A method for CO.sub.2 certification and/or CO.sub.2-dependent homologation of vehicles that takes into account at least one design feature of the vehicle, which is characterized in that the detected use of a CO.sub.2-reduced fuel is taken into account as a design feature of the vehicle.

A control device of an internal combustion engine is configured to output a predicted value of an output parameter by using a learning model if actually measured values of input parameters are input, control the internal combustion engine based on the predicted value of the output parameter, learn the learning model by using a gradient method and by using a combination of actually measured values of the input parameters and an actually measured value of the output parameter as teacher data, and adjust the learning rate so that the learning is performed by a smaller learning rate when an amount of noise superposed on an actually measured value of at least one parameter among the input parameters and the output parameter is relatively large compared with when the amount of noise superposed on the actually measured value of the parameter is relatively small.

A control apparatus mounted on a diesel vehicle including an oxidation catalyst, a selective reduction catalyst, and a gas sensor includes an activation determination section, a concentration computation section, and a deterioration determination section. The concentration computation section computes the concentration of flammable gas from a sensor output in a period during which the activation determination section determines that the oxidation catalyst is not in the activated state and computes the concentration of ammonia gas from the sensor output in a period during which the activation determination section determines that the oxidation catalyst is in the activated state. The deterioration determination section determines whether or not the oxidation catalyst has deteriorated, on the basis of the concentration of the flammable gas computed by the concentration computation section.

An exhaust gas analyzer to analyze exhaust gas discharged from an internal combustion engine includes an infrared light source, a photodetector, a CO.sub.2 concentration calculation part and an O.sub.2 concentration calculation part. The infrared light source irradiates infrared light to the exhaust gas. The photodetector detects infrared light after passing through the exhaust gas. The CO.sub.2 concentration calculation part calculates a CO.sub.2 concentration in the exhaust gas on the basis of a detection signal obtained by the photodetector. The O.sub.2 concentration calculation part calculates an O.sub.2 concentration in the exhaust gas from the CO.sub.2 concentration by using a fuel combustion reaction equation and an EGR rate in an exhaust gas recirculation system or a value related to the EGR rate.

A system and method for self-adjusting engine performance parameters in response to fuel quality variations that includes an exhaust sensor for measuring a level of carbon dioxide present in an exhaust manifold, at least one of a knock sensor and a cylinder pressure transducer for determining a location of peak pressure and a centroid, respectively, a controller in communication with the exhaust sensor and the at least one of the knock sensor and the cylinder pressure transducer, the controller correlating a methane number of the fuel used by the engine to a brake specific carbon dioxide value calculated using the level of carbon dioxide measured by the exhaust sensor and the at least one of the centroid and the location of peak pressure, and an adjusting mechanism, wherein the adjusting mechanism adjusts an engine performance parameter based on the determined methane number.

A system and method is provided for the use of the ion current signal characteristics for onboard cycle-by-cycle, cylinder-by-cylinder measurement. The system may also control the engine operating parameters based on a predicted NOx emission level, CO emission level, CO.sub.2 emission level, O.sub.2 emission level, unburned hydrocarbon (HC) emission level, cylinder pressure, or a cylinder temperature measurement according to characteristics of the ion current signal.

A method for ascertaining emissions of a motor vehicle driven with the aid of an internal combustion engine in a practical driving operation. A machine learning system is trained to generate time curves of the operating variables with the aid of measured time curves of operating variables of the motor vehicle and/or of the internal combustion engine, and to then ascertain the emissions as a function of these generated time curves.

An engine maintenance set can be generated via a computerized system using engine status data for an internal combustion engine. The generating can include operating on the engine status data using a set of computer-readable maintenance set generation rules, with the rules correlating an engine maintenance set with a triggering condition. The generating can include determining that the triggering condition is met, with the triggering condition including each of one or more triggering parameters being within one or more corresponding triggering value ranges. The triggering parameters can include at least one engine emission triggering parameter. The generating can further include producing the engine maintenance set using the maintenance set generation rules. The generated engine maintenance set can be issued, with the engine maintenance set including one or more commands to perform one or more maintenance operations to improve efficiency of the engine and/or one or more engine status notifications.

A driver alert arrangement for a motor vehicle includes a sensor detecting a level of carbon monoxide associated with the motor vehicle and transmitting a signal indicative of the detected level of carbon monoxide. An engine ignition has an ON state in which the engine ignition enables operation of an engine of the motor vehicle, and an OFF state in which the engine ignition disables operation of the engine of the motor vehicle. An electronic processor is communicatively coupled to the sensor and to the engine ignition. The electronic processor receives the signal from the sensor and controls whether the engine ignition is in the ON state or the OFF state dependent upon the signal.

A control device of an internal combustion engine is configured to output a predicted value of an output parameter by using a learning model if actually measured values of input parameters are input, control the internal combustion engine based on the predicted value of the output parameter, learn the learning model by using a gradient method and by using a combination of actually measured values of the input parameters and an actually measured value of the output parameter as teacher data, and adjust the learning rate so that the learning is performed by a smaller learning rate when an amount of noise superposed on an actually measured value of at least one parameter among the input parameters and the output parameter is relatively large compared with when the amount of noise superposed on the actually measured value of the parameter is relatively small.