JP5629174B2 - Vehicle rear lighting system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a system that illuminates the rear of a vehicle, and more particularly, to an illumination system that performs dimming control of a rear lamp in order to reduce dazzling feelings of a subsequent driver.

  In recent years, LEDs have been widely used as light sources for vehicular lamps. Since the LED has a high directivity, especially in the case of a rear lamp mounted on the rear part of the vehicle body, as shown in FIG. 7A, when the brake lamp 52 and the stop lamp 53 are lit at night, The driver of the following vehicle FV may feel dazzled. Further, from the viewpoint of energy saving, it is preferable that the rear lamp 51 is dimmed so that it is lit at a necessary brightness when necessary.

  Therefore, conventionally, as shown in FIG. 7B, a technique for reducing the light amount of the rear lamp 51 of the host vehicle SV when the following vehicle FV approaches or stops has been proposed. For example, in Patent Document 1, the beam illuminance of a headlamp irradiated from the following vehicle toward the host vehicle is detected by an optical sensor provided in the host vehicle, and the dimming circuit is controlled based on the detected illuminance level. An illumination system that reduces the amount of light of the stop lamp of the host vehicle is described.

JP-A-11-105623

However, the conventional lighting system has the following problems.
(1) As shown in FIG. 7C, when the rear lamp 51 is dimmed while the following vehicle FV is approaching, the subsequent driver erroneously determines that this dimming is the brake release.
(2) If the surrounding environment is bright even at night, the subsequent driver misidentifies the dimmed brake lamp 52 as a tail lamp, and the timing of stepping on the brake is delayed, leading to abnormal approach.
(3) As shown in FIG. 7D, when the host vehicle SV starts, the brake lamp 52 lowers the brightness and functions as the tail lamp 54. However, since the change amount of the brightness is small, the subsequent driver can The timing to notice the departure is delayed.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle rear lighting system that can more appropriately control the light quantity of the rear lamp according to the distance between the host vehicle and the following vehicle.

  In order to solve the above problems, a vehicle rear lighting system according to the present invention includes a rear lamp that illuminates the rear of the host vehicle, a dimming circuit that adjusts the amount of light of the rear lamp, and an inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the following vehicle. It is characterized by comprising detection means for detecting, and control means for controlling the dimming circuit so that the dimming rate of the rear lamp becomes higher as the inter-vehicle distance becomes shorter. The dimming rate can be changed stepwise or continuously according to the inter-vehicle distance.

  In addition, the vehicle rear lighting system of the present invention includes a predicting unit that detects in advance the start of the host vehicle in a stopped state in order to reliably notify the subsequent vehicle of the start of the host vehicle, and at the time when the start of the host vehicle is predicted. The control means controls the dimming circuit so that the amount of light of the rear lamp increases.

  Here, the predicting means can predict the start of the host vehicle based on the start of the preceding vehicle. Specifically, the start of the host vehicle can be predicted by detecting changes in the inter-vehicle distance between the preceding vehicle and the host vehicle, changes in the amount of light of the brake lamp of the preceding vehicle, and the like.

  The predicting means can also predict the start of the host vehicle based on the blue display of the traffic light in front of the host vehicle. Similarly, it is possible to use the traffic permission information of the level crossing alarm. It is also possible to recognize blue display and traffic permission information through communication with road infrastructure.

  Furthermore, the vehicle rear lighting system of the present invention includes a sensor that detects the brightness around the host vehicle in order to adapt the dimming rate of the rear lamp to the brightness of the surrounding environment, and the brightness around the host vehicle decreases. The control means controls the dimming circuit so that the dimming rate of the rear lamp increases as the distance increases.

  According to the vehicle rear lighting system of the present invention, as the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the following vehicle becomes shorter, the dimming rate of the rear lamp is increased. Can be relaxed. On the contrary, since the light reduction rate becomes lower as the inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and the following vehicle becomes longer, the possibility that the following vehicle that is approaching deceleration erroneously determines that the light reduction of the own vehicle is the brake release is reduced. Therefore, there is an effect that the light quantity of the rear lamp can be more appropriately controlled according to the distance between the host vehicle and the following vehicle.

