JP2021028192A - Operation auxiliary device and operation auxiliary method - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide technique which is capable of executing automatic operation changing a vehicle to another lane or joining main lane adequately.SOLUTION: An operation auxiliary device comprises a first determination part 12 which determines whether or not automatic operation is capable of executing changing lane or joining lane of a vehicle from travel state of peripheral vehicles positioning around vehicle periphery, a second determination part 13 which determines whether or not psychological burden of passenger in the vehicle increases when executing the automatic operation and a control part 14 which controls execution of the automatic operation on the basis of the determination result of the first determination part 12 and the determination result of the second determination part 13.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to a driving support device and a driving support method for a vehicle capable of automatic driving.

Conventionally, various technologies have been proposed for driving support of an autonomous driving vehicle, which is a vehicle capable of autonomous driving. Among them, a technology related to automatic driving that changes lanes or merges lanes of an automatic driving vehicle is proposed.

For example, in Patent Document 1, an autonomous driving vehicle is based on whether or not a peripheral vehicle of the autonomous driving vehicle is provided with a driver sign indicating whether or not the driver of the peripheral vehicle meets a specific condition. Technology for controlling lane changes has been proposed. According to such a technique, when the drivers of peripheral vehicles are beginners or elderly people, it is possible to prevent them from being surprised by changing lanes of the autonomous driving vehicle.

Further, for example, Patent Document 2 proposes a technique for notifying based on the inter-vehicle distance and the relative speed between the autonomous driving vehicle and its surrounding vehicles. Further, for example, Patent Document 3 proposes a technique for reducing the speed of an autonomous driving vehicle when it is estimated that the passenger of the autonomous driving vehicle is feeling fear, for example.

JP-A-2018-90025 JP-A-2018-89489 JP-A-2017-136922

However, in the conventional driving support device, automatic driving for changing lanes or merging lanes is executed regardless of whether or not the psychological burden on the passengers of the autonomous driving vehicle increases. Therefore, there is a problem that the passengers of the autonomous driving vehicle may feel anxiety and fear due to the execution of such automatic driving.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of appropriately performing automatic driving for changing lanes or merging vehicles.

The driving support device according to the present invention includes a first determination unit that determines whether or not automatic driving for changing lanes or merging lanes is feasible based on the traveling conditions of surrounding vehicles located around the vehicle, and the automatic driving. Based on the second determination unit that determines whether or not the psychological burden on the passenger of the vehicle increases when the above is executed, the determination result of the first determination unit, and the determination result of the second determination unit. A control unit that controls the execution of the automatic operation is provided.

According to the present invention, a determination result as to whether or not automatic driving for changing lanes or merging lanes can be executed based on the traveling conditions of surrounding vehicles, and a psychological burden on the occupants of the vehicle when the automatic driving is executed. The execution of automatic operation is controlled based on the judgment result as to whether or not the vehicle increases. According to such a configuration, automatic driving for changing lanes or merging lanes can be appropriately executed.

It is a figure which shows an example of the road condition to which the driving support device which concerns on Embodiment 1 is applied. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the driving support apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating operation of the driving support apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the operation of the driving support apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the road condition to which the driving support device which concerns on the modification 1 of Embodiment 1 is applied. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the driving support apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 2. It is a figure which shows an example of the road condition to which the driving support device which concerns on Embodiment 3 is applied. It is a flowchart which shows the operation of the driving support apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 3. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the driving support apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 4. It is a flowchart which shows the operation of the driving support apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 4. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware composition of the driving support device which concerns on other modification. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware composition of the driving support device which concerns on other modification.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Hereinafter, a plurality of embodiments will be described, but it is assumed from the beginning of the application that the configurations described in the respective embodiments are appropriately combined. The same parts or corresponding parts in the drawings are designated by the same reference numerals, and their explanations are not repeated in principle.

