# US 8,788,177 B2 · Control apparatus for vehicle

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- Number: US 8,788,177 B2
- Document ID: US8788177B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 13/707,254
- Filed: 2012-12-06
- Published: 2013-06-13
- Granted: 2014-07-22
- Earliest claimed: 2011-12-09
- Assignees: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
- Applicants: Toshiya Hashimoto; Hideaki Yaguchi
- Inventors: Toshiya Hashimoto; Hideaki Yaguchi
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US8788177B2

## CPC

- B60W 20/50: Control strategies for responding to system failures, e.g. for fault diagnosis, failsafe operation or limp mode
- B60W 10/06: including control of combustion engines
- B60W 10/08: including control of electric propulsion units, e.g. motors or generators
- B60W 20/00: Control systems specially adapted for hybrid vehicles {(hybrid vehicle design, B60K6/00; electric vehicles B60L)}
- B60W 30/18: Propelling the vehicle
- B60W 50/035: Bringing the control units into a predefined state, e.g. giving priority to particular actuators
- B60W 50/038: Limiting the input power, torque or speed
- B60W 2540/10: Accelerator pedal position
- B60W 2540/12: Brake pedal position
- B60W 2710/0677: Engine power
- Y02T 10/62: Hybrid vehicles
- Y10S 903/93: Conjoint control of different elements
- 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
- Y02T: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO TRANSPORTATION
- Y10S: TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS

## Abstract

A control apparatus for a vehicle includes a control unit configured to, when accelerator operation and brake operation are simultaneously performed, execute output reduction control that reduces drive power source output, and configured to perform recovery of the drive power source output, when it becomes impossible to certainly determine presence or absence of the brake operation during execution of the output reduction control.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A control apparatus for a vehicle, comprising
an electronic control unit programmed to, when accelerator operation and brake operation are simultaneously performed, execute output reduction control that reduces drive power source output, and the electronic control unit programmed to perform recovery of the drive power source output, when it becomes impossible to certainly determine presence or absence of the brake operation during execution of the output reduction control.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
the electronic control unit is configured to perform the recovery of the drive power source output according to increase in accelerator operation amount.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
the electronic control unit is configured to determine that it has become impossible to certainly determine the presence or absence of the brake operation, provided that a signal to be used to determine the presence or absence of the brake operation in determining whether it is necessary to execute the output reduction control becomes unindicative of either the presence of the brake operation or the absence of the brake operation.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
the electronic control unit is configured so that when it becomes impossible to certainly determine the presence or absence of the brake operation based on the signal to be used to determine the presence or absence of the brake operation in determining whether it is necessary to execute the output reduction control, the electronic control unit estimates whether the brake operation has discontinued, based on a second signal other than said signal, and carries out the recovery of the drive power source output if it is estimated that the brake operation has discontinued.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein
the second signal is a stop lamp signal.

### Claim 6 (depends on 4)

The control apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising
a brake depression force sensor, wherein
the second signal is a detection signal from the brake depression force sensor.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
the electronic control unit is configured so that the recovery of the drive power source output performed when it becomes impossible to certainly determine the presence or absence of the brake operation is performed at a lower rate than a rate, at which the recovery of the drive power source output is performed when it has been determined that the brake operation is absent.