System and method of estimating available driving distance
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsYimin LIU, Michael Edward LOFTUS, Perry Robinson MACNEILLE
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle includes a powertrain having a battery-powered electric machine. The vehicle also includes a controller programmed to display, on a geographical map, at least one contour line indicating an available driving distance from a current location. The distance of the contour line from the current location is based on energy stored within the battery and predicted energy consumption due to driving along each of a plurality of possible routes originating from the current location. The predicted energy consumption is updated based on energy depletion events that occur during driving.
Claims20
A vehicle comprising:
- a powertrain having a battery-powered electric machine;
- and
- a controller programmed to display, on a geographical map, at least one contour line indicating an available driving distance from a current location based on energy stored within the battery and predicted energy consumption due to driving along each of a plurality of possible routes originating from the current location, wherein the predicted energy consumption is updated based on energy depletion events.
A system for indicating available driving distances comprising:
- a map display;
- and
- a controller programmed to, output via the display, at least one contour line enclosing available destinations and having an appearance feature that is indicative of probability of achieving a driving distance along each of a plurality of routes originating from a current location, wherein the driving distance is based on predicted energy consumption and energy stored in a traction battery.
A method of vehicle range estimation comprising:
- mapping a plurality of routes originating from a current location;
- locating both high certainty distances and low certainty distance ranges along each of the plurality of routes based on energy stored in a traction battery and predicted energy consumption along each route;
- displaying, on a map, contour lines intersecting each of the high certainty distances and the low certainty distance ranges, respectively;
- and
- adjusting the contour lines in response to random energy depletion events during driving.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.