<Embodiment 1>
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a road condition to which the driving support device according to the first embodiment of the present invention is applied. Hereinafter, a vehicle that is the target of driving support by the driving support device and is capable of automatic driving may be referred to as "own vehicle". In addition, unless otherwise specified, the passenger will be described below as meaning the passenger of the own vehicle. The driving support device of FIG. 1 can be called a vehicle control device that controls the own vehicle, and automatic driving controlled by the driving support device can be called vehicle control.

First, an example of a road condition to which the driving support device according to the first embodiment is applied will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1, automatic driving for changing the lane of the own vehicle 101 to the left lane is about to be executed. In the left lane, a heavy-duty truck 201 is running on the front side and another heavy-duty truck 202 is running on the rear side.

The own vehicle 101 is provided with an external world recognition device such as an external world recognition sensor, and the external world recognition device is a vehicle-to-vehicle distance (corresponding to a relative distance) and a relative speed between the own vehicle 101 and peripheral vehicles located around the own vehicle 101. It is possible to detect the running situation of surrounding vehicles such as.

For example, based on the information detected by the outside world recognition sensor, the map information, and the information received by using inter-vehicle communication or the like, the own vehicle 101 is automatically driven to change lanes or merge lanes. 101 is configured.

By the way, depending on the size of the own vehicle 101 and the personality and experience of the passengers, even if there is a sufficient margin in the inter-vehicle distance and the relative speed between the own vehicle 101 and the heavy-duty trucks 201 and 202, the heavy-duty truck 201 , 202 may be afraid to drive. Specifically, if there is a large truck in front of the own vehicle 101, the view will be obstructed, and if there is a large truck behind the own vehicle 101, the own vehicle 101 and the passengers will be seriously damaged in the event of a collision. Recollection by the passenger may impose a psychological burden on the passenger.

In such a case, if the own vehicle 101 executes automatic driving for changing lanes, a situation will occur in which the passenger himself or herself should have been consciously or unconsciously avoided when driving the own vehicle 101. .. However, even if autonomous driving for changing lanes is physically feasible, it is desirable to avoid situations in which passengers feel anxiety or fear as much as possible. Therefore, in the driving support device according to the first embodiment, it is possible to suppress automatic driving of a lane change that causes the passenger to feel anxiety or fear.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the driving support device 1 according to the first embodiment. The driving support device 1 includes an outside world recognition device 5 and an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) 11.

As described above, the outside world recognition device 5 detects the traveling state of surrounding vehicles. The external world recognition device 5 includes, for example, various sensing devices such as a stereo camera, a monocular camera, an infrared camera, a laser radar, a millimeter wave radar, a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranking), an ultrasonic sensor, and communication such as vehicle-to-vehicle communication and road-to-vehicle communication. It includes a V2X device that performs the above, a map information device, and a navigation device that receives the position of the own vehicle obtained from the quasi-zenith satellite.

The ECU 11 of FIG. 2 includes a lane change determination unit 12 which is a first determination unit, a psychological burden determination unit 13 which is a second determination unit, and a control unit 14.

The lane change determination unit 12 determines whether or not automatic driving for changing the lane of the own vehicle 101 is feasible based on the traveling conditions of surrounding vehicles. That is, the lane change determination unit 12 determines whether or not the automatic driving for changing the lane of the own vehicle 101 is physically feasible. In the first embodiment, the lane change determination unit 12 keeps the distance between the own vehicle 101 and the surrounding vehicles at a certain level or more based on the information on the inter-vehicle distance and the relative speed detected by the outside world recognition device 5. , It is determined whether or not automatic driving for changing the lane of the own vehicle 101 is feasible.

The psychological burden determination unit 13 determines whether or not the psychological burden on the passengers of the own vehicle 101 increases when the automatic driving for changing lanes is executed. In the first embodiment, the psychological burden determination unit 13 increases the psychological burden on the passenger based on at least one of the specific peripheral vehicle information regarding the specific peripheral vehicle and the passenger information regarding the passenger. Determine whether or not to do so. The specific peripheral vehicle is a peripheral vehicle that will be located in the vicinity of the own vehicle 101 when the own vehicle executes automatic driving for changing lanes. Hereinafter, specific peripheral vehicle information and passenger information will be described.

