JP2018188030A - Driving support system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a driving support system which performs switching from automatic driving to manual driving so as to be able to secure safety when an unrecognizable state of a peripheral situation occurs.SOLUTION: When a poor visibility condition occurs to a front camera or a rear camera due to a dense fog or the like and causes a recognition disability of a peripheral situation while in a state (a) in which automatic driving is performed on an own vehicle A in a state which a preceding vehicle B and a following vehicle C are recognized, a driving support system starts deceleration of the own vehicle A (b). Then, when the distance between the following vehicle C and the own vehicle A, based on an assumption that the following vehicle C is maintaining the vehicle speed just before the occurrence of the recognition disability, decreases to a prescribed distance, it returns the vehicle speed of the own vehicle A to the vehicle speed just before the occurrence of the recognition disability (c). In addition, it notifies a user of the necessity of switching to manual driving and performs switching to manual driving in response to a switching operation by the user.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

  The present invention relates to a driving support system for switching between an automatic driving mode for performing automatic driving and a manual driving mode for performing manual driving.

  As a technology related to automatic driving, there is known a technology for controlling the operation of a car on behalf of a driver while recognizing a lane, a road shape, and a road state from an image taken by a camera mounted on the car (for example, a patent) Reference 1).

  In addition, the distance between the vehicle and the relative speed of the preceding vehicle is calculated from the image in front of the vehicle taken with the camera mounted on the vehicle, and the preceding vehicle is calculated based on the calculated distance between the vehicles and the relative speed. There is also known a technique for controlling the vehicle speed of the own vehicle so that the distance between the vehicles is an appropriate distance (for example, Patent Document 2).

  In addition, as a technology for switching between an automatic driving mode for automatically controlling the operation of the automobile and a manual driving mode for controlling the operation of the automobile according to the operation of the driver, the vehicle is in the driver's seat. A technique for switching between an automatic operation mode and a manual operation mode in accordance with a user operation is known (for example, Patent Document 3).

JP 2017-62172 A JP 2014-151679 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2017-24521

  When a vehicle equipped with an automatic driving mode and a manual driving mode as the driving mode of the vehicle is used for automatic driving using the image taken by the camera mounted on the vehicle when it is in the automatic driving mode, If the camera field of view deteriorates due to heavy rain, snowstorm, sandstorm, ash fall, etc., it is difficult to continue automatic driving safely, so it is necessary to quickly switch the driving mode of the automobile to the manual driving mode.

  However, on the other hand, at the time when the field of view of the camera becomes poor, there is a possibility that the user of the driver's seat who has been released from driving in the automatic driving mode does not grasp the surrounding situation.

  Therefore, if the driving mode of the automobile is switched to the manual driving mode immediately after the camera visibility becomes poor, driving may be left to a driver seat user who does not know the surrounding situation. In this way, it is not preferable from the viewpoint of ensuring safety to entrust driving to a driver's seat user who does not grasp the surrounding situation.

  On the other hand, if the vehicle driving mode is not immediately switched to the manual driving mode when the camera field of view becomes poor, automatic driving will continue in a state where the camera cannot be used for grasping the surrounding situation. May invite the situation.

  Here, such a problem is that when the operation of the vehicle is performed in a case where a failure occurs in the recognition of the surrounding situation when the automatic operation is performed using a device other than the camera such as the radar for the recognition of the surrounding situation, the driving mode of the car is changed. It can occur in the same way when switching to manual operation mode.

  Therefore, the present invention provides a driving support system that performs automatic driving while recognizing the surrounding situation, and performs switching from automatic driving to manual driving so that safety can be ensured when recognition of the surrounding situation is impossible. Let it be an issue.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a driving support system mounted on an automobile, including at least one camera including a camera that captures the rear of the host vehicle and a surrounding situation including a situation of a following vehicle. Recognizing means for recognizing based on information including images taken by each camera, and when the automatic driving mode is set as the driving mode, the operation of the automobile is controlled according to the surrounding situation recognized by the recognizing means. Automatic driving means for performing automatic driving and not performing the automatic driving of the automobile when the manual driving mode is set as the driving mode, and when the automatic driving mode is set as the driving mode, An operation mode switching means for switching the operation mode to the manual operation mode in response to the operation is provided. Here, the recognizing means calculates a distance between the succeeding vehicle and the own vehicle and a relative speed of the succeeding vehicle with respect to the own vehicle as succeeding vehicle information, and the automatic driving means recognizes the recognition due to poor visibility of the camera. When the recognition of the surrounding situation of the means occurs, the vehicle speed control process is performed when the recognition means recognizes the following vehicle immediately before the recognition failure occurs. Then, the vehicle speed control process starts deceleration of the vehicle, and then immediately before the occurrence of the recognition failure, which is calculated based on the following vehicle information calculated immediately before the recognition failure occurs. When it is assumed that the following vehicle recognized by the recognition means is traveling while maintaining the vehicle speed immediately before the occurrence of the recognition failure, the distance between the following vehicle and the own vehicle is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value. If it becomes, it is the process which recovers the vehicle speed of the said motor vehicle to the vehicle speed before starting the said deceleration.

