Aspects and implementations of the present disclosure relate to performance and safety improvements for autonomous trucking systems, such as mitigation of blind spots in the field of view of a sensing system of an autonomous vehicle, using shielding by other vehicles in adverse weather conditions, and deploying a cooperative expansion of the sensing field of view using external sensing systems.

Aspects and implementations of the present disclosure relate to performance and safety improvements for autonomous trucking systems, such as reactive suspensions for maximizing aerodynamic performance and minimizing mechanical impact from road imperfections, automated placement of emergency signaling devices, and techniques of enhanced illumination of stopped and stranded vehicles.

Provided is a vehicle behavior device including: a variable damper, which is provided between a vehicle body side and a wheel side of a vehicle, and is configured to adjust a force to be generated; a camera device configured to measure a road surface state forward of the vehicle; a future vehicle state estimation unit configured to predict a sprung behavior of the vehicle from a road surface displacement acquired by the camera device and a vehicle speed; and a command value calculation unit configured to obtain a force to be generated by the variable damper based on a predicted value obtained by the future vehicle state estimation unit, and output a command signal.

An apparatus for controlling a suspension of a vehicle to improve high-speed driving stability of the vehicle includes: a sensor that obtains information about a road surface ahead the vehicle during travel of the vehicle; and a controller that derives a height value of the road surface from the information about the road surface, determines a state of the road surface based on a differential value of the derived height value, predicts vehicle behavior corresponding to the determined state of the road surface, and controls a damping force of the suspension based on the predicted vehicle behavior.

The present invention relates to a method for operating a motor vehicle as a first road user on a road, comprising: obtaining information on the current and/or a possible future traffic situation on the road; determining, based on the obtained information, whether a deviation from the present travel and/or steering direction or from a navigation destination on the road is appropriate according to a predefined criterion in order to clear the way for a second road user directly or indirectly via third road users, and if yes: determining a new destination on or at the side of the road, determining whether it is necessary to drive onto an obstacle in order to reach the new destination, and if yes, checking whether an adjustment of the chassis of the motor vehicle is compatible with driving onto the obstacle, and if yes, prompting the motor vehicle to head for the new destination.

A vibration damping control apparatus for a vehicle executes preview vibration damping control while obtaining, from preview reference data, a road surface displacement related value relating to a vertical displacement of a road surface at a predicted passage position of a wheel of the vehicle. In the preview reference data, relationships are established among the road surface displacement related value obtained when a measurement vehicle actually traveled on the road surface, position information representing the position of a wheel of the measurement vehicle when the road surface displacement related value was obtained, and speed information representing the speed of the measurement vehicle when the road surface displacement related value was obtained or representing a speed range in which the speed of the measurement vehicle is contained.

A vehicle includes a vehicle body, a wheel, a suspension system that supports the wheel relative to the vehicle body, a sensing system for determining an environmental condition ahead of the vehicle and a control system. The suspension system includes a primary actuator that transfers force between the wheel and the vehicle body, and a wheel hop damper that includes a moving mass and that transfers force between the wheel and the moving mass independent of the vehicle body to inhibit resonance of an unsprung mass formed by the wheel and a portion of the suspension system coupled thereto. The control system operates the primary actuator to provide additional secondary ride control when the wheel hop damper exceeds a capacity threshold. The control system changes the capacity threshold according to the environmental condition. The wheel hop damper may be a reaction mass actuator or a tuned mass damper.

A vehicle suspension management via an IVI system is disclosed. The system includes an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system and a vehicle suspension system communicatively coupled with the IVI system. The vehicle suspension system includes at least one active shock assembly. A suspension control application on the IVI system, the suspension control application to cause the IVI system to send a signal to the at least one active shock assembly, the signal used to modify a damping characteristic of the at least one active shock assembly.

A vehicle suspension management via an IVI system is disclosed. The system includes an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system and a vehicle suspension system communicatively coupled with the IVI system. The vehicle suspension system includes at least one active shock assembly. A suspension control application on the IVI system, the suspension control application to cause the IVI system to send a signal to the at least one active shock assembly, the signal used to modify a damping characteristic of the at least one active shock assembly.

Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media are provided for implementing a preemptive suspension control for an autonomous vehicle to improve ride quality. Data from one or more sensors onboard the autonomous vehicle can be acquired. A surface imperfection of a road can be identified from the data. A next action for the autonomous vehicle can be determined based on the road condition. A signal can be outputted that causes the autonomous vehicle to act in accordance with the next action after adjusting the suspension preemptively.