First, the specific peripheral vehicle information will be described. The driving support device 1 receives information on specific peripheral vehicles by, for example, an outdoor camera of the outside world recognition device 5 and vehicle-to-vehicle communication. The specific peripheral vehicle information includes at least one of the size, price, color, pattern, type, load capacity, running sound, and sticker information of the specific peripheral vehicle attached to the specific peripheral vehicle. The type of the specific peripheral vehicle includes at least one of the vehicle type of the specific peripheral vehicle and the business in which the specific peripheral vehicle is used.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an example in which the psychological burden determination unit 13 determines that the psychological burden on the passenger increases based on the specific peripheral vehicle information. Since the statistical accident rate generally differs depending on the type of vehicle, it is considered that the type of specific peripheral vehicle contributes to an increase in the psychological burden on the passenger. Therefore, in the first embodiment, when the type of the specific peripheral vehicle is a predetermined type, the psychological burden determination unit 13 determines that the psychological burden on the passenger increases.

Further, in the first embodiment, when the size of the specific peripheral vehicle is larger than the size of the own vehicle by a threshold value or more, when the load capacity of the specific peripheral vehicle is equal to or larger than the threshold value, the price of the specific peripheral vehicle is higher than the price of the own vehicle 101. If the price is higher than the threshold value, the height of the specific peripheral vehicle is below the threshold value, the pattern (paint and object) of the specific peripheral vehicle is different from the normal pattern, the sticker attached to the specific peripheral vehicle is predetermined. The psychological burden determination unit 13 determines that the psychological burden on the passenger increases when the sticker is used or when the running sound of the specific peripheral vehicle is equal to or higher than the threshold value.

Next, passenger information will be described. The driving support device 1 receives passenger information by, for example, an indoor camera of the own vehicle 101. Passenger information includes at least one of the passenger's age, gender, facial expression, and appearance information. In the first embodiment, when the passenger's age is out of the predetermined range, when the passenger's gender is a predetermined gender, the passenger's facial expression or appearance is anxious. In some cases, the psychological burden determination unit 13 determines that the psychological burden on the passenger will increase.

The control unit 14 controls the execution of automatic driving for changing lanes based on the determination result of the lane change determination unit 12 and the determination result of the psychological burden determination unit 13. In the first embodiment, the control unit 14 determines that the lane change determination unit 12 can execute the automatic driving of the lane change, and the psychological burden determination unit 13 does not increase the psychological burden on the passenger. If it is determined, the automatic driving for changing lanes is executed. Further, when the control unit 14 determines that the lane change determination unit 12 can execute the automatic driving of the lane change, but the psychological burden determination unit 13 determines that the psychological burden on the passenger increases. Does not perform automatic lane change driving.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the driving support device 1 according to the first embodiment.

First, in step S1, the lane change determination unit 12 determines whether or not the automatic driving for changing the lane of the own vehicle 101 is physically feasible. If it is determined that it is feasible, the process proceeds to step S2, and if it is not determined that it is feasible, the operation of FIG. 4 ends.

In step S2, the psychological burden determination unit 13 determines whether or not the psychological burden on the passenger increases when the automatic driving for changing lanes is executed. When it is determined that the psychological burden increases, the operation of FIG. 4 ends, and when it is determined that the psychological burden does not increase, the process proceeds to step S3.

In step S3, the control unit 14 executes automatic driving for changing lanes.

<Summary of Embodiment 1>
According to the driving support device 1 of the first embodiment as described above, the automatic driving of the lane change is executed based on the determination result of the lane change determination unit 12 and the determination result of the psychological burden determination unit 13. Control. According to such a configuration, even if the own vehicle 101 can automatically change lanes based on the traveling conditions of the surrounding vehicles, the psychological burden on the passengers of the own vehicle 101 increases or not. It is possible to obtain a driving support device that controls the execution of automatic driving. Therefore, the automatic driving of the lane change can be appropriately executed so that the anxiety and fear of the passengers of the own vehicle 101 are suppressed.