  Here, such a driving support system switches the driving mode to the manual driving mode when the automatic driving means recovers the vehicle speed of the automobile to the vehicle speed before starting the deceleration in the vehicle speed control process. A message for guiding the user may be output.

  Further, in the above driving support system, when the recognition of the surrounding situation of the recognition means occurs in the automatic driving means, the recognition means recognizes the following vehicle immediately before the recognition failure occurs. If not, the vehicle may be decelerated, and thereafter the vehicle speed of the vehicle may be restored to the vehicle speed before the deceleration starts.

  Further, in the above driving support system, when the recognition of the surrounding situation of the recognition means occurs in the automatic driving means, the recognition means recognizes the following vehicle immediately before the recognition failure occurs. If not, the vehicle starts to decelerate, and then the vehicle speed after that point, which is followed by the vehicle at a predetermined distance immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence, is unrecognizable. When the distance between the virtual succeeding vehicle, which is the same as the vehicle speed of the vehicle immediately before, and the vehicle is below a predetermined threshold, the vehicle speed of the automobile is restored to the vehicle speed before starting the deceleration. You may comprise.

  In the driving support system described above, the recognition unit recognizes the preceding vehicle based on information including images captured by the cameras, and the automatic driving unit recognizes the surrounding situation of the recognition unit. Even if the recognition means recognizes the following vehicle immediately before the occurrence of the recognition failure, the recognition means recognizes the preceding vehicle immediately before the recognition failure occurs. If not, the vehicle speed control process may not be performed.

  According to the driving support system as described above, when the recognition means cannot recognize the surrounding situation due to poor visibility of the camera, the vehicle decelerates in a range where it does not collide with a succeeding vehicle assumed to be traveling at a constant speed. The vehicle speed is restored to the vehicle speed before starting deceleration. And by this deceleration, the collision with the preceding vehicle when the preceding vehicle decelerates due to poor visibility can be avoided. In addition, this deceleration can increase the inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle and the preceding vehicle, so that the user can switch to the manual operation mode after sufficiently checking the surrounding situation, Even after switching to the manual operation mode, it is possible to perform manual operation with a margin.

  The above driving support system is provided with an observation device for observing the rear of the vehicle in place of the camera in the driving support system, and in the recognition means, instead of information including images taken by the cameras, Based on the observation value of the observation device, the surrounding situation including the situation of the following vehicle can be recognized.

  As described above, according to the present invention, in the driving support system that performs the automatic driving while recognizing the surrounding situation, the automatic driving is changed to the manual driving so that the safety can be secured when the surrounding situation cannot be recognized. Switching can be done.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the driving assistance system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows arrangement | positioning of the front camera and back camera of the driving assistance system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the operation mode switching process at the time of the unrecognizable generation which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the process example of the operation mode switching process at the time of the unrecognizable generation which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the other example of the operation mode switching process at the time of the unrecognizable occurrence which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described.
In FIG. 1, the structure of the driving assistance system which concerns on this embodiment is shown.
The driving support system is a system mounted on an automobile. As shown in the figure, a front camera 1, a rear camera 2, a preceding vehicle recognition unit 3, a subsequent vehicle recognition unit 4, a road recognition unit 5, a driving control unit 6, and a storage device. 7, an audio output device 8, a display device 9, an input device 10 and the like.

  The front camera 1 is a monocular camera or a stereo camera, and images the front of the car A on which the driving support system is mounted as shown in FIG. The rear camera 2 is also a monocular camera or a stereo camera, and photographs the rear of the automobile A as shown in FIG.

  And the preceding vehicle recognition part 3 analyzes the image image | photographed with the front camera 1, the presence or absence of the preceding vehicle B which is the other vehicle currently drive | working just before the own vehicle A, the distance to the preceding vehicle B, a preceding vehicle The relative speed of B with respect to the vehicle is calculated and notified to the operation control unit 6.

