System, methods, and other embodiments described herein relate to adapting operation of an assistance system in a subject vehicle according to a presence of a trailer. In one embodiment, a method includes, in response to determining that the trailer causes an occlusion to perception of at least one sensor about a surrounding environment of the subject vehicle, modifying system parameters associated with the assistance system according to the occlusion to adapt how the assistance system operates while the occlusion is present. The method includes controlling the assistance system as a function of the system parameters to improve assistance provided to an occupant of the subject vehicle.

Systems and methods are provided for vehicle battery charge reduction. A hybrid electric vehicle is disclosed. The vehicle comprises an internal combustion engine; an electric motor; a battery electrically coupled to the electric motor; a battery charger electrically coupled to the battery and mechanically coupled to the internal combustion engine; one or more sensors, wherein each sensor provides a respective sensor signal, wherein each sensor signal represents a respective current operating condition of the hybrid electric vehicle; and a computing component configured to: perform a first comparison of a state-of-charge of the battery to a charge threshold, perform a second comparison of one or more of the current vehicle operating conditions to respective nominal vehicle operating conditions, wherein none of the vehicle operating conditions describe a condition of the battery, and reduce charging of the battery based on the first comparison and the second comparison.

The disclosure relates to a method for reversing a vehicle combination (1) comprising a towing vehicle (10) and at least one trailer (20), said method comprising: (S10) reversing the vehicle combination, (S20) determining whether a jack-knifing condition (J) is about to occur by comparing a predicted future estimate of the articulation angle (Φ) with a maximum safe articulation angle (Φ.sub.lim), wherein the maximum safe articulation angle (Φ.sub.lim) is estimated according to the first aspect of the invention, and when it is determined that the jack-knifing condition (J) is about to occur, perform at least one of the following steps: (S30) issue a warning signal, and (S40) initiate a braking action for the vehicle combination, wherein the predicted future estimate of the articulation angle (Φ) is based on an estimated driver reaction time for initiating a braking action.

A method for exhaust braking includes monitoring, by a controller of a vehicle, an engine speed of an internal combustion engine; comparing, by the controller, the engine speed with the a predetermined braking speed threshold to determine whether the engine speed is greater than the a predetermined braking speed threshold; and, in response to determining that the engine speed is greater than the a predetermined braking speed threshold, switching the vehicle to an exhaust braking mode.

Controllers, control architectures, systems and methods are described for controlling a host vehicle's participation in a platoon. Described vehicle platooning control systems may include a platoon controller and a vehicle interface controller. The platoon controller is configured to determine torque and braking requests for at least partially automatically controlling the host vehicle to platoon with a platoon partner. The vehicle interface controller manages communications between the platoon controller and one or more host vehicle control units. The vehicle interface controller may also include a safety monitor including one or more safety monitoring algorithms In some embodiments, the vehicle interface controller is at least ASIL-C compliant, whereas the platoon controller and an optional gateway processor may be QM rated under ISO 26262. The platoon controller may be configured as a listener capable of receiving but not transmitting messages on the host vehicle's control related communication bus(es).

Examples of techniques for controlling a vehicle based on trailer sway are disclosed. In one example implementation according to aspects of the present disclosure, a computer-implemented method includes estimating, by a processing device, an estimated articulation angle between a vehicle and a trailer coupled to the vehicle. The method further includes calculating, by the processing device, an expected articulation angle between the vehicle and the trailer. The method further includes comparing, by the processing device, the estimated articulation angle and the expected articulation angle to determine whether the trailer is experiencing trailer sway. The method further includes, responsive to determining that the trailer is experiencing sway, controlling, by the processing device, the vehicle to reduce the trailer sway.

A method and device for vehicle speed control when towing a heavy load trailer are disclosed. The method includes determining whether a vehicle is in a trailer towing mode; determining whether the vehicle is in a slope-climbing situation or not using a G sensor based road gradient value when the vehicle is determined to be in the trailer towing mode; calculating a difference between the G sensor based road gradient value and a torque-based road gradient value, and determining whether a towed trailer is a heavy load trailer on the basis of the calculated difference, when it is determined the vehicle is in the slope-climbing situation; and performing shift control using a heavy load trailer dedicated shift map when the towed trailer is determined to be a heavy load trailer.

The disclosure relates to a method for estimating a maximum safe articulation angle (lim) to be used in reversing of a vehicle combination (1) comprising a towing vehicle (10) and at least one trailer (20), said method comprising: S1) providing a preset maximum safe articulation angle (lim) for the towing vehicle (10) or the vehicle combination (1), S2) receiving a signal being indicative of an articulation angle () of the vehicle combination (1) during forward driving of the vehicle combination (1), and S3) updating the maximum safe articulation angle (lim) when the articulation angle () of the vehicle combination (1) during forward driving is larger than the preset maximum safe articulation angle (lim). The disclosure also relates to a method for reversing a vehicle combination (10), to a control unit (11), to a towing vehicle (10), to a computer program and to a computer readable medium.

A control apparatus of a vehicle includes: a steering apparatus (6) including a steering wheel (11) operated in order to turn a vehicle (1) and a steering angle sensor (8) that detects a steering angle of the steering wheel (11), the steering apparatus (6) steering a front wheel (steered wheel) (2) of the vehicle (1) in accordance with operation of the steering wheel (11); and a controller (14) that sets a steering angle acceleration based on the steering angle detected by the steering angle sensor (8) and controls vehicle motion when the steering wheel (11) is operated to be turned. In particular, the controller (14) suppresses a rise of lateral acceleration of the vehicle (1) based on the steering angle acceleration in order to control the vehicle motion.

Systems and methods are provided for determining an optimal point during operation of a hybrid electric vehicle towing a trailer at which the energy that can be recouped through regenerative braking is maximized. Operating conditions or characteristics of the hybrid electric vehicle and the brake characteristics of the trailer are considered in determining the optimal point at which the energy that can be recouped is maximized. At the optimal point at which the energy that can be recouped is maximized, the engine of the hybrid electric vehicle is turned off. Otherwise, the engine of the hybrid electric vehicle is left on.