Isuzu Motors Limited

Shinichi Ishiguro

Ryuu Yamakado

Nobuyuki Nishimura

Kouki Natsumi

Masao Nishikimi

Naoki Takahashi

Masaichi Takahashi

Satoshi Hayashi

Kazutaka Shimoda

A vehicle control device comprising: a balance gradient calculation unit configured to calculate a balance gradient that is a gradient at which a propulsive force of the vehicle and a resistance force applied to the vehicle are balanced when the vehicle travels in a gear-in coasting state in which an engine is connected to a gear and the vehicle travels without supplying fuel to the engine, in a case where a traveling state of the vehicle is a neutral coasting state; and a traveling control unit configured to: switch, based on the calculated balance gradient and a specified road gradient, the traveling state of the vehicle from the neutral coasting state to the gear-in coasting state in a case where the traveling state of the vehicle is the neutral coasting state; and end, the gear-in coasting state when determining that an end condition is satisfied.

Vehicle control device and vehicle control method

Provided is a driving assist system which includes an own vehicle velocity sensor, an adjacent vehicle velocity sensor, and a control device and where the control device makes constant velocity travelling by causing a velocity of an own vehicle to fall within a constant velocity range between a lower limit value and an upper limit value set based on a target velocity and, when the own vehicle travels on a passing lane and an adjacent vehicle travels on a cruising lane, if a relative velocity of the adjacent vehicle to the own vehicle falls within a set range, the control device performs speed-up adjustment to increase the velocity of the own vehicle in a range up to the upper limit value.

Driving assist system and driving assist method

In the present invention: a road information acquisition unit () acquires road information about a prescribed section of road ahead of a vehicle traveling at a first shift position; a vehicle information acquisition unit () acquires vehicle information; a speed prediction unit () predicts, on the basis of the road information and the vehicle information, the speed transition in the prescribed section for when the vehicle will have traveled through the prescribed section at the first shift position; and a gearshift control unit () causes a transmission () to downshift to a second shift position when the minimum value of the predicted vehicle speed is less than a prescribed speed.

Travel control device, and travel control method

This cruise control device enables more accurate prediction of running resistance and prevents worsening of fuel economy. In this device, a coasting prediction unit () of an automatic cruise control device (), which is for performing cruise control of the vehicle () on the basis of a resistance coefficient, predicts, on the basis of the resistance coefficient, the change in vehicle speed if the vehicle () were to coast; if the vehicle () does coast, a vehicle information acquisition unit () acquires information about the detected vehicle speed; and a running resistance updating unit () updates the value of the resistance coefficient on the basis of the information about the change in vehicle speed predicted by the coasting prediction unit () and information about the vehicle speed acquired by the vehicle information acquisition unit ().

Cruise control device and cruise control method

A road information acquisition unit () acquires information about the road in a prescribed segment in front, a vehicle information acquisition unit () acquires information about the vehicle (), a velocity prediction unit () predicts, on the basis of the road information and the information about the vehicle (), the changes in the vehicle velocity that would be brought about in the prescribed segment in the case of travelling the prescribed segment in a first gear, and a shift control unit () which maintains the first gear if the condition is satisfied that the predicted vehicle velocity exhibits a minimum value other than at the ends of the prescribed segment and the minimum value is greater than the delay speed, which is set to a value less than a predetermined velocity set as the velocity that would result from downshifting.

Provided is a travel control device by which it is possible to further improve fuel economy in a vehicle. A travel control device has the following: a weather information acquisition unit that acquires weather information indicating a weather state of a road on which a vehicle travels; an estimation value switching unit that sets in a modifiable manner an estimation value for travel resistance on the vehicle traveling on the road, according to the acquired weather information; a coasting travel estimation unit that estimates a change in speed of the vehicle on the road on the basis of the estimation value for the set travel resistance; and an automatic travel control unit that generates a travel schedule for the vehicle including driving travel and coasting travel on the basis of the estimated change in the vehicular speed, and causes the vehicle to travel according to the generated travel schedule.

Travel control device and travel control method

An end point speed at an end point of inertial travel that a vehicle is controlled to perform in a short section lis calculated using a weight, a start point speed, slopes, and a horizontal distance, based on a change in energy of the vehicle or an acceleration of the vehicle in the short section. In a case where the calculated end point speed is within a speed range, the vehicle is controlled to perform inertial travel in the short section. In this way, the speed of the vehicle in a case where the vehicle is controlled to perform inertial travel can be accurately calculated and the vehicle can be prevented from deviating from a set speed range at an early stage even when controlled to perform inertial travel, thereby increasing the distance traveled by inertial travel and effectively increasing fuel economy.

Vehicle automatic travel control device and vehicle automatic travel method

When detecting and recording vehicle data items corresponding to evaluation parameters for fuel-efficient driving (the parameters may include, for example, the speed of the vehicle, the average engine speed during an upshift, or an idle time), it is determined which one of first to N-th preliminarily-set traveling conditions (which may be, for example, highway driving, open-road driving, or idling) a current traveling condition belongs to. The vehicle data items are then recorded according to the determined traveling condition. The amount of fuel consumed in the corresponding traveling condition is also recorded. Each of the vehicle data items of the corresponding traveling condition is given an evaluation score with respect to an evaluation standard. Each evaluation score is then corrected based on a rate of fuel consumption in the corresponding traveling condition. Thus, the evaluation score is corrected in view of the traveling condition. Accordingly, this achieves a proper evaluation for fuel-efficient driving.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Shinichi Ishiguro