Presented are intelligent electronic footwear with controller automated features, methods for making/using such footwear, and control systems for executing automated features of intelligent electronic footwear. An intelligent electronic shoe includes an upper that attaches to a user's foot, and a sole structure attached to the upper for supporting thereon the user's foot. A collision threat warning system, a detection tag, a wireless communications device, and a footwear controller are all mounted to the sole structure/upper. The detection tag receives a prompt signal from a transmitter-detector module and responsively transmits thereto a response signal. The footwear controller receives, through the wireless communications device, a pedestrian collision warning signal generated by the remote computing node responsive to the response signal. Responsively, the footwear controller transmits a command signal to the collision threat warning system to generate a visible, audible and/or tactile alert warning the user of an impending collision with a vehicle.

When two target objects cannot see each other and at least one of them is a moving object following lanes, the warning system identifies the couples of two predicted trajectories having at least one point in common or an inter-trajectory distance less than a distance threshold (d.sub.th), among all possible couples of two predicted trajectories for the two respective target objects, then calculates a probability of collision for each identified couple of trajectories, by determining a predicted collision time and calculating probability distribution functions for the positions of the two target objects at said predicted collision time, and checks whether or not the probability of collision calculated for at least one of the identified couples of trajectories is more than a collision probability threshold in order to trigger an alert towards at least one of the two target objects.

A vehicle may have vehicle controls that are used in steering, braking, and accelerating the vehicle. The vehicle may have sensors that gather information on vehicle speed, orientation, and position. The sensors may also gather information on relative speed between the vehicle and a following vehicle, information on risks of a collision between a vehicle and an external object, and other vehicle status information and vehicle operating environment information. Control circuitry may use light-based devices to display braking information, information on vehicle speed, the relative speed between a vehicle and a following vehicle, autonomous driving mode status information, custom brake light information or other user-selected information, or other information on vehicle status and the operating environment of a vehicle.

Presented are intelligent electronic footwear with controller automated features, methods for making/using such footwear, and control systems for executing automated features of intelligent electronic footwear. An intelligent electronic shoe (IES) includes an upper that attaches to a user's foot, and a sole structure that is attached to the upper and supports thereon the user's foot. An alert system, which is mounted to the sole structure and/or upper, generates predetermined outputs in response to electronic command signals. The IES system also includes a wireless communications device that wirelessly communicates with a remote computing node, and a footwear controller that communicates with the wireless communications device and alert system. The footwear controller receives location data indicative of the user's and remote computing node's locations, determines whether the user's location is within a predetermined location/proximity to the node's location and, if so, transmits command signals to the alert system to notify the user/vehicle.

The invention relates to a method, performed by a control device (10), for controlling a vehicle lighting device (100), the vehicle lighting device (100) includes the control device (10); and at least one electronic display unit (20) arranged at one end (12, 14) of a vehicle (1), wherein the control device (10) is arranged to control the at least one display unit (20) to show various types of vehicle lights (22). The method includes: collecting (s101) data relating to the vehicle surroundings; and controlling (s102) the at least one display unit (20) to adapt at least one vehicle light (22) based on the collected data.

An autonomous driving control apparatus for a vehicle includes: a processor that demands a user of a vehicle to take a control authority of the vehicle during an autonomous driving control when a current driving condition is in a limit situation during the autonomous driving control, and starts a minimum risk maneuver to disable reactivation of the autonomous driving control when the control authority is not transferred to the user; and a storage to store a set of instructions to be executed by the processor and data for determination and performance by the processor. In particular, the processor automatically flashes an emergency light when the minimum risk maneuver is started, and controls automatic flashing of the emergency light to not be released by the user when the vehicle is not in a stopped state.

Systems, apparatus and methods implemented in algorithms, hardware, software, firmware, logic, or circuitry may be configured to process data and sensory input to determine whether an object external to an autonomous vehicle (e.g., another vehicle, a pedestrian, road debris, a bicyclist, etc.) may be a potential collision threat to the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle may be configured to implement interior active safety systems to protect passengers of the autonomous vehicle during a collision with an object or during evasive maneuvers by the autonomous vehicle, for example. The interior active safety systems may be configured to provide passengers with notice of an impending collision and/or emergency maneuvers by the vehicle by tensioning seat belts prior to executing an evasive maneuver and/or prior to a predicted point of collision.

One variation of a method for communicating state, intent, and context of an autonomous vehicle includes: at a first time, displaying a first icon representing a current state of a vehicle on a rear-facing visual display arranged on the vehicle; navigating toward an intersection; at a second time, detecting a state of the intersection ahead of the vehicle; rendering a second icon representing the state of the intersection at the second time on the rear-facing visual display; detecting a change in the state of the intersection at a third time succeeding the second time; selecting a next navigation action for the vehicle responsive to the change in the state of the intersection at the third time; prior to executing the next navigation action, rendering a third icon representing the next navigation action on the rear-facing visual display; and autonomously executing the next navigation action.

A system for operating an automated vehicle in a crowd of pedestrians includes an object-detector, optionally, a signal detector, and a controller. The object-detector detects pedestrians proximate to a host-vehicle. The signal-detector detects a signal-state displayed by a traffic-signal that displays a stop-state that indicates when the host-vehicle should stop so the pedestrians can cross in front of the host-vehicle, and displays a go-state that indicates when the pedestrians should stop passing in front of the host-vehicle so that the host-vehicle can go forward. The controller is in control of movement of the host-vehicle and in communication with the object-detector and the signal-detector. The controller operates the host-vehicle to stop the host-vehicle when the stop-state is displayed, and operates the host-vehicle to creep-forward after a wait-interval after the traffic-signal changes to the go-state when the pedestrians fail to stop passing in front of the host-vehicle.

A riding assistance system for a motorcycle comprising: a processing resource; a memory configured to store data usable by the processing resource; and at least one wide-angle forward-looking camera configured to be installed on the motorcycle in a manner enabling it to capture images of a scene including at least a right side and a left side in front of the motorcycle; wherein the processing resource is configured to: obtain a series of at least two images consecutively acquired by the camera; analyze a region of interest within at least a pair of consecutive images of the series to identify features having respective feature locations within the at least pair of consecutive images; determine vectors of movement of the features; and generate a warning notification upon a criterion associated with the vectors of movement being met.