JP2020126450A - Vehicle operation system - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a vehicle operation system capable of detecting an abnormality without mounting a configuration for detecting the abnormality on a vehicle.SOLUTION: A vehicle operation system 900 includes a mobile terminal 8 and a server 90. The mobile terminal 8 enables inputting at least vehicle identification information of a vehicle 1 witnessed by a user of the mobile terminal 8 and abnormality information indicating a detail of an abnormality occurring in the vehicle 1. The mobile terminal 8 enables transmitting notification information including the vehicle identification information and the abnormality information to an outside. The server 90 receives the notification information transmitted from the mobile terminal 8, identifies the vehicle 1 by using the notification information, and transmits a warehousing instruction to the identified vehicle 1. The server 90 executes, when it is confirmed that the identified vehicle 1 is actually abnormal after the warehousing instruction, processing of giving a reward to the user of the mobile terminal 8.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present disclosure relates to a vehicle operation system, and more particularly to a vehicle operation system for a vehicle configured to perform unmanned operation.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2015-045965 (Patent Document 1) describes an in-vehicle device that can perform automatic notification when a vehicle abnormality is detected, such as when a vehicle-mounted sensor detects a collision.

JP, 2005-045965, A

With the technology described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2015-045965 (Patent Document 1), it is not possible to report a sign of a vehicle malfunction that cannot be detected by an in-vehicle sensor, such as occurrence of abnormal noise or vibration. In the past, a user on board could detect these malfunctions, but when the vehicle automatically and unmanned frequently, the operation of the vehicle continues without being able to detect these malfunctions. There was a fear that it would end up.

The vehicle operation system of the present disclosure is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object thereof is to provide a vehicle operation system capable of detecting an abnormality without mounting a configuration for detecting an abnormality on the vehicle. That is.

A vehicle operation system according to the present disclosure is a vehicle operation system of a vehicle configured to perform unmanned operation, and includes an information providing terminal and a server. The information providing terminal is configured to be able to input at least vehicle identification information of a vehicle witnessed by a user of the information providing terminal and abnormality information indicating details of an abnormality occurring in the vehicle. The information providing terminal is configured to be capable of transmitting notification information including vehicle identification information and abnormality information to the outside. The server receives the notification information transmitted from the information providing terminal, specifies the vehicle by using the notification information, and transmits the warehousing instruction to the specified vehicle. The server executes a process of giving a reward to the user of the information providing terminal when it is confirmed that the specified vehicle actually has an abnormality after the storage instruction.

With the above configuration, the server can collect sighting information from the user of the information providing terminal such as a pedestrian. Further, the user of the information providing terminal is also motivated to report the abnormality.

According to the vehicle operation system of the present disclosure, it is possible to detect a vehicle abnormality without mounting an expensive configuration for detecting an abnormality on the vehicle itself.

It is a figure which shows roughly the whole structure of the vehicle operation system which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structure of the vehicle 1 schematically. 7 is a flowchart for explaining processing performed in the vehicle operation system 900 by the mobile terminal 8, the server, and the vehicle.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, the same or corresponding parts will be denoted by the same reference characters and description thereof will not be repeated.

<Overall structure of vehicle operation system>
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing an overall configuration of a vehicle operation system according to this embodiment. With reference to FIG. 1, a vehicle operation system 900 includes a plurality of vehicles 1 and a vehicle management center 9. The vehicle management center 9 selects an appropriate vehicle from among a plurality of vehicles in response to a vehicle allocation request from the user's mobile terminal 8 (for example, a smartphone) and selects the user's current location (or a location designated by the user). Dispatch to. Although not shown, the vehicle allocation request may be transmitted from the computer terminal (fixed terminal) of the user. In this case, the vehicle selected by the vehicle management center 9 is dispatched to the point designated by the user.

The vehicle 1 is configured to be capable of unmanned automatic driving (hereinafter referred to as “unmanned driving”). Unmanned driving means control in which driving operations such as acceleration, deceleration, stop, and steering of the vehicle are executed without depending on the driving operations of the driver of the vehicle. Unmanned driving includes lane keeping control and navigation control, for example. In the lane keeping control, a steering wheel (not shown) is automatically steered so that the vehicle travels along the traveling lane without departing from the traveling lane. In the navigation control, for example, when there is no preceding vehicle in front of the vehicle, constant speed control is performed to drive the vehicle at a constant speed at a preset speed, while a preceding vehicle exists in front of the vehicle. For this, follow-up control is executed to adjust the vehicle speed of the vehicle in accordance with the inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle.

Vehicle 1 is, for example, an electric vehicle (EV). However, the power source for running the vehicle 1 is not particularly limited. The vehicle 1 may be a vehicle that requires fuel for traveling such as a gasoline vehicle or a diesel vehicle (a so-called convenience vehicle), a hybrid vehicle (including a plug-in hybrid vehicle), or a fuel cell vehicle. May be In addition, in FIG. 1, three vehicles 1 are shown to prevent the drawing from being complicated, but the number of vehicles 1 is not particularly limited. In many cases, vehicle operation system 900 includes more vehicles.

