Vehicles may have the capability to navigate according to various levels of autonomous capabilities, the vehicle having a different set of autonomous competencies at each level. In certain situations, the vehicle may shift from one level of autonomous capability to another. The shift may require more or less driving responsibility from a human operator. Sensors inside the vehicle collect human operator parameters to determine an alertness level of the human operator. An alertness level is determined based on the human operator parameters and other data including historical data or human operator-specific data. Notifications are presented to the user based on the determined alertness level that are more or less intrusive based on the alertness level of the human operator and on the urgency of an impending change to autonomous capabilities. Notifications may be tailored to specific human operators based on human operator preference and historical performance.

A driving assist apparatus for a manual transmission vehicle includes a traveling environment information acquisition unit, a power transmission detector and a controller. The traveling environment information acquisition unit is configured to acquire traveling environment information ahead of the vehicle. The power transmission detector is configured to detect engagement or disengagement of power transmission between a drive source and a drive wheel. The controller is configured to, when recognizing a target object ahead of the vehicle based on the traveling environment information acquired by the traveling environment information acquisition unit, control a vehicle speed of the vehicle in accordance with a distance between the vehicle and the target object. When the power transmission detector detects engagement of power transmission, the controller performs automatic brake control in accordance with a distance between a vehicle and a target object ahead of the vehicle acquired by the traveling environment information acquisition unit.

Vehicles may have the capability to navigate according to various levels of autonomous capabilities, the vehicle having a different set of autonomous competencies at each level. In certain situations, the vehicle may shift from one level of autonomous capability to another. The shift may require more or less driving responsibility from a human operator. Sensors inside the vehicle collect human operator parameters to determine an alertness level of the human operator. An alertness level is determined based on the human operator parameters and other data including historical data or human operator-specific data. Notifications are presented to the user based on the determined alertness level that are more or less intrusive based on the alertness level of the human operator and on the urgency of an impending change to autonomous capabilities. Notifications may be tailored to specific human operators based on human operator preference and historical performance.

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.

A method of controlling a mild hybrid electric vehicle may include determining whether a Start Stop Control (SSC) entrance condition is satisfied when a cruise mode is set; when the SSC entrance condition is determined to be satisfied by the control unit to enter an SSC mode, interrupting a supply of fuel to an engine and turning off the engine; monitoring a vehicle speed, in which when the engine is turned off, the control unit is configured to determine whether an acceleration control or a braking control of the vehicle is required based on a detection signal transmitted from a detecting unit electrically-connected to the control unit; and increasing or decreasing the vehicle speed by controlling the engine, a Mild Hybrid Starter Generator (MHSG), or an Electronic Stability Control (ESC) based on the monitoring of the vehicle speed.

A method of controlling a mild hybrid electric vehicle may include determining whether a Start Stop Control (SSC) entrance condition is satisfied when a cruise mode is set; when the SSC entrance condition is determined to be satisfied by the control unit to enter an SSC mode, interrupting a supply of fuel to an engine and turning off the engine; monitoring a vehicle speed, in which when the engine is turned off, the control unit is configured to determine whether an acceleration control or a braking control of the vehicle is required based on a detection signal transmitted from a detecting unit electrically-connected to the control unit; and increasing or decreasing the vehicle speed by controlling the engine, a Mild Hybrid Starter Generator (MHSG), or an Electronic Stability Control (ESC) based on the monitoring of the vehicle speed.

The present application relates to a method and apparatus including a sensor for detecting a first acceleration of a target vehicle at a first time and a second acceleration of the target vehicle at a second time, a processor operative to calculate an increased distance in response to the first acceleration and the second acceleration exceeding an acceleration threshold, the processor further operative to generate a control signal indicative of the increased distance, and a vehicle controller for controlling a vehicle throttle controller and a vehicle steering controller to maintain an initial distance between the host vehicle and the target vehicle and to maintain the increased distance between the host vehicle and the target vehicle in response to the control signal.

The present application relates to a method and apparatus including a sensor for detecting a first acceleration of a target vehicle at a first time and a second acceleration of the target vehicle at a second time, a processor operative to calculate an increased distance in response to the first acceleration and the second acceleration exceeding an acceleration threshold, the processor further operative to generate a control signal indicative of the increased distance, and a vehicle controller for controlling a vehicle throttle controller and a vehicle steering controller to maintain an initial distance between the host vehicle and the target vehicle and to maintain the increased distance between the host vehicle and the target vehicle in response to the control signal.

The invention relates to a new method for controlling a vehicle (1) moving on a road, wherein the vehicle (1) includes a controller capable of activating an automated function involving strong braking of the vehicle (1). The method includes automated steps consisting in a) after said automated function is complete, collecting information relative to the space in front of the vehicle (1); b) determining whether the space in front of the vehicle (1) is sufficient to enable the vehicle to move forward; and c) only if the space in front of the vehicle (1) is sufficient, reaccelerating.

A method for the automatic control of the longitudinal dynamics of a vehicle is provided by which vehicles traveling ahead are detected. If an upcoming traffic jam is detected, the vehicle is decelerated until a predefined distance behind the tail end of the traffic jam is reached. When the predefined distance from the traffic jam tail end has been reached, the vehicle automatically controlled in its longitudinal dynamics is able to close the remaining, predefined distance to the traffic jam tail end at a low differential velocity in comparison to the velocity of the traffic jam tail end. Using an additional rear sensor system that senses trailing vehicles, the controlled vehicle is made to close the distance to the traffic jam tail end only if a trailing vehicle was detected.