Methods and systems for monitoring use, determining risk, and pricing insurance policies for a vehicle having autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features are provided. According to certain aspects, vehicle operation safety may be enhanced. An environmental or weather condition (e.g., hail, storm, wind) may be identified that presents a hazard to an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle. With the customer's permission, when it is determined that the vehicle is parked in an unprotected location, a protected or covered location to park the vehicle may be identified, a route to that location may be determined, and the vehicle may be directed to travel automatically to the protected location under the operation of autonomous operation features. Insurance discounts or cost savings may be provided to risk averse insurance customers based upon the self-parking functionality that will reduce or mitigate damage to insured vehicles caused by adverse conditions, falling trees or power lines, hail, etc.

Methods and systems for monitoring use, determining risk, and pricing insurance policies for a vehicle having autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features are provided. According to certain aspects, a computer-implemented method for generating or updating usage-based insurance policies for autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles may be provided. A request to generate an insurance quote may be received via wireless communication, and with the customer's permission, risk levels associated with intended usage by the customer of an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle may be determined. An insurance policy may be adjusted based upon the risk levels and the intended vehicle usage. The insurance policy may then be presented on the customer's mobile device for review and approval. In some aspects, the vehicle may be rented, and the intended vehicle usage is measured in distance or duration of vehicle operation. Insurance discounts may be provided to risk averse vehicle owners based upon low risk levels.

Methods and systems for monitoring use, determining risk, and pricing insurance policies for a vehicle having one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features are provided. According to certain aspects, a computer-implemented method for real-time determination of the status of autonomous operation features of an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle may be provided. With the customer's permission, the operation of the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle may be monitored to obtain operating data from one or more autonomous operation features. An operating status of the autonomous features may be determined based upon the operating data. After which, a change in the operating status of the autonomous features may be identified, and a report containing information regarding the change in the operating status of the autonomous features may be generated. Insurance discounts may be provided to risk averse customers that maintain their autonomous vehicles, and associated accident avoidance functionality, in good working condition.

Methods and systems for monitoring use, determining risk, and pricing insurance policies for a vehicle having autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features are provided. According to certain aspects, with the insurance customer's permission, operation of an autonomous (or semi-autonomous vehicle) by a vehicle operator may be monitored. Based upon vehicle and/or other data analysis, an identity of the operator may be determined, and operating data regarding the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle while the operator at least partially controls the autonomous vehicle may be monitored. A vehicle operator profile that includes information regarding an operating style of the vehicle operator based upon the operating data may be determined. Risk levels associated with operation of the autonomous vehicle based upon the information regarding the vehicle operator's operating style may be determined. Insurance discounts may be provided to risk averse vehicle owners and/or operators, or those that utilize vehicle risk mitigation or prevention technology.

A traveling assistance apparatus controls a safety apparatus for avoiding collision between an own vehicle and an object, based on detection information from an object detection apparatus. The assistance apparatus calculates a predicted time to collision of a target object and the own vehicle, and operates the safety apparatus in response to the predicted time to collision being equal to or less than a predetermined operation timing. In response to a steering operation by a driver for collision avoidance of the own vehicle being performed, the assistance apparatus performs operation-stop in which operation of the safety apparatus is stopped or operation-delay in which the operation timing is delayed. The assistance apparatus suppresses the operation-stop or the operation-delay in response to a target object serving as a collision avoidance target being recognized in a path of the own vehicle after the steering operation by the driver, based on the detection information.

A control device includes: a recognition unit that recognizes predetermined behavior of a user; an estimation unit that estimates a situation of the user on the basis of the predetermined behavior that is recognized by the recognition unit; an evaluation unit that evaluates certainty of an estimation result from the estimation unit; and an output unit that outputs to the control unit, an operation instruction in accordance with the certainty.

A system for transitioning a vehicle from an autonomous mode in response to a handover event, the system includes one or more processors and a memory device operably coupled with the one or more processors. The memory device stores a driver assessment module, an operational condition adjustment module, and a transitioning module. The driver assessment module configures the one or more processors to determine an ability level and a comfort level of a driver of the vehicle in response to the handover event. The operational condition adjustment module configures the one or more to adjust at least one operating condition of the vehicle to be within the ability level of the driver and comfort level. The transitioning module configures the one or more processors to transition the vehicle from the autonomous mode to a driver input mode.

Techniques are disclosed for switching between a manual driving mode and an autonomous driving mode. A system for switching driving modes can include a vehicle control unit in communication with a plurality of sensors and a plurality of vehicle controls of an autonomous vehicle. The vehicle control unit can include a control manager configured to receive a request to switch driving modes from a first mode to a second mode, obtain a driving state using the plurality of sensors, determine the driving state meets a switching standard, enter a pending switching state in which a control input received for the first mode is combined with a control input received for the second mode to generate a vehicle control output, send a message indicating that the driving mode is to switch from the first mode to the second mode, and switch driving modes from the first mode to the second mode.

Methods and systems for monitoring use, determining risk, and pricing insurance policies for a vehicle having one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features are provided. According to certain aspects, the operating status of the features, the identity of a vehicle operator, risk levels for operation of the vehicle by the vehicle operator, or damage to the vehicle may be determined based upon sensor or other data. According to further aspects, decisions regarding transferring control between the features and the vehicle operator may be made based upon sensor data and information regarding the vehicle operator. Additional aspects may recommend or install updates to the autonomous operation features based upon determined risk levels. Some aspects may include monitoring transportation infrastructure and communicating information about the infrastructure to vehicles.

Methods and systems for monitoring use, determining risk, and pricing insurance policies for a vehicle having one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features are provided. According to certain aspects, with the customer's permission, a vehicle operator in an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle may be determined by a sensor disposed within the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle or a mobile computing device associated with the vehicle operator. A determination may be made as to whether the vehicle operator is authorized to operate the vehicle based upon the determined identity of the vehicle operator; and if the vehicle operator is not authorized, an alert may be generated and/or the vehicle may be caused to not operate. Alternatively, autonomous operation features may be automatically engaged to automatically drive the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle to a safe location when the operator is not authorized. Insurance discounts may be provided based upon the anti-theft functionality.