<Modification 1 of the first embodiment>
In the first embodiment, an example in which the own vehicle 101 executes automatic driving for changing lanes has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, it is also applicable when the own vehicle 101 executes automatic driving of lane merging on a T-junction or the like. Specifically, the lane change determination unit 12 may determine whether or not automatic driving for merging the own vehicle 101 into the lane is feasible based on the traveling conditions of surrounding vehicles, and the psychological burden determination unit 13 may determine whether the lane merge is possible. It may be determined whether or not the psychological burden on the passenger increases when the automatic driving is executed. Then, the control unit 14 may control the execution of the automatic driving of the lane merging based on the determination result of the lane change determination unit 12 and the determination result of the psychological burden determination unit 13.

<Modification 2 of the first embodiment>
The situation in which the psychological burden increases depends on the experience and personality of the passenger. For example, since the driver's seat of a large vehicle is higher than that of a general passenger car, the driver of a large vehicle can easily grasp the situation in front of the vehicle. Therefore, on a congested road, the own vehicle 101 may be able to travel more smoothly when traveling behind a large vehicle. For this reason, some passengers prefer to drive behind large vehicles.

Therefore, the determination criteria of the psychological burden determination unit 13 may be registered and changed in advance for each passenger. According to such a configuration, it is possible to customize each passenger so that the own vehicle 101 can be comfortably driven. The determination criteria of the psychological burden determination unit 13 may be changed based on, for example, an operation from the passenger accepted by the interactive interface.

Further, when the number of passengers is plurality and the psychological burden determination unit 13 determines that the psychological burden increases even for one of them, the control unit 14 is configured not to execute automatic driving for changing lanes. May be done. In addition, when the number of passengers is a plurality, the control of the execution of the automatic driving of the lane change may be changed based on, for example, the operation from the passengers accepted by the interactive interface.

<Modification 3 of Embodiment 1>
When controlling the automatic driving of the own vehicle 101, not only an increase in the psychological burden on the passengers of the own vehicle 101 but also an increase in the psychological burden on the passengers of the specific peripheral vehicle may be considered. For example, the control unit 14 determines whether or not the automatic driving for changing the lane of the own vehicle 101 is feasible based on the traveling conditions of the surrounding vehicles, and the passenger of the own vehicle 101 when the automatic driving for changing the lane is executed. And, the execution of the automatic driving of the lane change may be controlled based on the determination result of whether or not the psychological burden on the passenger of the specific peripheral vehicle increases. According to such a configuration, not only the anxiety and fear of the passengers of the own vehicle 101 but also the anxiety and fear of the passengers of the specific peripheral vehicle can be suppressed.

It should be noted that the modifications 1 to 3 of the first embodiment described above can be similarly applied to the second and subsequent embodiments described below.

<Embodiment 2>
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the driving support device 1 according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The driving support device 1 of FIG. 6 includes a biological information acquisition device 6 which is an acquisition unit and an emotion estimation unit 15 which is an estimation unit, in addition to the configuration of the driving support device 1 according to the first embodiment (FIG. 2). Be prepared.

The biological information acquisition device 6 acquires biological information capable of estimating the emotions of the passengers of the own vehicle 101. In the second embodiment, the biological information acquisition device 6 includes, for example, an electroencephalogram sensor, a heart rate monitor, a sweating amount sensor, and the like. The brain wave sensor detects the brain wave of the passenger. The passenger's brain waves include data showing basic rhythms including frequency bands such as α waves and β waves. The heart rate monitor detects the occupant's heart rate. The sweat amount sensor detects the sweat amount of the passenger. The biological information acquired by the biological information acquisition device 6 according to the second embodiment configured as described above includes, but is not limited to, brain waves, heart rate, sweating amount, and the like. Further, the biological information acquisition device 6 may be, for example, a wearable device worn by each passenger of the own vehicle 101.

