Vehicle glass contamination assessment for optimized auto-activation of cleaning system

A system for cleaning a contaminant from a surface of a vehicle, comprising:

• a camera for obtaining an image of the surface, the surface including the contaminant;
• a plurality of cleaning devices for cleaning the contaminant from the surface;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• determine a contamination measure from the image, the contamination measure indicative of a contamination level of the surface from the image;
• determine a contaminated region and a contaminant type from the image;
• select a cleaning approach for cleaning the surface based on the contamination measure, the contaminated region, and the contaminant type, the cleaning approach including selecting a cleaning device from the plurality of cleaning devices, selecting a cleaning direction and selecting a cleaning duration;
• and
• control the cleaning device using the cleaning approach.

A vehicle, comprising:

• a camera for obtaining an image of the surface, the surface including the contaminant;
• a plurality of cleaning devices for cleaning the contaminant from the surface;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• determine a contamination measure from the image, the contamination measure indicative of a contamination level of the surface from the image;
• determine a contaminated region and a contaminant type from the image;
• select a cleaning approach for cleaning the surface based on the contamination measure, the contaminated region, and the contaminant type, the cleaning approach including selecting a cleaning device from the plurality of cleaning devices, selecting a cleaning direction and selecting a cleaning duration;
• and
• control the cleaning device using the cleaning approach.