  Then, the subsequent vehicle recognition unit 4 analyzes the image captured by the rear camera 2 to determine whether there is a subsequent vehicle C that is another vehicle traveling immediately after the host vehicle A, the distance to the subsequent vehicle C, the subsequent vehicle. The relative speed of C with respect to the vehicle is calculated and notified to the operation control unit 6.

  The road recognizing unit 5 analyzes the image captured by the front camera 1 and the image captured by the rear camera 2 to calculate the shape of the road that is running, the lane configuration, and the like, and sends it to the driving control unit 6 as road information. Notice.

  Next, the operation control unit 6 controls various operations of the automobile in a form corresponding to the set operation mode. Here, the operation modes set in the operation control unit 6 include an automatic operation mode and a manual operation mode.

  The automatic operation mode is an operation mode in which the operation control unit 6 performs all automatic control of various vehicle operations such as steering, braking, acceleration, and gear shift. Then, in the automatic driving mode, the automatic driving unit determines the distance to the preceding vehicle notified from the preceding vehicle recognizing unit 3, the relative speed of the preceding vehicle with respect to the own vehicle, and the presence / absence of the following vehicle notified from the following vehicle recognizing unit 4. Based on the distance to the following vehicle, the relative speed of the following vehicle with respect to the own vehicle, road information notified from the road recognition unit 5, map data stored in advance, etc. Various operations of the automobile are controlled so that the vehicle travels at an appropriate speed along the road within a range in which an appropriate inter-vehicle distance can be maintained.

  In addition, the operation control device determines whether or not there is a preceding vehicle notified from the preceding vehicle recognition unit 3, the distance to the preceding vehicle, the relative speed of the preceding vehicle with respect to the own vehicle, and the presence or absence of the following vehicle notified from the following vehicle recognition unit 4. The storage device 7 also stores the distance to the following vehicle and the history of the relative speed of the following vehicle relative to the host vehicle as peripheral other vehicle history information.

  Next, the manual operation mode is an operation mode in which various operations of the automobile such as steering, braking, acceleration, and gear shift are controlled in accordance with a driving operation such as a steering operation, a pedal operation, and a shift operation by a user at the driver's seat.

  Here, when the manual operation mode is set as the operation mode, the user needs to monitor the surrounding traffic situation by himself and to operate the operation of the car himself / herself. On the other hand, when the automatic driving mode is set as the driving mode, the user does not need to operate the automobile and is freed from the need to monitor the surrounding traffic situation.

  In such a configuration, the preceding vehicle recognition unit 3 and the subsequent vehicle recognition unit 4 detect this when the visibility of the front camera 1 and the rear camera 2 becomes poor due to heavy fog, heavy rain, snowstorm, sandstorm, ash fall, and the like. The operation controller 6 is notified of the occurrence of unrecognition. Note that the field of view of the front camera 1 and the rear camera 2 is detected by, for example, determining that the field of view is defective when the luminance variance of the captured image is smaller than a predetermined value. can do.

  On the other hand, when the automatic operation mode is set as the operation mode, the operation control unit 6 manually sets the operation mode if notified by the preceding vehicle recognition unit 3 or the subsequent vehicle recognition unit 4 that the recognition is impossible. In order to switch to the operation mode, an operation mode switching process is performed when recognition is not possible.

FIG. 3 shows the procedure of the operation mode switching process when the recognition is not possible.
As shown in the figure, in the operation mode switching process when the recognition is not possible, the driving control unit 6 first starts deceleration of the automobile (step 302). Here, this deceleration is performed, for example, so that the vehicle speed decreases by a predetermined speed in a predetermined unit time until a predetermined vehicle speed is reached. In this case, the predetermined speed may be a fixed speed, or may be a speed that is a predetermined ratio with respect to the vehicle speed before starting deceleration.

