A method can be used to control a steer-by-wire steering system in an emergency steering mode. The method comprises checking a steering system for the presence of a fault state and upon detection of a fault implementing the emergency steering mode, which involves determining a setpoint position of a steering tie rod using a setpoint wheel steering angle, determining a front wheel to be braked and a brake pressure to attain the setpoint position with a control unit, transmitting the front wheel to be braked and the brake pressure to a brake system, braking the front wheel to be braked, and increasing a torque provided by a wheel drive to compensate for a loss of speed of the motor vehicle caused by the braking of the front wheel to be braked.

An information processing apparatus, a vehicle, and an information processing method each capable of improving the visibility of an on-board meter panel. Information processing apparatus includes information acquirer that acquires traveling information on traveling of a vehicle including an on-board meter panel; and display pattern changer that changes a display pattern of the on-board meter panel in accordance with change in the traveling information.

A method of maintaining stability of a motor vehicle having a first axle, a second axle, and a steering actuator configured to steer the first axle includes determining localization and heading of the vehicle. The method also includes determining a current side-slip angle of the second axle and setting a maximum side-slip angle of the second axle using the friction coefficient at the vehicle and road surface interface. The method additionally includes predicting when the maximum side-slip angle would be exceeded using the localization, heading, and determined current side-slip angle as inputs to a linear computational model. The method also includes updating the model using the prediction of when the maximum side-slip angle would be exceeded to determine impending instability of the vehicle. Furthermore, the method includes correcting for the impending instability using the updated model and the maximum side-slip angle via modifying a steering angle of the first axle.

Systems and methods use cameras to provide autonomous navigation features. In one implementation, a method for navigating a user vehicle may include acquiring, using at least one image capture device, a plurality of images of an area in a vicinity of the user vehicle; determining from the plurality of images a first lane constraint on a first side of the user vehicle and a second lane constraint on a second side of the user vehicle opposite to the first side of the user vehicle; enabling the user vehicle to pass a target vehicle if the target vehicle is determined to be in a lane different from the lane in which the user vehicle is traveling; and causing the user vehicle to abort the pass before completion of the pass, if the target vehicle is determined to be entering the lane in which the user vehicle is traveling.

A system for controlling stop of a vehicle includes a steering angle comparison device that detects a current steering angle of the vehicle and compares the detected current steering angle with a preset limit steering angle when a malfunction of a steering system in the vehicle is detected during autonomous driving, a partial braking induction determination device that determines a position of a tire of the vehicle to be subjected to partial braking for steering control of the vehicle according to a result of the comparing between the current steering angle and the limit steering angle, and a partial braking control device that determines an amount of braking to be applied to each determined tire of the vehicle and applies a braking pressure corresponding to the amount of braking to each tire of the vehicle to perform the steering control by the partial braking.

Controlling an actual slip of at least one driven axle of a motor vehicle with at least one axle having at least one wheel and a one drive unit for providing a drive torque for the axle and for the wheel can be carried out by a control device for controlling the drive unit. The control device can be configured for establishing a first actual speed of the motor vehicle; establishing a second actual speed of the at least one wheel; calculating a target speed of the at least one wheel for the established first actual speed taking into account parameters; determining an actual slip of the at least one wheel with respect to a substrate on which the motor vehicle is being moved; when the actual slip exceeds a defined first limit slip, generating a limit torque by which the drive torque produced by the drive unit is adjusted.

System and methods are provided for implementing friction circle safety controls in a vehicle, such as an autonomous vehicle. A system can apply a friction circle analysis during the vehicle's operation, in order to perform a safety-based evaluation of maneuvers that impact the dynamic relationship between a vehicle's tires and a road surface. The system also establishes a link between the vehicle's lateral controls (e.g., steering wheel) and the vehicle's longitudinal controls (e.g., brake and throttle pedals), such that a frictional force of the tires against the road's surface, does not does not exceed a traction limit (e.g., limit of a tire's grip on the road surface) for the particular vehicle. For example, friction circle safety controls can automatically provide feedback and/or automatic driving actions to adjust a relationship between the steering wheel and brake/throttle pedals of the vehicle to maintain operation of the vehicle within the friction circle.

In one embodiment, a control command is generated by an autonomous controller of the ADV. Feedback is sensed that corresponds to the control command. A difference is determined between a) the control command, and b) the feedback corresponding to the control command. If the difference is meets a threshold, then a fault response is generated.

Disclosed are distributed computing systems and methods for controlling multiple autonomous control modules and subsystems in an autonomous vehicle. In some aspects of the disclosed technology, a computing architecture for an autonomous vehicle includes distributing the complexity of autonomous vehicle operation, thereby avoiding the use of a single high-performance computing system and enabling off-the-shelf components to be use more readily and reducing system failure rates.

Vehicle center of gravity (CoG) height and mass estimation techniques utilize a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor configured to emit light pulses and capture reflected light pulses that collectively form LIDAR point cloud data and a controller configured to estimate the CoG height and the mass of the vehicle during a steady-state operating condition of the vehicle by processing the LIDAR point cloud data to identify a ground plane, identifying a height difference between (i) a nominal distance from the LIDAR sensor to the ground plane and (ii) an estimated distance from the LIDAR sensor to the ground plane using the processed LIDAR point cloud data, estimating the vehicle CoG height as a difference between (i) a nominal vehicle CoG height and the height difference, and estimating the vehicle mass based on one of (i) vehicle CoG metrics and (ii) dampening metrics of a suspension of the vehicle.