A vehicle is a vehicle on which an ADK is mountable. The vehicle includes: a VP that controls the vehicle in accordance with an instruction from the ADK; and a VCIB that serves as an interface between the ADK and the VP. The VP outputs an accelerator pedal position signal in accordance with an amount of depression of an accelerator pedal by a driver, and outputs an accelerator pedal intervention signal, to the ADK through the VCIB. The accelerator pedal intervention signal indicates that the accelerator pedal is depressed, when the accelerator pedal position signal indicates that the amount of depression is larger than a threshold value, and indicates beyond autonomy acceleration of the vehicle, when an acceleration request in accordance with the amount of depression is higher than a system acceleration request.

A management device that manages a service of transporting a user in a designated section using a vehicle which is able to travel autonomously without a driver by causing the vehicle to travel includes: a user detector configured to detect whether a user in the vehicle has alighted at a scheduled alighting position of the user; and an operation controller configured to cause the vehicle to perform a predetermined operation when the user detector detects that the user has not alighted at the scheduled alighting position.

Example systems and methods enable an autonomous vehicle to request assistance from a remote operator in certain predetermined situations. One example method includes determining a representation of an environment of an autonomous vehicle based on sensor data of the environment. Based on the representation, the method may also include identifying a situation from a predetermined set of situations for which the autonomous vehicle will request remote assistance. The method may further include sending a request for assistance to a remote assistor, the request including the representation of the environment and the identified situation. The method may additionally include receiving a response from the remote assistor indicating an autonomous operation. The method may also include causing the autonomous vehicle to perform the autonomous operation.

A method is provided for optimizing the use of autonomous features of advanced driver assistance systems and the tracking thereof. For example, a vehicle may be equipped with several driver assistance systems in which a driver of the vehicle may be assisted. The vehicle may automatically change the number of active assistance systems or suggest to the driver one or more assistance systems to activate based on several factors, including poor driving on behalf of the driver or poor driving conditions due to weather or road quality. Statistics regarding the use of such advanced driver assistance systems may be monitored and tracked and stored on an onboard database or transmitted continuously or periodically to various entities. For example, the system may operate to allow an insurance company to track the driving performance and the use of the advanced driver assistance systems to update actuarial models to more accurately adjust rates.

A method and to a device for controlling an autonomously driving passenger transport vehicle. The driving behavior of the passenger transport vehicle is adapted to an ascertained passenger situation. When the vehicle is empty, driving may be rather aggressive, whereas in the case of there being occupants in the vehicle, more attention may be paid to their comfort and safety.

At the time of starting a vehicle, if the vehicle is stopped even without an operation of braking the vehicle, a drive force to be generated before an actual start of the vehicle is limited to or below a predetermined maximum drive force.

A system and method for actuating a vehicle operation power mode that include receiving sensor data from at least one sensor of a vehicle. The system and method also include determining if at least one vehicle operation requirement is met based on analysis of the sensor data and actuating an electric powered operation mode of the vehicle based on determining that the at least one operation requirement is met. The system and method further include modifying an operation of an electric battery of the vehicle to power the vehicle through the electric battery from being charged by a fuel powered engine of the vehicle based on the actuation of the electric powered operation mode.

An information providing device includes an acquirer configured to acquire one or more pieces of orientation information indicating orientations of one or more users, a determiner configured to determine priority item information, which is item information to be preferentially provided, based on reference information in which a specific point and item information for each item of the specific point are associated with each other, and the one or more pieces of orientation information acquired by the acquirer, and a provider configured to allow an information output device associated with at least a part of the one or more users to output the priority item information.

Example systems and methods enable an autonomous vehicle to request assistance from a remote operator in certain predetermined situations. One example method includes determining a representation of an environment of an autonomous vehicle based on sensor data of the environment. Based on the representation, the method may also include identifying a situation from a predetermined set of situations for which the autonomous vehicle will request remote assistance. The method may further include sending a request for assistance to a remote assistor, the request including the representation of the environment and the identified situation. The method may additionally include receiving a response from the remote assistor indicating an autonomous operation. The method may also include causing the autonomous vehicle to perform the autonomous operation.

According to a method for learning travel characteristics and a travel assistance device, in a vehicle capable of switching manual driving by a driver and autonomous-driving, continuity of driving characteristics is determined based on travel data during manual driving by a driver, and a start time and an end time of learning target data, being a learning target of the driving characteristics of the travel data, are set by using a determination result of the continuity.