Then, immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence, it is determined whether or not the succeeding vehicle recognition unit 4 has detected the presence of the following vehicle with reference to the other vehicle history information in the storage device 7 (step 304).
If the subsequent vehicle recognition unit 4 detects that there is a subsequent vehicle immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence (step 304), it is assumed that the subsequent vehicle maintains the vehicle speed immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence. In this case, the occurrence of a decrease in the inter-vehicle distance between the current host vehicle and the following vehicle to Th or less is monitored (step 306). In addition, when it is assumed that the following vehicle maintains the vehicle speed immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence, the current inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and the succeeding vehicle is the traveling distance D1 of the own vehicle from the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence, Based on the travel distance D2 from when the unrecognizable occurrence occurs assuming that the following vehicle maintains the vehicle speed immediately before the unrecognizable occurrence, and the distance d to the subsequent vehicle calculated by the subsequent vehicle recognition unit 4 immediately before the unrecognizable occurrence , D1−D2 + d.

Here, Th may be a fixed value (for example, 10 m), or may be a value that increases as the vehicle speed immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognition increases.
Then, if it is assumed that the following vehicle maintains the vehicle speed immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence, if a decrease in the inter-vehicle distance between the current vehicle and the following vehicle to Th or less occurs (step 306), The vehicle speed of the automobile is restored to the vehicle speed before starting deceleration in step 302 (step 308).

  In addition, the driver at the driver's seat is notified of the necessity of switching of the driving mode (step 310). Here, this notification is performed, for example, by outputting a voice message from the voice output device 8 such as “switching of the operation mode is necessary. If the surrounding situation is confirmed, switch to the manual mode.”

  Then, it waits for the operation mode switching operation to the manual operation mode for the input device 10 (step 312), and when the operation mode switching operation to the manual operation mode occurs, the operation mode is switched to the manual operation mode (step 314). ), The operation mode switching process when the recognition is not possible ends.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step 304 that the subsequent vehicle recognition unit 4 has not detected the presence of the following vehicle immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence, the virtual subsequent vehicle maintains the vehicle speed immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence. When it is assumed that the distance between the current own vehicle and the virtual succeeding vehicle is decreased, the occurrence of a decrease to Th or less is monitored (step 316).

  Here, as a virtual succeeding vehicle that determines the occurrence of a decrease in the inter-vehicle distance to Th or less in step 316, the succeeding vehicle that becomes the limit at which the succeeding vehicle recognition unit 4 can recognize the succeeding vehicle immediately before the unrecognizable occurrence occurs. A succeeding vehicle that has followed the host vehicle at the same distance as the distance up to (the maximum distance at which the following vehicle can be recognized), and the following vehicle whose vehicle speed is the same as the own vehicle speed at that time is hypothesized.

  Then, if it is assumed that the following vehicle maintains the vehicle speed immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence, if a decrease in the inter-vehicle distance between the current vehicle and the following vehicle to Th or less occurs (step 316), The vehicle speed of the automobile is restored to the vehicle speed before starting deceleration in step 302 (step 308).

In addition, the driver at the driver's seat is notified of the necessity of switching of the driving mode (step 310).
Then, it waits for the operation mode switching operation to the manual operation mode for the input device 10 (step 312), and when the operation mode switching operation to the manual operation mode occurs, the operation mode is switched to the manual operation mode (step 314). ), The operation mode switching process when the recognition is not possible ends.

Heretofore, the operation mode switching process when the unrecognizable occurrence performed by the automatic driving unit has been described.
Hereinafter, a processing example of such an operation mode switching process at the time of occurrence of unrecognition will be schematically shown.
Now, as shown in FIG. 4a, it is assumed that the own vehicle A is automatically driving in the automatic driving mode in a state where the preceding vehicle B and the following vehicle C are recognized.
Next, in this state, if the visibility of the front camera 1 or the rear camera 2 is deteriorated due to dense fog, etc., and the recognition failure occurs in which the preceding vehicle B or the following vehicle C cannot be recognized, As shown in FIG. 4b, deceleration of the own vehicle A is started.

  Here, when the front camera 1 and the rear camera 2 have poor visibility due to the dense fog or the like and the recognition becomes impossible, the vehicle A starts to decelerate, so the preceding vehicle B has poor visibility due to the dense fog or the like. Even if the vehicle decelerates, it can be expected that the distance between the own vehicle A and the preceding vehicle B is secured, and the collision between the own vehicle A and the preceding vehicle B is avoided.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 4c, when the distance between the succeeding vehicle C and the own vehicle A is reduced to a predetermined distance Th when it is assumed that the following vehicle C maintains the vehicle speed immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence. The vehicle speed of the host vehicle A is returned to the vehicle speed immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence, and the driver at the driver's seat is notified of the switching of the driving mode.

