A vehicle system including one or more sensors, a steering wheel including a rim and an adjusting mechanism for adjusting a coefficient of friction between a surface of the rim and a driver's hand, and a controller configured to determine whether a deviation factor between a target path and an actual path based on the one or more sensors exceeds a threshold deviation, send a first signal to the adjusting mechanism for operating to a first state in response to determining that the deviation factor exceeds the threshold deviation, the coefficient of friction being decreased when the adjusting mechanism is in the first state, and send a second signal to the adjusting mechanism for operating to a second state in response to determining that the deviation factor does not exceed the threshold deviation, the coefficient of friction being increased when the adjusting mechanism is in the second state.

A method of assisting a driver of a vehicle in driving a road, the method includes obtaining a feature of a road using a sensor, selecting, via a controller, a parameter based on the feature of the road, determining, via a controller, whether the vehicle is approaching a boundary of the road, and providing a feedback operation to assist the driver in avoiding the boundary of the road, the feedback operation based on the selected parameter.

The present invention relates to systems for guiding a vehicle to a trailer that can easily be installed or removed, and in particular relates to systems for guiding a vehicle to a trailer to facilitate coupling the vehicle and trailer together. The present invention is a means and a method for continuously determining the heading and/or distance to the trailer to assist a driver to couple a vehicle and trailer together. A device containing an inertial measurement unit is manually positioned proximate to the hitch ball of the vehicle and then positioned proximate to the coupler of the trailer and the motion is tracked and stored to enable the desired path between the two positions to be plotted. This path is then used to guide the driver in bringing the hitch ball and coupler together.

An acoustic feedback system includes a memory and processor to receive at least one of a plurality of output signals from a plurality of sensors. The system determines whether an output signal has reached a first threshold, and sends an audible sound signal to a speaker(s) based on the first threshold. Thus, the acoustic feedback system utilizes output signals of various vehicle sensors and generates audible signals based on the sensor output signals.

A display apparatus, a vehicle including the same, includes a sensor unit configured to acquire vehicle periphery information, and an interface unit configured to acquire vehicle state information. The display apparatus also includes a display unit configured to display a first indicator indicating a target steering direction, a third indicator indicating a current steering state, and a second indicator displayed at a position between the first indicator and the third indicator. The display apparatus also includes a processor configured to determine the target steering direction based on the vehicle state information and the vehicle periphery information.

A method for providing a warning that a trailer being towed by a vehicle will cross out of a travel lane when in a curve for the current vehicle path prior to the vehicle entering the curve. The method determines that the vehicle is approaching the curve, determines a radius of curvature of the curve, determines a lane width of the travel lane, and identifying a length of the trailer. The method also determines a predicted steering angle of the vehicle necessary to follow the radius of curvature of the curve, a turn radius of the vehicle for traveling through the curve using the predicted steering angle, and a turn radius of the trailer using the turn radius of the vehicle. The method then determines whether the trailer will cross out of the travel lane based on the curvature of the curve and the turn radius of the trailer.

An object detection device equipped at a predetermined height includes a waveform obtaining portion obtaining a wave height value of a reflected wave, a reference value calculation portion calculating a wave height value of a wave reflected from a reference obstacle present at the predetermined height as reference value, a detection value calculation portion calculating a wave height value of a wave reflected from a detection object as detection value, a reference distance calculation portion calculating a reference distance between the reference obstacle and the distance measuring sensor, a detection distance calculation portion calculating a detection distance between the detection object and the distance measuring sensor, a correction portion correcting the reference value and the detection value, and a height calculation portion calculating a height of the detection object relative to the predetermined height according to a relative comparison result of the corrected reference value and the corrected detection value.

A vehicle system includes one or more sensors, a steering wheel including a rim having a diameter, the steering wheel including an adjusting mechanism for adjusting the diameter of at least a portion of the rim, and a controller configured to determine whether a deviation factor between a target path and an actual path based on the one or more sensors exceeds a threshold deviation, send to the adjusting mechanism an instruction for adjusting the rim of the steering wheel to a first state in response to determining that the deviation factor exceeds the threshold deviation, and send to the adjusting mechanism an instruction for adjusting the rim of the steering wheel to a second state in response to determining that the deviation factor does not exceed the threshold deviation.

Provided are a lane separation line detection correcting device/method and an automatic driving system for stabilizing the behavior of a vehicle by correcting overestimated curvature information resulting from an erroneous detection of a curvature of a lane separation line. A travel speed detecting circuit detects, for example, a target travel speed as vehicle sensor information. A maximum curvature estimating circuit estimates, based on the target travel speed, a maximum curvature of a road along which an own vehicle is traveling. A curvature correcting circuit corrects a curvature of a lane separation line input thereto based on the maximum curvature. A control unit controls steering of the own vehicle based on the lane separation line having a corrected curvature. As a result, vehicle steering can be automatically controlled so as to prevent the own vehicle while traveling from departing from a driving lane.

A lane departure preventing device includes at least one electronic control unit. The at least one electronic control unit is configured to: when there is a likelihood that a vehicle will depart from a traveling lane, calculate a prevention yaw moment, and control a brake actuator such that the prevention yaw moment is applied to the vehicle; acquire a lateral acceleration; determine whether the lateral acceleration is greater than an ideal value by a predetermined value; control the brake actuator such that the braking force matches a target braking force required to apply the prevention yaw moment to the vehicle, when the lateral acceleration is not greater than the ideal value by the predetermined value; and control the brake actuator such that the braking force is less than the target braking force, when the lateral acceleration is greater than the ideal value by the predetermined value.