The emotion estimation unit 15 estimates the emotions of the passenger of the own vehicle 101 based on the biological information acquired by the biological information acquisition device 6. In the driving support device 1, did the psychological burden on the passengers of the own vehicle 101 increase due to the automatic driving based on the emotions estimated by the emotion estimation unit 15 after the control unit 14 executed the automatic driving of the lane change? By automatically learning whether or not, the determination criteria of the psychological burden determination unit 13 are automatically updated. For example, when it is determined that the psychological burden on the passenger of the own vehicle 101 has increased due to automatic driving, the psychological burden determination unit 13 increases the psychological burden on the passenger of the own vehicle 101 in the next and subsequent determinations. Then, the judgment criteria are updated so that the judgment becomes easier.

<Summary of Embodiment 2>
According to the driving support device 1 according to the second embodiment configured as described above, it is possible to execute automatic driving according to the passenger. Therefore, the automatic driving of the lane change can be executed more appropriately so that the anxiety and fear of the passengers of the own vehicle 101 are suppressed.

<Embodiment 3>
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a road condition to which the driving support device 1 according to the third embodiment of the present invention is applied. First, an example of a road condition to which the driving support device 1 according to the third embodiment is applied will be described with reference to FIG. 7.

In FIG. 7, automatic driving for changing the lane of the own vehicle 101 to the left lane is about to be executed. In the left lane, a passenger car 102 is running on the front side and another passenger car 103 is running on the rear side. Here, it is assumed that the passenger car 102 on the front side is a manually driven vehicle driven by the driver of the passenger car 102 himself, and the passenger car 103 on the rear side is an automatically driven vehicle in which automatic driving is executed.

The behavior of a manually driven vehicle largely depends on the driver's proficiency level and personality, and it is difficult to predict the behavior as compared with an autonomous driving vehicle. Therefore, the passenger of the own vehicle 101 can get a sense of security when traveling behind the passenger car 103 on the rear side, which is an automatically driven vehicle, rather than the passenger car 102 on the front side, which is a manually driven vehicle.

In particular, when the passenger car 103, which is an autonomous driving vehicle, has an inter-vehicle communication function, the communication enables the own vehicle 101 and the passenger car 103 to share information such as the traveling state and control of each other. By sharing such information, for example, the driving support device 1 may be able to obtain by communication that the large vehicle, which is a specific peripheral vehicle, is an autonomous driving vehicle equipped with an advanced automatic driving function. In such a case, even if the own vehicle 101 is sandwiched between large vehicles that are specific peripheral vehicles, the possibility that those large vehicles will cause an accident is smaller than that of a manually driven vehicle. It is considered that the passengers of the own vehicle 101 will not be anxious.

Therefore, in the third embodiment, the control unit 14 determines in advance the automatic driving level of the specific peripheral vehicle that will be located in the vicinity of the own vehicle 101 when the own vehicle 101 executes the automatic driving of the lane change. Determine if it is greater than or equal to the threshold. Then, when the control unit 14 determines that the automatic driving level is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value, the control unit 14 is based on the determination result of the lane change determination unit 12 regardless of the determination of the psychological burden determination unit 13. Controls the execution of autonomous driving for lane changes.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the driving support device 1 according to the third embodiment. Since the operation of FIG. 8 is the same as the operation of adding step S11 and step S12 to the operation of FIG. 4, step S11 and step S12 will be mainly described below.

Hereinafter, among the specific peripheral vehicles, the vehicle located on the front side of the own vehicle 101 before the lane change is referred to as the "front specific peripheral vehicle", and the vehicle located on the rear side of the own vehicle 101 before the lane change is referred to as the "rear side". It will be described as "specific peripheral vehicle".

If it is determined in step S1 that it can be executed, the process proceeds to step S11.

