An apparatus includes a memory, and circuitry which, in operation, performs operations including, storing, in the memory, an object occurrence map defining an occurrence area where there is a possibility that an object appears, detecting the object included in a captured image of a scene seen in a running direction of a vehicle, switching a vehicle drive mode, based on a result of the detection of the object and the object occurrence map, from an automatic drive mode in which the vehicle is automatically driven to a manual drive mode in which the vehicle is driven manually by a driver, and controlling driving of the vehicle in the switched manual drive mode.

A vehicle control device mounted to a vehicle and configured to control a traveling state of the vehicle is provided. The vehicle control device sets control contents for functions for automated driving of the vehicle, respectively, and to control the vehicle according to the control contents. The functions are each associated with one or more items of vehicle vicinity information in advance. The vehicle control device determines, for each of the functions, whether it is possible to recognize the associated one or more items of the vehicle vicinity information. The vehicle control device maintains the automated driving that uses a function associated with one or more items of the vehicle vicinity information recognized by the recognition determination unit, and switches over, into manual driving, the automated driving that uses a function associated with one or more items of the vehicle vicinity information not recognized by the recognition determination unit.

A driving control system includes an automatic driving control device and a driver monitoring device. The automatic driving control device includes a driver state determining unit, an override detector, a retreat mode controller, and a retreat mode canceler. During traveling under an automatic driving mode, when the driver state determining unit determines from a driver state detected by the driver monitoring device that the driver is not in a state capable of driving normally, the retreat mode controller sets a retreat mode in which an override operation is disabled and an own vehicle is caused to travel for retreat. When the driver state determining unit determines, during traveling for retreat, that the driver has returned to the state capable of driving normally, the retreat mode canceler cancels the retreat mode, and enables detection of the override operation of the driver by the override detector.

A vehicle control system includes an object placement portion in which an object can be placed, an automated driving controller configured to execute automated driving for automatically controlling at least one of acceleration or deceleration and steering of a vehicle, and an object placement controller configured to change the object placement portion from a first mode to a second mode in which the object placement portion is more easily used by an occupant of the vehicle than in the first mode in accordance with a control state of automated driving executed by the automated driving controller.

To implement a configuration to calculate a manual driving recoverable time required for a driver who is executing automatic driving in order to achieve a requested recovery ratio (RRR) for each road section, and issue a manual driving recovery request notification on the basis of the calculated time. A data processing unit is included, which calculates a manual driving recoverable time required for a driver who is executing automatic driving in order to achieve a predefined requested recovery ratio (RRR) from automatic driving to manual driving and determines notification timing of a manual driving recovery request notification on the basis of the calculated time. The data processing unit acquires the requested recovery ratio (RRR) for each road section set as ancillary information of a local dynamic map (LDM), and calculates the manual driving recoverable time for each road section scheduled to travel, using learning data for each driver.

A computer-implemented method, system, and/or computer program product controls a driving mode of a self-driving vehicle (SDV). One or more processors compare a control processor competence level of an on-board SDV control processor in controlling the SDV to a human driver competence level of a human driver in controlling the SDV while the SDV encounters a current roadway condition which is a result of current weather conditions of the roadway on which the SDV is currently traveling. One or more processors then selectively assign control of the SDV to the SDV control processor or to the human driver while the SDV encounters the current roadway condition based on which of the control processor competence level and the human driver competence level is relatively higher to one another.

A driving control method comprises: acquiring a destination of a vehicle; referring to a first map that includes identification information of a travel lane and a second map that does not include the identification information of the travel lane; calculating a route from a current position of the vehicle to the destination; when traveling along a first route included in the route and belonging to the first map, setting first driving control, while when traveling along a second route included in the route and belonging to the second map, setting second driving control with a lower level of autonomous driving than that of the first driving control; and creating a driving plan for the vehicle to travel along the route with contents of the set driving control. A driving control apparatus is based on the method.

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.

Embodiments described herein may provide a method for generating a local hazard warning polygon and establishing a quality score thereof. Methods may include: receiving a plurality of probe data points from a plurality of probes within a mapped region, where each probe data point includes location information and weather condition information; generating, based on a plurality of probe data points indicating an adverse weather condition, a local hazard warning condition polygon including a plurality of local hazard warning condition vertices; receiving weather conditions at each of a plurality of map points within the mapped region; correlating each local hazard warning condition vertex with a respective map point within the mapped region; and establishing a quality score of the local hazard warning condition polygon based on a proportion of the local hazard warning condition vertices indicating an adverse weather condition agreeing with a weather condition at a respective correlated map point.

An autonomous driving system includes: a Human Machine Interface; and a control device configured to control autonomous driving of a vehicle, present a first operation instruction to a driver of the vehicle during the autonomous driving, the first operation instruction requesting the driver to perform a first response operation performed in response to a first request or a first proposal by presenting the first request or the first proposal to the driver via the Human Machine Interface, and prohibit presenting a second operation instruction different from the first operation instruction until the first response operation is completed or until a timing at which the first response operation is predicted to be completed, the second operation instruction requesting the driver to perform a second response operation performed in response to a second request or a second proposal by presenting the second request or the second proposal.