A base station device 5 is provided on the communication network 7 in order to realize communication between the vehicle 1, the mobile terminal 8 and the vehicle management center 9.

The base station device 5 is, for example, a base station device based on LTE (Long Term Evolution). However, the communication method of the base station device 5 is not limited to this, and may be, for example, W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) or another communication method. Alternatively, the base station device 5 may be configured to be able to switch a plurality of communication systems. Each of the plurality of vehicles 1 and the vehicle management center 9 are configured to be capable of bidirectional wireless communication via the base station device 5 and the communication network 7, and exchange various information.

The vehicle management center 9 manages the traveling status of each vehicle 1 and provides necessary information to the vehicle 1 and sends various commands to the vehicle 1. The vehicle management center 9 includes a server 90, a vehicle information database 92, and a communication device 95.

The vehicle information database 92 stores information indicating the usage status of each vehicle 1, position information, abnormality information, and the like (generally referred to as “vehicle information”).

The server 90 is a processing device that performs various processes for allocating an appropriate vehicle among the plurality of vehicles 1 to the user in response to a request from the user. In addition, when a failure or abnormality is found in the vehicle 1, the server 90 stores the vehicle 1 in the repair shop 10 for inspection and repair if the vehicle 1 can travel.

When a failure or abnormality is found by various sensors mounted on the vehicle while the vehicle 1 is traveling, the vehicle 1 notifies the server 90 of the failure or abnormality, and the server 90 is inspected and repaired based on the notified content. The vehicle 1 is run to the nearest base such as a possible repair shop 10.

However, the vehicle 1 itself may not be able to report a sign of vehicle malfunction that cannot be detected by the vehicle-mounted sensor, such as occurrence of abnormal noise or vibration. When the occupant is in the vehicle, if he/she can sense these malfunctions, the occupant can report to the vehicle management center 9, but if the vehicle is in an unattended state without the occupant, There is a risk that the vehicle will continue to operate without being able to detect these malfunctions.

Therefore, in the vehicle operation system 900 according to the present embodiment, the server 90 receives the information for identifying the vehicle 1 and the information indicating the details of the abnormality from the portable terminal 8 owned by a pedestrian or the like, and the vehicle 1 is used as necessary. To the repair shop 10. Since the vehicle operation system is configured in this manner, when an abnormality occurs in the vehicle, a person around the vehicle can report the abnormality even if the passenger is not an occupant.

The result of the inspection at the repair shop 10 is notified to the server 90. When it is confirmed by the inspection result that the information reported from the mobile terminal 8 is correct, and the report is the first one, the server 90 executes a process of giving an incentive to the owner of the mobile terminal 8.

<Vehicle configuration>
FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing the configuration of the vehicle 1. Referring to FIG. 2, vehicle 1 includes a power storage device 21, a power control unit (PCU) 22, a motor generator (MG) 23, a power transmission gear 24, and drive wheels 25. An accelerator and brake actuator 26, a steering actuator 27, and an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) 100 are provided.

Power storage device 21 is a rechargeable DC power supply, and supplies electric power for generating the driving force for driving vehicle 1 to PCU 22. Further, power storage device 21 is charged with electric power generated by regenerative braking of motor generator 23 or charged with electric power supplied from outside the vehicle.

PCU 22 performs electric power conversion between power storage device 21 and motor generator 23 in accordance with a command from ECU 100. PCU 22 is configured to include an inverter that receives electric power from power storage device 21 to drive motor generator 23, a converter (not shown) that adjusts the level of the DC voltage supplied to the inverter, and the like.

Motor generator 23 is driven by an inverter included in PCU 22, and rotates a drive shaft (not shown). The torque output by the motor generator 23 is transmitted to the drive wheels 25 via the power transmission gear 24, whereby the vehicle 1 travels. Further, the motor generator 23 receives the rotational force of the drive wheels to generate electric power when the vehicle is braked. The electric power generated by motor generator 23 is stored in power storage device 21 through PCU 22.

The accelerator and brake actuator 26 operates an accelerator and a brake (not shown) according to a command from the ECU 100. The steering actuator 27 operates the steered wheels according to a command from the ECU 100.

The vehicle 1 further includes a navigation device 31, a sensor group 32, and an occupant detection device 33 as a configuration for acquiring the external state of the vehicle 1 or the traveling state of the vehicle 1.

