A shifting control method for controlling a speed change of a vehicle in a downhill section may include collecting, by a forward road grade information collection device, information on a downhill grade which is present ahead of a vehicle, before a vehicle enters a downhill section, determining, by a driving information detection device, whether a predetermined inertial driving condition is satisfied, before the vehicle enters the downhill section, and deciding, by a control device, a shifting mode of the vehicle depending on the downhill grade, and controlling a transmission according to the decided shifting mode, at a predetermined time before the vehicle enters the downhill section.

This vehicle control device 10 is provided with: a current gear stage selection unit 13 which, on the basis of the travel resistance of the vehicle, selects a current gear stage, which is the gear stage of the vehicle in the current travel segment where the vehicle is traveling; a next gear stage selection unit 16 which selects a next gear stage, which will be the gear stage of the vehicle in the next travel segment, forwards in the travel direction of the vehicle, having a road slope different from that of the current travel segment; and a shift control unit 17 which, if during travel of the vehicle in the current travel segment in the current gear stage, the current gear stage selection unit 13 has newly selected a target gear stage higher than the next gear stage, controls shifting such that upshifting from the current gear stage to the target gear stage is suppressed and the current gear stage is maintained. If, in a state in which upshifting is suppressed, the engine rotation speed reaches or exceeds a prescribed value during travel in the current travel segment, the shift control unit 17 controls shifting so as to upshift to the target gear stage without suppression of upshifting.

This vehicle control device 10 is provided with: a current gear stage selection unit 13 which selects a current gear stage, which is the gear stage of the vehicle in the present travel state; a travel segment determination unit 15 which determines the next travel segment forwards in the direction of travel of the vehicle V; and a shift control unit 17 which, in the case that the current gear stage selection unit 13 has newly selected a target gear stage lower than the current gear stage during travel of the vehicle V in the current gear stage in the current travel segment, if the next travel segment can be traveled in the current gear stage and the amount the vehicle V will lose speed after traveling the current travel segment is less than or equal to a prescribed threshold value, controls shifting of the gear stage such that downshifting from the current gear stage to the target gear stage is suppressed and the current gear stage is maintained. Even in a state in which downshifting is suppressed, if the state of the vehicle the satisfies a prescribed condition, then the shift control unit 17 controls shifting of the gear stage so as to downshift to the target gear stage without suppression of downshifting.

A vehicle control device includes: a travel section determination unit configured to determine a forward travel section that is a travel section having a different road gradient from a current travel section in which a vehicle is currently traveling and that is ahead in a travel direction of the vehicle; a forward gear stage selection unit configured to select a forward gear stage which is a gear stage of the vehicle in the forward travel section; and a shift control unit configured to, in a case where the selected forward gear stage is lower by two or more stages than the current gear stage which is a gear stage of the vehicle in the current travel section and when the vehicle is positioned within a predetermined range from a start position of the forward travel section, perform downshift from the current gear stage to the forward gear stage.

In a transmission controller for the open-loop and/or closed-loop control of the operation of an automatic or automated manual transmission of a motor vehicle, a shifting strategy of the transmission control unit controls the operation of the transmission in an open-loop and/or closed-loop manner based on driving status data and/or driver intention data. The shifting strategy of the transmission control unit influences a gear change from a current actual gear into a target gear based on available environmental data. In the event of a required down-shift from a current actual gear into a lower target gear, the transmission control unit is configured to take into account available information relating to a traffic light status, in particular relating to a change of a traffic light status of a relevant traffic light.

A method for controlling a transmission provided in a vehicle may include providing a reference data for automatic shift of the transmission according to a speed reference of the vehicle, collecting a detected data delivered from at least one detector or operation state information related to an in-vehicle device, wherein the at least one detector and the in-vehicle device is attached or mounted on the vehicle configured for recognizing a driving condition, determining a mode for the automatic shift based at least on the detected data or the operating state information, and performing the automatic shift according to the mode.

A segment determination device has an acquisition unit for acquiring altitude information about points on a road on which a segment is defined, a calculation unit for calculating a distance between a point where a vehicle is located and an end point of the segment, a reference point determination unit for determining a reference point that is a point closest from the end point based on the calculated distance, a feature amount determination unit for determining a feature amount that indicates gradient information, and a segment determination unit for, in a case where the feature amount is outside a predetermined range, determining a segment in which the end point of the segment is set as a start point and whichever of two points adjacent to the point more ahead of the vehicle than the reference point that is closed to the vehicle is set as an end point.

A segment determination device is provided with an altitude information acquisition unit that acquires altitude information about a plurality of points on a road on which a vehicle travels, a feature amount determination unit that determines a feature amount indicating gradient information about the road based on the altitude information about points including a first point ahead of the vehicle in a traveling direction of the vehicle and a second point further ahead of the first point among the plurality of points, and a segment determination unit that, in a case where the feature amount is outside of a predetermined range, determines a segment in which the first point is set as a start point and whichever of two points adjacent to the second point that is closer to the vehicle is set as an end point.

In the present invention: a road information acquisition unit (12a) acquires road information about a prescribed section of road ahead of a vehicle traveling at a first shift position; a vehicle information acquisition unit (12b) acquires vehicle information; a speed prediction unit (12c) predicts, on the basis of the road information and the vehicle information, the speed transition in the prescribed section for when the vehicle will have traveled through the prescribed section at the first shift position; and a gearshift control unit (12d) causes a transmission (5) to downshift to a second shift position when the minimum value of the predicted vehicle speed is less than a prescribed speed.

Disclosed in the present disclosure is a vehicle energy saving control method, comprising: switching a multi-power switch to a corresponding gear position according to an actual load value and a load threshold; obtaining road information of a corner ahead when the vehicle is driving, wherein the road information comprises a curvature radius; calculating equivalent mass according to the curvature radius, total mass, a speed of the vehicle and a road friction coefficient; determining a predicted gear position according to the sum of the actual load value and the equivalent mass; and switching the multi-power switch to the predicted gear position if the predicted gear position is different from the current gear position. The present disclosure can solve the problem of energy waste caused by the power output mismatch when the vehicle passes the corner.