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 are for securing a vehicle. In an exemplary embodiment, the vehicle includes a body, a drive system, a braking system, and a processor. The drive system is configured to generate movement of the body, and includes a motor. The braking system includes friction brakes that provide friction braking. The processor is disposed onboard the vehicle, coupled to the motor, and is configured to at least facilitate: determining that a loss in friction braking has occurred while the vehicle is being stopped; and providing instructions to the motor for providing propulsion torque, thereby securing the vehicle at a stop, when it is determined that the loss in friction braking has occurred; wherein the motor is further configured to execute the instructions provided by the processor for providing the propulsion torque.

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 and/or configuration of autonomous operation features of an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle may be determined, such as via an on-board computer system or mobile device, and/or then directly or indirectly wirelessly communicated via data transmission from the vehicle computer system or mobile device to a remote server. An adjustment to one or more risk levels associated with operation of the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle may also be determined, and an auto insurance policy, premium, or discount may be adjusted based upon the adjustment to the risk levels and presented to the customer for their review and approval. As a result, insurance cost savings may be passed onto risk averse customers that opt into to a rewards program.

According to certain aspects, a computer-implemented method for operating an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle may be provided. With the customer's permission, an identity of a vehicle operator may be identified and a vehicle operator profile may be retrieved. Operating data regarding autonomous operation features operating the vehicle may be received from vehicle-mounted sensors. When a request to disable an autonomous feature is received, a risk level for the autonomous feature is determined and compared with a driver behavior setting for the autonomous feature stored in the vehicle operator profile. Based upon the risk level comparison, the autonomous vehicle retains control of vehicle or the autonomous feature is disengaged depending upon which is the safer driver—the autonomous vehicle or the vehicle human occupant. As a result, unsafe disengagement of self-driving functionality for autonomous vehicles may be alleviated. Insurance discounts may be provided for autonomous vehicles having this safety functionality.

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.

A drive mode switch control device acquires operation information. The drive mode switch control device switches a drive state among at least an autonomous drive state, a manual drive state, and a coordination drive state. The operation detection unit detects a first operation and a second operation based on the operation information when the drive state is not in the manual drive state. The second operation is the drive operation different from the first operation and input after the input of the first operation. The drive mode switch control device switches the drive state from the autonomous drive state to the coordination drive state based on a detection determination of the first operation. The drive mode switch control device switches the drive state from the coordination drive state to the manual drive state based on a detection determination of the first operation.

A driving control apparatus for a vehicle having a function for generating a target path to a predetermined range as a target and performing automated lane change to a neighboring lane when no other vehicle is recognized in the predetermined range of the neighboring lane by a surrounding recognition function and a merging support function for generating a target path using other vehicle information obtained by a communication function, performing acceleration/deceleration control and steering control, and automatically merging to a merged lane, wherein the driving control apparatus has a function for altering override threshold values serving as a determination criterion of operation intervention for stopping the acceleration/deceleration control and the steering control to a value greater than during normal operation of the communication function when failure occurs in the communication function during the automated merging.

A vehicle collision avoidance assist apparatus executes a collision avoidance control for avoiding a collision of an own vehicle with an object ahead of the own vehicle. The apparatus determines whether a driver of the own vehicle has a collision self-avoidance probability that the driver can avoid the collision of the own vehicle with the object ahead of the own vehicle by carrying out a driving operation to the own vehicle. When the apparatus determines that the driver does not have the collision self-avoidance probability, the apparatus sets a start timing of starting executing the collision avoidance control to a timing earlier than the start timing set when the apparatus determines that the driver has the collision self-avoidance probability.

A vehicle control apparatus for controlling a vehicle based on peripheral information of the vehicle, the apparatus comprising: a control unit configured to control steering and acceleration/deceleration of the vehicle in a first state in which holding of a steering apparatus of the vehicle by a driver is required or a second state in which holding of the steering apparatus is not required, wherein the control unit transitions a state of the vehicle from the second state to the first state, if input of an intervention operation for acceleration/deceleration by the driver is detected in a case of executing course change of the vehicle, when the vehicle is traveling in the second state.

While an autonomous mode is activated, a vehicle is operated based on operating parameters for the autonomous mode. The operating parameters include at least one of a vehicle speed or a following distance. Upon detecting a user input to control vehicle operation, vehicle operation is transitioned to a nonautonomous mode, and a count of a number of received user inputs to control vehicle operation is incremented. Upon determining that the count of received of user inputs to control vehicle operation is greater than a threshold, the operating parameters for the autonomous mode are updated. Then, upon determining to transition from the nonautonomous mode to the autonomous mode, the vehicle is operated based on the updated operating parameters.