It is a block diagram of the vehicle back lighting system which shows one Embodiment of this invention. It is composition explanatory drawing which shows the detail of a rear lamp. It is a flowchart which shows the light control of a rear lamp. It is a graph which shows the dimming rate table used for dimming control. It is a graph which shows the example of a change of a light extinction rate table. It is a schematic diagram which shows the operation example of a vehicle back lighting system. It is a schematic diagram which shows the conventional vehicle back lighting system.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle rear lighting system 1 of this embodiment controls a rear lamp 2 that illuminates the rear of the host vehicle, a dimming circuit 3 that adjusts the amount of light of the rear lamp 2, and a dimming circuit 3. And a controller 4 for performing the operation. The controller 4 is connected to a rear radar 5 that detects the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the following vehicle, and a front radar 6 that detects the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle.

  Further, a light switch 7 for switching on / off of a headlamp (not shown), a brake switch 8 which is turned on while the foot brake is depressed, and an illuminance sensor 9 for detecting the brightness around the host vehicle are connected to the controller 4. Has been. As the rear radar 5 and the front radar 6, millimeter wave radar, laser radar, inter-vehicle communication, GPS, or the like can be used.

  As shown in FIG. 2A, the rear lamp 2 is composed of a plurality of types of lamps mounted on the rear part of the vehicle body 11. For example, a brake lamp 12 that also functions as a tail lamp, a hazard lamp 13 that also functions as a turn signal lamp, a backup lamp 14, a stop lamp 15, and the like can be exemplified. In this embodiment, the dimming circuit 3 dims the brake lamp 12 and the stop lamp 15 in synchronism, and causes the hazard lamp 13 to blink when the host vehicle starts.

  As shown in FIG. 2B, the brake lamp 12 uses a large number of LEDs 16 as a light source. The LEDs 16 are grouped into a plurality of groups, and when the light switch 7 is turned on, only the LEDs 16 at the center of each group are lit (tail mode). As shown in FIG. 2C, when the brake switch 8 is turned on, all the LEDs 16 are lit (all lighting mode). As shown in FIG. 2D, when the light quantity of the brake lamp 12 is reduced, a number of LEDs 16 corresponding to a predetermined dimming rate are turned on (dimming mode).

  As with the brake lamp 12, the stop lamp 15 uses a plurality of LEDs 16 as a light source and lights up in the full lighting mode and the dimming mode. The amount of light of the brake lamp 12 and the stop lamp 15 can be adjusted by uniformly increasing / decreasing the driving voltages of all the LEDs 16 instead of the number of lighting of the LEDs 16.

  Next, the operation of the vehicle rear lighting system 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 3, the controller 4 detects an inter-vehicle distance between the own vehicle and the following vehicle based on the output of the rear radar 5 during operation of the own vehicle (S 31), and based on the output of the front radar 6. The distance between the host vehicle and the preceding vehicle is detected (S32), and the brightness of the surrounding environment is detected based on the output of the illuminance sensor 9 (S33).

  When the brake switch 8 is turned on during traveling (S34), the controller 4 first outputs a command for turning on the brake lamp 12 and the stop lamp 15 to the dimming circuit 3 for a predetermined time (S35). Next, a dimming command according to the distance between the following vehicle and the brightness of the surrounding environment is output to the dimming circuit 3 (S36). Here, the controller 4 outputs a dimming command according to the dimming rate table stored in the memory 10 (see FIG. 1).

  In the dimming rate table 1 shown in FIG. 4, the dimming rate of the brake lamp 12 and the stop lamp 15 increases as the distance between the host vehicle and the following vehicle decreases, and the brightness of the surrounding environment decreases. It is configured to be high. For example, as shown in FIG. 6A, when the following vehicle does not exist or exists in the distance, the dimming rate of the brake lamp 12 and the stop lamp 15 is 0% (all lighting) regardless of the brightness of the surrounding environment. ) Is set.

