A vehicle tank includes a first housing portion configured to house a first liquid for cleaning a cleaning object, and a second housing portion configured to receive a second liquid heated outside by heat exchange with a heating unit of a vehicle and house the second liquid which is received. A first wall defining the first housing portion and a second wall defining the second housing portion have a common wall shared by the first housing portion and the second housing portion.

Of moving directions of a piston, the direction in which high-pressure air is delivered is a delivery direction, and the direction in the opposite direction from the delivery direction is a force accumulation direction. The piston is moved in the force accumulation direction by the moving mechanism, and moved in the delivery direction by the biasing force of the biasing spring in response to the release of the moving force exerted by the moving mechanism. The cylinder is provided with: a piston supporting portion that supports the piston; and a connection protrusion that has a delivery path for delivering the high-pressure air to the nozzle. The inner surface of an end of the piston supporting portion in the delivery direction is formed as a closed surface. The delivery path is located further toward the force accumulation direction than the closed surface is.

Sensor cleaning system for cleaning sensors, in particular vehicle sensors, and associated method, characterized by a liquid reservoir for holding a cleaning liquid, and including a control unit for activating a switch unit and including at least one nozzle for spraying at least one sensor, the switch unit being provided between the liquid reservoir and the at least one nozzle, a liquid line being provided between the liquid reservoir and the switch unit and at least one nozzle line being provided between the switch unit and the at least one nozzle.

A system can include a solenoid manifold including a plurality of solenoid valves to control fluid flow between a tube and a plurality of nozzles, wherein one end of the tube is connected to a pump and the other end of the tube is connected to an inlet of the solenoid manifold; and a controller programmed to determine whether at least one solenoid valve of the plurality of solenoid valves is incorrectly in an open position based on pressure measurements representing a fluid pressure within the tube.

A solenoid valve in a manifold is commanded to move to a closed position. Upon activating a pump to supply fluid to the manifold via a supply line, a first pressure is determined in the supply line after commanding the solenoid valve to move to the closed position. Upon deactivating the pump to stop supplying fluid to the manifold, a second pressure is determined in the supply line. Based on a difference between the first pressure and the second pressure, the solenoid valve is determined to be one of (a) at least partially open or (b) in the closed position.

A cleaning unit for a window or a sensor in a motor vehicle includes a reservoir for a cleaning liquid, at least one cleaning nozzle provided in or on a cleaning nozzle unit, a fluid connection between the reservoir and the cleaning nozzle and at least one spray pump provided between the reservoir and the cleaning nozzle. The spray pump is formed by a piston-cylinder unit that has a cylinder axis and is provided in or on the cleaning nozzle unit. The cleaning unit is characterized in that the piston of the piston-cylinder unit is designed as an electromagnetically actuated piston, which can be actuated in a first direction under the action of an electromagnetic force directed along the cylinder axis, which first direction forms a compression direction.

A sensor apparatus includes a housing attachable to a vehicle and including a panel, a sensor window, a liquid nozzle fixed relative to the housing, and a tunnel. The panel includes a port. The sensor window is positioned in the port. The liquid nozzle is aimed at the sensor window. The liquid nozzle is positioned in a first horizontal direction from the port along the panel. The tunnel extends along the panel and is positioned in a second horizontal direction from the port, the second horizontal direction being opposite the first horizontal direction. The tunnel terminates at an opening positioned to receive fluid outputted by the nozzle.

A sensor pod system includes one or more sensor pods with a plurality of sensors configured to collect data from an environment. A sensor pod may have an effective field of view created by individual sensors with overlapping fields of view. The sensor pod system may include sensors of different types and modalities. Sensor pods of the sensor pod system may be modularly installed on a vehicle, for example, an autonomous vehicle and collect and provide data of the environment during operation of the vehicle.

A vehicular cleaner system (1) for cleaning a to-be-cleaned object (100), wherein: the vehicular cleaner system (1) is provided with a tank (11) that accommodates a cleaning liquid, a pump (12) that pressure-feeds the cleaning liquid inside the tank (11), a high-pressure-air generation unit (2) that generates high-pressure air, a first ejection port that sprays the cleaning liquid toward a cleaning surface of the to-be-cleaned object (100), a second ejection port that sprays the high-pressure air toward the cleaning surface, and a controller (4) and vehicle ECU (40) that control the spraying of the cleaning liquid and the spraying of the high-pressure air; and the controller (4) and the vehicle ECU (40) perform control so as to initiate the spraying of the high-pressure air from the second ejection port after spraying of the cleaning liquid from the first ejection port has been initiated.

A vehicle cleaner system includes: a cleaner unit mounted on a vehicle and configured to clean an external sensor acquiring information on outside of the vehicle; an advanced notification information acquiring unit configured to acquire expressway advanced notification information notifying that the vehicle has arrived within a predetermined distance from an entrance of an expressway; and a cleaner control unit configured to, when the advanced notification information acquiring unit has acquired the expressway advanced notification information, control the cleaner unit to clean the external sensor or diagnose whether or not the external sensor needs to be cleaned by the cleaner unit.