In step S11, the control unit 14 determines whether or not the specific peripheral vehicle on the front side is an autonomous driving vehicle having an automatic driving level equal to or higher than the threshold value by performing inter-vehicle communication with the specific peripheral vehicle on the front side. .. If it is determined in step S11 that the vehicle is an autonomous driving vehicle, the process proceeds to step S3, and in step S3, the lane change is automatically performed so that the own vehicle 101 travels behind the specific peripheral vehicle on the front side. Perform driving. If it is not determined in step S11 that the vehicle is an autonomous driving vehicle, the process proceeds to step S12.

In step S12, the control unit 14 performs vehicle-to-vehicle communication with the specific peripheral vehicle on the rear side to determine whether or not the specific peripheral vehicle on the rear side is an autonomous driving vehicle having an automatic driving level equal to or higher than the threshold value. judge. In step S12, it is determined that the vehicle is an autonomous driving vehicle, and the lane is changed by automatic driving to the rear of the specific peripheral vehicle within a certain period of time based on the relative speed between the own vehicle and the specific peripheral vehicle on the rear side. If possible, the process proceeds to step S3. Then, in step S3, the automatic driving of the lane change is executed so that the own vehicle 101 travels behind the specific peripheral vehicle on the rear side. If it is not determined in step S12 that the vehicle is an autonomous driving vehicle, the process proceeds to step S2.

<Summary of Embodiment 3>
According to the driving support device 1 according to the third embodiment as described above, when it is determined that the automatic driving level of the specific peripheral vehicle is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value, the psychological burden determination unit 13 determines. Regardless of this, the execution of automatic driving for lane change is controlled based on the determination result of the lane change determination unit 12. According to such control, driving safety can be enhanced.

<Modification of Embodiment 3>
In the third embodiment, the processing of the control unit 14 is changed, but instead, the determination standard of the psychological burden determination unit 13 may be changed. For example, when the driving support device 1 determines that the automatic driving level of a specific peripheral vehicle is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value, the psychological burden determination unit 13 executes automatic driving for changing lanes. The judgment criteria may be changed. Even in this case, the same effect as that of the third embodiment can be obtained.

Further, when the specific peripheral vehicle is a special vehicle such as an ambulance or a fire engine, the driving support device 1 sets a determination standard of the psychological burden determination unit 13 so that automatic driving for changing lanes is not executed. You may change it.

Further, in the operation of FIG. 8, the control unit 14 determines whether or not the rear specific peripheral vehicle is an automatic driving vehicle when the automatic driving level of the front specific peripheral vehicle is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value. Instead, the automatic driving of the lane change was executed so as to drive between the specific peripheral vehicle on the front side and the specific peripheral vehicle on the rear side. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and when the automatic driving level of both the front side specific peripheral vehicle and the rear side specific peripheral vehicle is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value, the control unit 14 and the front side specific peripheral vehicle Autonomous driving for changing lanes may be executed so as to travel between a specific peripheral vehicle on the rear side.

<Embodiment 4>
FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the driving support device 1 according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention. The driving support device 1 of FIG. 9 includes a display device 21 and a speaker 22 as a notification unit. The notification unit may be at least one of the display device 21 and the speaker 22.

The control unit 14 is predetermined by not executing the automatic driving of the lane change even when the psychological burden determination unit 13 determines that the psychological burden of the passenger of the own vehicle 101 increases. It is determined whether or not the traveling of the own vehicle 101 on the traveling route is hindered. In addition, when the traveling of the own vehicle 101 on the predetermined traveling route is hindered, for example, the case where the own vehicle 101 greatly deviates from the traveling route assumed in the automatic driving is included. ..

When the control unit 14 determines that the traveling of the own vehicle 101 on the traveling route is hindered, the control unit 14 controls the display device 21 and the speaker 22 to notify the passenger that the automatic driving for changing lanes is to be executed. After that, the automatic driving of the lane change is executed.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the operation of the driving support device 1 according to the fourth embodiment. Since the operation of FIG. 10 is the same as the operation of adding step S21 and step S22 to the operation of FIG. 8, step S21 and step S22 will be mainly described below.

If it is determined in step S2 that the psychological burden increases, the process proceeds to step S21.

