# US 11,897,507 B2 · Vehicle control device

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- Number: US 11,897,507 B2
- Document ID: US11897507B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 17/314,574
- Filed: 2021-05-07
- Published: 2021-12-23
- Granted: 2024-02-13
- Earliest claimed: 2020-06-19
- Assignees: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
- Applicants: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
- Inventors: Yusuke Tanaka
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11897507B2

## CPC

- B60W 60/0015: {specially adapted for safety}
- B60W 30/12: Lane keeping
- B60W 30/16: Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
- B60W 30/18109: {Braking}
- B60W 40/08: related to drivers or passengers
- B60W 50/14: Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
- B60W 2040/0818: {Inactivity or incapacity of driver}
- B60W 2050/143: {Alarm means}
- B60W 2420/403: Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
- B60W 2540/10: Accelerator pedal position
- B60W 2540/12: Brake pedal position
- B60W 2540/18: Steering angle
- B60W 2552/53: Road markings, e.g. lane marker or crosswalk
- B60W 2710/18: Braking system
- B60W 2720/10: Longitudinal speed
- B60W 2720/106: Longitudinal acceleration
- B60W 2720/12: Lateral speed
- 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 vehicle control device executes, when a driver is in an abnormal state, deceleration control for decelerating a vehicle to stop the vehicle, and the vehicle control device determines whether the vehicle is likely to stop at a specific spot based on an image acquired by an image sensor during the execution of the deceleration control. The specific spot is a spot at which another physical body moves in a direction intersecting with a travel direction of the vehicle. When the vehicle is likely to stop at the specific spot, the vehicle control device executes control for causing the vehicle to pass through the specific spot and stops the vehicle thereafter.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A vehicle control device, comprising:
an operation amount sensor configured to acquire information on an operation amount of a drive operating element to be operated by a driver of a vehicle to drive the vehicle;
an image sensor configured to acquire an image of a view on a front side of the vehicle; and
a controller configured to:
repeatedly determine, based on the information on the operation amount of the drive operating element, whether the driver is in an abnormal state indicating
that the driver has lost an ability to drive the vehicle during traveling of the vehicle; and
when the determination that the driver is in the abnormal state has continued, execute deceleration control for decelerating the vehicle to stop the vehicle,
wherein, in the deceleration control, the controller is configured to:
execute first control for decelerating the vehicle with a first deceleration;
determine whether a specific spot condition is satisfied based on the image acquired by the image sensor during the execution of the first control, the specific spot condition being a condition to be satisfied when the vehicle is likely to stop at a specific spot at which another physical body moves in a direction intersecting with a travel direction of the vehicle; and
when the controller has determined that the specific spot condition is satisfied, execute second control for maintaining a speed of the vehicle to cause the vehicle to pass through the specific spot in place of the first control,
wherein the controller is configured to:
determine whether a predetermined restart condition is satisfied after the specific spot condition is satisfied, the predetermined restart condition being a condition to be satisfied when the vehicle is likely to have passed through the specific spot; and
when the predetermined restart condition is satisfied, end the second control, and restart the first control, and
wherein the controller is configured to:
determine that the specific spot condition is satisfied, when the controller determines that the image acquired by the image sensor includes physical items indicating the specific spot, the physical items including a sign, a traffic light, a railroad crossing warning signal, a symbol representing an intersection drawn on a road surface, and a plurality of lines representing a pedestrian crossing drawn on the road surface; and
determine that at least one of the physical items is present in a range from a current position of the vehicle to a position ahead of the vehicle by a distance that is varied in accordance with a vehicle speed.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to:
determine whether or not the restart condition is satisfied by determining whether or not a traveling distance that the vehicle has traveled after a time point at which the specific spot condition was satisfied reaches a predetermined traveling distance threshold value.