  Here, when the front camera 1 and the rear camera 2 have poor visibility due to dense fog or the like and recognition is not possible, the following vehicle C also has poor visibility due to dense fog or the like. Therefore, after the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence, the following vehicle C is likely to decelerate or travel at the same speed as when the unrecognizable occurrence occurred. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 4c, the host vehicle A is decelerated until the distance from the succeeding vehicle C when the succeeding vehicle C maintains the vehicle speed immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence becomes a predetermined distance Th. If the vehicle speed is recovered later, it can be expected that the inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle A and the following vehicle C is secured, and the collision between the own vehicle A and the preceding vehicle B can be avoided.

  Next, in this state, when the user performs an operation mode switching operation to the manual operation mode, the operation mode is switched to the manual operation mode. Thereafter, the user at the driver's seat can drive the vehicle according to his / her intention. It becomes like this.

  Here, in the state shown in FIG. 4c, it can be expected that the distance between the own vehicle A and the preceding vehicle B is sufficiently large due to the deceleration of the own vehicle A. Therefore, the user of the own vehicle A can switch the operation mode to the manual operation mode after sufficiently confirming the surrounding situation, and also has manual operation after switching to the manual operation mode. You can drive.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described above.
By the way, step 316 of the unrecognizable occurrence operation mode switching process in the above embodiment is a process that proceeds to step 308 when a certain period of time has elapsed since the start of deceleration, or from a point that reaches when the vehicle does not decelerate. The process may proceed to step 308 when a position behind a predetermined distance is reached. It should be noted that the predetermined period and the predetermined distance in this case are the current vehicle and the virtual when the virtual succeeding vehicle described above maintains the vehicle speed immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence at step 308. Set so that the distance between the car and the following car is not less than Th.

  In the above-described embodiment, the unrecognizable occurrence-time operation mode switching process includes the operation of switching the operation mode to the manual operation mode to the input device 10 before starting the vehicle speed in step 308 after starting deceleration in step 302. If it occurs, the process may proceed to step 314 to switch the operation mode to the manual operation mode and end the operation mode switching process when the recognition is not possible.

Moreover, the operation mode switching process at the time of occurrence of unrecognition in the above embodiment may be the process shown in FIG.
Here, the unrecognizable occurrence operation mode switching process shown in FIG. 5 is the same as the unrecognized occurrence operation mode switching process of FIG. The driver at the driver's seat is notified of the necessity of switching the driving mode, and after the deceleration starts, before the vehicle speed is started in step 308, the operation mode switching operation to the manual driving mode for the input device 10 occurs. In this case (steps 502 and 504), the operation mode is switched to the manual operation mode (step 314), and the operation mode switching process at the time when the recognition is not possible is terminated.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, when the unrecognizable occurrence-time operation mode switching process starts, when the unrecognizable occurrence-time operation mode switching process is started, first, the preceding vehicle recognition unit 3 has the preceding vehicle immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognizable occurrence. Is detected with reference to the other vehicle history information in the storage device 7, and if the presence of a preceding vehicle is detected, the processing after step 302 is performed to detect the absence of the preceding vehicle. If it is, notify the user at the driver's seat that the operation mode needs to be switched, wait for the operation mode switching operation to the manual operation mode, switch the operation mode to the manual operation mode, and perform the operation mode switching process when recognition is not possible. It may be terminated.

  In the above embodiment, the operation mode is switched to the manual operation mode in response to the operation mode switching operation to the manual operation mode with respect to the input device 10. In response to occurrence of a driving operation such as a steering operation, a pedal operation, or a shift operation, the operation mode may be switched to the manual operation mode.

  In addition, the unrecognizable occurrence operation mode switching process in the above embodiment is the automatic operation mode when the unrecognizable occurrence occurs when the preceding vehicle or the following vehicle is recognized using an observation device other than a camera such as a radar device. The switching of the operation mode from the manual operation mode to the manual operation mode can be similarly applied.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Front camera, 2 ... Back camera, 3 ... Prior vehicle recognition part, 4 ... Subsequent vehicle recognition part, 5 ... Road recognition part, 6 ... Driving control part, 7 ... Memory | storage device, 8 ... Audio | voice output device, 9 ... Display Device, 10... Input device.

