular speed. The navigation apparatus carries out the diagnosing process, for example, when the above difference between the first and second vehicle accelerations is less than a predetermined value.

In-vehicle apparatus

When it is determined that a head light is turned on, the sunset time is calculated. Thus, the frequency of calculating the sunset time is significantly decreased as compared with that of continuously calculating the sunset time, thereby reducing the processing load. Further, as compared with the case where the sunset time is calculated regardless of the time of lighting on, the calculated sunset time can evaluate the time of lighting on appropriately.

Information processing apparatus

A driving diagnosis apparatus temporarily records a diagnosis result of the user before changed when a user is switched, and starts to diagnose the user after changed. Accordingly, since driving status of each user is independently diagnosed, the diagnosis result is proper. Further, when a driving distance of the vehicle is smaller than a threshold, the diagnosis result of a driving interval is not recorded so that the driving interval is removed from an object of giving a point. Influence to environment is also considered in evaluation of the driving status. Accordingly, in the driving diagnosis apparatus and a driving diagnosis system for diagnosing driving status and for evaluating a driver based on the diagnosis result, the diagnosis and the evaluation are properly performed.

Driving diagnosis apparatus and driving diagnosis system

In a display screen of an image display device, plural menu items in a higher rank menu hierarchy are displayed in a first circular arrangement, and plural menu items in a lower rank menu hierarchy that is subsidiary to the higher rank menu hierarchy is displayed in a second circular arrangement that concentrically surrounds the first circular arrangement with a greater diameter than the first circular arrangement. In addition, a pointed-out portion in the display screen is identified according to a user operation to an operation device, and a function of a menu item in the lower rank menu hierarchy being in association with the identified pointed-out portion is realized by a processing for the function. Each of the menu items in the lower rank menu hierarchy is arranged in a position in a manner that expresses the subordination of the lower rank menu item to one of the menu items in the higher rank menu hierarchy.

Image display control apparatus and program for controlling same

A driving support system for a vehicle being adaptable to both of a manual driving of which driving operation is under control of a driver and an automated driving of which automated driving operation is under one of a partial control and a full control of automation, the driving support system includes a detection function for detecting a surrounding condition of the vehicle and a traveling condition of the vehicle and an information provision function for providing driving support information based on the surrounding condition of the vehicle and the traveling condition of the vehicle detected by the detection means. The driving support information is provided by the information provision function when the conditions of the vehicle meet a predetermined criterion for information provision, and the information provision function uses different predetermined criterion for information provision in the manual driving and in the automated driving respectively.

Driving support system

An onboard-equipment control apparatus controls activation of an onboard apparatus such as an air conditioner and termination of the operation of the onboard apparatus in order to prevent an onboard battery from running out of residual electric charge in advance. Upon detection of a state in which an onboard radio apparatus is not capable of receiving a termination command from a cellular phone or the cellular phone is not capable of transmitting a termination command to the onboard radio apparatus while the air conditioner is in operation, the onboard-equipment control apparatus forcibly terminates the operation of the air conditioner even before a termination condition is satisfied. Thus, the onboard battery can be prevented in advance from running out of accumulated electric charge required for operating the activated air conditioner thereafter.

Onboard-equipment control apparatus and onboard-equipment control system

A vehicle moves to and remains in an out-of-cellular coverage area for a long time period. As long as the vehicle is located within a specified range from a reference point, a time measuring unit does not start time count for forcibly operating an immobiliser provided in the vehicle.

Vehicle start inhibition system using a cell phone and position detection

A navigation system in a vehicle stores position history information including position information related to a detection position detected by a position detector and position information related to a map matching position. The map matching position is obtained by matching the detection position with a point of a road in road map data. When the vehicle runs on a not-stored road that is not stored in the road map data, the navigation system determines a trail of running of the vehicle from departure from a stored road that is stored in the road map data to comeback into a stored road that is stored in the road map data, based on the stored position history information.

Automobile navigation system and road map update system

There is a need for making a user fully conscious about environmentally friendly driving. In an ecological driving system, a CPU allows a display apparatus to distinctively display fuel consumption according to the following idling states. One idling state results from engine warm-up. Another is useless idling state. Still another idling state results when a vehicle waits for turning to the left at an intersection or stops at a roadside. Yet another idling state results when the vehicle waits for turning to the right at an intersection. Still yet another idling state results when the vehicle waits forward at an intersection or stops due to traffic congestion.

Ecological driving system

In the car navigation system including a vehicle communication apparatus mounted on a vehicle, different diffusion codes are assigned to each road such as a single lane road and a road with double lanes. In data transmission to other vehicles, each vehicle switches to and uses the diffusion codes assigned to the road on which own vehicle currently travels. Even if many on-coming vehicles travel in line, radio wave interference between the vehicles does not occurs and the lacking of communication channels also does not occurs because each vehicle uses the diffusion codes assigned to the road on which own vehicle travels.

Vehicle communication apparatus and system for supporting vehicles passing through narrow road

A navigation device changes a position determination accuracy of a receiver for satellite navigation to a higher accuracy in the following cases: when the subject vehicle approaches a destination, the subject vehicle runs on a road not described in map information, when the subject vehicle approaches an intersection at which the road is branched at a narrow angle within a predetermined distance, when the subject vehicle is running on a narrow street, when the subject vehicle is running on one of adjacent parallel roads, when self-contained sensors are calibrated, and other like occasions. In the other cases, the navigation device changes the position determination accuracy of the receiver to a low accuracy. When the receiver is caused to execute low-accuracy position determination, power supply to receiver's operation required only for high-accuracy position determination is prohibited.

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Toyoake, Japan

Nobutaka Tauchi