# US 11,440,563 B2 · Vehicle control device, 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 11,440,563 B2 - Document ID: US11440563B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/910,129 - Filed: 2020-06-24 - Published: 2020-12-31 - Granted: 2022-09-13 - Earliest claimed: 2019-06-28 - Assignees: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. - Applicants: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. - Inventors: Takayasu Kumano; Aditya Mahajan - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11440563B2 ## CPC - B60W 60/001: {Planning or execution of driving tasks} - B60W 30/09: Taking automatic action to avoid collision, e.g. braking and steering - B60W 30/0956: {the prediction being responsive to traffic or environmental parameters} - B60W 30/143: {Speed control (B60W30/16 takes precedence)} - B60W 30/16: Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle - B60W 30/18163: {Lane change; Overtaking manoeuvres} - G01C 21/3407: {specially adapted for specific applications} - G01C 21/3602: {Input other than that of destination using image analysis, e.g. detection of road signs, lanes, buildings, real preceding vehicles using a camera} - G06V 20/58: Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads - G06V 20/588: {Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road} - B60W 2554/4042: Longitudinal speed - B60W 2554/4049: Relationship among other objects, e.g. converging dynamic objects - 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 - G01C: MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY (measuring liquid level G01F; radio navigation, determining distance or velocity by use of propagation effects, e.g. Doppler effects, propagation time, of radio waves, analogous arrangements using other waves G01S) - G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING ## Abstract A vehicle control device includes: a recognizer configured to recognize a surrounding situation of a vehicle; and an action controller configured to control an action of the vehicle. The action controller is configured to specify a first vehicle in front of a region which the vehicle is scheduled to enter and a second vehicle behind the region according to inter-vehicle distances between a plurality of vehicles located in front of or on the side of the vehicle in a lane of a route changing destination recognized by the recognizer when a route of the vehicle is changed to a side. The action controller is configured to cause the vehicle to move to a vicinity of the specified first and second vehicles in a lane in which the vehicle is traveling. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A vehicle control system comprising: a memory that stores instructions; and one or more processors that execute the instructions to cause the vehicle control system to: recognize a surrounding situation of a vehicle; and control an action of the vehicle, specify a first vehicle in front of a region which the vehicle is scheduled to enter and a second vehicle behind the region according to inter-vehicle distances between a plurality of vehicles located in front of or to a side of the vehicle in a lane of a route changing destination when a route of the vehicle is changed to a side, when a difference between a first inter-vehicle distance between the plurality of vehicles and a second inter-vehicle distance between the plurality vehicles is equal to or less than a threshold, wherein the second inter-vehicle distance is longer than the first inter-vehicle distance, specify two vehicles forming the first inter-vehicle distance as the first and second vehicles, wherein the first vehicle is a vehicle that is in front of two vehicles forming the second inter-vehicle distance, and cause the vehicle to move to a vicinity of the first and second vehicles in a lane in which the vehicle is traveling. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the first and second vehicles are two vehicles forming a longest inter-vehicle distance between the plurality of vehicles. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the first vehicle is a forefront vehicle among the vehicles forming the first inter-vehicle distance. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to further cause the vehicle control system to predict a distribution of positions to which the vehicle is able to move and a position of one or more other vehicles within a range of the vehicle at a time after a predetermined time, and specify, as the second vehicle, another vehicle that is in a side direction of the position to which the vehicle is able to move or is behind the position at the time after the predetermined time. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The vehicle control device according to claim 4, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to further cause the vehicle control system to specify, as the first and second vehicles, two vehicles forming a longest inter-vehicle distance among nearby vehicles in the side direction of or behind the vehicle at the time, specify, as the first and second vehicles, two vehicles forming an inter-vehicle distance equal to or greater than a predetermined value among the nearby vehicles in the side direction of or behind the vehicle at the time, or specify, as the second vehicle, a vehicle that forms the inter-vehicle distance that is equal to or greater than the predetermined value and is closest to the vehicle among the nearby vehicles in the side direction of or behind the vehicle at the time, and specify a vehicle in front of the second vehicle as the first vehicle. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to further cause the vehicle control system to predict a time of arrival at a reference position in front of the vehicle and a distribution of positions of vehicles near the vehicle at the time, and specify a nearby vehicle that is in a side direction of or behind the vehicle at the time as the second vehicle. