Vehicle control system, traffic information sharing system, vehicle control method, and vehicle control program

A vehicle control method executed by an on-board computer, the method comprising:

• executing automated driving of a vehicle in which at least one of speed control and steering control is controlled automatically based on vehicle surroundings information acquired by a surroundings information acquisition section configured to acquire the vehicle surroundings information of the vehicle;
• and
• using a communication section configured to directly or indirectly communicate with another device located outside the vehicle to transmit the vehicle surroundings information and information indicating an execution status of the automated driving of the vehicle to the another device,
• wherein the information indicating the execution status of the automated driving of the vehicle comprises one of:
• information indicating whether or not the automated driving is being executed,
• information indicating a mode of the automated driving mode being executed,
• information indicating a scheduled timing for switching from a manual driving to the automated driving, and
• information indicating a scheduled timing for switching from the automated driving to the manual driving,
• wherein the method further comprises generating traffic information by processing information received by the communication section and transmitted from another vehicle including the another device, the received information including the surroundings information for the another vehicle and the information indicating the execution status of the automated driving in the another vehicle,
• wherein the generating step generates the traffic information by processing the surroundings information for the another vehicle and the information indicating the execution status of the automated driving in the another vehicle such that the surroundings information for the another vehicle and the information indicating the execution status of the automated driving in the another vehicle are combined and collated per predetermined category.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a vehicle control program for causing an on-board computer to execute processing, the processing comprising:

• executing automated driving of a vehicle in which at least one of speed control and steering control is controlled automatically based on vehicle surroundings information acquired by a surroundings information acquisition section configured to acquire the vehicle surroundings information of the vehicle;
• and
• using a communication section configured to directly or indirectly communicate with another device located outside the vehicle to transmit the vehicle surroundings information and information indicating an execution status of the automated driving of the vehicle to the another device,
• wherein the information indicating the execution status of the automated driving of the vehicle comprises one of:
• information indicating whether or not the automated driving is being executed,
• information indicating a mode of the automated driving mode being executed,
• information indicating a scheduled timing for switching from a manual driving to the automated driving, and
• information indicating a scheduled timing for switching from the automated driving to the manual driving,
• wherein the processing further comprises generating traffic information by processing information received by the communication section and transmitted from another vehicle including the another device, the received information including the surroundings information for the another vehicle and the information indicating the execution status of the automated driving in the another vehicle,
• wherein the generating step generates the traffic information by processing the surroundings information for the another vehicle and the information indicating the execution status of the automated driving in the another vehicle such that the surroundings information for the another vehicle and the information indicating the execution status of the automated driving in the another vehicle are combined and collated per predetermined category.

A traffic information sharing system comprising:

• a vehicle control system;
• and
• a server device,
• wherein the vehicle control system comprises:
• a surroundings information acquisition section configured to acquire vehicle surroundings information with respect to surroundings of a vehicle;
• an automated driving controller configured to execute automated driving of the vehicle in which at least one of speed control and steering control is controlled automatically based on the vehicle surroundings information acquired by the surroundings information acquisition section;
• a communication section configured to directly or indirectly communicate with another device located outside the vehicle;
• and
• a communication controller configured to transmit the vehicle surroundings information and information indicating an execution status of the automated driving of the vehicle to the another device using the communication section,
• wherein the information indicating the execution status of the automated driving of the vehicle comprises one of:
• information indicating whether or not the automated driving is being executed,
• information indicating a mode of the automated driving mode being executed,
• information indicating a scheduled timing for switching from a manual driving to the automated driving, and
• information indicating a scheduled timing for switching from the automated driving to the manual driving,
• wherein the server device comprises:
• a server-side vehicle communication section configured to receive information transmitted by the vehicle control system, the received information including the vehicle surroundings information and the information indicating the execution status of the automated driving, and
• a server-side processor configured to generate traffic information by processing the received information acquired by the server-side vehicle communication section, and to cause the server-side vehicle communication section to transmit the generated traffic information,
• wherein the server-side processor generates the traffic information by processing the surroundings information and the information indicating the execution status of the automated driving such that the surroundings information and the information indicating the execution status of the automated driving are combined and collated per predetermined category.