Self-propelled vehicle safety urging system, self-propelled vehicle safety urging method, and safety urging information processing program

A safety urging system for a self-propelled vehicle, comprising:

• an output device serving as a safety urging information output unit which outputs safety urging information to urge safety driving at an intersection to the driver of the own vehicle;
• an on-vehicle communication unit which inputs information about travel condition near the intersection, from a roadside communication equipment previously provided to an area of the intersection;
• a car navigation system having a communication availability information storing function to previously store communication availability information indicating whether the on-vehicle communication unit is capable of communicating with the roadside communication equipment, for each intersection, and
• an on-vehicle computation controller, activated when the own vehicle reaches near an intersection, which determines whether the on-vehicle communication unit is capable of communicating with the roadside communication equipment with reference to the communication availability information stored on the car navigation system, wherein
• the on-vehicle computation controller has an operation instruction output function, which works when communication between the on-vehicle communication unit and the roadside communication equipment becomes impossible, to send an operation instruction to the output device.

A safety urging method for a self-propelled vehicle, comprising:

• a first step to take information about travel condition in a predetermined communication area on a road where a vehicle travels, from roadside communication equipment provided in the communication area into an on-vehicle communication unit previously mounted in the own vehicle;
• a second step to output prescribed safety urging information to a driver of the own vehicle, based on traffic information obtained from the roadside communication equipment or information previously set separately;
• a communication availability recognition step in which before the first step is carried out, an on-vehicle computation controller is activated when the own vehicle reaches near the communication area, and the on-vehicle computation controller previously mounted determines whether the on-vehicle communication unit is capable of communicating with the roadside communication equipment, with reference to communication availability information stored on a communication availability information storing unit previously mounted;
• and
• an operation instruction output step in which before or after the first step is carried out, if it is determined that communication with the roadside communication equipment is impossible, the on-vehicle computation controller is activated so as to send an operation instruction to output safety urging information to a safety urging information output unit previously mounted.

A safety urging method for a self-propelled vehicle, comprising:

• a first step to take information about travel condition in a predetermined communication area including an intersection on a road where a vehicle travels, from roadside communication equipment provided in the communication area into an on-vehicle communication unit previously mounted in the own vehicle;
• a second step to output prescribed safety urging information to a driver of the own vehicle, based on traffic information obtained from the roadside communication equipment or information previously set separately;
• a stand-by instruction output step in which before the first step is carried out, the on-vehicle computation controller is activated when the own vehicle reaches near the communication area so as to output an instruction to set the on-vehicle communication unit to be in a stand-by state which is a state before starting communication with the roadside communication equipment;
• and
• a stand-by state releasing step in which before or after the first step is carried out, if a communication impossible state is recognized with the roadside communication equipment, the on-vehicle computation controller is activated so as to carry out the second step and to release the stand-by state of the on-vehicle communication unit to thereby restore to a state before stand-by.

A safety urging method for a self-propelled vehicle, comprising:

• a first step to take information about travel condition in a predetermined communication area including an intersection on a road where a vehicle travels, from roadside communication equipment provided in the communication area into an on-vehicle communication unit previously mounted in the own vehicle;
• a second step to output prescribed safety urging information to a driver of the own vehicle based on traffic information obtained from the roadside communication equipment or information previously set separately;
• a communication state determination step in which an on-vehicle computation controller, mounted separately, determines whether a communication state including communication availability taken in the first step is different from a communication state including communication availability between the on-vehicle communication unit and the roadside communication equipment stored on a communication availability information storing unit previously mounted;
• and
• a communication state update step in which when the communication state taken in the first step is determined as being different from the communication state previously set, the communication availability information stored on the communication availability information storing unit is updated to the communication state taken in the first step.

A safety urging information processing program for causing a computer to execute:

• travel information obtainment processing to take information about travel condition in a predetermined communication area including an intersection on a road where a vehicle travels, from roadside communication equipment set in the communication area into an on-vehicle communication unit previously mounted in the own vehicle;
• urging information output processing to output predetermined safety urging information to a driver of the own vehicle, based on traffic information obtained from the roadside communication equipment or information previously set separately;
• communication availability recognition processing in which when the own vehicle reaches near the communication area before the travel information obtainment processing is executed, it is determined whether the on-vehicle communication unit is capable of communicating with the roadside communication equipment, with reference to communication availability information stored on a communication availability information storing unit previously mounted;
• and
• operation instruction output processing to, if communication with the roadside communication equipment is determined as impossible, send an operation instruction to a safety urging information output unit, previously mounted, to output safety urging information.