A method for enabling driver operation of a motor vehicle includes receiving an electrical signal representing a property sensed by touching a region of skin of an occupant in the motor vehicle, and determining whether the occupant's ability to drive the motor vehicle is impaired based on the electrical signal. The method further includes performing an image based verification to determine whether the occupant from whom the property was sensed is in a driving position of the motor vehicle, and providing a control signal to enable operation of the motor vehicle based on a result of the determining and a result of the image based verification.

A vehicle is equipped with a torque sensor configured to detect a torque, and which is disposed on a second transmission path connecting a first rotary electric machine and a first branch point on a first transmission path. When a first switching device is placed in a connected state and a vehicle wheel is driven by an internal combustion engine, a control device causes an inverted phase torque, which is opposite in phase to a detected torque detected by the torque sensor, to be generated in the first rotary electric machine.

Various technologies described herein pertain to causing presentation on a user interface of an immediate portion of a navigation route of an autonomous vehicle. A computing system of the autonomous vehicle determines whether an object detected by sensor(s) of the autonomous vehicle proximate to the immediate portion of the navigation route are of a type and relative position defined as one of consequential and inconsequential for a human passenger. In response to determining that an object has both a type and relative position defined as consequential, the computing system causes presentation on the user interface a representation of the object relative to the immediate portion of the navigation route to provide a confidence engendering indication that the autonomous vehicle has detected the object. Otherwise if inconsequential, presentation on the user interface of any representation of the object is not caused by the computing system to avoid creating a confusing presentation.

In one embodiment, in response to a first control command originated from a driver of an ADV, an expected acceleration of the ADV in response to the first control command is determined in view of a current speed of the ADV under the standard driving environment (e.g., dry road, flat road surface, normal tire pressure, zero load). One of the command calibration tables is selected based on a current driving environment of the ADV at the point in time. A lookup operation is performed in the selected command calibration table to obtain a second control command based on the current speed and expected acceleration of the ADV. The second control command is then issued to the ADV to control the ADV. As a result, the ADV would have reached the same acceleration under the current driving environment as if the ADV was driving in the standard driving environment.

The purpose of the present invention is to improve fuel efficiency during coasting by calculating, with high accuracy, travel resistance during coasting. This vehicle control device comprises: a first travel resistance acquisition unit that acquires a first travel resistance, which is determined on the basis of road information or external information; and a second travel resistance acquisition unit that acquires a second travel resistance, which is determined on the basis of the result of actual traveling of the vehicle. This vehicle control device determines the content of coasting travel control during traveling of the vehicle on the basis of the result of a comparison of the first travel resistance and the second travel resistance in a predetermined zone where the vehicle has actually traveled.

A system and method are provided for dynamically protecting one or more transportable articles in a vehicle. The system may include an interior data collection component configured to collect transportable article data representing one or more transportable articles in the vehicle, a plurality of article protections components configured to protect the one or more transportable articles when deployed, and one or more processors configured to determine, by processing the transportable data, one or more characteristic(s) and/or trait(s) of the one or more transportable articles; select a subset of the plurality of article protection components to deploy based on the one or more characteristic(s) and/or trait(s) of the one or more transportable articles; and deploy the selected subset of the plurality of article protection components to protect the one or more transportable articles.

System, methods, and other embodiments described herein relate to transitioning a vehicle from an autonomous to a manual driving mode. One embodiment analyzes data from one or more vehicle sensors to detect, at a current vehicle position, features in a first detection region and a second detection region ahead of the vehicle; determines, for each of one or more hypothetical vehicle positions, which features detected at the current position, if any, lie within the first detection region at that hypothetical position; identifies, among the one or more hypothetical positions, at least one localization-failure position at which localization of the vehicle will fail due to insufficient features being detected within the first detection region at the at least one localization-failure position; and initiates a transition from the autonomous driving mode to the manual driving mode based, at least in part, on the at least one localization-failure position.

A technology is provided in which not only the information on the first preceding vehicle ILV but also the information on the preceding vehicle group LVG ahead of the first preceding vehicle ILV is applied to the travel assist control. Firstly, specification processing of a preceding vehicle LV on the own lane is executed (step S1). Subsequently, landmark information on the preceding vehicle LV is graded (step S2). Subsequently, a shielding ratio SR of the preceding vehicle LV belonging to the preceding vehicle group LVG is calculated for each preceding vehicle LV (step S3). Subsequently, determination processing is executed whether or not to apply the information on the preceding vehicle group LVG to travel assist control (step S4).

A system and method are provided for controlling operation of a vehicle. The system may include an interior data collection component configured to collected interior configuration data representing an interior space of the vehicle, a vehicle operation control configured to control actions of the vehicle, and one or more processors configured to determine, by processing the interior vehicle configuration data, an interior vehicle configuration of the vehicle, and cause the vehicle operation controller to cause the vehicle to take a specific action based on the interior vehicle configuration.

Methods and systems for monitoring use, determining risk, and pricing insurance policies for a vehicle having one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features are provided. According to certain aspects, the operating status of the features, the identity of a vehicle operator, risk levels for operation of the vehicle by the vehicle operator, or damage to the vehicle may be determined based upon sensor or other data. According to further aspects, decisions regarding transferring control between the features and the vehicle operator may be made based upon sensor data and information regarding the vehicle operator. Additional aspects may recommend or install updates to the autonomous operation features based upon determined risk levels. Some aspects may include monitoring transportation infrastructure and communicating information about the infrastructure to vehicles.