“Vehicle Control Device” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20230150545): Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

2023 JUN 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent application by the inventors Kadotani, Naotoshi (Sunto-gun Shizuoka-ken, Japan); Kawaharada, Makoto (Susono-shi Shizuoka-ken, Japan); Nakamura, Satoshi (Susono-shi Shizuoka-ken, Japan); Okumura, Kenichi (Gotemba-shi Shizuoka-ken, Japan); Sasaki, Kiyoto (Susono-shi Shizuoka-ken, Japan), filed on September 7, 2022, was made available online on May 18, 2023, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents.

This patent application is assigned to Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota-shi Aichi-ken, Japan).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “

“The present disclosure relates to a technical field of a vehicle control device that controls execution of various safe driving assistance in a vehicle, such as deceleration, stop, or warning to a driver or a pedestrian.

“As such kind of device, for example, the applicants of the present application proposes a device configured to receive, from a pedestrian crossing information output device provided at an intersection, crossing information including a traveling direction of a pedestrian and a crosswalk number generated based on information output from an IC tag attached to shoes of the pedestrian, and to issues warning of the traveling direction of the pedestrian to a driver in a case where the pedestrian is present on the crosswalk in a traveling direction of a host vehicle (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-072658 (JP 2007-072658 A)).”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “However, according to the JP 2007-072658 A, even in a case where a pedestrian can safely cross a crosswalk, warning is issued to a driver without omission, so that the driver feels annoyed. Therefore, according to the research of the applicants of the present application, it is desirable to grasp with high accuracy whether or not the pedestrian can cross the crosswalk before safe driving assistance, such as warning, is executed, but there is an individual difference in a walking speed, so that there is a technical problem that prediction with high accuracy is difficult.

“The present disclosure is to provide a vehicle control device that enables appropriate execution of the safe driving assistance in a case where the pedestrian crosses a road without the crosswalk or the crosswalk in front of the vehicle.

“An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a vehicle control device that controls a vehicle configured to acquire various information including information for specifying a walking speed transmitted from a wearable device attached to a pedestrian. The vehicle control device includes a first prediction unit, a second prediction unit, an estimation unit, and an execution controller. The first prediction unit is configured to predict a reaching time for the vehicle to reach a cross point in front of the vehicle or a reaching point in time when the vehicle reaches the cross point in a case where the pedestrian who crosses the cross point is detected based on the information transmitted from the wearable device. The second prediction unit is configured to predict a crossing time for the pedestrian to complete crossing the cross point or a crossing point in time when the pedestrian completes crossing the cross point based on the information for specifying the walking speed acquired from the wearable device. The estimation unit is configured to estimate whether or not the pedestrian is able to safely cross the cross point based on the predicted reaching time or reaching point in time and the predicted crossing time or crossing point in time. The execution controller is configured to execute a safe driving assistance control of assisting safe driving with respect to the vehicle in a case where the estimation unit estimates that the pedestrian is not able to safely cross the cross point.

“With the vehicle control device according to the aspect of the present disclosure, it is possible to grasp with high accuracy whether or not the pedestrian having an individual difference in the walking speed can safely cross the cross point before the vehicle executes an operation related to the safe driving assistance, such as warning, in accordance with the walking speed of the pedestrian. Therefore, the safe driving assistance is not unnecessarily executed, and the driver can avoid feeling annoyed. On the contrary, in particular, in a case where a vulnerable road user or the like cannot safely cross the cross point, the safe driving assistance is appropriately executed.

“Such action and effect according to the present disclosure will be further clarified by embodiments of the disclosure described below.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A vehicle control device that controls a vehicle configured to acquire various information including information for specifying a walking speed transmitted from a wearable device attached to a pedestrian, the vehicle control device comprising: a first prediction unit configured to predict a reaching time for the vehicle to reach a cross point in front of the vehicle or a reaching point in time when the vehicle reaches the cross point in a case where the pedestrian who crosses the cross point is detected based on the information transmitted from the wearable device; a second prediction unit configured to predict a crossing time for the pedestrian to complete crossing the cross point or a crossing point in time when the pedestrian completes crossing the cross point based on the information for specifying the walking speed acquired from the wearable device; an estimation unit configured to estimate whether or not the pedestrian is able to safely cross the cross point based on the predicted reaching time or reaching point in time and the predicted crossing time or crossing point in time; and an execution controller configured to execute a safe driving assistance control of assisting safe driving with respect to the vehicle in a case where the estimation unit estimates that the pedestrian is not able to safely cross the cross point.

“2. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the first prediction unit is configured to detect the pedestrian who crosses the cross point based on positional information of the wearable device transmitted from the wearable device, and positional information of the vehicle.

“3. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the estimation unit is configured to estimate whether or not the pedestrian is able to safely cross the cross point based on health management data indicating a health state of the pedestrian acquired from a health management application used by the pedestrian on the wearable device.

“4. The vehicle control device according to claim 3, wherein the execution controller is configured to issue warning to the pedestrian by a warning method in accordance with the health state of the pedestrian as a part of the safe driving assistance control.

“5. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the execution controller is configured to issue warning to the pedestrian by executing a light distribution control of light generated from the vehicle as a part of the safe driving assistance control.

“6. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the execution controller is configured to issue warning to a driver by executing an image control of displaying an image portion related to the pedestrian to be relatively conspicuous on an image seen from the driver in the vehicle as a part of the safe driving assistance control.”

URL and more information on this patent application, see: Kadotani, Naotoshi; Kawaharada, Makoto; Nakamura, Satoshi; Okumura, Kenichi; Sasaki, Kiyoto. Vehicle Control Device. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230150545, filed September 7, 2022 and posted May 18, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230150545)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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