  As shown in FIG. 6B, the light reduction rate when the following vehicle FV is decelerating and approaching the host vehicle SV is set to 20% in a bright environment and 30% in a dark environment. As shown in FIG. 6C, the light attenuation rate when the succeeding vehicle FV stops near the host vehicle SV is set to 40% in a bright environment and 50% in a dark environment. In the dimming rate table 2 shown in FIG. 5, the dimming rate when the surrounding environment is dark is set to be higher than that in the table 1.

  As shown in FIG. 6D, when the preceding vehicle PV starts while the host vehicle SV is stopped, the controller 4 starts the starting of the host vehicle SV based on the increase in the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle SV and the preceding vehicle PV. Is predicted (FIG. 3: S37). When the start of the host vehicle SV is predicted, the hazard lamp 13 blinks once or several times (S38), and the total light quantity of the rear lamp 2 is increased. Thereafter, it is confirmed that the brake switch 8 is OFF (S39), and the brake lamp 12 and the stop lamp 15 are turned off (S40).

Therefore, according to the illumination system 1 of this embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.
(A) As shown in FIG. 6B, the longer the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle SV and the following vehicle FV, the lower the dimming rate of the rear lamp 2, so that the driver of the following vehicle FV can There is no risk of misjudging the light reduction as a brake release.
(B) Further, the driver of the following vehicle FV can operate the brake at an appropriate timing without fear of misidentifying the brake lamp 12 in the dimmed state as a tail lamp.

(C) As shown in FIG. 6 (c), as the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle SV and the following vehicle FV becomes shorter, the dimming rate of the rear lamp 2 becomes higher, so that the following vehicle stops near the own vehicle SV. The dazzling feeling given to FV drivers can be alleviated.
(D) As shown in FIG. 6 (d), the hazard lamp 13 blinks and the light quantity of the rear lamp 2 is temporarily increased immediately before the host vehicle SV starts, as shown in FIG. 6 (e). In addition, even if the difference in brightness between the brake lamp 12 and the tail lamp 17 is small, the succeeding vehicle FV can surely recognize the start of the host vehicle SV.

  When the rear lamp 2 is brightened, the subsequent vehicle FV can be notified of the start of the host vehicle SV by returning the brake lamp 12 and the stop lamp 15 to the fully lit state regardless of the blinking of the hazard lamp 13. Further, the start of the host vehicle SV can be predicted based on the blue display of the traffic light 18 (see FIG. 6) in front of the host vehicle, regardless of the inter-vehicle distance from the preceding vehicle PV. In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be implemented by appropriately changing the configuration of each part without departing from the spirit of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vehicle rear lighting system 2 Rear lamp 3 Dimming circuit 4 Controller 5 Rear radar 6 Front radar 9 Illuminance sensor 12 Brake lamp 13 Hazard lamp 15 Stop lamp 18 Traffic light

Claims (4)

A rear lamp that illuminates the rear of the host vehicle, a dimming circuit that adjusts the amount of light from the rear lamp, a detection means that detects the inter-vehicle distance between the host vehicle and the following vehicle, and a dimming rate of the rear lamp as the inter-vehicle distance decreases. Control means for controlling the dimming circuit so as to be high, and prediction means for detecting in advance the start of the host vehicle,
The said control means controls the said light control circuit so that the light quantity of a rear lamp may increase rather than the light quantity before prediction when the start of the own vehicle is predicted, The vehicle back lighting system characterized by the above-mentioned . The vehicle rear lighting system according to claim 1, wherein the prediction means predicts the start of the host vehicle based on the start of the preceding vehicle. 2. The vehicle rear lighting system according to claim 1, wherein the prediction means predicts the start of the host vehicle based on a blue display of a traffic light in front of the host vehicle. Comprising a sensor for detecting the brightness around the host vehicle, as the dimming ratio of the rear lamp as brightness around the host vehicle is reduced is increased, according to claim 1 to 3 wherein the control means controls the light adjusting circuit The vehicle rear lighting system according to any one of the above.

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