A route risk mitigation system and method using real-time information to improve the safety of vehicles operating in semi-autonomous or autonomous modes. The method mitigates the risks associated with driving by assigning real-time risk values to road segments and then using those real-time risk values to select less risky travel routes, including less risky travel routes for vehicles engaged in autonomous driving over the travel routes. The route risk mitigation system may receive location information, real-time operation information, (and/or other information) and provide updated associated risk values. In an embodiment, separate risk values may be determined for vehicles engaged in autonomous driving over the road segment and vehicles engaged in manual driving over the road segment.

A method is described for adapting a position of a seat device of a passenger of a vehicle during and/or prior to a switchover of the vehicle from an automated driving mode to a manual driving mode, the method having at least a step of providing, in which an adjustment signal is provided to an interface to a seat device of the vehicle using a transition signal and a position signal, and the adjustment signal causes a change in the position of the seat device from a comfort position to an upright position, and the transition signal indicates or represents an upcoming transition from an automated driving mode to a manual driving mode of the vehicle, and the position signal indicates or represents the position of the seat device of the passenger, the provision of the adjustment signal taking place when the position signal indicates or represents the comfort position, and/or the provision not taking place when the position signal indicates or represents the upright position; and/or providing a blocking signal in response to the transition signal when the position signal indicates or represents an upright position, the blocking signal blocking an adjustment of the upright position to a comfort position by the passenger.

A vehicle control device comprises a processor configured to determine a target merge location where the vehicle is to make a lane change from a merging lane to a main lane, in a merge zone on a scheduled route where the merging lane merges with the main lane, as a location that is before the location at the minimum distance to the end point of the merging lane allowing the driver to whom control of the vehicle has been handed over to operate the vehicle for the lane change, and when the vehicle has not completed the lane change upon reaching the target merge location, give the driver a first notification notifying that control of the vehicle will be switched from automatic control to manual control, by using a notifying unit that notifies the driver of information, or by using a vehicle controlling device that controls operation of the vehicle to perform a predetermined operation of the vehicle.

A first blind spot information acquisition unit inputs road geometry information and traveling environment information which are acquired by an information acquisition unit to a first blind spot inference model, and thereby acquires, using the first blind spot inference model, first blind spot information indicating a blind spot area of a road along which a vehicle is traveling, the first blind spot inference model being configured to output first blind spot information indicating a blind spot area of a road when receiving road geometry information about geometry of the road and traveling environment information about a traveling environment of the road. A parking position determination unit determines a parking position of the vehicle by using the first blind spot information acquired by the first blind spot information acquisition unit.

A system designed such that a following vehicle performs following travel to follow a leading vehicle is provided. A departure point and a destination point desired by a user of the following vehicle is obtained. Search for the leading vehicle to be followed by the following vehicle is performed based on the departure point and the destination point. A travel plan including a section of the following travel as at least a part of travel between the departure point and the destination point is generated. Information representing the section of the following travel to a user of the leading vehicle is transmitted.

A computer-implemented method for determining an estimate of the capability of a vehicle driver to take over control of a vehicle, wherein the method comprises: determining at least one estimation parameter, the at least one estimation parameter representing an influencing factor for the capability of the vehicle driver to take over control of the vehicle; and determining an estimate on the basis of the at least one estimation parameter by means of a predefined estimation rule, the estimate representing the capability of the vehicle driver to take over control of the vehicle.

A vehicle position sensing system includes: a position information acquiring section that acquires position information of a vehicle; a storage section that stores first region information, which expresses automatic driving regions where automatic driving of the vehicle is possible and remote driving regions where remote operation driving of the vehicle is possible, and second region information that expresses manual driving regions where only manual driving of the vehicle is permitted; a head up display that can be viewed by a driver of the vehicle; and a control section that, on the basis of the position information of the vehicle, the first region information and the second region information, causes the head up display to display relative positional relationships among the vehicle, the automatic driving regions, the remote driving regions and the manual driving regions.

Provided is a vehicle control device including: a storage device storing a program; and a hardware processor executing the program stored in the storage device to: recognize a surrounding situation of a vehicle; determine whether or not the surrounding situation includes a road division line; control steering and acceleration/deceleration of the vehicle; determine a driving mode of the vehicle as any one of a plurality of driving modes including a first driving mode and a second driving mode; and set, when the vehicle is traveling in the second driving mode, the surrounding situation is determined not to include a road division line, and a preceding vehicle is recognized within a first predetermined distance in a traveling direction of the vehicle, a longer traveling continuation distance in the second driving mode using the map information.

A vehicle includes: a driver assistance system; an accelerator configured to perform acceleration of the vehicle; a braking device configured to perform deceleration of the vehicle; a velocity sensor configured to detect a current velocity of the vehicle; a driver status sensor configured to acquire a driver's behavioral data; and a controller. The controller is configured to identify a carelessness status of the driver based on the driver's behavioral data and to activate a velocity control mode when the carelessness status of the driver is detected in the activation status of the driver assistance system.

A driving assistance apparatus configured to support a driving of a vehicle at a time of pulling out of the vehicle, the driving assistance apparatus including: a control section configured to determine a movement path from a parking space to a predetermined position of a road region, and run the vehicle along the movement path on a basis of surroundings information of the vehicle when pulling out the vehicle from the parking space to the road region, wherein the control section leaves an accelerator operation for the vehicle to a user while automatically controlling a steering operation for the vehicle at least in a section in the movement path, and switches from an automated driving mode to a manual driving mode in response to the steering operation that is performed by the user when the vehicle travels in the section.