METHOD FOR CHECKING WHETHER A SWITCH OF A DRIVING MODE CAN BE SAFELY CARRIED OUT

Abstract

A method for operating a vehicle, wherein a check is carried out to determine whether a switch of the driving mode can be safely carried out and a corresponding output is provided, wherein an estimation is made as to whether the road class traversed by the vehicle corresponds to a target road class, including the steps of: ascertaining the position of the vehicle using a satellite navigation system, comparing the ascertained position with a road map, wherein the road map includes an allocation of roads according to road classes, and determining whether a road of the target road class is located in a specified area around the ascertained position on the road map.

Claims

1. A method for operating a vehicle, wherein a check is carried out to determine whether a switch of the driving mode can be safely carried out and a corresponding output is provided, wherein an estimation is made as to whether the road class traversed by the vehicle corresponds to a target road class, comprising: ascertaining the position of the vehicle using a satellite navigation system, comparing the ascertained position with a road map, wherein the road map comprises an allocation of roads according to road classes, and determining whether a road of the target road class is located in a specified area around the ascertained position on the road map.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, in addition to the position of the vehicle, the direction of movement of the vehicle is ascertained using the satellite navigation system and is compared with the road map.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the event that a road of the target road class is located in the specified area around the ascertained position on the road map, a check is carried out on the basis of the vehicle environment to determine whether an indication or a group of multiple indications regarding the road class traversed by the vehicle exist(s).

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the indications are distinguished according to whether they refute or confirm that the road class traversed by the vehicle corresponds to the target road class, wherein in the event of one or more refuting indications an output is provided that a switch of the driving mode cannot be safely carried out.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the indications are weighted, with a weighting factor, according to how meaningful they are regarding the road class traversed by the vehicle and/or how reliably it can be refuted or confirmed by the respective indication that the road class traversed by the vehicle corresponds to the target road class.

6. The method according to claim 5, whereinit is ascertained on the basis of the entirety of the weighted indications, on the basis of the total of the weighting factors, whether a switch of the driving mode can be safely carried out or not, wherein the corresponding output, in the form of an electrical signal, is provided dependent thereon.

7. The method according to claim 3, wherein the existence of the one indication or the group of indications is checked using one or more sensors for recognizing objects, camera, lidar, radar and ultrasonic sensors.

8. The method according to claim 3, wherein the indication or the group of indications comprise(s) one or more of the following: recognition of the structural separation between lanes or roads, recognition of the form, size, color and/or the distances of the lane marking, recognition of the form, size, color and/or the distance of the lane edges, in particular the guardrail and/or the reflector posts, recognition of the signage, in particular the color, form, size of the traffic sign and/or of the semantic content of the inscription, recognition of the direction of travel of the traffic in the environment of the vehicle, information obtained from vehicle-to-vehicle communication, reference marks of the road and/or of the road environment, recognition of signage regarding autonomous driving, recognition of infrastructure, in particular toll gantries, toll stations, border checkpoints, recognition of a speed limit on a traffic sign, history of the distance traveled, wherein the distance traveled is extracted from an electronic memory.

9. The method according to claim 3, wherein the time at which an indication exists is in each case saved, wherein, depending on the type of indication, a specific validity period is assigned to the indication.

10. The method according to claim 3, wherein the existence of the indication is not evaluated positively for one or more indications until the indication has been recognized multiple times.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein as a consequence of the output that a switch of the driving mode can be safely carried out, the vehicle switches to a driving mode having an increased degree of automation of the vehicle control, to a fully automated driving mode, or the vehicle, if it is already in the driving mode having an increased degree of automation of the vehicle control, retains the latter.

12. A control device which is designed to perform a method according to claim 1.

13. A vehicle, the vehicle control of which has multiple driving modes having different degrees of automation, between which it is possible to switch, comprising a control device according to claim 12.

14. The method according to claim 2, wherein in the event that a road of the target road class is located in the specified area around the ascertained position on the road map, a check is carried out on the basis of the vehicle environment to determine whether an indication or a group of multiple indications regarding the road class traversed by the vehicle exist(s).

15. The method according to claim 4, wherein the indications are weighted, with a weighting factor, according to how meaningful they are regarding the road class traversed by the vehicle and/or how reliably it can be refuted or confirmed by the respective indication that the road class traversed by the vehicle corresponds to the target road class.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0038] The characteristics, features and advantages of aspects of the invention described above as well as the way in which these are achieved will become clearer and easier to understand in connection with the drawing which is explained below.

[0039] The FIGURE shows a flow chart of an embodiment of the method according to an aspect of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0040] Referring to the FIGURE, in a first step 100, the position of the vehicle is first determined in the known manner using satellite navigation, if necessary with the assistance of vehicle dynamic sensors, for example an IMU as well as vehicle odometry, wherein during the determination of the position, a safeguarding or tolerance radius, for example twenty meters, is taken account of. In addition, the direction of movement of the vehicle is also determined.

[0041] In the subsequent step 101, a comparison of maps or an adjustment of maps is carried out. The position and direction information of the vehicle obtained using satellites is compared with the location information of a stored digital road map. The map has a sufficiently high and safeguarded accuracy.

[0042] In a further step 102, a check is carried out to determine whether a road having a sought road class, the target road class, is located in the immediate environment of the vehicle on the road map, wherein the target road class comprises the types of roads which are permitted for a switch to the autonomous driving mode. If no target road class is present in the area, for example with a radius of two hundred meters, the process continues with step 100. If, on the other hand, such a target road class is present, the method is continued with step 200.

[0043] It is ensured with step 200 that the vehicle is actually located on the assumed road. To this end, further pieces of information from the environment of the vehicle are used as indications, for example lane markings or traffic signs.

[0044] In step 201, a check is carried out to determine whether a contraindication has been found. This can exist, for example, in the form of structural criteria or signage. Even if the road class which has been coarsely determined with the road map applies, it may be that a construction site is recognized and classified as a contraindication. If such a contraindication exists, no autonomous driving mode is allowed and the method begins again at step 100.

[0045] If, on the other hand, no contraindication is found, a weighting of the further indications is carried out, according to how meaningful they are regarding the road class traversed by the vehicle or how reliably it can be refuted or confirmed by the respective indication that the road class traversed by the vehicle corresponds to the target road class, with step 202, in order to further increase the safety.

[0046] If, subsequently, the result of step 203 is that the recognized and weighted indications in their entirety are not sufficient in order to safely identify the road class, the method starts again at step 100. Otherwise, a corresponding signal is output at step 204, which signals that a switch of the driving mode, that is to say a transition of the vehicle control from the human driver to the vehicle, is permissible.