A notification control system (NCS) is configured to coordinate the delivery of notifications issued from a set of devices to the driver of a vehicle. The NCS registers all interactive devices residing in a vehicle and causes those devices to conform to specific directives generated by the NCS. The NCS analyzes and predicts the cognitive and emotional load on the driver and also estimates the cognitive and emotional impact on the driver potentially caused by any incoming notifications. The NCS then coordinates the delivery of notifications to the driver in a manner that avoids overwhelming the cognitive and/or emotional capacity of the driver. Accordingly, the NCS may avoid situations where device notifications cause the driver to unsafely divert attention away from driving.

Aspects of the technology relate to assisting a passenger in an autonomous vehicle without a driver. For instance, after a door of the vehicle is opened, a predetermined period of time may be waited by processors of computing devices of the vehicle. After waiting the predetermined period of time and when the vehicle's door remains open, a set of instructions for closing the vehicle's door may be played by the processors through a speaker of the vehicle. Once the door of the vehicle is closed, an announcement may be played by the processors through the speaker requesting that the passenger press a first button to initiate a ride to a destination. In response to the first button being pressed, the ride to the destination may be initiated by the processors by maneuvering the vehicle autonomously to the destination.

A driving support method for a vehicle includes: acquiring a sound of a sound source placed outside the vehicle; and displaying, on a display portion, driving support information corresponding to an utterance content of the sound, the utterance content of the sound being recognized by a sound recognition process, in a display mode suggesting a relative position of the sound source from the vehicle, the relative position being specified based on the sound.

A control device is intended to be embedded in a motor vehicle including a passenger compartment and at least one passenger service equipment item. The control device is provided to be coupled to each passenger service equipment item and includes a detection module configured to detect at least one passenger in the passenger compartment, a classification module configured to classify the detected passenger in at least one passenger category, and a generating module configured to generate, as a function at least of said passenger category, a command of the at least one passenger service equipment item.

Aspects of the technology relate to assisting a passenger in an autonomous vehicle without a driver. For instance, after a door of the vehicle is opened, a predetermined period of time may be waited by processors of computing devices of the vehicle. After waiting the predetermined period of time and when the vehicle's door remains open, a set of instructions for closing the vehicle's door may be played by the processors through a speaker of the vehicle. Once the door of the vehicle is closed, an announcement may be played by the processors through the speaker requesting that the passenger press a first button to initiate a ride to a destination. In response to the first button being pressed, the ride to the destination may be initiated by the processors by maneuvering the vehicle autonomously to the destination.

An agent device includes a plurality of agent functions configured to provide a service including a response in response to speech of an occupant of a vehicle, wherein a first agent function that is active among the plurality of agent functions is configured to activate another agent function upon receiving an instruction to activate the other agent function.

An agent device includes a plurality of agent functional units configured to provide a service including causing an output part to output a voice response in accordance with speech of an occupant of a vehicle and a manager configured to activate one agent functional unit corresponding to a first activation phrase that has been spoken among the plurality of agent functional units when the occupant of the vehicle has spoken the first activation phrase individually set for each of the plurality of agent functional units and to activate two or more agent functional units corresponding to a second activation phrase that has been spoken when the occupant of the vehicle has spoken the second activation phrase commonly set for the two or more agent functional units among the plurality of agent functional units.

A method controls providing suggestion information to an occupant of a vehicle relating to the performance of a vehicle function for operating the vehicle. The method includes providing a function unit with first input data representative of information relating to the vehicle occupant, the vehicle and/or the surroundings of the vehicle. The function unit determines request information depending on the first input data and the suggestion information. The request information is provided to a control unit, which determines, depending on the request information, whether the suggestion information should be provided to the vehicle occupant. Responsive to the control unit determining that the suggestion information should be provided, a control command to provide the suggestion information is sent to the function unit using the control unit. A provision command to provide the suggestion information is sent to the vehicle occupant using the function unit depending on the control command.

In an agent system, a first server device transmits information associated with a speech of a first user acquired from a first terminal device to a second server device, and the second server device transmits information associated with the speech of the first user acquired from the first server device to a second terminal device or an on-vehicle agent device on the basis of existence of a second user recognized by the second terminal device or the on-vehicle agent device.

An agent device is equipped with a plurality of agent controllers which provide a service including causing an output device to output a response of voice in accordance with an utterance of an occupant of a vehicle, in which a first agent controller included in the plurality of agent controllers provides an agent controller different from the first agent controller with first service information on the service to be provided to the occupant.