Methods and apparatuses for responding to an emergency situation are disclosed, where the method for responding to an emergency situation includes activating an emergency control mode based on a travel trajectory of a vehicle, stopping the vehicle on a shoulder based on the emergency control mode, outputting an emergency light of the vehicle, and determining whether the emergency control mode is active.

A vehicle control apparatus includes a driving-assist control unit and a remote control unit. The driving-assist control unit is configured to perform an automatic driving control of stopping a vehicle in accordance with detection of an abnormal state of a driver of the vehicle while the vehicle is traveling. The remote control unit is configured to perform a control of transmitting remote control permission notification after the vehicle is stopped by the automatic driving control. The remote control permission notification permits a remote control of the vehicle.

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a vehicle for maneuvering a passenger to a destination autonomously. The vehicle includes one or more computing devices and a set of user input buttons for communicating requests to stop the vehicle and to initiate a trip to the destination with the one or more computing devices. The set of user input buttons consisting essentially of a dual-purpose button and an emergency stopping button different from the dual-purpose button configured to stop the vehicle. The dual-purpose button has a first purpose for communicating a request to initiate the trip to the destination and a second purpose for communicating a request to pull the vehicle over and stop the vehicle. The vehicle has no steering wheel and no user inputs for the steering, acceleration, and deceleration of the vehicle other than the set of user input buttons.

A method for operating a vehicle includes continuously checking during a driving operation whether an emergency situation is present in the vehicle and, when an emergency situation is detected, initiating an emergency stopping maneuver for safely parking the vehicle, signalling the emergency situation to a road user in a surroundings of the vehicle, and aborting the emergency stopping maneuver when a vehicle user takes over a task of driving the vehicle. The method further includes automatically deactivating the signalling of the emergency situation when an ascertained duration of time between the initiating and the aborting of the emergency stopping maneuver is smaller than a predeterminable time value and/or when an ascertained reduction of a driving speed of the vehicle between the initiating and the aborting of the emergency stopping maneuver is smaller than a predeterminable speed reduction value.

A control apparatus for performing travel control of a vehicle comprises a sensor configured to detect a state around the vehicle, and a travel controller configured to perform travel control for automated driving based on a detection result of the sensor. The travel controller is configured to, in a case where a predetermined condition is satisfied, select a target stop position located in a latitudinal direction with respect to a direction in which the vehicle moves, according to selection criteria, and to stop the vehicle at the target stop position. The selection criteria include a comparison between a speed of the vehicle and a threshold speed.

A monitoring system for determining driver readiness for takeover of vehicle control from an autonomous driving system is provided. The monitoring system may include an evaluation processor and a driver monitoring system. The evaluation processor may access driver data from the driver monitoring system. The driver monitoring system may include one or more driver monitoring sensors that capture attributes of the driver indicative of driver ability to take over vehicle control. The evaluation processor may prompt the driver for an affirmative confirmation of takeover in response to a takeover request from an autonomous driving system and the sensed attributes of the driver indicative of the driver being ready to take over vehicle control.

A method for the assisted, partially automated, highly automated, fully automated or driverless driving of a motorized transportation vehicle including at least one control unit for planning the navigation and trajectory of an assisted, partially automated, highly automated, fully automated or driverless journey of the motorized transportation vehicle and multiple subsystems, wherein the subsystems implement transportation vehicle movement dynamics requirements of the control unit or supply environmental data, wherein at least one subsystem is assigned a monitoring function by which the functionality of the subsystem is determined, wherein the monitoring function transmits a currently possible performance capability to the control unit which adapts the planning of the navigation and trajectory in accordance with the transmitted performance capability so that, despite a reduced performance capability, the assisted, partially automated, highly automated, fully automated or driverless journey can be continued. Also disclosed is such a device.

A system for transitioning a vehicle from an autonomous mode in response to a handover event, the system includes one or more processors and a memory device operably coupled with the one or more processors. The memory device stores a driver assessment module, an operational condition adjustment module, and a transitioning module. The driver assessment module configures the one or more processors to determine an ability level and a comfort level of a driver of the vehicle in response to the handover event. The operational condition adjustment module configures the one or more to adjust at least one operating condition of the vehicle to be within the ability level of the driver and comfort level. The transitioning module configures the one or more processors to transition the vehicle from the autonomous mode to a driver input mode.

Vehicle driving control apparatus having function for performing automated in-lane driving by maintaining a vehicle speed when no preceding vehicle is in driving lane, and maintaining an inter-vehicle distance when a preceding other vehicle exists, function for performing automated lane change when there is no other vehicle in a predetermined area of neighboring lane, a function for notifying a driver of stopping the functions and an operation takeover request when a system failure occurs, function for evacuating vehicle to road shoulder when driver cannot resume operation, wherein, when vehicle is not in first lane neighboring road shoulder at operation of evacuating function, lane change from in-lane driving maintaining set inter-vehicle distance or set vehicle speed to first lane is performed, and prior thereto, a predetermined area serving as criterion of lane change to first lane is changed to a second area smaller than area of automated lane change.

An autonomous vehicle urgent stop system is disclosed. The autonomous vehicle urgent stop system may include one or more vehicle sensors and/or one or more environmental sensors that either part of the autonomous vehicle or separate from the autonomous vehicle sensors. The urgent stop system may map a safe-stop trajectory for the autonomous vehicle based on the trajectory of the autonomous vehicle and environmental data received from an environmental sensor. The safe-stop trajectory ends in the autonomous vehicle being stopped. In response to an emergency trigger event, the urgent stop system may direct the autonomous vehicle to follow the safe-stop trajectory.