# US 10,766,490 B2 · Driving assistance method and driving assistance apparatus

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- Number: US 10,766,490 B2
- Document ID: US10766490B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 16/613,634
- Filed: 2017-05-18
- Published: 2020-06-18
- Granted: 2020-09-08
- Earliest claimed: 2017-05-18
- Assignees: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
- Applicants: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
- Inventors: Motonobu Aoki; Naoki Kojo; Hiroyuki Takano
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10766490B2

## CPC

- B60W 30/10: Path keeping {(cruise control for automatically following a preceding vehicle B60W30/165)}
- B60W 30/165: Automatically following the path of a preceding lead vehicle, e.g. "electronic tow-bar"
- B60W 30/12: Lane keeping
- B60W 30/16: Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
- B60W 2050/006: {Interpolation; Extrapolation}
- B60W 2530/201: Dimensions of vehicle
- B60W 2554/402: Type
- B60W 2554/802: Longitudinal distance
- B60W: CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT

## Abstract

A driving assistance method of causing a host vehicle to travel by following a preceding vehicle includes: determining whether the preceding vehicle of the host vehicle is present or absent and, upon determining that the preceding vehicle is present, performing a preceding vehicle type determination of determining whether the preceding vehicle of the host vehicle is a four-wheeler or a two-wheeler; upon the preceding vehicle being a four-wheeler, performing both a control of inter-vehicle distance to the four-wheeler and a route following based on the four-wheeler; and upon the preceding vehicle being a two-wheeler, performing a control of inter-vehicle distance to the two-wheeler without performing a route following based on the two-wheeler.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A driving assistance method of causing a host vehicle to travel by following a preceding vehicle, the driving assistance method comprising:
determining whether the preceding vehicle of the host vehicle is present or absent and, upon determining that the preceding vehicle is present, performing a preceding vehicle type determination of determining whether the preceding vehicle of the host vehicle is a four-wheeler or a two-wheeler;
upon the preceding vehicle being a four-wheeler, performing both a control of inter-vehicle distance to the four-wheeler and a route following based on the four-wheeler; and
upon the preceding vehicle being a two-wheeler, performing a control of inter-vehicle distance to the two-wheeler without performing a route following based on the two-wheeler.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The driving assistance method according to claim 1, comprising:
determining whether a pre-preceding vehicle of the host vehicle is present or absent and, upon determining that the pre-preceding vehicle is present, performing a pre-preceding vehicle type determination of determining whether the pre-preceding vehicle of the host vehicle is a four-wheeler or a two-wheeler; and
upon the preceding vehicle being a two-wheeler and the pre-preceding vehicle being a four-wheeler, performing a pre-preceding vehicle route following of following a route of the four-wheeler which is the pre-preceding vehicle, without performing the route following based on the two-wheeler.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The driving assistance method according to claim 1, comprising, upon the preceding vehicle being a two-wheeler, performing the control of inter-vehicle distance to the two-wheeler and a lane following of following a planned traveling route obtained from a result of lane recognition without performing the route following based on the two-wheeler.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The driving assistance method according to claim 1, comprising, upon the preceding vehicle being a two-wheeler, performing the control of inter-vehicle distance to the two-wheeler and an interpolated lane following of following an interpolated lane generated based on a position of the preceding vehicle and a planned traveling route obtained from a result of lane recognition, without performing the route following based on the two-wheeler.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The driving assistance method according to claim 4, wherein the interpolated lane is generated by linearly extending the planned traveling route obtained from the result of the lane recognition from a terminal end of the planned traveling route to the position of the two-wheeler which is the preceding vehicle.

### Claim 6 (depends on 4)

The driving assistance method according to claim 4, wherein the interpolated lane is generated by extending the planned traveling route obtained from the result of the lane recognition to the position of the two-wheeler which is the preceding vehicle according to a curvature at a terminal end of the planned traveling route.

### Claim 7

A driving assistance apparatus comprising a processor configured to perform a control of inter-vehicle distance between a host vehicle and a preceding vehicle and a control of a route following based on the preceding vehicle, wherein the processor is configured to:
determine whether the preceding vehicle of the host vehicle is present or absent and, upon determination that the preceding vehicle is present, perform a preceding vehicle type determination of determining whether the preceding vehicle of the host vehicle is a four-wheeler or a two-wheeler;
upon the preceding vehicle being a four-wheeler, perform both a control of inter-vehicle distance to the four-wheeler and a route following based on the four-wheeler; and
upon the preceding vehicle being a two-wheeler, perform a control of inter-vehicle distance to the two-wheeler without performing a route following based on the two-wheeler.