System and method for controlling a vehicle
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsKenneth Frederick, Matthew D. Smith
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Location information may be used to adjust the engine start/stop characteristics of a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) in order to increase the amount of electric vehicle (EV) mode driving, particularly near a destination in which an ignition-off event may occur. Common ignition-off locations may be learned and stored in a database along with the number of ignition-off occurrences associated with each learned location. The vehicle may calculate current distance to a nearest ignition-off location stored in the database using positioning system coordinates and may determine whether to adjust one or more engine pull-ups based at least in part on the distance and the corresponding number of ignition-off occurrences.
Claims14
A method comprising:
- receiving coordinates from a positioning system corresponding to a current location of a vehicle;
- comparing the current location with coordinate information corresponding to a plurality of waypoints stored in a database to determine a nearest waypoint, each of the waypoints associated with a location of the vehicle where at least one prior ignition-off event occurred and a number of prior ignition-off events that occurred at the location;
- calculating a distance from the current location of the vehicle to the nearest waypoint;
- and based at least in part upon the distance and the number of prior ignition-off events associated with the nearest waypoint, increasing an electric vehicle (EV) threshold, corresponding to an amount of power requested by a driver through an accelerator pedal, require to start an engine when the vehicle is operating with the engine off and decreasing a state of charge (SOC) threshold associated with a battery, the SOC threshold corresponding to a minimum amount of charge the battery can contain without starting an engine in order to recharge the battery.
A method comprising:
- receiving a current location of a vehicle from a positioning system;
- calculating a distance from the current location to a nearest waypoint associated with a location of the vehicle where at least one prior ignition-off event occurred;
- and decreasing a minimum state-of-charge threshold associated with a battery based at least in part upon the distance and a number of prior ignition-off events associated with the nearest waypoint.
A vehicle system comprising:
- an engine;
- a positioning system that obtains location information associated a current location of a vehicle;
- a database including a plurality of waypoints, each waypoints associated with a location of the vehicle where at least one prior ignition-off event occurred and a number of prior ignition-off events that occurred at the location;
- and a controller, in communication with the positioning system, the database and the engine configured to:
- calculate a distance from the current location to a nearest waypoint stored in the database;
- and adjust an engine pull-up characteristic based at least in part upon the distance, and the recentness of at least one of the number of prior ignition-off events associated with the nearest waypoint.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.