The vehicle running control apparatus (driving support ECU 10) determines whether or not the driver of the vehicle is in an abnormal state in which the driver has lost an ability to drive the vehicle, and stops the vehicle by reducing the vehicle speed to 0 after an abnormality determination time point when the driver is determined to be in the abnormal state. The vehicle running control apparatus predicts a position at which the vehicle stops when the vehicle speed is reduced at a predetermined deceleration, when the predicted stop position is not within a stop prohibited area (for example, a curved road and a section within a predetermined distance from a point at which the road changes from the curved road to the straight road), it decelerates the vehicle with the deceleration and stops the vehicle. In contrast, the vehicle running control apparatus makes the vehicle ran with a constant speed when the predicted stop position is within the stop prohibited area.

A system for communicating the sobriety of a user that includes a testing device that generates a substance content signal comprising a mouthpiece and a user identification device, wherein the substance content signal comprises at least one substance information, wherein the user identification device generates user identification data in response to a user's breath and transmits it from the testing device to a monitoring station, and wherein the testing device further comprises at least one of a LCD screen or a LED; a transceiver unit; a receiving station; and a supervisory monitor.

A vehicle control system including a driving controller, a detection section, a state prediction section, and a switching section. The driving controller controls to switch to either automated driving in which driving support is performed for at least one out of speed control or steering control of a vehicle by implementing any of plural driving modes having different levels of automated control, or manual driving performed based on operations of a driver of the vehicle on both the speed control and the steering control of the vehicle. The detection section detects a change to a surrounding environment of the driver. A state prediction section predicts a state unsuitable for the driver to drive will arise based on the change. The switching section switches the driving mode to a driving mode with a high level of automated control when the state unsuitable to drive is predicted to arise.

Methods and systems for monitoring a driver of a vehicle using a driver state monitoring (DSM) system. The DSM system includes a sensing unit that senses biological information of a user of a vehicle. The DSM system also includes a controller that determines a drowsy state of the user based on the sensed biological information. The controller also determines a current condition of traffic and outputs information recommending rest for the user based on the determined drowsy state of the user and the determined current condition of traffic. The controller monitors the traffic and determines a rest state of the user, and outputs an alarm based on monitoring the traffic and the determined rest state of the user.

Methods and systems for monitoring a driver of a vehicle using a driver state monitoring (DSM) system. The DSM system includes a sensing unit that senses biological information of a user of a vehicle. The DSM system also includes a controller that determines a drowsy state of the user based on the sensed biological information. The controller also determines a current condition of traffic and outputs information recommending rest for the user based on the determined drowsy state of the user and the determined current condition of traffic. The controller monitors the traffic and determines a rest state of the user, and outputs an alarm based on monitoring the traffic and the determined rest state of the user.

A method and apparatus for determining an inattentive state of an operator of a vehicle and for providing information to the operator of the vehicle by obtaining face images of the operator of the vehicle, obtaining images of an environment of the vehicle, determining one or more areas of interest in the environment of the vehicle based on the images of the environment, obtaining, from a relevance and priority database, relevance and priority values corresponding to the one or more areas of interest, determining a probability of attention of the operator of the vehicle to the one or more areas of interest based on the images of the environment and the relevance and priority values, determining an attention deficiency based on the determined probability of attention and the face images, and providing the information to the operator of the vehicle based on the determined attention deficiency.

The present invention provides an automatic driving system capable of clearly identifying the factors responsible for causing an abnormality such as an accident or malfunction of a vehicle during automatic driving after the fact. The automatic driving system automatically selects, from each automatic driving function provided in the vehicle or each level of driving automation into which each automatic driving function is classified, an automatic driving function or a level of driving automation according to the circumstances surrounding the vehicle or the driving state of the vehicle, automatically performs a part of or the entirety of a vehicle driving operation to automatically drive the vehicle, and, remembers the time of automatic driving and information indicating the selected automatic driving function or level of driving automation at that time.

In embodiments of drowsy driver detection, a drowsy driver mode is initiated on a wearable wireless device being worn by a user in response to detecting that the user is driving a vehicle. The drowsy driver mode causes the wearable wireless device to use a first sensor to generate first sensor data which can be analyzed to detect a drowsy driver condition. In response to detecting the drowsy driver condition, a second sensor on the wearable wireless device is activated to generate second sensor data that can be analyzed to confirm the drowsy driver condition. In response to confirming the drowsy driver condition, one or more alerts are initiated. Generally, the alerts are intended to wake up the user, warn other passengers in the vehicle that the user is drowsy or otherwise impaired, and/or notify an emergency operator.

In embodiments of drowsy driver detection, a drowsy driver mode is initiated on a wearable wireless device being worn by a user in response to detecting that the user is driving a vehicle. The drowsy driver mode causes the wearable wireless device to use a first sensor to generate first sensor data which can be analyzed to detect a drowsy driver condition. In response to detecting the drowsy driver condition, a second sensor on the wearable wireless device is activated to generate second sensor data that can be analyzed to confirm the drowsy driver condition. In response to confirming the drowsy driver condition, one or more alerts are initiated. Generally, the alerts are intended to wake up the user, warn other passengers in the vehicle that the user is drowsy or otherwise impaired, and/or notify an emergency operator.

This disclosure relates to a system and method for transitioning vehicle control between autonomous operation and manual operation. The system includes sensors configured to generate output signals conveying information related to the vehicle and its operation. During autonomous vehicle operation, the system gauges the level of responsiveness of a vehicle operator through challenges and corresponding responses. The system determines when to present a challenge to the vehicle operator based on internal and external factors. If necessary, the system will transition from an autonomous operation mode to a manual operation mode.