Methods and systems for calibrating a hybrid vehicle system for simplified control of the powertrain to optimize fuel efficiency of the hybrid vehicle and for operating a hybrid vehicle powertrain accordingly. The optimization mechanism reduces the optimized control problem to a single degree-of-freedom. Accordingly, during real-time operation of the hybrid vehicle, the system is able to quickly identify and apply optimized operating settings for a particular driver demand and, in some implementations, to provide a particular rate of change of the state-of-charge of the battery of the hybrid vehicle.

A vehicle control device includes: a control portion that makes, of a plurality of shock absorbers included in a vehicle, a first damping force of at least one shock absorber that is located on a first direction side on which acceleration acts in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle larger than a second damping force of at least one shock absorber of the plurality of shock absorbers that is located on a second direction side opposite to the first direction in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle before acceleration acting on the vehicle is detected by an acceleration sensor due to acceleration or deceleration of the vehicle.

A control apparatus for an automatic-driving vehicle includes a fall detecting unit and a collision preventing unit. The fall detecting unit detects that a load of the automatic-driving vehicle has fallen onto a road. The collision preventing unit performs a collision prevention process that is a process to prevent another vehicle from colliding with the load when the fall detecting unit detects that the load has fallen onto the road.

A method and an apparatus for controlling an autonomous driving vehicle are provided. The method includes: receiving environment information sent by an autonomous driving vehicle, the environment information including vehicle exterior environment information; determining whether the autonomous driving vehicle is in an abnormal operation status, based on the vehicle exterior environment information and operation information of an operation executed by the autonomous driving vehicle; and sending a braking control instruction and a data acquisition instruction to the autonomous driving vehicle, in response to determining that the autonomous driving vehicle is in the abnormal operation status, the braking control instruction being used for controlling braking of the autonomous driving vehicle, and the data acquisition instruction being used for acquiring data of a driving recorder in the autonomous driving vehicle.

Aspects of the disclosure provide for arranging trips for autonomous vehicles. For instance, a request for a trip may be received by one or more processors of one or more server computing devices. The request may identify an initial location. A weather condition at the initial location may be identified. One or more internal vehicle state conditions and one or more priorities for pulling over may be determined based on the weather condition. A second location may be determined based on the one or more priorities and the initial location. Dispatch instructions may be provided to an autonomous vehicle, the dispatch instructions identifying the second location and the one or more internal vehicle state conditions in order to cause computing devices of the autonomous vehicle to control the autonomous vehicle to the second location and adjust internal vehicle state conditions based on the one or more internal vehicle state conditions.

Vision based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices are disclosed. An exemplary method for operating an autonomous lawn mower includes receiving, via a receiver, a perimeter data set from a handheld computer. The perimeter data set includes a perimeter outline of at least one perimeter that is determined utilizing a GPS unit of the handheld computer. The exemplary method also includes collecting, via at least one camera, images of a set area within the perimeter outline and mowing, via a mowing blade, grass within the set area. The exemplary method also includes autonomously steering, via a controller, the autonomous lawn mower based on the perimeter outline of the at least one perimeter and the images captured by the at least one camera.

An information processing system includes a vehicle and an information processing device configured to transmit and receive information to and from the vehicle. The vehicle is configured to acquire information on an occupant in a cabin of the vehicle, and operate to affect a perception of the occupant. The information processing device is configured to store a cause of an accident caused by a passenger of the vehicle and control information for operating the operating unit to eliminate the cause of the accident, and transmit the control information to the operating unit of the vehicle when determination is made that the cause of the accident occurs based on the information on the occupant. The vehicle is configured to operate to eliminate the cause of the accident when the control information is received.

A method of estimating a load on a vehicle (10), the method comprising: obtaining a first load estimate using a first load estimation technique; obtaining a second load estimate using a second load estimation technique; analysing characteristics of the first load estimate and the second load estimate; and, based on the analysis selecting either the first load estimate or the second load estimate as an output load estimate.

The present invention prevents occurrence of abnormal noise and swing of a vehicle in mitigating braking force of a steered wheel while reducing a steering load at the time of stationary steering to reduce a burden of a steering device and reducing stress accumulation due to stationary steering to reduce burdens of a tire, a suspension device and the steering device. The present invention includes a stop braking force control unit 202 that individually controls braking forces of steered wheels 51 and 52 and non-steered wheels 53 and 54 at the time of deceleration of the vehicle, and a pre-detection unit 203 that detects steering in a stopped state of the vehicle in advance, in which the stop braking force control unit executes, when the steering in a stopped state of the vehicle is detected in advance by the pre-detection unit, braking force mitigation control to decrease the braking forces of the steered wheels to be lower than the braking forces at the time of normal braking.

A safety system (200) for a vehicle (100) is provided. The safety system (200) may include one or more processors (102). The one or more processors (102) may be configured to control a vehicle (100) to operate in accordance with the predefined stored driving model parameters, to detect vehicle operation data during the operation of the vehicle (100), to determine whether to change predefined driving model parameters based on the detected vehicle operation data and the driving model parameters, to change the driving model parameters to changed driving model parameters, and to control the vehicle (100) to operate in accordance with the changed driving model parameters.