In step S21, the control unit 14 determines whether or not the traveling of the own vehicle 101 on the predetermined traveling route is hindered by not executing the automatic driving for changing the lane. If it is determined that a problem will occur, the process proceeds to step S22, and if it is not determined that a problem occurs, the operation of FIG. 10 ends.

In step S22, the control unit 14 notifies the passenger from the display device 21 and the speaker 22 that the automatic driving for changing lanes is to be executed. After that, the process proceeds to step S3.

<Summary of Embodiment 4>
According to the driving support device 1 according to the fourth embodiment as described above, even if it is determined that the psychological burden on the passenger increases, a problem occurs by not executing the automatic driving for changing lanes. In that case, the automatic operation is executed after notifying the passenger. By giving the notification in advance in this way, the passenger can confirm that the automatic driving is not executed due to the failure of the driving support device 1.

<Other variants>
The lane change determination unit 12, the psychological burden determination unit 13, and the control unit 14 of FIG. 1 described above are hereinafter referred to as “lane change determination unit 12 and the like”. The lane change determination unit 12 and the like are realized by the processing circuit 90 shown in FIG. That is, the processing circuit 90 has a lane change determination unit 12 that determines whether or not automatic driving for changing lanes or merging lanes of the own vehicle is feasible based on the traveling conditions of surrounding vehicles, and the own vehicle when the automatic driving is executed. Based on the determination results of the psychological burden determination unit 13 that determines whether or not the psychological burden of the passenger increases, the lane change determination unit 12, and the determination result of the psychological burden determination unit 13, automatic driving A control unit 14 for controlling the execution of the above is provided. Dedicated hardware may be applied to the processing circuit 90, or a processor that executes a program stored in the memory may be applied. Examples of the processor include a central processing unit, a processing unit, an arithmetic unit, a microprocessor, a microcomputer, a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), and the like.

When the processing circuit 90 is dedicated hardware, the processing circuit 90 may be, for example, a single circuit, a composite circuit, a programmed processor, a parallel programmed processor, an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate). Array), or a combination of these. Each of the functions of each part such as the lane change determination unit 12 may be realized by a circuit in which processing circuits are dispersed, or the functions of each part may be collectively realized by one processing circuit.

When the processing circuit 90 is a processor, the functions of the lane change determination unit 12 and the like are realized in combination with software and the like. The software and the like correspond to, for example, software, firmware, or software and firmware. Software and the like are described as programs and stored in memory. As shown in FIG. 12, the processor 91 applied to the processing circuit 90 realizes the functions of each part by reading and executing the program stored in the memory 92. That is, when the driving support device 1 is executed by the processing circuit 90, it determines whether or not automatic driving for changing lanes or merging lanes of the own vehicle is feasible based on the traveling conditions of peripheral vehicles located around the own vehicle. The step of making the first judgment to be performed, the step of performing the second judgment to determine whether or not the psychological burden on the passenger of the own vehicle is increased when the automatic driving is executed, the judgment result of the first judgment, and A step for controlling the execution of automatic operation based on the determination result of the second determination, and a memory 92 for storing a program to be executed as a result are provided. In other words, it can be said that this program causes the computer to execute the procedure or method of the lane change determination unit 12 or the like. Here, the memory 92 is a non-volatile or non-volatile memory such as a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a flash memory, an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), and an EPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory). Volatile semiconductor memory, HDD (Hard Disk Drive), magnetic disk, flexible disk, optical disk, compact disk, mini disk, DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), its drive device, etc., or any storage medium used in the future. You may.

The configuration in which each function of the lane change determination unit 12 and the like is realized by either hardware or software has been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a configuration may be configured in which a part of the lane change determination unit 12 or the like is realized by dedicated hardware and another part is realized by software or the like. For example, the lane change determination unit 12 realizes its function by a processing circuit 90 as dedicated hardware, and other than that, the processing circuit 90 as a processor 91 reads and executes a program stored in the memory 92. By doing so, it is possible to realize the function.