Claims (7)

A driving support system installed in an automobile,
One or more cameras including at least a camera that captures the back of the vehicle;
Recognizing means for recognizing the surrounding situation including the situation of the following vehicle based on information including an image taken by the camera;
When automatic driving mode is set as the driving mode, automatic driving is performed to control the operation of the vehicle according to the surrounding situation recognized by the recognition means, and manual driving mode is set as the driving mode Automatic driving means that does not perform the automatic driving of the car,
An operation mode switching means for switching the operation mode to the manual operation mode in response to a user's predetermined operation when the automatic operation mode is set as the operation mode;
The recognizing means calculates a distance between the following vehicle and the own vehicle and a relative speed of the following vehicle with respect to the own vehicle as subsequent vehicle information,
The automatic driving means, when the recognition means recognizes the following vehicle immediately before the recognition failure occurs when the recognition means cannot recognize the surrounding situation due to the poor visibility of the camera. Car speed control processing,
The vehicle speed control process starts the deceleration of the vehicle, and then calculates the recognition immediately before the occurrence of the recognition failure, which is calculated based on the subsequent vehicle information calculated immediately before the recognition failure occurs. When it is assumed that the following vehicle recognized by the vehicle is traveling while maintaining the vehicle speed immediately before the occurrence of the recognition failure, the distance between the following vehicle and the own vehicle is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold. If this is the case, the driving support system is a process for recovering the vehicle speed of the automobile to the vehicle speed before starting the deceleration. The driving support system according to claim 1,
In the vehicle speed control process, the automatic driving means outputs a message for guiding the user to switch the driving mode to the manual driving mode when the vehicle speed of the automobile is restored to the vehicle speed before starting the deceleration. A featured driving support system. The driving support system according to claim 1,
The automatic driving means outputs a message for guiding the user to switch the driving mode to the manual driving mode when the recognition means cannot recognize the surrounding situation due to poor visibility of the camera. Driving support system. The driving support system according to claim 1, 2, or 3,
When the recognition means has not recognized the surrounding situation of the recognition means, and the recognition means has not recognized the following vehicle immediately before the recognition failure has occurred, the automatic driving means A driving support system that decelerates and then recovers the vehicle speed of the automobile to the vehicle speed before the deceleration starts. The driving support system according to claim 1, 2, or 3,
The automatic driving means, when the recognition of the surrounding situation of the recognition means occurs, if the recognition means has not recognized the following vehicle immediately before the recognition failure occurs, The vehicle speed after the start of deceleration is followed by the vehicle at a predetermined distance away immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognition, and the vehicle speed after the time is the vehicle speed of the own vehicle immediately before the occurrence of the unrecognition. A driving support system for recovering the vehicle speed of the automobile to the vehicle speed before starting the deceleration when the distance between the same virtual succeeding vehicle and the own vehicle becomes a predetermined threshold value or less. . The driving support system according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5,
The recognizing means recognizes a preceding vehicle based on information including an image taken by each camera,
The automatic driving means, even when the recognition means recognizes the following vehicle immediately before the recognition failure occurs, when the recognition means cannot recognize the surrounding situation. The driving support system, wherein the vehicle speed control process is not performed when the recognition means does not recognize a preceding vehicle immediately before the recognition failure occurs. A driving support system installed in an automobile,
Equipped with an observation device to observe at least the back of the vehicle,
Recognizing means for recognizing the surrounding situation including the situation of the following vehicle based on the observation value of the observation device;
When automatic driving mode is set as the driving mode, automatic driving is performed to control the operation of the vehicle according to the surrounding situation recognized by the recognition means, and manual driving mode is set as the driving mode Automatic driving means that does not perform the automatic driving of the car,
An operation mode switching means for switching the operation mode to the manual operation mode in response to a user's predetermined operation when the automatic operation mode is set as the operation mode;
The recognizing means calculates a distance between the following vehicle and the own vehicle and a relative speed of the following vehicle with respect to the own vehicle as subsequent vehicle information,
The automatic driving means performs vehicle speed control processing when the recognition means recognizes the following vehicle immediately before the recognition failure occurs, when the recognition means cannot recognize the surrounding situation. ,
The vehicle speed control process starts the deceleration of the vehicle, and then calculates the recognition immediately before the occurrence of the recognition failure, which is calculated based on the subsequent vehicle information calculated immediately before the recognition failure occurs. When it is assumed that the following vehicle recognized by the vehicle is traveling while maintaining the vehicle speed immediately before the occurrence of the recognition failure, the distance between the following vehicle and the own vehicle is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold. If this is the case, the driving support system is a process for recovering the vehicle speed of the automobile to the vehicle speed before starting the deceleration.