A driving assist system for a vehicle includes a driver monitoring system that includes a plurality of sensors disposed in a vehicle and sensing driver hand positions of a driver driving the vehicle. A control includes a processor operable to process data sensed by the sensors to determine the driver hand positions of the driver driving the vehicle. The control, responsive to processing of data sensed by the sensors and at least in part responsive to the determined sensed driver hand positions, is operable to determine a level of attentiveness of the driver. The driving assistance system of the vehicle operates to provide driving assistance of the vehicle responsive at least in part to the determined level of attentiveness of the driver.

The present teaching relates to method, system, and medium, for operating a vehicle. Real-time data related to the vehicle are received. A current mode of operation of the vehicle and a state of the driver present in the vehicle are determined. A first risk associated with the current mode of operation of the vehicle is evaluated based on the real-time data and the state of the driver in accordance with a risk model. In response to the first risk satisfying a first criterion, a second risk associated with switching the current mode to a different mode of operation of the vehicle is determined based on the state of the driver. The vehicle is switched from the current mode to the different mode when the second risk satisfies a second criterion.

A vehicular control system includes a forward-viewing camera, a forward-sensing sensor and an in-cabin-sensing sensor. With the system controlling driving of the vehicle, the system determines a triggering event that triggers handing over driving of the vehicle to a driver of the vehicle before the vehicle encounters an event point associated with the triggering event. The vehicular control system (i) determines a total action time available before the vehicle encounters the event point, (ii) estimates a driver takeover time for the driver to take over control of the vehicle and (iii) estimates a handling time for the driver to control the vehicle to avoid encountering the event point. Responsive to the vehicular control system determining that the estimated driver takeover time is less than the difference between the determined total action time and the estimated handling time, control of the vehicle is handed over to the driver of the vehicle.

Systems and methods monitor driver behavior for vehicular fleet management in a fleet of vehicles using driver-facing imaging device. The systems and methods herein relate generally to vehicular fleet management for enhancing safety of the fleet and improving the performance of the fleet drivers, and further relate to monitoring the operation of fleet vehicles using one or more driver-facing imaging devices disposed in the fleet vehicles for recording activities of the fleet drivers and their passengers, storing information relating to the monitored activities, selectively generating warnings related to the monitored activities, and reporting the monitored activities to a central fleet management system for use in enhancing the safety of the vehicles of the fleet and for helping to improve the performance of the fleet drivers.

A utility vehicle includes: a travel structure including a front wheel, a rear wheel, a steering structure mounted to the front wheel, and a drive source that drives the front wheel and/or the rear wheel; at least one operator used to operate the travel structure; circuitry that controls the travel structure; and a mode switcher that switches the utility vehicle between a manned operation mode in which the utility vehicle travels in response to operations on the operator and an autonomous travel mode in which the circuitry allows the utility vehicle to autonomously travel on a given travel route without any operations on the operator.

One object is to enable a preparation period for switching between modes in automated driving to be provided for a vehicle occupant. A vehicle control system includes an automated driving control unit that automatically controls at least one of acceleration/deceleration and steering of a host vehicle, the automated driving control unit performing automated driving control in any one of a plurality of modes having different degrees of automated driving, a detection unit that detects a state of an occupant in the host vehicle, an output unit that outputs notification information on the automated driving control, and a notification condition changing unit that changes a notification condition for outputting the notification information according to the state of the occupant detected by the detection unit.

The present teaching relates to method, system, and medium, for presenting a warning to a driver. An instruction indicating an upcoming change in an operating mode of the vehicle is obtained, wherein the instruction specifies a set of tasks to be completed by the driver and a task duration associated with each task. Information of a current state of the driver is obtained and used to determine a warning to be used to alert the driver to perform the change, wherein the warning includes warning content and indication of at least one media to be used to deliver the warning content. A warning schedule is generated to comprise a set of warnings, each warning corresponding to one task, and arranged in an order based on an order of the tasks. The warning schedule is transmitted so that each warning of the set of warnings is executed.

A vehicle control method is disclosed. The vehicle control method includes: while controlling the driving of a vehicle taking control of itself, determining if there is a need to hand over the control of driving to a passenger in the vehicle; if it is determined that there is a need to hand over the control of driving to a passenger in the vehicle, selecting at least one of passengers to whom the control of driving may be handed over; determining an order of priority in handing over the control of driving by taking into consideration the at least one selected passenger's occupancy state information; handing over the control of driving to a top priority passenger according to the order of priority; and controlling the driving environment by taking into consideration the top priority passenger's occupancy state information.

A control system for a vehicle comprises one or more controllers (106, 108) and is configured to receive an occupant status signal (103) indicative of an ability of an occupant of the vehicle to take control of the vehicle, receive a communication signal (105) indicative of a status of a communication channel, determine whether the occupant is able to take control of the vehicle in dependence on the received occupant status signal (103), determine the availability of the communication channel in dependence on the communication signal (105), and output a control signal (107, 109) to cause operation of the vehicle to be controlled in dependence on the determination of whether the occupant is able to take control of the vehicle and the determination of the availability of the communication channel.

Signals are received from a plurality of sources, representing aspects of the vehicle, a vehicle operator, and an environment surrounding the vehicle. An alertness factor and a readiness factor are developed based at least in part on the signals. Control of the vehicle is transitioned between levels of autonomous control based at least in part on the alertness factor and the readiness factor.