Vehicles may have the capability to navigate according to various levels of autonomous capabilities, the vehicle having a different set of autonomous competencies at each level. In certain situations, the vehicle may shift from one level of autonomous capability to another. The shift may require more or less driving responsibility from a human operator. Sensors inside the vehicle collect human operator parameters to determine an alertness level of the human operator. An alertness level is determined based on the human operator parameters and other data including historical data or human operator-specific data. Notifications are presented to the user based on the determined alertness level that are more or less intrusive based on the alertness level of the human operator and on the urgency of an impending change to autonomous capabilities. Notifications may be tailored to specific human operators based on human operator preference and historical performance.

One or more braking event detection computing devices and methods are disclosed herein based on fused sensor data collected during a window of time from various sensors of a mobile device found within an interior of a vehicle. The various sensors of the mobile device may include a GPS receiver, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a microphone, a camera, and a magnetometer. Data from vehicle sensors and other external systems may also be used. The braking event detection computing devices may adjust the polling frequency of the GPS receiver of the mobile device to capture non-consecutive data points based on the speed of the vehicle, the battery status of the mobile device, traffic-related information, and weather-related information. The braking event detection computing devices may use classification machine learning algorithms on the fused sensor data to determine whether or not to classify a window of time as a braking event.

A system and method for classifying a type of interaction between a human user and a mobile communication device within a defined volume, based on multiple sensors. The method may include: determining a position of the mobile communication device relative to a frame of reference of the defined volume, based on: angle of arrival, time of flight, or received intensity of radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted by the mobile communication device and received by a phone location unit located within the defined volume configured to wirelessly communicate with the mobile communication device; obtaining at least one sensor measurement related to the mobile communication device from various non-RF sensors; repeating the obtaining, to yield a time series of sensor readings; and using a computer processor to classify the type of interaction into one of many predefined types of interactions, based on the position and the time series of sensor readings.

A method for operating an assistance system for a vehicle, including an object sensor device for determining an object characteristic value representative of coordinates of an object in the environment of the vehicle and a viewing sensor device for determining a direction characteristic value representative of a viewing direction of a driver of the vehicle and for determining a position characteristic value representative of a head position of the driver. According to the method, a projection characteristic value representative of a vector that connects the head position to the object is determined; a first region characteristic value representative of an estimated primary field of view of the driver is determined; an attention characteristic value representative of the probability that the object is at least partially in the field of view of the driver is determined; and a warning function of the vehicle is activated.

A vehicle control apparatus including circuitry configured to set a driving performance request in the given environments; determine whether driving performance of each of plural driving functions of a driver satisfies the driving performance request; and identify the driver's driving function that does not satisfy the driving performance request. On condition that an insufficient function is identified or the driving performance request is not satisfied, to realize the driving performance request, the circuitry is configured to perform at least one of controlling the vehicle such that the vehicle performs the identified insufficient function instead and providing the driver with an appropriate information so that the identified insufficient function close to a level of the driving performance request.

A vehicle control apparatus operates in various modes, e.g., a normal mode in which plural travel functions of a vehicle are controlled by plural driving functions of a driver; an automatic mode in which all driving functions are performed by the vehicle; an optimization mode in which, when a temporary reduction of driving performance of any of the plural driving functions of the driver is detected, physical stimulation and/or information that makes the driver recognize the temporary reduction of the driving performance is provided to the driver; and an assistance mode in which, when a chronic reduction of the driving performance of any of the plural driving functions of the driver is detected, information on assistance with execution of the driving performance is provided to the driver.

Vehicles may have the capability to navigate according to various levels of autonomous capabilities, the vehicle having a different set of autonomous competencies at each level. In certain situations, the vehicle may shift from one level of autonomous capability to another. The shift may require more or less driving responsibility from a human operator. Sensors inside the vehicle collect human operator parameters to determine an alertness level of the human operator. An alertness level is determined based on the human operator parameters and other data including historical data or human operator-specific data. Notifications are presented to the user based on the determined alertness level that are more or less intrusive based on the alertness level of the human operator and on the urgency of an impending change to autonomous capabilities. Notifications may be tailored to specific human operators based on human operator preference and historical performance.

A driving assistance system for a vehicle, in particular a motor vehicle, includes a user interface module which is set up for interaction with a driver The user interface module is further set up to: output at least two questions in relation to a driving assistance function to the driver sequentially; and receive a user input of the driver for answering the at least two questions. A control module is set up to activate and/or operate the driving assistance function based on a composition of incorrectly answered and correctly answered questions from the at least two questions, wherein the driving assistance function is activated only when a minimum number of questions and/or a specific subgroup of the at least two questions have been answered correctly at least in part.

Vehicles may have the capability to navigate according to various levels of autonomous capabilities, the vehicle having a different set of autonomous competencies at each level. In certain situations, the vehicle may shift from one level of autonomous capability to another. The shift may require more or less driving responsibility from a human operator. Sensors inside the vehicle collect human operator parameters to determine an alertness level of the human operator. An alertness level is determined based on the human operator parameters and other data including historical data or human operator-specific data. Notifications are presented to the user based on the determined alertness level that are more or less intrusive based on the alertness level of the human operator and on the urgency of an impending change to autonomous capabilities. Notifications may be tailored to specific human operators based on human operator preference and historical performance.

A vehicle includes a light switch for manually operating a lighting state of a lighting device. The light switch includes a light-off position and an auto-light position for executing an auto-light process. A vehicle control system includes a first controller for executing an automated driving of the vehicle, and a second controller for controlling a lighting state of the lighting device based on a request from the first controller or operation information of the light switch. The first controller is configured to transmit an auto-light request for executing the auto-light process to the second controller during execution of the automated driving. The second controller is configured to execute the auto-light process when the auto-light request is received from the first controller in a state where the light switch is operated to the light-off position.