An apparatus and method for controlling a vehicle are disclosed. A method for controlling a vehicle by monitoring a driver's state includes: a region setting step for establishing a first steering control region, a first steering warning region, a braking control region, and a first braking warning region of the vehicle; a driver state decision step for determining the driver state by monitoring a state of the driver; and a region resetting step for including, if the driver state is in an abnormal state in the driver state decision step, resetting a first steering control region of the vehicle, a first steering warning region, and a first braking warning region in the region setting region, and thus setting a second steering control region, a second steering warning region, and a second braking warning region.

A method for controlling a driving assistance feature of a vehicle is disclosed. The method comprises determining a state of a driver of the vehicle by means of a driver monitoring system (DMS) the state of the driver comprising at least one attention parameter, and comparing the determined state of the driver with a predefined attention model. The predefined attention model comprises an independent threshold range for each attention parameter. The method further comprises controlling the driving assistance feature based on the comparison between the determined state of the driver and the predefined attention model.

A method for switching modes for operating a vehicle, a non-transitory computer-readable medium for performing the method, and information processing apparatuses. The method includes determining, by circuitry of an information processing apparatus, whether a mode for operating the vehicle is to be switched from one of autonomous and manual driving modes to the other of the autonomous and manual driving modes. A state of a driver of the vehicle is obtained when the mode for operating the vehicle is determined to be switched. The method further includes switching, by the circuitry, the mode for operating the vehicle from the one of the autonomous and manual driving modes to the other of the autonomous manual driving modes based on the obtained state of the driver.

Provided are an apparatus and method for monitoring driver's concentrativeness capable of monitoring whether a driver is concentratedly obtaining major information by tracing a driver's sight while a vehicle is running, in order to provide alarm to the driver when driver's concentrativeness is dropped at a time when the major information is changed while the vehicle is running.

A driving support device for a vehicle includes: a detector that detects a driving condition of a driver; a memory that stores a proper driving condition of the driver; and a controller that compares a detected driving condition with the proper driving condition stored in the memory, calculates a difference between the detected driving condition and the proper driving condition, and executes a notification operation to the driver according to the difference when the controller recognizes the difference. The controller executes the notification operation to facilitate a recovery to the proper driving condition. Thus, the driving support device reduces uncomfortable feeling of the driver when the controller executes the notification operation.

A method for the automatic execution of at least one driving function of a motor vehicle, in which it is checked whether the driver uses an unapproved electronic device. In the event that the driver is using an unapproved electronic device, a warning is output to the driver.

When an ignition switch has been turned off, an accessory switch has been turned off, and a door has been opened (100, 102), a message is displayed in a monitor on an opposite side to a side that the door has been opened (112). In addition, when it has been detected that a key has been shut in or that it has been forgotten to close a window (104), there is performed a warning display that displays a warning in a monitor on an opposite side to a door where a door locking operation has been performed (110). Moreover, when there has been detected a smart key carried by an occupant on a vehicle outside after getting out of a vehicle (118), a message is displayed in a monitor on an opposite side to a key detection direction (120).

A driver state detection unit detects a state of the driver of a host vehicle. For example, a drowsing state of the driver is detected. An outward warning device performs an outward warning operation pertaining to a warning directed at another vehicle traveling in the vicinity of the host vehicle. Then, an inward warning device performs an inward warning operation pertaining to a warning directed at the driver of the host vehicle.

A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium stores a driving support program that causes a computer to execute a process including: collecting vital sign information on a user from a vital sign measuring device; generating a drowsiness occurrence time pattern with respect to the user based on the collected vital sign information; and in response to a request in which a driver is specified from a source of the request, providing the drowsiness occurrence time pattern that is generated with respect to the user corresponding to the driver to the source of the request to the source of request or providing alerting information to the driver that is determined according to the drowsiness occurrence time pattern generated with respect to the user corresponding to the driver to the source of request.

There are provided an image capture portion, a luminance acquisition section, a luminance estimation section, and a capture mode setup section. The image capture portion cyclically captures a vehicle compartment. The luminance acquisition section acquires the luminance of a captured image captured by the image capture portion. The luminance estimation section estimates a cyclic change in the luminance of captured images to be captured subsequently. The capture mode setup section settles a capture mode for the image capture portion based on a result of estimating the cyclic change in the luminance of captured images.