The invention pertains to a road condition determining system and a method for determining a condition of a road traversed by at least one vehicle. The road condition determining system comprises a vehicle position determination means for determining a position of the vehicle, a calibration parameter detection unit adapted to determine at least one calibration parameter of a part of the vehicle, a vertical acceleration sensor adapted to continuously sense a vertical acceleration of the vehicle, a calculation unit adapted to calculate a road condition value based on the vertical acceleration and on the calibration parameter, and to continuously monitor whether the road condition value exceeds a predefined schedule, and a data transmission unit adapted to provide maintenance data to at least one receiver, the maintenance data comprising at least an information about the vehicle position.

A dynamic adjustment method while driving a vehicle of at least one vehicle operating parameter is for a vehicle having an electronic control unit adapted to set the operating parameter, and a communication interface operatively connected to the electronic control unit. An application program is installed on board a portable processing device including a communication interface communicating with the vehicle communication interface. The application program accesses an electronic map of a path and divides the path in sectors. Operating parameter values are stored via the application program, each value being associated to a corresponding sector. While driving, the sector occupied by the vehicle is identified in real time. Values are transmitted sector by sector, from the portable processing device to the electronic control unit so that the electronic control unit sets, sector by sector, the vehicle operating parameter vehicle to the value associated to the occupied sector.

The invention provides a road surface condition determining system with improved accuracy. In the system, a plurality of vehicles W.sub.i are used, each equipped with on-board sensors (11, 12) for acquiring vehicular information, which is information on the behavior of the vehicle during travel, a feature value calculating means (13) for calculating a plurality of feature values to be used in estimating the condition of the road surface on which the vehicle is traveling from the vehicular information acquired by the on-board sensors (11, 12), and a transmitter 16 for transmitting the feature values to the outside of the vehicle. A server (20) has a data storage means (22) for accumulating the plurality of feature values from the plurality of vehicles. A road surface condition determining unit (30) determines a road surface condition using the accumulated feature values. And the system determines the road surface condition at the location within a predetermined range within a predetermined space of time.

Described herein are devices, systems, and methods for managing the power consumption of an automotive vehicle, and thereby for optimizing the power consumption of the vehicle. The devices and systems for managing the power consumption of the vehicle typically include power management logic that can calculate an applied power for the vehicle engine based on information provided from the external environment of the vehicle, the operational status of the vehicle, one or more command inputs from a driver, and one or more operational parameters of the vehicle.

An apparatus comprising an interface, a memory and a processor. The interface may be configured to receive sensor data samples during operation of a vehicle. The memory may be configured to store the sensor data samples over a number of points in time. The processor may be configured to analyze the sensor data samples stored in the memory to detect a pattern. The processor may be configured to manage an application of brakes of the vehicle in response to the pattern.

A work vehicle control system controls a work vehicle having a braking device. The work vehicle control system includes a location information generating unit that obtains and outputs a location of the work vehicle, and a control unit that controls the braking device based on location information of the work vehicle obtained from the location information generating unit. The control unit determines braking force that controls the braking device based on first accuracy that is accuracy of the location information of the work vehicle obtained from the location information generating unit.

Disclosed relates to a driving support apparatus including at least: a detection unit that detects a driving lane on which a user's vehicle and a front vehicle located in front of the user's vehicle are driving based on image data output from a camera; a first calculation unit that calculates a second front vehicle width for the front vehicle based on a first front vehicle width for the front vehicle measured on the image data, a first driving lane width for the driving lane measured on the image data, and a second driving lane width predetermined according to a characteristic of the driving lane; and a second calculation unit that calculates a distance from the front vehicle based on a focal length of the camera, the first front vehicle width, and the second front vehicle width, thereby precisely measuring the distance from the front vehicle based on camera image data.

A traffic light detection system for a vehicle is provided. The system may include at least one processing device programmed to receive, from at least one image capture device, a plurality of images representative of an area forward of the vehicle, the area including a traffic light fixture having at least one traffic light. The at least one processing device may also be programmed to analyze at least one of the plurality of images to determine a status of the at least one traffic light, and determine an estimated amount of time until the vehicle will reach an intersection associated with the traffic light fixture. The at least one processing device may further be programmed to cause a system response based on the status of at least one traffic light and the estimated amount of time until the vehicle will reach the intersection.

A method, for a trailer brake control device of a vehicle trailer with an electric drive, includes receiving at least one acceleration request signal with a requested positive acceleration or a requested negative acceleration and further receiving a status signal with at least one status variable of the electric drive of the vehicle trailer. The method also includes generating, with a controller of the trailer brake control device, at least one brake actuation signal for at least one friction brake of the vehicle trailer and a torque request signal for the electric drive, each based on the at least one acceleration request signal and the status signal. Furthermore, the method includes outputting the brake actuation signal and the torque request signal via at least one output and/or at least one interface of the trailer brake control device.

Various examples of a controller, method and system for determining positions of a tractor-trailer vehicle train are disclosed. In one example a tractor controller is manually-initiated or a user-initiated tractor controller and includes an electrical control port for receiving an electrical start signal, and a communications port for receiving data. A processing unit of the tractor controller includes control logic and is in communication with the electrical control port. The control logic is capable of receiving, in response to the electrical start signal, a data signal at the communications port which includes a GPS signal and a unique identification which corresponds to the towed vehicle. At a predetermined response time, the tractor controller determines the position of the towed vehicle in the tractor-trailer vehicle train based on the data received from the towed vehicles.