Exterior monitoring for vehicles

A method for operating a vehicle in consideration of objects exterior to the vehicle, comprising:

• obtaining images of objects exterior of the vehicle by means of cameras, each of the cameras being part of one of a plurality of distance measuring systems, each of the distance measuring systems being fixed to a frame of the vehicle along the windshield, along an edge or along a side of the vehicle, a position of each of the distance measuring systems encompassing an area in front of the vehicle, an area behind the vehicle or an area on a side of the vehicle in a respective fixed field of view of the distance measuring system;
• determining using a processor, a distance between the vehicle and objects included in images obtained by the camera and a velocity of the objects relative to the vehicle based on the successive distance determinations;
• determining using the processor, the possibility of contact between each of the objects and the vehicle based on the determined distance between each of the objects and the vehicle, the determined velocity of each of the objects relative to the vehicle, and the position of each of the objects considered relative to the positional information about vehicular travel lanes obtained by accessing a map database containing information about vehicular travel lanes;
• determining using the processor, whether an action must be undertaken to prevent contact between the object and the vehicle based on the determined possibility of contact between each of the objects and the vehicle, and if it is determined that action must be undertaken
• undertaking an action using a reactive system on the vehicle to reduce and potentially eliminate the likelihood of contact between the vehicle and the object.

A method for operating a vehicle in consideration of objects exterior to the vehicle, comprising:

• determining using a processor and a plurality of distance measuring systems, a distance between the vehicle and objects exterior of the vehicle and a velocity of the objects relative to the vehicle based on the successive distance determinations, each of the distance measuring systems being fixed to a frame of the vehicle along the windshield of the vehicle, along an edge of the vehicle or along a side of the vehicle:
• determining using the processor, whether an action must be undertaken to prevent contact between the object and the vehicle based on the distance from the vehicle, the step of determining using the processor, whether an action must be undertaken to prevent contact between the object and the vehicle comprising
• accessing a map database containing information about vehicular travel lanes using the processor and considering the position of the object relative to the positional information about vehicular travel lanes from the map database using the processor to determine whether the object and vehicle may contact one another, and
• determining, based on the map database and using the processor, whether there is a physical barrier separating the vehicular travel lanes in which the objects are travelling from the vehicular travel lane in which the vehicle is travelling, and
• undertaking an action using a reactive system on the vehicle to reduce and potentially eliminate the likelihood of contact between the vehicle and the object only when it is determined that:
• 1) the object and vehicle may contact one another, and
• 2) there is no physical barrier separating the vehicular travel lane in which the object is travelling from the vehicular travel lane in which the vehicle is travelling,
• whereby the action is thus precluded from being undertaken when it is determined, based on the map database and using the processor, that there is a physical barrier separating the vehicular travel lanes in which the objects are travelling from the vehicular travel lane in which the vehicle is travelling.