An apparatus for controlling a vehicle includes: a sensor that obtains vehicle surrounding environment information and vehicle driving information; and a controller that determines whether an engagement of an Electronic Parking Brake (EPB) is possible based on the vehicle driving information, performs control for preventing a slip based on the vehicle surrounding environment information upon determining that the engagement of the EPB is impossible, calculates a steering angle for preventing the slip, transmits the steering angle to a portable terminal, receives a steering control command from the portable terminal, and controls steering based on the received steering control command.

An apparatus for controlling a vehicle includes: a sensor that obtains vehicle surrounding environment information and vehicle driving information; and a controller that determines whether an engagement of an Electronic Parking Brake (EPB) is possible based on the vehicle driving information, performs control for preventing a slip based on the vehicle surrounding environment information upon determining that the engagement of the EPB is impossible, calculates a steering angle for preventing the slip, transmits the steering angle to a portable terminal, receives a steering control command from the portable terminal, and controls steering based on the received steering control command.

A control device for a vehicle having a drive shaft, an engagement element, an engine connected to the drive shaft via the engagement element, and an electric motor connected to the drive shaft not via the engagement element includes a control portion adapted to stop the engine after a maintaining period in which the engine is maintained at predetermined rotation speed during travel of the vehicle. The a control portion gradually decreases an engagement volume of the engagement element while gradually increasing a power generation load of the electric motor during the maintaining period to disengage the engagement element, and stops the engine after disengagement of the engagement element.

A braking system for slideway guided amusement vehicles providing both manual and automatic braking for the slideway guided amusement vehicles is provided. The braking system includes at least one brake handle, a first shaft fixed to the at least one brake handle, a first gear concentrically positioned on and free to spin independently of the first shaft, an actuator fixed to the first shaft for providing a linear motion to a stop pin, an inlet opening on the first gear for receiving the stop pin, a second gear coupled to the first gear, concentrically fixed on a second shaft for mounting spinnably and extending horizontally to a chassis of a vehicle, at least one friction member attached to the second shaft, a tensioning means, and a control unit adapted to remove the stop pin from the inlet opening via the actuator.

Various examples are directed to systems and methods for operating a vehicle comprising a tractor and a trailer attached for pulling behind the tractor. A center-of-mass system may determine a mass of the trailer and a tractor understeer. The center-of-mass system may determine the tractor understeer using steering input data describing a steering angle of the tractor and yaw data describing a yaw of the tractor. The center-of-mass system may determine a load center of mass using the tractor understeer and a mass of the trailer. The center-of-mass system may further determine that the load center of mass transgresses a center-of-mass threshold and send an alert message indicating that the load transgresses the load center-of-mass threshold.

Various examples are directed to systems and methods for operating a vehicle comprising a tractor and a trailer attached for pulling behind the tractor. A center-of-mass system may determine a mass of the trailer and a tractor understeer. The center-of-mass system may determine the tractor understeer using steering input data describing a steering angle of the tractor and yaw data describing a yaw of the tractor. The center-of-mass system may determine a load center of mass using the tractor understeer and a mass of the trailer. The center-of-mass system may further determine that the load center of mass transgresses a center-of-mass threshold and send an alert message indicating that the load transgresses the load center-of-mass threshold.

There is provided a traveling control device capable of appropriately performing collision avoidance by using not only a region inside a lane of an own vehicle but also a region outside the lane of the own vehicle. A traveling control device includes an acceleration calculation unit which obtains an acceleration of a target object from information of an outside recognition sensor, a behavior estimation unit which estimates a behavior of the target object from the acceleration, a TTC calculation unit which obtains a time to collision from the information of the outside recognition sensor, a determination unit which determines a risk region based on outputs of the TTC calculation unit and the behavior estimation unit, and a collision avoidance operation control unit which controls a collision avoidance operation for the target object based on a result of the determination unit.

In a driving assistance device for performing a driving assistance process to avoid or mitigate a collision between an own vehicle, which is a vehicle carrying the driving assistance device, and an oncoming vehicle detected within a predefined region ahead of the own vehicle, an entry determiner is configured to determine whether one of the own vehicle and the oncoming vehicle is likely to enter a lane in which the other one is present. An actuation controller is configured to, in response to the entry determiner determining that each one of the own vehicle and the oncoming vehicle is unlikely to enter the lane of the other, restrict actuation of the driving assistance process, and in response to the entry determiner determining that any one of the own vehicle and the oncoming vehicle is likely to enter the lane of the other, not restrict actuation of the driving assistance process.

A method of controlling switching to a manual driving mode in an autonomous vehicle provided with a foldable pedal device is provided. In the method, when a signal for switching a driving mode from an autonomous driving mode to the manual driving mode is generated in an autonomous vehicle provided with a foldable accelerator pedal device and a foldable brake pedal device, whether it is possible to switch the driving mode to the manual driving mode is determined by checking safety conditions; when the safety conditions are satisfied, it is determined whether a pop-up position of a pad of the foldable accelerator pedal device and a pop-up position of a pad of the foldable brake pedal device are normal pop-up positions, respectively; and only when the positions are the respective normal pop-up positions, the driving mode is switched to the manual driving mode.

A towed vehicle braking system is described that in some embodiments includes a brake pedal connector configured to connect to a brake pedal of a brake of a towed vehicle. A cylinder has a piston connected to the brake pedal connector to actuate the brake of the towed vehicle through the brake pedal connector by applying a positive pressure to the brake pedal connector to move the brake pedal. A vacuum supply line is coupled to a power booster of the towed vehicle brake and configured to provide vacuum to the power booster. A pump is coupled to the vacuum supply line and to the cylinder to alternately provide vacuum to the vacuum supply line and to drive the piston to actuate the brake. An inertial sensor detects deceleration of the towed vehicle, and a processor is coupled to the inertial sensor and to the pump to cause the pump to not provide vacuum and to drive the piston in response to the detection of deceleration.