A method of operating a vehicle is provided. The vehicle includes: an engine; a throttle operator moveable by a driver; a throttle valve regulating airflow to the engine; a continuously variable transmission (CVT) operatively connected to the engine; at least one ground engaging member including at least one of: a wheel and a track; a piston operatively connected to a driving pulley of the CVT for applying a piston force to the driving pulley when actuated and thereby changing an effective diameter of the driving pulley; and a control unit for controlling actuation of the piston and the piston force. The method includes: determining a driven pulley speed of a driven pulley of the CVT; detecting an uphill stand condition indicative of the vehicle being stopped on an uphill; responsive to the detection of the uphill stand condition, controlling the piston force based on the driven pulley speed.

Among other things, techniques are described for expressive vehicle systems. These techniques may include obtaining, with at least one processor, data associated with an environment, the environment comprising a vehicle and at least one object; determining an expressive maneuver including a deceleration of the vehicle such that the vehicle stops at least a first distance away from the at least one object and the vehicle reaches a peak deceleration when the vehicle is a second distance away from the at least one object; generating data associated with control of the vehicle based on the deceleration associated with the expressive maneuver; and transmitting the data associated with the control of the vehicle to cause the vehicle to decelerate based on the deceleration associated with the expressive maneuver.

An adaptive cruise control system for a vehicle, includes: a stop location determination system configured to determine a stop location where the vehicle will have to stop because of a possible event occurring ahead of the vehicle on a road where the latter is moving; a cross traffic location determination system configured to determine whether the determined stop location is a location where cross traffic can occur, called cross traffic location; and an adaptive control system configured to adapt at least one driving control of the vehicle, based on the determination that the determined stop location is a cross traffic location.

A controller detects partitioning lines OL and BL of a road and a road edge E based on an image taken by a camera, generates a pair of left and right virtual lines IL.sub.L and IL.sub.R that extend from the side to the front of a vehicle along the partitioning lines OL and BL, controls the steering so the vehicle travels between the left and right virtual lines IL.sub.L and IL.sub.R, moves the left virtual line IL.sub.L to a position in proximity to the road edge E and fixes the left virtual line IL.sub.L to this position, and then, moves the right virtual line IL.sub.R to a position separated from the left virtual line IL.sub.L by the width of the vehicle and fixes the right virtual line IL.sub.R to this position, and controls brakes to stop the vehicle after fixing the left and right virtual lines IL.sub.L and IL.sub.R.

A driver monitor system and method for predicting impairment of a user of a vehicle. The system includes video cameras, an input device for inputting a list of medications being taken by the driver. Processing circuitry predicts side effects of the medications based on the half-life of the medication, detecting eye gaze movement, eye lid position, and facial expression of the user using images from the video camera, predicting whether the user is transitioning into an impaired physical state that is a side effect of the medications, verifying the side effect of the medications, determining whether the user is fit to drive using the verified side effects of the medications, and outputting to the vehicle an instruction to operate the vehicle in a level of automation that makes up for the at least one side effect or to perform a safe pull over operation of the vehicle.

Disclosed herein is a method for providing pickup and drop-off services to a user at designated locations using an autonomous vehicle. The method for providing transportation services using an autonomous vehicle according to an embodiment includes receiving driving information from a user terminal and identifying a destination on the basis of the received driving information, generating a driving path to the destination and transmitting the generated driving path to the autonomous vehicle, identifying a stopping area corresponding to the destination when the autonomous vehicle is within a preset distance from the destination and determining whether stopping is allowed in the identified stopping area, and generating a driving path to the stopping area on the basis of results of the determination, and transmitting the generated driving path to the autonomous vehicle, or setting a waiting area on the driving path to the destination, generating a driving path to the set waiting area, and transmitting the generated driving path to the autonomous vehicle.

An autonomous vehicle navigates an intersection in which occlusions block the vehicle's ability to detect moving objects. The vehicle handles this by generating a phantom obstacle behind the occlusion. The vehicle will predict the speed of the phantom obstacle and use the predicted speed to assess whether the phantom obstacle may collide with the vehicle. If a collision is a risk, the vehicle will slow or stop until it confirms that either (a) the phantom obstacle is not a real obstacle or (b) the vehicle can proceed at a speed that avoids the collision. To determine which occlusions shield real objects, the system may use a rasterized visibility grid of the area to identify occlusions that may accommodate the object.

This document describes methods and systems for enabling an autonomous vehicle (AV) to determine a path to a stopping location. The AV will determine a desired stop location (DSL) that is associated with a service request. The AV's motion control system will move the AV along a path to the DSL. While moving along the path, the AV's perception system will detect ambient conditions near the DSL. The ambient conditions will be parameters associated with a stopping rule. The AV will apply the stopping rule to the ambient conditions to determine whether the stopping rule permits the AV to stop at the DSL. If the stopping rule permits the AV to stop at the DSL, the motion control system will move the AV to, and stop at, the DSL. Otherwise, the motion control system will not stop the AV at the DSL.

A travel assisting method for a vehicle which is executed by a processor, comprising: generating a vehicle speed command value based on vehicle information of a subject vehicle; calculating the vehicle speed command value at a predetermined time (a look-ahead time) ahead of a current time based on information of a feature existing ahead of the subject vehicle in a travelling direction, as a look-ahead vehicle speed command value; and controlling the subject vehicle based on the look-ahead vehicle speed command value. Further, a lighting state of a traffic light located around the subject vehicle is detected, and the look-ahead time is set based on the lighting state.

An autonomous driving assistance device includes a manual driving control section, an autonomous driving control section, and a travelling condition determining section. If it is detected that there is a malfunction in a first sensor during control of the autonomous driving of the vehicle, the autonomous driving control section executes emergency autonomous driving until a predetermined condition is satisfied while changing, based on the determined travelling condition, a driving manner of an emergency autonomous driving as compared with a driving manner of the autonomous driving executed before no malfunctions are detected in the first sensor; and after the emergency autonomous driving is terminated, the autonomous driving assistance device being configured to selectively execute one of: causing the autonomous driving control section to stop the vehicle; and causing the manual driving control section to control the manual driving.