A method is for operating a vehicle combination having a tractor and at least one trailer. A brake control unit of a tractor brake system monitors the braking behavior of the tractor or the vehicle combination, and if necessary the brake pressure at each of the wheel brakes of the tractor, and initiates the deceleration of the trailer. To improve the driving safety of the vehicle in the event of limitation of the functionality of components of the vehicle combination, at least one vehicle component of the tractor and/or of the trailer, the vehicle component being relevant for driving safety, is monitored with regard to functionality, and in the event of detection of a limitation of the functionality of a component, the brake control unit of the tractor brake system decelerates the vehicle combination using a trailer brake system of the trailer.

Techniques are described for determining weight distribution of a vehicle. A method of performing autonomous driving operation includes determining a vehicle weight distribution that values for each axle of the vehicle that describe weight or pressure applied on a respective axle. The values of the vehicle weight distribution are determined by removing at least one value that is outside a range of pre-determined values from a set of sensor values. The method further includes determining a driving-related operation of the vehicle weight distribution. For example, the driving-related operation may include determining a braking amount for each axle and/or determining a maximum steering angle to operate the vehicle. The method further includes controlling one or more subsystems in the vehicle via an instruction related to the driving-related operation. For example, transmitting the instruction to the one or more subsystems causes the vehicle to perform the driving-related operation.

A driving support device includes a braking controller configured to execute braking control, a first calculator configured to calculate a first braking control amount of the braking controller, a second calculator configured to calculate, on the basis of a setting standard, a second braking control amount of the braking control executed at an execution frequency lower than an execution frequency of the braking control based on the first braking control amount, and an updater configured to update the setting standard on the basis of a relative relationship between an estimated braking behavior based on the first braking control amount and an actual braking behavior based on the first braking control amount.

If the sign of the relative speed of the non-fixed object is negative, the determination width for own lane is expanded in the lane-width direction. According to the expanded determination width for own lane, both the preceding vehicle on the adjacent lane and the preceding vehicle on the own lane are recognized as existing on the own lane. Therefore, if it is determined that the risk to collide with the preceding vehicle on the adjacent lane is high, the decelerating assist control is executed to prevent collision with this preceding vehicle. Also, if it is determined that the risk to collide with the preceding vehicle on the own lane is high, the decelerating assist control for preventing collision with this preceding vehicle is executed.

This driving assistance device includes a braking control unit and a target speed determination unit. The braking control unit executes driving assistance control for adjusting the braking force to be applied to a vehicle by actuating a brake actuator such that the vehicle body speed does not exceed a target speed. In cases where the accelerator pedal is being operated in a state where the braking control unit is executing the driving assistance control, the target speed determination unit determines the target speed depending on the larger value of either: the vehicle body speed that is correlated with at least one of the wheel speeds of the plurality of wheels provided to the vehicle; or the lower speed limit value that has been set.

Systems and methods for slowing (and stopping) a subject vehicle in response to detection of an emergency vehicle with activated emergency lights, or a school bus with activated stop lights.

A system for controlling vehicles in a platoon includes a lead vehicle controller on a lead vehicle in the platoon and a following vehicle controller on a following vehicle in the platoon. The lead vehicle controller is adapted to determine a braking distance, based on an initial speed of the lead vehicle and a percent of full service brake application of the lead vehicle, and transmit a braking distance signal indicating the braking distance. The following vehicle controller is adapted to identify the braking distance upon receiving the braking distance signal, determine a percent of full service brake application of the following vehicle based on an initial speed of the following vehicle and the braking distance, and transmit a signal to a following vehicle service brake to apply the following vehicle service brake at the determined percent of full service brake application.

A braking force control apparatus is provided which has an upstream braking actuator for generating an upstream pressure common to four wheels, a downstream braking actuator individually controlling braking pressure supplied to braking force generating devices of the wheels using the upstream pressure, and a control unit. When the downstream braking actuator is abnormal and the upstream pressure can be supplied to the braking force generating devices, but a braking pressure of any one of the wheels cannot be normally controlled, the control unit selects a control mode on the pressure increasing side out of the front wheel control modes, selects a control mode on the pressure increasing side out of the rear wheel control modes, selects a control mode on the pressure decreasing side out of the two selected control modes as a prescribed control mode, and controls the upstream pressure in the prescribed control mode.

In a monitoring apparatus, a disparity calculator obtains, for each point of a target object, a pair of matched pixel regions in respective base image and reference image corresponding to the point of the target object. The disparity calculator calculates a disparity of each of the matched pixel regions of the base image relative to the corresponding matched pixel region of the reference image. A distance calculator corrects the calculated disparity of each of the matched pixel regions of the base image in accordance with a tolerable disparity range for the disparity to thereby increase the calculated disparity of the corresponding one of the matched pixel regions of the base image. The distance calculator calculates the depth distance of each point of the target object relative to the vehicle as a function of the corrected disparity of the corresponding one of the matched pixel regions.

A smart braking system for a vehicle is provided. The smart braking system selectively activates a braking system of the vehicle when the smart braking system detects a scenario in which it is likely that a constant vehicle speed, rather than an increasing vehicle speed, would be desired by a driver. In one example, a driver releases an accelerator while the vehicle is on a decline but the vehicle accelerates anyway. In this instance, the smart braking system records the speed of the vehicle when the accelerator is released and applies the braking system to maintain the speed of the vehicle at the recorded speed while the vehicle is on the decline. The smart braking system stops activating the braking system upon detecting that braking is no longer needed to slow down the vehicle.