A restart control device is applied to a vehicle which is provided with an internal combustion engine, an electric motor, a driving wheel, and a clutch. The restart control device has a restart-condition determining portion which determines whether a restart condition for restarting the internal combustion engine is established while the vehicle is coasting; a push-start portion which starts the internal combustion engine by a push-start; a start-up portion which starts the internal combustion engine by use of an electric motor; and a doubly start-up portion which tries to start the internal combustion engine by one of the push-start portion and the start-up portion when the restart-condition determining portion determines that the restart condition is established. The doubly start-up portion tries to start the internal combustion engine by another one of the push-up portion and the start-up portion when the internal combustion engine has not been started.

A system, method, and apparatus includes management of coasting during operation of a vehicle equipped with a predictive cruise control system.

A control device of a vehicle including an engine, an auxiliary machine driven by rotation of the engine, and an engagement device selectively connecting and disconnecting a power transmission path between the engine and drive wheels comprises: a coasting control portion for selectively providing a first coasting control for allowing the vehicle to coast with the engine brought into a drive state while the power transmission path is disconnected by release of the engagement device, and a second coasting control for allowing the vehicle to coast with the engine brought into a stop state while the power transmission path is connected. If a load of the auxiliary machine is equal to or greater than a predetermined load and a vehicle speed is equal to or greater than a predetermined vehicle speed when a predetermined coasting start condition is satisfied, the coasting control portion provides the first coasting control.

A control command is provided to a vehicle control module that identifies one or more vehicle actions to be performed by the vehicle control module to control a position of an autonomous vehicle (AV) with respect to an external environment. Whether one or more conditions pertaining to the position of the AV with respect to the external environment are satisfied is determined. Responsive to determining that the one or more conditions pertaining to the position of the AV with respect to the external environment are satisfied, a first instruction is provide to the vehicle control module that permits the vehicle control module to deviate from the one or more vehicle actions identified in the control command and to perform an energy saving action with respect to the AV.

A vehicle control device turns off a clutch to put a vehicle into an inertia operation state in response to a predetermined executing condition being met, and turns on the clutch to terminate the inertia operation state in response to a predetermined terminating condition being met during the inertia operation. The vehicle control device includes a deceleration degree calculating device, a determination device, and an operation control device. The deceleration degree calculating device calculates an actual deceleration degree. The determination device determines whether the actual deceleration degree is greater than a threshold value defined on the basis of a deceleration degree of the vehicle in an accelerator-off and clutch-on state. The operation control device terminates or maintains the inertia operation depending on a condition of the actual deceleration degree.

A method for operating a motor vehicle, including an electric machine and a coupling device, which, in a first coupling state, couples the electric machine to a drivetrain and, in a second coupling state, decouples the electric machine from the drivetrain, wherein the method includes the following steps: a) registering an item of coupling information, which specifies whether the coupling device is in the first or second coupling state, b) analyzing a recuperation condition, the fulfillment of which is dependent on the coupling information, wherein the recuperation condition is fulfilled or can only be fulfilled if the coupling device is in the second coupling state, and c) braking the electric machine by operating the electric machine as a generator if the recuperation condition is fulfilled.

A method of providing inertia drive information to perform inertia driving of a vehicle may include recognizing a target position, where deceleration is required from a current speed of the vehicle, as an inertia drive event on a driving route at which a destination is set by a navigation function, when a plurality of inertia drive events are recognized in the recognizing of the target position as the inertia drive event, determining a predetermined priority with respect to each of the plurality of inertia drive events, determining an inertia drive start position required to reach, at a target speed, a target position of an inertia drive event having a high priority, which is determined by the determining of the predetermined priority, among the plurality of inertia drive events, and providing information on an inertia drive start position through a method which is recognizable by a driver.

Variator (20) and forward clutch (Fwd/C) disposed in series are provided between engine (1) having starter motor (15) and driving wheel (7). Sailing stop control that, on the basis of satisfaction of sailing entering condition, interrupts power transmission by frictional engagement element (Fwd/C), stops engine (1) and performs coast-travel is performed. When sailing entering condition is satisfied, coast-travel is started with rotation stop timing of variator (20) being delayed with respect to rotation stop timing of engine (1). When accelerator pedal depression operation intervenes after start of coast-travel, engine (1) is restarted by starter motor (15). When judged that input and output rotation speeds of frictional engagement element (Fwd/C) become synchronization rotation speed after restart of engine (1), frictional engagement element (Fwd/C) is reengaged. Shift response from coast-travel to normal travel is therefore improved at change-of-mind at which sailing quitting condition is satisfied during progress of automatic stop of engine.

A method and apparatus for providing an indication to a driver of a geared vehicle that the vehicle is not in an optimal gear is disclosed. The method comprises determining a current gear of the vehicle and determining a current speed of a drive unit of the vehicle. An indication is then provided to the driver of the vehicle that the vehicle is not in an optimal gear when: (i) the determined current speed of the drive unit is greater than a predetermined threshold; and (ii) the determined current gear of the vehicle is less than a maximum gear of the vehicle. A method and apparatus is also disclosed for determining a score indicative of the amount of time during a journey on a road network that a geared vehicle is driven in an optimal gear.

The invention concerns a method for automatically controlling a motor vehicle (10) for switching from a normal mode to a freewheel mode, the vehicle (10) comprising an engine (12) capable of providing engine torque to drive wheels (14) via an automatically controlled clutch device (18) that comprises a drive shaft (15) and a driven shaft (16). A transition step (E1) is interposed chronologically between the normal mode and the freewheel mode during which the engine (12) is automatically controlled in such a way that the driven shaft (16) and the drive shaft (15) turn at the same speed without transmitting torque to the drive wheels (14).