The navigation device 31 includes a GPS (Global Pointing System) receiver 311 that identifies the current location of the vehicle 1 based on radio waves from an artificial satellite, and a map data storage unit 312 that stores map data. The navigation device 31 uses the position information (GPS information) of the current position of the vehicle 1 specified by the GPS receiver 311 to execute various navigation processes of the vehicle 1. More specifically, the navigation device 31 uses the GPS information of the vehicle 1 and the road map data stored in the map data storage unit 312 to drive a traveling route from the current position of the vehicle 1 to the destination (scheduled traveling route or The target route) is calculated, and the information on the traveling route is output to the ECU 100.

The sensor group 32 detects an external condition of the vehicle 1 and detects information according to a traveling state of the vehicle 1 and an operation of the vehicle 1 (a steering operation, an accelerator operation and a brake operation). The ECU 100 is configured to be capable of unmanned operation (fully automatic operation or automatic forwarding) based on various information detected (or acquired) by the sensor group 32. That is, the automatic driving by the sensor group 32 does not require the driver to get on or operate the driver under all circumstances. More specifically, the sensor group 32 includes a camera 321, a radar (Radar) 322, a rider (LIDAR: Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging) 323, a vehicle speed sensor 324, an acceleration sensor 325, and a gyro sensor 326. ..

The camera 321 images the external situation of the vehicle 1 and outputs imaging information regarding the external situation of the vehicle 1 to the ECU 100.

The radar 322 transmits an electric wave (for example, a millimeter wave) to the surroundings of the vehicle 1, receives the electric wave reflected by the obstacle, and detects the obstacle. The radar outputs the distance to the obstacle and the direction of the obstacle to the ECU 100 as obstacle information regarding the obstacle.

The rider 323 transmits light (typically, ultraviolet rays, visible rays, or near infrared rays) to the surroundings of the vehicle 1 and receives the light reflected by the obstacle to measure the distance to the reflection point and to detect the obstacle. To detect. The rider 323 outputs, for example, the distance to the obstacle and the direction of the obstacle to the ECU 100 as obstacle information.

The vehicle speed sensor 324 is provided on a wheel or a drive shaft of the vehicle 1. Vehicle speed sensor 324 detects the rotational speed of the wheels and outputs vehicle speed information including the speed of vehicle 1 to ECU 100.

Acceleration sensor 325 includes, for example, a longitudinal acceleration sensor that detects longitudinal acceleration of vehicle 1 and a lateral acceleration sensor that detects lateral acceleration of vehicle 1. Acceleration sensor 325 outputs acceleration information including both accelerations to ECU 100.

The gyro sensor 326 detects the inclination of the vehicle 1 from the horizontal direction and outputs the inclination information of the traveling route of the vehicle 1 to the ECU 100.

The occupant detection device 33 detects whether the occupant is in the vehicle 1 or whether there is a person who becomes the occupant in the vicinity of the vehicle 1 in order to determine whether or not the vehicle 1 is in use.

The vehicle 1 further includes a wireless communication device 41 for performing wireless communication with the outside of the vehicle. The wireless communication device 41 is, for example, a base station communication module.

The wireless communication device 41 is a device including an LTE transmission/reception circuit for performing LTE-compliant communication with the base station device 5, and is connected to the antenna 42.

The ECU 100 is configured to include a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 101, a memory 102, an input/output port (not shown) for inputting/outputting various signals, and the like. The ECU 100 executes various controls (lane keeping control, navigation control, etc.) for realizing unmanned operation of the vehicle 1 based on the input from the sensor group 32. The ECU 100 also transmits various information (positional information of the vehicle 1 and the like) to the server 90 via the wireless communication device 41, and receives commands or notifications from the server 90.

The vehicle operation system of the present embodiment is particularly effective in the case of a vehicle capable of unmanned operation as shown in FIG.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the vehicle operation system 900 includes an information providing terminal and a server 90. In FIG. 1, the mobile terminal 8 corresponds to an “information providing terminal”.

The mobile terminal 8 is configured to be able to input at least vehicle identification information of the vehicle 1 witnessed by the user of the mobile terminal 8 and abnormality information indicating details of an abnormality occurring in the vehicle 1. The mobile terminal 8 is configured to be capable of transmitting notification information including vehicle identification information and abnormality information to the outside.

The server 90 receives the notification information transmitted from the mobile terminal 8, identifies the vehicle 1 using the notification information, and transmits a warehousing instruction to the identified vehicle 1. The server 90 executes the process of giving a reward to the user of the mobile terminal 8 when it is confirmed that the specified vehicle 1 is actually abnormal after the storage instruction.

<Control regarding notification>
FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining processing performed in mobile terminal 8, server and vehicle in vehicle operation system 900.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3, when the caller notices an abnormality in vehicle 1, mobile terminal 8 accepts the input of the vehicle identification information of vehicle 1 witnessed by the caller in step S1. The vehicle identification information includes information such as the type of vehicle, color, date and time of occurrence of abnormality, place of occurrence of abnormality, and license plate.

