Systems, methods, and computer program products for upgrading a vehicle's functionality based on the manner in which the vehicle is operated. A predefined operating condition of the vehicle that can be assisted by a vehicle feature not presently provided by the vehicle is identified. Thereafter, a notification is communicated to a user interface that indicates availability of the vehicle feature. Subsequently, the vehicle is upgraded to provide the vehicle feature responsive to input to the user interface submitting a request to perform the upgrade.

A histogram is calculated based on a road surface image of a portion around a vehicle, and the histogram is separated into a histogram that represents an in-sunlight road surface and includes a first peak value and a histogram that represents a shadow road surface and includes a second peak value to output the histograms, thereby further enhancing the accuracy of road surface detection around the vehicle as compared with conventional art.

A method and system for determining lane change feasibility for autonomous vehicles is disclosed. The method includes the steps of tracking, in each frame, at least one neighboring vehicle from a plurality of neighboring vehicles in a current lane being used by the AV and in a plurality of adjacent lanes. The method further includes determining, in each frame, a set of kinematic parameters associated with each of the at least one neighboring vehicle, and assigning an occupancy state from a plurality of occupancy states to each of a plurality of voxels capturing a spatial information for each of the plurality of neighboring vehicles. The method may further includes determining an effective occupancy probability for each of the plurality of adjacent lanes, and determining feasibility of lane change for the AV to at least one adjacent lane from the plurality of adjacent lanes.

A control unit that controls a travelling state and an air conditioning state of a vehicle includes: a drive control unit performing a vehicle speed control and a power train control, the vehicle speed control selectively executing an acceleration operation where an engine mounted on the vehicle is operated and a deceleration operation where the engine is stopped to allow the vehicle to coast, the power train control selectively executing activation or deactivation of the engine; m and an air conditioning control unit that controls an air conditioning system provided in the vehicle to execute an air conditioning control. A content of control is changed for at least one of the vehicle speed control, the power train control and the air-conditioning control while the air conditioning system is operating, compared to a case where the air conditioning system is not operating.

A vehicle computer comprises a processor and a memory. The memory stores instructions executable by the processor to detect debris flying above a roadway, to input vehicle sensor data to a first classifier that outputs a source of the debris, and based on the source of the debris, to compare sensor data representing the debris to stored reference data to determine a type of physical material included in the debris. The memory stores instruction to input the type of physical material and an environmental condition to a second classifier that outputs a risk assessment, and to actuate the vehicle based on the risk assessment.

The steering controller calculates a target steering angle for causing the own vehicle to travel along the target course acquired by the traveling road information acquirer. The braking/driving force controller calculates a target yaw moment for correcting the positional displacement of the own vehicle from the target course. The control ratio setter sets a control ratio of cooperative control of steering control and yaw moment control based on the deviation amount of a lateral position of the own vehicle from the target course. The control ratio is set so that when the positional displacement of the own vehicle from the target course is relatively small, the ratio at which the steering control occupies is reduced, and the yaw moment control is dominant, and when the positional displacement of the own vehicle from the target course is relatively large, the ratio at which the steering control occupies is increased.

Systems providing a comparison of results of simulations of operation of a simulated autonomous vehicle may include a processor to: perform a first simulation of operation of a simulated autonomous vehicle based on first autonomous vehicle control code, receive second autonomous vehicle control code that includes a second version of software code associated with controlling operations of the simulated autonomous vehicle, the second version including a modification of a first version of software code associated with controlling operations of the simulated autonomous vehicle, perform a second simulation of operation of the simulated autonomous vehicle based on the second autonomous vehicle control code, and display an indication that second values of one or more metrics that resulted from the second simulation are different from one or more first values of the one or more metrics that resulted from the first simulation. Methods, computer program products, and autonomous vehicles are also disclosed.

Data from a vehicle subsystem are input to a machine learning program trained to output a plurality of temporal pattern vectors. The temporal pattern vectors are input to an attention-based encoder trained to output a latent feature matrix. Each of the latent feature vectors is assigned to a respective one of a plurality of clusters. Based on the assigned clusters, an operation value is output to a controller of the vehicle subsystem.

A method for selecting and executing at least one reactive action of a vehicle includes a control unit receiving sensor data from a vehicle sensor system; detecting an emergency situation based on the sensor data; performing an evaluation; and selecting and implementing a reactive action for minimizing an accident risk of the vehicle based on the evaluation, where, in the evaluation, sensors that are uninvolved in the detection of the emergency situation are not taken into account or are taken into account at a lower weighting, are operated at a reduced performance, and/or are operated with a reduced scanning range. In addition, a control unit, computer program, and machine-readable memory medium can be provided for implementing the method.

An energy management system determines two or more fuel components that represent fuel consumption by a vehicle system completing a trip over one or more routes. A trip plan that designates operational settings of the vehicle system at one or more of different locations, different distances along the one or more routes, or different times is generated or modified. The trip plan is based on the fuel components. The fuel components include a delta elevation component of the one or more routes, a delta speed component of the trip, a mean drag component of the vehicle system, a curvature component of the one or more routes, a base fuel component of the vehicle system, a minimum braking component of the vehicle system, a braking auxiliaries component of the vehicle system, and/or a drag variation of the vehicle system.