The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 02, 2023
Filed:
Nov. 19, 2020
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., Plano, TX (US);
Geoffrey D. Gaither, Brighton, MI (US);
TOYOTA MOTOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING NORTH AMERICA, INC., Plano, TX (US);
Abstract
Systems and methods for reducing a current speed of a vehicle that can operate on solar energy to increase solar energy collection. The system may include a photovoltaic (PV) panel configured to receive sunlight to drive an electric motor, a solar loading sensor configured to detect solar load, a global position system (GPS) sensor configured to detect vehicle location data, a speed sensor configured to detect vehicle speed, and an electronic control unit (ECU) connected to the electric motor, the solar loading sensor, the speed sensor, and the GPS sensor. The ECU may determine whether the vehicle is exposed to solar load greater than a predetermined threshold value and, if so, present a driver of the vehicle a minimum acceptable speed to select based on sensor data and a difference of solar energy collection between the minimum acceptable speed and the current speed.