Driverless vehicle operating system for a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission

A driverless vehicle operating system for controlling operation of a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission, comprising:

• a shift control mechanism for moving a manual gear shift lever of said manual transmission;
• a clutch control mechanism controlling operation of a clutch, which operationally connects said manual transmission and an engine of said vehicle;
• an accelerator pedal control mechanism controlling operation of an accelerator pedal of said vehicle;
• an operator input device receiving operator input indicative of a user selected target vehicle speed;
• an engine speed sensor sensing a speed of said engine;
• a vehicle speed sensor sensing a speed of said vehicle;
• and
• an electronic control unit receiving input from said shift control mechanism, said clutch control mechanism, said accelerator pedal control mechanism, said operator input device, said engine speed sensor and said vehicle speed sensor, and controlling said shift control mechanism, said clutch control mechanism, and said accelerator pedal control mechanism based on said received input so that the vehicle attains the selected target vehicle speed.

A method of controlling operation of a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission, comprising:

• (a) receiving operator input;
• (b) sensing a speed of an engine of said vehicle;
• (c) sensing a speed of said vehicle;
• (d) receiving input from a shift control mechanism, a clutch control mechanism, and an accelerator pedal control mechanism;
• and
• (e) controlling said shift control mechanism, said clutch control mechanism, and said accelerator pedal control mechanism based on output from said steps (a)-(d),
• said step (a) comprises receiving a target vehicle speed as said operator input,
• said step (e) including the sub-steps of
• (e1) comparing said target vehicle speed to a current vehicle speed sensed in said step (c), and
• (e2) controlling said shift control mechanism, said clutch control mechanism, and said accelerator pedal control mechanism based on the comparison of said sub-step (e1).

A shift control mechanism for shifting a manual transmission of a vehicle comprising:

• a first pair of parallel shift rails respectively disposed on opposite sides of a manual gear shift lever of said manual transmission for moving the manual gear shift lever along a first direction;
• a second pair of parallel shift rails respectively disposed on opposite sides of the manual gear shift lever for moving the manual gear shift lever along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, said first pair of parallel shift rails being perpendicular to said second pair of parallel shift rails;
• and
• an electronic controller for controlling movement of said first and second parallel shift rails in accordance with a user selected target vehicle speed.

The shift control mechanism of claim 20, further comprising:

• a first rotary shaft operationally coupled to said first pair of parallel shift rails;
• a second rotary shaft operationally coupled to said second pair of parallel shift rails;
• a first motor rotating said first rotary shaft;
• and
• a second motor rotating said second rotary shaft,
• said electronic controller selectively actuating said first and second motors to respectively drive said first and second rotary shafts to move said first and second pairs of parallel shift rails, thereby moving the manual gear shift lever to shift the manual transmission in accordance with the user selected target vehicle speed.