A number of illustrative variations may include a method of communication between a driver and an autonomous steering system.

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 safety device for use in a vehicle which is configured to be operated at least intermittently in an automated driving mode, in which the vehicle drives in an automated manner, and which includes a first data source which is designed as a human machine interface and configured to output data about a driving status, including computing device and a first data interface, the safety device being configured to receive data about the driving status from the first data source via the first data interface, the safety device being configured to receive data about the driving status from a second data source different from the first data source, and the safety device being configured to output pieces of information about the driving status to a driver, using an information output device and based on the data received from the first data source and the second data source.

A driving assistance method includes: extracting a point where a travel lane of a host vehicle joins another lane on a planned travel route of the host vehicle, as a high difficulty point where autonomous driving is difficult; and guiding switching of a traveling state of the host vehicle from autonomous driving to manual driving, at a point located at a predetermined distance before the high difficulty point.

In a vehicle control apparatus, a controller for controlling a travelling of a vehicle is configured to obtain attribute information about at least one occupant from reservation information, the reservation information including information about the at least one occupant who has made a reservation for the vehicle, and set a travelling characteristic of the vehicle based on the attribute information about at least one occupant.

In an automated vehicle (AV) system, interdependencies between components of the AV are determined, an operational domain state of one or more of the components can be determined based on the determined interdependencies, and an output signal representing the operational domain state of the one or more components can be generated. A user interface can present a notification based on the output signal to notify the driver and/or other occupants of the AV of the operational domain state of one or more of the components.

A control apparatus of a vehicle including a travel control unit that performs automated driving and actuators controlled by the travel control unit comprises a switching control unit that controls switching between the automated driving and manual driving, and a road surface determination unit that determines whether a road surface on which the vehicle is travelling satisfies a predetermined condition. When the switching control unit determines that the automated driving needs to be switched to the manual driving, the travel control unit performs the automated driving in a first mode when the road surface on which the vehicle is travelling satisfies the predetermined condition, and otherwise performs the automated driving in a second mode. A degree of deceleration in the automated driving in the second mode is greater than a degree of deceleration in the automated driving in the first mode.

A control apparatus of a vehicle includes a function determination unit that determines whether functions of a travel control unit and an actuator group have deteriorated, and a switching control unit that controls switching between automated driving and manual driving. During a driving handover notification for requesting a driver to switch to the manual driving, the travel control unit performs the automated driving in a first mode when the functions of the travel control unit and the actuator group have not deteriorated, and the automated driving in a second mode when the functions of the travel control unit and the actuator group have deteriorated. A degree of deceleration in the automated driving in the second mode is greater than a degree of deceleration in the automated driving in the first mode.

A vehicle control device includes: detecting at least one of a position or a state of occupant in a vehicle; determining an operation inputting part that is most easily operable for the occupant from among a plurality of operation inputting parts in the vehicle based on the at least one of the position or the state of the occupant which is detected in the detecting; notifying a consent request in the vehicle with respect to a processing content scheduled to be performed in response to an occurrence of an event; and validating consent operation to the operation inputting part that is most easily operable.

An apparatus for switching a control authority of an autonomous vehicle may include: a capturing unit configured to capture an image of the inside of a vehicle and provide the captured image; a storage unit configured to store learning information and weights for inferring the presence and age of a passenger and whether a driver holds a steering wheel, based on deep learning; and a control unit configured to determine whether the passenger can drive the vehicle, by inferring the presence and age of the passenger through the learning information and weights stored in the storage unit from the image inputted from the capturing unit according to a manual mode switch request, infer whether the driver holds the steering wheel, and switch the control authority of the vehicle to a manual mode.