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to further cause the vehicle control system to change the route to a region between the first and second vehicles after causing the vehicle to move to a vicinity of sides of the first and second vehicles. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The vehicle control device according to claim 7, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to further cause the vehicle control system to cause the vehicle to express an intention to change the route, and instruct the vehicle to change the route to a front of the vehicle that is behind the second vehicle in response to predicting that the second vehicle will not permit the change in the route. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to further cause the vehicle control system to perform control such that the vehicle moves to a vicinity of sides of the first and second vehicles when a vehicle speed of another vehicle which is at least in the lane of the route changing destination of the vehicle is equal to or greater than a predetermined vehicle speed, and perform different control from the control such that the vehicle moves to the vicinity of the sides of the first and second vehicles in response to determining that the vehicle speed of the other vehicle is less than a predetermined vehicle speed. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to further cause the vehicle control system to perform control such that the vehicle moves to a vicinity of sides of the first and second vehicles in response to determining that a distance to another vehicle that is in front of the vehicle at least in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling is equal to or greater than a predetermined distance, and perform other control different from the control such that the vehicle moves to the vicinity of the sides of the first and second vehicles in response to determining that the distance to the other vehicle is not equal to or greater than the predetermined distance. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to further cause the vehicle control system to perform a mode selected from a plurality of modes including at least a specific control mode, and cause the vehicle to move to a vicinity of the first and second vehicles in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling when the specific control mode is selected. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to further cause the vehicle control system to perform a mode selected from a plurality of modes including at least a specific control mode and perform the specific control mode when the vehicle is predicted to arrive at a set destination later than a target time, and wherein the specific control mode causes the vehicle to move to a vicinity of the first and second vehicles in the lane in which the vehicle is traveling. ### Claim 13 A vehicle control method causing a computer to perform: recognizing a surrounding situation of a vehicle; controlling an action of the vehicle; specifying a first vehicle in front of a region which the vehicle is scheduled to enter and a second vehicle behind the region according to inter-vehicle distances between a plurality of vehicles located in front of or to a side of the vehicle in a lane of a route changing destination when a route of the vehicle is changed to a side, wherein the specifying comprises: in response to determining that a difference between a first inter-vehicle distance between the plurality of vehicles and a second inter-vehicle distance between the plurality vehicles is equal to or less than a threshold, the second inter-vehicle distance being longer than the first inter-vehicle distance, specifying two vehicles forming the first inter-vehicle distance as the first and second vehicles, wherein the first vehicle is in front of two vehicles forming the second inter-vehicle distance; and causing the vehicle to move to a vicinity of the first and second vehicles in a lane in which the vehicle is traveling. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The vehicle control method of claim 13, wherein the first and second vehicles are two vehicles forming a longest inter-vehicle distance between the plurality of vehicles. ### Claim 15 (depends on 13) The vehicle control method of claim 13, wherein the first vehicle is a forefront vehicle among the vehicles forming the first inter-vehicle distance. ### Claim 16 A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that is configured to store a computer program to be executed by a computer to perform at least: recognizing a surrounding situation of a vehicle; controlling an action of the vehicle; specifying a first vehicle in front of a region which the vehicle is scheduled to enter and a second vehicle behind the region according to inter-vehicle distances between a plurality of vehicles located in front of or to a side of the vehicle in a lane of a route changing destination when a route of the vehicle is changed to a side, wherein the specifying comprises: when a difference between a first inter-vehicle distance between the plurality of vehicles and a second inter-vehicle distance between the plurality vehicles is equal to or less than a threshold, wherein the second inter-vehicle distance is longer than the first inter-vehicle distance, specify two vehicles forming the first inter-vehicle distance as the first and second vehicles, wherein the first vehicle is in front of two vehicles forming the second inter-vehicle distance; and causing the vehicle to move to a vicinity of the first and second vehicles in a lane in which the vehicle is traveling.