A system managing vehicle operations based on thermal data. The system includes a thermal camera arranged in the vehicle to sense intra-vehicle thermal conditions. The system also includes a hardware-based storage device including a thermal-data analysis module that, when executed by a hardware-based processing unit, determines, based on the intra-vehicle thermal data, an activity or state of one or more vehicle occupants. The storage device may also include: an action module that, when executed, determines an output action based on the activity or state; and an output-interface module that, when executed, initiates performing the output action. The storage device may also include In various embodiments, the hardware-based storage device includes a database module that, when executed, obtains pre-stored occupant data corresponding to an occupant, and determining the output action is based on the pre-stored occupant data and occupant activity or state determined.

Improved control of cruise control for a vehicle, in particular an automated activation of cruise control. For this purpose, the speed of the vehicle is monitored. If the speed of the vehicle and/or a distance between the vehicle and a further vehicle in front of the vehicle is within a predetermined range for a specific period of time it is indicated to a user that cruise control can be activated. Accordingly, cruise control can be automatically activated after providing the indication to the user, or a user may respond to this indication by providing a specific activity such as a release of the acceleration pedal.

A vehicle control apparatus controls operations of a steering apparatus and a braking/driving apparatus to assist driving of a vehicle by an occupant on the vehicle including the steering apparatus configured to steer the vehicle and the braking/driving apparatus configured to brake/drive the vehicle. The vehicle control apparatus receives a single assistance request signal for requesting the assistance in the driving from the occupant, and transitions to an operation mode of assisting the driving. Then, the vehicle control apparatus receives perceived information acquired from an external world perception portion, determines a situation of a running road lying ahead of the vehicle based on this perceived information, determines a steering instruction for steering the vehicle based on the situation of the running road, determines a braking/driving instruction for braking/driving the vehicle based on the situation of the running road, and outputs the steering instruction toward the steering apparatus and outputs the braking/driving instruction toward the braking/driving apparatus.

An inter-vehicle distance controller, a system including the same, and a method thereof are provided. The inter-vehicle distance controller includes a processor that determines whether to enable an inter-vehicle distance control function, based on information in front of a host vehicle and driving information of the host vehicle. Whether to enable the inter-vehicle distance control function is determined by determining a user intent to accelerate the host vehicle or a user intent to use the inter-vehicle distance control function although the host vehicle is stopped. A storage stores the information in front of the host vehicle and the driving information of the host vehicle.

In a travel control method for a vehicle in which a certain target inter-vehicle distance is set from among a plurality of settable target inter-vehicle distances and a subject vehicle is controlled to follow, in an automated or autonomous manner, a traveling trajectory of a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the subject vehicle, when a trajectory-following travel mode for following the traveling trajectory of the preceding vehicle in the automated or autonomous manner transitions from an OFF state to an ON state, the target inter-vehicle distance between the subject vehicle and the preceding vehicle is set to a relatively small value from among the settable values.

Improved control of cruise control for a vehicle, in particular an automated activation of cruise control. For this purpose, the speed of the vehicle is monitored. If the speed of the vehicle and/or a distance between the vehicle and a further vehicle in front of the vehicle is within a predetermined range for a specific period of time it is indicated to a user that cruise control can be activated. Accordingly, cruise control can be automatically activated after providing the indication to the user, or a user may respond to this indication by providing a specific activity such as a release of the acceleration pedal.

Provided is a control method of an automatic driving vehicle switchable between manual driving in which the vehicle is made to travel depending on an operation of an occupant and automatic driving in which driving characteristics in automatic travel are set and the vehicle is made to automatically travel based on the driving characteristics. Manual driving characteristics in the manual driving by the occupant are learned and, when switching from the manual driving to the automatic driving is performed, the automatic driving is performed with the manual driving characteristics maintained for a preset manual characteristic maintaining time. As a result, uneasiness of the occupant can be suppressed.

In a travel control method for a vehicle in which a certain target inter-vehicle distance is set from among a plurality of settable target inter-vehicle distances and a subject vehicle is controlled to follow, in an automated or autonomous manner, a traveling trajectory of a preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the subject vehicle, when a trajectory-following travel mode for following the traveling trajectory of the preceding vehicle in the automated or autonomous manner transitions from an OFF state to an ON state, the target inter-vehicle distance between the subject vehicle and the preceding vehicle is set to a relatively small value from among the settable values.

Provided is a control method of an automatic driving vehicle switchable between manual driving in which the vehicle is made to travel depending on an operation of an occupant and automatic driving in which driving characteristics in automatic travel are set and the vehicle is made to automatically travel based on the driving characteristics. Manual driving characteristics in the manual driving by the occupant are learned and, when switching from the manual driving to the automatic driving is performed, the automatic driving is performed with the manual driving characteristics maintained for a preset manual characteristic maintaining time. As a result, uneasiness of the occupant can be suppressed.

An adaptive cruise control system and method for controlling a speed of a vehicle includes determine a distance between a controlled vehicle a target vehicle with a distance sensor. An input sensor senses an input from a driver of the controlled vehicle in relation to the desired distance between the controlled vehicle and the target vehicle. An adaptive cruise control module receives a data set of a plurality of data points regarding the operation of the controlled vehicle. An artificial neural network is configured to receive the data set in response to the input from the driver being sensed and calculate a change in the desired distance in response to a change in at least one of the data points. A requested distance between vehicles is then changed based on at least one of the input from the driver and the calculated change in the desired distance by the artificial neural network.