As described above, the processing circuit 90 can realize each of the above-mentioned functions by hardware, software, or a combination thereof.

Further, the driving support device 1 described above includes a vehicle device, a communication terminal including a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone, a smartphone, and a tablet, and a function of an application installed in at least one of the vehicle device and the communication terminal. It can also be applied to a driving support system constructed as a system by appropriately combining a server. In this case, each function or each component of the driving support device 1 described above may be dispersedly arranged in each device for constructing the system, or may be centrally arranged in any of the devices. Good.

In the present invention, each embodiment and each modification can be freely combined, and each embodiment and each modification can be appropriately modified or omitted within the scope of the invention.

1 Driving support device, 6 Biological information acquisition device, 12 Lane change judgment unit, 13 Psychological burden judgment unit, 14 Control unit, 15 Emotion estimation unit, 101 Own vehicle.

Claims (11)

A first determination unit that determines whether or not automatic driving for changing lanes or merging lanes is feasible based on the traveling conditions of surrounding vehicles located around the vehicle.
A second determination unit that determines whether or not the psychological burden on the passengers of the vehicle increases when the automatic driving is executed.
A driving support device including a control unit that controls execution of the automatic operation based on the determination result of the first determination unit and the determination result of the second determination unit. The driving support device according to claim 1.
The control unit
When the first determination unit determines that the automatic driving is feasible and the second determination unit determines that the psychological burden on the passenger does not increase, the automatic operation is executed. Driving support device. The driving support device according to claim 1 or 2.
The second determination unit
The boarding is based on at least one of the specific peripheral vehicle information regarding the specific peripheral vehicle that will be located in the vicinity of the vehicle when the vehicle executes the automatic driving and the passenger information regarding the passenger. A driving support device that determines whether or not a person's psychological burden increases. The driving support device according to claim 3.
The specific peripheral vehicle information is
Includes at least one of the size, price, color, pattern, type, load capacity, running noise, and sticker information affixed to the specific peripheral vehicle.
The passenger information is
A driving assistance device that includes at least one of the passenger's age, gender, facial expression, and appearance information. The driving support device according to claim 3 or 4.
A driving support device that receives the specific peripheral vehicle information by vehicle-to-vehicle communication. The driving support device according to any one of claims 1 to 5.
A driving support device capable of changing the determination criteria of the second determination unit for each passenger. The driving support device according to any one of claims 1 to 6.
The acquisition unit that acquires the biometric information of the passenger,
Further provided with an estimation unit that estimates the emotion of the passenger based on the biological information acquired by the acquisition unit.
The second determination is made by learning whether or not the psychological burden on the passenger has increased due to the automatic driving based on the emotions estimated by the estimation unit after the control unit executes the automatic driving. A driving support device that updates the judgment criteria of the department. The driving support device according to any one of claims 1 to 7.
When the automatic driving level of a specific peripheral vehicle located in the vicinity of the vehicle when the vehicle executes the automatic driving is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value, the judgment criterion of the second determination unit is changed. , Driving support device. The driving support device according to any one of claims 1 to 7.
The control unit
When the automatic driving level of the specific peripheral vehicle located in the vicinity of the vehicle when the vehicle executes the automatic driving is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value, regardless of the determination of the second determination unit. A driving support device that controls the execution of the automatic driving based on the determination result of the first determination unit. The driving support device according to any one of claims 1 to 9.
The control unit
Even if the second determination unit determines that the psychological burden on the passenger will increase, not executing the automatic driving will hinder the traveling of the vehicle on a predetermined travel route. A driving support device that, when it occurs, controls the passenger to be notified by the notification unit and then executes the automatic driving. The first determination is made to determine whether or not automatic driving for changing lanes or merging lanes is feasible based on the traveling conditions of surrounding vehicles located around the vehicle.
A second determination is made to determine whether or not the psychological burden on the passengers of the vehicle increases when the automatic driving is executed.
A driving support method for controlling the execution of the automatic driving based on the determination result of the first determination and the determination result of the second determination.

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