Presented are intelligent vehicle systems and control logic for driver coaching and on-demand vehicle charging, methods for making/using such systems, and motor vehicles with real-time eco-routing and automated driving capabilities. A method for controlling operation of a vehicle includes: determining an origin and destination for the vehicle; conducting a geospatial query to identify a candidate route for traversing from the origin to the destination; determining, based on current electrical characteristics of the vehicle's battery pack, an estimated driving range for the vehicle; responsive to the estimated driving range being less than the candidate route's distance, evaluating energy characteristics of the candidate route to derive an estimated energy expenditure to reach the destination; using the estimated energy expenditure, generating an action plan with vehicle maneuvering and/or accessory usage actions that extend the estimated driving range; and commanding a resident vehicle subsystem to execute a control operation based on the action plan.

A vehicle controlling apparatus includes a setting unit and an acquiring unit. The setting unit is configured to set a target inter-vehicle distance. The acquiring unit is configured to acquire position information of a temporary stopping location on a traveling route on which an own vehicle travels. The setting unit is configured to, on a condition that the own vehicle travels to follow a preceding vehicle, and that the acquiring unit has acquired the position information of the temporary stopping location, make a setting change to make the target inter-vehicle distance greater than a normal setting value when a distance from the own vehicle to the temporary stopping location reaches a predetermined distance, and make a setting change to bring the target inter-vehicle distance closer to the normal setting value in accordance with the distance until the own vehicle reaches the temporary stopping location.

A method for the performance-enhancing driver assistance of a road vehicle driven on a track. The method comprises the steps of defining a dynamic model of the road vehicle, determining the actual position and orientation of the road vehicle, detecting a plurality of space data concerning the structure of the track, detecting a plurality of dynamic data of the vehicle, determining a passing through point of the road vehicle arranged in front of the road vehicle, solving an optimum control problem aimed at optimizing a cost function, taking into account, as boundary conditions, the plurality of environmental data, the actual position and the passing through point, so as to compute a mission optimizing the cost function, and driving the vehicle in an autonomous manner so as to show to the driver the mission optimizing the cost function.

An automated driving method for a vehicle includes: determining whether or not a traffic jam is detected ahead of a host vehicle by a distance equal to or more than a predetermined distance on a travel route of the host vehicle during travel by automated driving that brings a vehicle speed close to a target vehicle speed; and in a traffic jam detection time when the traffic jam is detected, reducing the vehicle speed VSP to be lower than a target vehicle speed VSPt0 for the automated driving in a normal time other than the traffic jam detection time.

Methods and systems for repairing a malfunctioning autonomous vehicle (AV) or semi-autonomous vehicle (SAV) are described herein. The AV or SAV may determine that an autonomous feature or sensor is malfunctioning and the extent of the damage to the autonomous feature or sensor. Then the AV or SAV may compare the extent of the damage to a predetermined threshold to determine whether the AV or SAV remains serviceable or otherwise road worthy. If the AV or SAV remains serviceable, the AV or SAV may locate the nearest repair facility having the necessary electronic components in stock and technical expertise for repairing the AV or SAV. Then the AV or SAV may request the nearest repair facility to send an autonomous repair vehicle to the current location of the AV or SAV to facilitate repair.

One of objectives of the present invention is to provide a vehicle control system, a vehicle control method and a vehicle control program, which can properly perform control related to automatic driving based on the energy of the vehicle. The vehicle control system comprises: an automatic driving control part, executing automatic driving performing automatic driving of at least one of velocity control and steering control of an automatic vehicle, and a function limiting part, limiting functions related to automatic driving when the energy of the vehicle is insufficient due to automatic driving.

An efficiency autonomous driving strategy which accounts for the propulsion system efficiency and energy consumption during vehicle motion planning function required for autonomous driving. Specifically, a control algorithm calculates the required energy and total efficiency for various possible vehicle path/motion plans being considered by the autonomous driving (AD) controller. Given at least one or more desired vehicle motion plans, the propulsion system selects the vehicle motion path with the highest efficiency and least energy consumption. The control algorithm accounts for the current vehicle motion (speed/acceleration, etc.), and future vehicle motion requirements for a given vehicle path plan. The control algorithm calculates the total vehicle energy required (current time up to future time) for the proposed vehicle motion plans, then recommends the most efficient vehicle motion plan to the AD controller such that total energy consumption is reduced.

Methods and systems for autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle routing are disclosed. Roadway suitability for autonomous operation is scored to facilitate use in route determination. Maps of roadways suitable for various levels of autonomous operation may be generated. Such map data may be used by autonomous vehicles or other computer devices in determining routes based upon criteria for vehicle trips. Such routes may be automatically updated based upon changes in road conditions, vehicle conditions, operator conditions, or environmental conditions. Emergency routing using such map data is described, such as automatic routing and travel when a passenger is experiencing a medical emergency.

A predicted energy consumption calculation unit calculates, when an on-vehicle apparatus of a rental vehicle is operated during the period of depositing an article in a deposit space of the rental vehicle, a predicted energy consumption that is a predicted value of the amount of energy consumed by the on-vehicle apparatus. A rentable period determination unit determines a rentable period of the deposit space on the basis of the predicted energy consumption calculated by the predicted energy consumption calculation unit.

Disclosed are a method of controlling platooning according to a wind direction and a control server for implementing the same. The disclosed control server includes a communication unit configured to communicate with two or more autonomous vehicles which travel in a platoon, a memory configured to store one or more instructions, and a processor configured to execute the instructions. The communication unit receives a power loss value from a leading vehicle among the two or more vehicles and receives information about a direction of wind around the two or more vehicles from at least one vehicle among the two or more vehicles or an external server.