Systems and methods are provided for increasing driver awareness of external audible and visual alerts. The external alerts may be detected by external sensors of a vehicle. Systems may use internal sensors to determine whether a driver of the vehicle appears aware of the external alert or whether the external alert is detectable inside the vehicle. If the driver does not appear aware of the external alert, or the external alert is not detectable inside the vehicle, the vehicle may broadcast an internal alert to the driver. The internal alert may be one or more of a visual alert, an audible alert, or a tactile alert.

Systems and methods for situational behavior of an autonomous vehicle are disclosed. In one aspect, an autonomous vehicle includes at least one perception sensor configured to generate perception data indicative of at least one other vehicle on a roadway, a non-transitory computer readable medium, and a processor. The processor is configured to determine that the other vehicle is violating one or more rules of the roadway based on the perception data, tag the other vehicle as a non-compliant driver, and modify control of the autonomous vehicle in response to tagging the other vehicle as a non-compliant driver.

The disclosed technologies relate to reducing audible distractions for a driver of a vehicle. A method includes obtaining audio data based on sound detected inside the vehicle, identifying an audio event based on the audio data, determining a distraction rating for the audio event, the distraction rating indicating an estimated level of distraction caused by the audio event, and generating an alert when the distraction rating exceeds a threshold.

A vehicle may be operated in a driving mode with autonomous lateral control and in a driving mode with manual lateral control, where the vehicle has a steering lever with a steering lever range, and where the steering lever range represents a circular space which is delimited about 360° by a rotational movement of the steering lever about a steering lever axis of rotation. A method associated with the vehicle may include one or more of the following steps: operating the vehicle in a driving mode with autonomous lateral control; detecting an intrusion in the steering lever range and/or a breaching of a predefined distance from the steering lever range by the vehicle occupant or another object with a sensor unit without the vehicle occupant coming into contact with the steering lever; and signaling the intrusion and/or the breaching of the distance to the vehicle occupant.

An object detection system includes: a transmission unit configured to sequentially transmit a plurality of transmission waves to which identification information different from one another is applied; a reception unit configured to sequentially receive a plurality of reception waves respectively corresponding to the plurality of transmission waves returned in response to reflection by an object after all the plurality of transmission waves are transmitted by the transmission unit; and a detection processing unit configured to detect information related to the object based on a relationship between the plurality of transmission waves and the plurality of reception waves.

A method for predicting a future action of an object for a driving assistance system for a highly automated mobile vehicle. At least one sensor signal from at least one vehicle sensor of the vehicle is read in, the sensor signal representing at least one piece of kinematic object information concerning the object that is detected by the vehicle sensor at an instantaneous point in time. A planner signal from a planner of the autonomous driving assistance system is read in, the planner signal representing at least one piece of semantic information concerning the object or the surroundings of the object at a point in time in the past. The kinematic object information is fused with the semantic information to obtain a fusion signal. A prediction signal is determined using the fusion signal, the prediction signal representing the future action of the object.

Traveling environment information is recognized. A predicted traveling path is calculated based on a driving condition of a vehicle. An oncoming-vehicle predicted traveling path is calculated based on behavior of an oncoming vehicle. It is determined whether the vehicle has an intention to enter a first intersecting road at an intersection. When the vehicle cannot enter the first intersecting road, the predicted traveling path is corrected to a limit traveling path. It is determined whether the oncoming vehicle has an intention to enter a second intersecting road at the intersection. When the oncoming vehicle cannot enter the second intersecting road, the oncoming-vehicle predicted traveling path is corrected to an oncoming-vehicle limit traveling path. The oncoming vehicle is set as a control target against which emergency braking is executed when the predicted traveling path and the oncoming-vehicle predicted traveling path overlap each other at least in part.

The present disclosure relates to a hybrid electric vehicle in which powertrain noise may be controlled to improve the voice command recognition performance of the vehicle control system and also improve the driver’s experience with the audio guidance system, and a method for supporting audio input/output function for the same. A method of supporting audio input/output for a hybrid electric vehicle may include: determining a first condition for audio input/output function and a second condition for inside noise level; and performing a noise reduction control by inducing an engine-off state based on a current drive mode and further based on the first and the second conditions being satisfied.

An assistance system for a vehicle capable of automated operation has a controller having a processor and tangible, non-transitory memory on which instructions are recorded. The vehicle is located on a first lane in a vicinity of one or more neighboring vehicles, the first lane merging with a second lane at a merging trajectory location. The controller is adapted to selectively execute a leader determination module when a distance of the vehicle to the merge starting point is less than a threshold value. This includes determining an estimated arrival time of the vehicle to a merge starting point of the merging trajectory location. The controller is adapted to select a leader vehicle from the neighboring vehicles based in part on their respective estimated arrival times to the merge starting point. Operation of the vehicle is controlled based in part on the leader vehicle.

A system and method for controlling an autonomous vehicle to affect a view seen by an occupant of the autonomous vehicle is described. In one embodiment, a method for controlling an autonomous vehicle to affect a view seen by an occupant of the autonomous vehicle includes determining a navigation route, determining content associated with the navigation route, monitoring current conditions of the autonomous vehicle and the occupant, determining, based on the current conditions, whether to change a position of the vehicle to affect the view seen by the occupant, and when the current conditions permit, moving the autonomous vehicle to affect the view seen by the occupant.