An apparatus and a method for controlling the output of driver information to a driver of a vehicle, with the objective of entertaining the driver and/or the passengers of the vehicle and/or increasing the driver attentiveness of the driver. A database of points of interest or objects of general interest, a database of topographic information, a device for determining the whereabouts of the vehicle, and an evaluation device to which these information items are delivered, are provided. The evaluation device ascertains, from the current whereabouts of the vehicle and from the topographic information, which points of interest or objects of general interest are present in the driver's field of view, and outputs via an output device the driver information regarding the point of interest or the object of general interest which has been ascertained by the evaluation device to be located in the driver's field of view.

A method is disclosed for using an autonomous vehicle to teach a student how to drive. The method may include generating, by the autonomous vehicle during a training session, a plan for navigating a section of road. During the training session, the autonomous vehicle may receive control instructions from the student regarding how the student would like to navigate the section of road. If the autonomous vehicle determines that implementing the instructions would be safe and legal, it may implement those instructions. However, if the autonomous vehicle determines that implementing the instructions would not be safe and legal, it may execute the plan. During a training session, an autonomous vehicle may provide on a head-up display to the student certain visual feedback regarding a driving performance of the student.

Virtual soothing in a transportation vehicle is described, in which soothing a passenger in a vehicle may involve receiving monitoring data relevant to the passenger from a plurality of sensors in the vehicle, determining a soothing need or an emergency condition of the passenger based on the monitoring data, and presenting a multimedia message to the passenger that addresses the soothing need or the emergency condition. The multimedia message may be specific to the passenger and relevant to the soothing need or the emergency condition. The multimedia message may exhibit characteristics that enable the passenger to perceive the multimedia message as being verbally generated by a guardian with whom the passenger is personally acquainted.

A charge control system for a vehicle, which is configured to control charging of a power storage device, includes a user detector that determines whether a user is present within a predetermined range relative to the vehicle, and a vehicle electronic control unit configured to permit the power storage device to be charged with electric power generated by the generator, in addition to the power from the outside of the vehicle, during external charging, when the user detector determines that the user is present within the predetermined range. The vehicle ECU is configured to inhibit power generation by the generator during external charging when the user detector determines that the user is not present within the predetermined range.

An autonomous driving control device is capable of starting an autonomous driving control without an operation of a driver and reducing a possibility that the driver can not start manual driving. An autonomous driving control is switched to manual driving when a determination section determines that the amount of operation by the driver is equal to or greater than a first threshold, before a predetermined time elapses since the autonomous driving control is automatically started. An autonomous driving control is switched to a manual driving when the determination section determines that the amount of operation by the driver is equal to or greater than a second threshold that is greater than the first threshold, after the predetermined time elapses.

Disclosed are a system, method and system to predict an individual's action in connection with a vehicle user interface using machine learning. One or more models may be developed based, at least in part, on observations of past actions by the individual among the plurality of target actions by the individual. Extracted features of a current context may be applied to the developed one or more models to predict a subsequent action among the target actions by the individual.

A utility vehicle includes a frame assembly defined by a lower frame assembly and an upper frame assembly coupled to the lower frame assembly. The frame assembly supports a plurality of body panels. A roof, front windshield, rear windshield, and doors may be coupled to the frame assembly to enclose the operator area.

A method of controlling an engine and a transmission of a vehicle includes: determining, by a controller, whether the engine is restarted after releasing the vehicle's SSC (Start & Stop coasting) or whether the vehicle is accelerating during NCC (Neutral Coasting control), determining an RPM and gear stage of the transmission if it is determined that the engine is restarted after releasing the vehicle's SSC or the vehicle is accelerating during NCC, determining a mild hybrid starter and generator (MHSG) target RPM and an MHSG target RPM gradient of the vehicle, performing, by the controller, MHSG RPM control of the vehicle to follow the MHSG target RPM and the MHSG target RPM gradient, determining whether the MHSG RPM slips compared to the MHSG target RPM, and performing proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control to follow the MHSG target RPM if the MHSG RPM slips compared to the MHSG target RPM.

Disclosed are a method of controlling a mode transition in order to predict a driver's required torque to reduce non-driving fuel loss, and a hybrid vehicle for performing the method in particular, the method of controlling a mode transition of a hybrid vehicle may include: determining whether to change a first mode to a second mode based on a first torque; determining a second torque expected to be generated at a near-future time after a current time; determining whether or not an engine clutch engagement is possible at the near-future time based on the second torque or a predicted acceleration; and performing the change from the first mode to the second mode when the mode change from the first mode to the second mode is determined and the engine clutch engagement is possible.

A trajectory determination device includes a position estimation unit configured to estimate a position of a vehicle, an acquisition unit configured to acquire driving environment information relating to a driving environment of the vehicle, a generation unit configured to generate a plurality of trajectory candidates of the vehicle based on the position of the vehicle and map information, an evaluation unit configured to evaluate driving comfort for each trajectory candidate based on the driving environment information acquired by the acquisition unit and the plurality of trajectory candidates generated by the generation unit, and a selection unit configured to select one trajectory to travel with the autonomous driving from the plurality of trajectory candidates based on the driving comfort for each trajectory candidate evaluated by the evaluation unit.