Example ride control systems and methods are described. In one implementation, a method receives a request to initiate a drive session to help a baby fall asleep in a vehicle. The method identifies a driving route for the drive session and implements the drive session by following the driving route. One or more vehicle-mounted sensors determine whether the baby in the vehicle has fallen asleep during the drive session.

A vehicle control device that performs sleep-permitted automated driving during which a driver is permitted to sleep is configured to estimate a condition of the driver and to exercise control to reduce stimulation to the driver when it is estimated that the driver is in a sleep state during the sleep-permitted automated driving of the vehicle.

A vehicular control device with which automated driving without a monitoring obligation is performed includes: a guidance provision determination unit that determines whether route guidance to a destination set by an occupant of the vehicle is under way; and a notification control unit that when the guidance provision determination unit determines that the route guidance is not under way during the automated driving without a monitoring obligation of the vehicle, causes prompting notification, which is at least either confirmation notification prompting confirmation related to setting of a route or situation notification notifying of a traveling situation, at a predetermined timing.

A vehicle control device specifies a travel location of a subject vehicle; and executes a location target speed control, which is a speed control with respect to a location as a control target for automatically changing a speed of the vehicle when a travel location of the vehicle is a specific location where a speed change of the vehicle is required due to a structure of a road. The vehicle control device executes the location target speed control differently depending on whether the subject vehicle is in the autonomous driving with monitoring obligation or in the autonomous driving with no monitoring obligation.

A vehicle control device that performs automatic driving without monitoring obligation is configured to: identity an obstacle which prevents the vehicle from traveling; identify, when the obstacle is identified, an avoidance measure which is a measure that allows the vehicle to avoid the obstacle; and permit, during the automatic driving without monitoring obligation, an avoidance based on a deviant measure on a basis of a fact that the avoidance measure is a deviant measure outside a scope of traffic regulations.

A vehicle control device includes a sleep depth estimation unit that estimates a sleep depth of an occupant seated in a seat provided in a vehicle, and a control unit that controls the vehicle such that a magnitude of the external force to be applied to at least one of a plurality of the occupants is equal to or less than a first threshold value when the estimated sleep depth of the occupant is equal to or lower than a predetermined reference depth or when the occupant is awake, and that controls the vehicle such that the magnitude of the external force to be applied to each of all the occupants is equal to or less than a second threshold value larger than the first threshold value when the sleep depth of each of the occupants is greater than the reference depth.

A control unit performs switching control, in automatic driving of a vehicle, between a first automatic driving state of an automatic driving level 2 or lower with manual driving or surrounding monitoring obligation, and a second automatic driving state of an automatic driving level 4 or higher with no surrounding monitoring obligation and allowing sleep, depending on a road on which the vehicle travels. When the control unit determines that a driver is in an asleep state based on a detection result of a detection unit in the second automatic driving state, the control unit performs acceleration control to adjust second vehicle speed in the second automatic driving state to be higher than first vehicle speed in the first automatic driving state, equal to the first vehicle speed, or lower than the first vehicle speed and higher than the second vehicle speed in a current state.

A method and apparatus are provided for determining one or more behavior models used by an autonomous vehicle to predict the behavior of detected objects. The autonomous vehicle may collect and record object behavior using one or more sensors. The autonomous vehicle may then communicate the recorded object behavior to a server operative to determine the behavior models. The server may determine the behavior models according to a given object classification, actions of interest performed by the object, and the object's perceived surroundings.

Example ride control systems and methods are described. In one implementation, a method receives a request to initiate a drive session to help a baby fall asleep in a vehicle. The method identifies a driving route for the drive session and implements the drive session by following the driving route. One or more vehicle-mounted sensors determine whether the baby in the vehicle has fallen asleep during the drive session.

A method and apparatus are provided for determining one or more behavior models used by an autonomous vehicle to predict the behavior of detected objects. The autonomous vehicle may collect and record object behavior using one or more sensors. The autonomous vehicle may then communicate the recorded object behavior to a server operative to determine the behavior models. The server may determine the behavior models according to a given object classification, actions of interest performed by the object, and the object's perceived surroundings.