An estimation apparatus of the disclosure includes a determiner that determines whether or not an attention target is visually recognizable from a driver of a vehicle based on information related to a visual field range of the driver; and an estimator that estimates a visual field abnormality of the driver based on a driving operation of the driver in a case where the determiner determines that the attention target is visually recognizable from the driver.

A device and method for controlling a hybrid vehicle. The device includes a connection device that provides a connection interface with a hybrid vehicle network, and a controller that collects driving data through the connector, determines a driving state based on the driving data, generates a driving pattern according to a transition of the driving state, and controls driving of the hybrid vehicle based on an output ratio of a first power source to a second power source corresponding to the driving pattern.

Described herein are techniques for optimizing operation of a fleet of electric vehicles. In some embodiments, a fleet management platform may maintain, in relation to a plurality of drivers, driving behavior patterns determined to be associated with the each of the plurality of drivers. Upon receiving a request for optimization of at least one operation related to a fleet of electric vehicles, such techniques may comprise determining one or more factors associated with the optimization of the at least one operation, identifying a set of driving behavior patterns correlated to the one or more factors, and customizing the at least one operation based on the identified set of behavior patterns and the driving behavior patterns.

A method for changing a control authority of an autonomous vehicle in consideration of an external environment includes determining a first risk level of a physical condition of a driver who drives the autonomous vehicle, determining a second risk level in response to one of a mental condition or a conscious condition of the driver, determining a driver proficiency level of a driver, and allocating a control authority of the autonomous vehicle to the driver or to the autonomous vehicle according to a result of a determination of the first risk level, the second risk level, and the driver proficiency level.

An automated valet parking system, an automated valet parking method, an automated valet parking infrastructure, and a vehicle having an automated valet parking feature each enable an unmanned vehicle to autonomously move to and park in a designated parking spot by communicating with the infrastructure. An unmanned vehicle can autonomously move to a pickup area from a parking spot by communicating with the infrastructure.

An occupant behavior determining apparatus includes a surveillance camera that captures an image of an occupant of a vehicle to acquire an image; a face recognizing section that recognizes a face of the occupant based on the image; a posture recognizing section that recognizes a posture of the occupant based on the image; and a behavior determining section that determines a behavior of the occupant in a vehicle cabin based on a recognition result of the face recognizing section and a recognition result of the posture recognizing section.

A changing operation assisting apparatus includes a driving assistance control section, an operation section, and an information providing section. The driving assistance control section stores set states regarding driving assistance functions of a vehicle and provides the functions in accordance with the set sates. The set state includes a request state of the function. The operation section is used for changing the set state. The information providing section provides information regarding the set state to a driver of the vehicle. Further, the driving assistance control section executes a setting change confirmation processing upon satisfaction of a specific condition. The setting change confirmation processing is a process of providing confirmation information to confirm whether or not to change the request state of the function, and changing the request state of the function when the driver performs an approving operation in accordance with the confirmation information.

In a center server as a control device, a processor is configured to acquire vehicle information on a vehicle, determine a driving skill of a driver from the acquired vehicle information, and notify the driver of permission information for permitting use of a function of the vehicle or application of equipment to the vehicle according to the determined driving skill.

An information processing apparatus detects occurrence of a request to switch to manual driving during autonomous driving control of a first vehicle, acquires an utterance of a driver in a case where there is occurrence of the request to switch to manual driving, and presents, to the driver, a part of an explanation about a reason for occurrence of the request to switch to manual driving according to the utterance of the driver.

A computer implemented method for scenario generation for autonomous vehicle navigation that can include defining a cellular automaton layer that defines a road network level behavior with at least one rule directed to pathways by vehicles on a passageway for travel. The method may further include defining an active matter layer that defines a vehicle level behavior with at least one rule directed to movement of the vehicles on an ideal route for the pathways; and defining a driver agent layer that defines driving nature with at least one rule that impacts changes in the vehicle level behavior dependent upon a characterization of driver behavior. The method may further include combining outputs from the different layer to provide scenario generations for autonomous vehicle navigation. The combining of the outputs can utilize a pseudo random value to determine at an order in the execution and duration of execution for the layers.