# US 11,299,161 B2 · Vehicle control system, vehicle control method, and storage medium > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,299,161 B2 - Document ID: US11299161B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/469,686 - Filed: 2016-12-21 - Published: 2020-03-12 - Granted: 2022-04-12 - Earliest claimed: 2016-12-21 - Assignees: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. - Applicants: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. - Inventors: Katsuya Yashiro; Toshiyuki Kaji; Toru Kokaki; Masanori Takeda; Hiroshi Oguro - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11299161B2 ## CPC - B60W 30/18163: {Lane change; Overtaking manoeuvres} - B60W 10/04: including control of propulsion units - B60W 50/14: Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention - B60W 60/0011: {involving control alternatives for a single driving scenario, e.g. planning several paths to avoid obstacles} - B60W 60/0053: {from vehicle to occupant} - G05D 1/0088: {characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours (using knowledge based models G06N5/00)} - B60W 2554/4042: Longitudinal speed - B60W 2556/40: High definition maps - B60W 2556/45: External transmission of data to or from the vehicle - B60W 2720/10: Longitudinal speed - B60W 2720/106: Longitudinal acceleration - 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 - G05D: SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES ## Abstract A vehicle control system includes: an information acquiring unit that acquires an index value relating to easiness of merging which is evaluated on the basis of at least one of vehicle information relating to an operation of another vehicle that has advanced from a merging lane to a main lane before a subject vehicle and external system information acquired near a merging point using the other vehicle in a case in which the subject vehicle is running in the merging lane merging into the main lane; and an automated driving control unit that executes automated driving of the subject vehicle on the basis of the index value acquired by the information acquiring unit. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A vehicle control system comprising: a processor that executes instructions to: acquire an index value relating to easiness of merging of a subject vehicle and an ease of merging of an other vehicle which is evaluated based on at least one of vehicle information relating to an operation of the other vehicle that has advanced from a merging lane to a main lane before the subject vehicle and external system information acquired near a merging point using the other vehicle in a case in which the subject vehicle is running in the merging lane merging into the main lane; and execute automated driving of the subject vehicle based on the index value, wherein, in a case in which there is no other vehicle that has advanced from the merging lane to the main lane within a predetermined time, the processor acquires the index value relating to the easiness of merging based on at least one of the vehicle information relating to the operation of the other vehicle having the same date, time frame, or day of week of merging and the external system information acquired near the merging point using the other vehicle. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein the processor adjusts a speed of the subject vehicle at the time of merging based on the index value relating to the easiness of merging. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The vehicle control system according to claim 2, wherein the processor performs control of decelerating a speed of the subject vehicle from a target speed at the time of merging or not accelerating the speed from a speed of a current time point. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle information includes at least one of a speed of another vehicle, which has advanced from the merging lane to the main lane before the subject vehicle, after merging, and an acceleration in the merging lane, and a lighting state of a direction indicator of the other vehicle. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein the external system information includes at least one of ground object information acquired near a merging point by another vehicle that has advanced from the merging lane to the main lane before the subject vehicle and information relating to a position of a surrounding vehicle seen from the other vehicle. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein the processor further executes instructions to: determine whether the subject vehicle is able to merge into the main lane on the basis of the index value relating to the easiness of merging, wherein, in a case in which it is determined that merging is not able to be performed, the processor changes at least one of a position at which merging into the main lane starts and an acceleration of the subject vehicle in the merging lane from a reference value and executes automated driving. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The vehicle control system according to claim 6, wherein, in a case in which it is determined that merging is not able to be performed, the the processor executes control of switching the subject vehicle from automated driving to manual driving. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein, in a case in which there is the other vehicle that has advanced from the merging lane to the main lane before the subject vehicle within the predetermined time, the processor acquires at least one of vehicle information relating to the operation of the other vehicle and the external system information acquired near the merging point by the other vehicle and generates an index value relating to the easiness of merging into the main lane. ### Claim 9 A vehicle control method using an in-vehicle computer, the vehicle control method comprising: acquiring as an index value relating to easiness of merging of a subject vehicle and an ease of merging of an other vehicle which is evaluated based on at least one of vehicle information relating to an operation of the other vehicle that has advanced from a merging lane to a main lane before the subject vehicle and external system information acquired near a merging point using the other vehicle in a case in which the subject vehicle is running in the merging lane merging into the main lane; executing automated driving of the subject vehicle on the basis of the acquired index value; and wherein, in a case in which there is no other vehicle that has advanced from the merging lane to the main lane within a predetermined time, acquiring the index value relating to the easiness of merging based on at least one of the vehicle information relating to the operation of the other vehicle having the same date, time frame, or day of week of merging and the external system information acquired near the merging point using the other vehicle. ### Claim 10 A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores an in-vehicle control program to be executed by an in-vehicle computer to perform at least: acquire as an index value relating to easiness of merging of a subject vehicle and an ease of merging of an other vehicle which is evaluated based on at least one of vehicle information relating to an operation of the other vehicle that has advanced from a merging lane to a main lane before the subject vehicle and external system information acquired near a merging point using the other vehicle in a case in which the subject vehicle is running in the merging lane merging into the main lane; execute automated driving of the subject vehicle on the basis of the acquired index value, and wherein, in a case in which there is no other vehicle that has advanced from the merging lane to the main lane within a predetermined time, acquire the index value relating to the easiness of merging based on at least one of the vehicle information relating to the operation of the other vehicle having the same date, time frame, or day of week of merging and the external system information acquired near the merging point using the other vehicle.