Subsequently, in step S2, the mobile terminal 8 receives an input of abnormality information indicating the content of the abnormality occurring in the vehicle 1. The abnormality information includes states such as abnormal noise, vibration, and scratches. The application program installed in the mobile terminal 8 may be configured so as to select the type of abnormality from the menu registered in advance, and such a home page managed by the server 90 accessed by the mobile terminal 8 may be configured as such. Menu may be arranged.

Then, in step S3, the mobile terminal 8 transmits the notification information including the vehicle identification information and the abnormality information to the server 90 via the communication network 7.

In step S11, the server 90 receives the notification information transmitted from the mobile terminal 8 and identifies the vehicle 1 using the notification information. Subsequently, in step S12, the server 90 transmits a warehousing instruction to the identified vehicle 1.

When the vehicle 1 receives the warehousing instruction in step S21, the vehicle 1 automatically travels with the destination set at the warehousing point designated by the server 90 in step S22. At this time, if the occupant is in the vehicle, a message prompting the occupant to confirm whether there is any abnormality may be displayed or a voice may be played before the vehicle automatically travels.

At an entry point such as a repair shop, the vehicle 1 is inspected and the inspection result is input to the vehicle 1. The inspection result includes the arrival date and time and information indicating the details of the abnormality that caused the notification. If any abnormality is found in the inspection, the vehicle 1 is repaired at a repair shop or the like. The vehicle 1 transmits the inspection result information indicating the inspection result to the server 90 in step S23. In addition, the process of step S23 may be transmitted to the server 90 from an information terminal arranged at an entry point such as a repair shop.

The server 90 executes the process of giving a reward to the user of the mobile terminal 8 when it is confirmed that the specified vehicle 1 is actually abnormal after the storage instruction.

Specifically, in step S13, the server 90 determines whether or not an abnormality or a failure has actually occurred in the vehicle 1 based on the inspection result information received. In other words, the server 90 determines whether the abnormality information transmitted from the mobile terminal 8 to the server 90 is correct. If the information is not correct and there is actually no abnormality (NO in S13), the server 90 ends the process.

On the other hand, if the information is correct and an abnormality is actually recognized (YES in S13), the server 90 selects the informer who is the user of the mobile terminal 8 who has made the first notice in step S14. Then, in step S15, the server 90 gives an instruction to give an incentive to the first whistleblower, and also sends a message to the mobile terminal 8 to the effect that the incentive will be given. The incentive is given to the whistleblower by electronic money from, for example, a vehicle manager, a vehicle owner, an insurance company, or the like.

In addition, even if incentives are given by instructing the server of the business operator that manages the points that can be used for online shopping, the transfer of rewards to the bank account of the user of the mobile terminal 8, and the like. Good.

In step S4, the mobile terminal 8 receives the information indicating that the incentive has been given, and the reporter can know the information. Therefore, when the whistleblower witnesses an abnormality in the running vehicle 1, the whistleblower is more motivated to make another call.

As described above, according to the vehicle operation system 900 according to the present embodiment, even if a large number of expensive failure detection sensors and the like are not mounted, it is possible to receive notification of abnormalities such as abnormal noises and vibrations. It is possible to repair. In addition, the incentive increases the probability that even a witness will report an abnormality.

The embodiments disclosed this time are to be considered as illustrative in all points and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is shown not by the above description but by the claims, and is intended to include meanings equivalent to the claims and all modifications within the scope.

1 vehicle, 5 base station device, 7 communication network, 8 mobile terminal, 9 vehicle management center, 10 repair shop, 21 power storage device, 23 motor generator, 24 power transmission gear, 25 drive wheel, 26 brake actuator, 27 steering actuator, 31 navigation device, 32 sensor group, 33 occupant detection device, 41 wireless communication device, 42 antenna, 90 server, 92 vehicle information database, 95 communication device, 101 CPU, 102 memory, 311 GPS receiver, 312 map data storage unit, 321 camera, 322 radar, 323 rider, 324 vehicle speed sensor, 325 acceleration sensor, 326 gyro sensor, 900 vehicle operation system.

Claims (1)

A vehicle operation system for a vehicle configured to perform unmanned operation, comprising an information providing terminal and a server,
The information providing terminal is configured to be able to input at least vehicle identification information of a vehicle witnessed by a user of the information providing terminal and abnormality information indicating details of an abnormality occurring in the vehicle,
The information providing terminal is configured to be capable of transmitting notification information including the vehicle identification information and the abnormality information to the outside,
The server is
Receiving the notification information transmitted from the information providing terminal,
A vehicle is identified using the notification information, and a warehousing instruction is transmitted to the identified vehicle,
A vehicle operation system for executing a process of giving a reward to a user of the information providing terminal, when it is confirmed that an abnormality has actually occurred in the specified vehicle after the storage instruction.

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