JP7713993B2 - Driving support information distribution device, transportation system, driving support information distribution method, and computer program - Google Patents

Description

The present disclosure relates to a driving assistance information distribution device, a transportation system, a vehicle, a vehicle control device, and a computer program that distribute information to a vehicle in which at least some of the driving operations are automated.

In recent years, there has been much research and development being done towards the practical application of automated driving for automobiles (hereafter referred to as vehicles). With regard to automated driving, the degree of automation is generally indicated using the levels established by the US Society of Automotive Engineers. The levels established by the Society are defined as six levels, ranging from level 0, which is manual driving, to level 5, which is fully automated driving. Generally, levels 3 and above are called automated driving, and levels 1 and 2 are called driving assistance.

Patent Document 1 discloses an autonomous driving technology that uses dynamic map data. In the technology described in Patent Document 1, an autonomous driving support device installed in a vehicle stores the conditions for using dynamic map data in advance and determines whether autonomous driving is possible depending on whether the conditions are met.

International Publication No. 2018/074586

In driving automation, including autonomous driving and driving assistance, in order to ensure safe vehicle operation, it is possible to restrict the execution of autonomous driving or driving assistance in environments where the road environment, weather, etc. are not suitable for driving automation. For example, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's Safety Technology Guidelines for Autonomous Vehicles stipulate driving environment conditions such as road conditions, geographical conditions, environmental conditions, and other conditions as ODD (Operational Design Domain), and require autonomous driving to be performed within the scope of the ODD. It is also expected that in the future, restrictions based on driving environment conditions will be stipulated not only for autonomous driving at level 3 or higher, but also for the above-mentioned level 1 and 2 driving assistance.

In the technology described in Patent Document 1, the possibility of autonomous driving is determined based on the terms of use related to the contract for using dynamic map data, such as the identification information, password, and version information of the subscriber of the dynamic map data, and as described above, the necessity of restricting autonomous driving or driving assistance functions is not determined based on the driving environment conditions. In addition, Patent Document 1 discloses that the dynamic map data includes information on obstacles and the like and is delivered to the vehicle, but this information is not for determining the necessity of restricting autonomous driving or driving assistance functions.

This disclosure has been made in light of the above, and aims to contribute to the realization of safer autonomous driving and driving assistance by using information to determine whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving or driving assistance functions are necessary.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the objective, the driving assistance information distribution device disclosed herein is a driving assistance information distribution device that distributes driving assistance information to autonomous vehicles traveling in a resort facility, commercial facility or airport, and is equipped with an information acquisition unit that acquires multiple pieces of information including traffic information, road design information, weather information and information indicating the vehicle's driving conditions, a requirement item memory unit that stores requirement items used to determine whether or not autonomous driving restrictions are necessary , and an information distribution unit that distributes uniform autonomous driving prohibition restrictions for each vehicle type or uniform regardless of vehicle type to autonomous vehicles based on the multiple pieces of information and requirement items acquired , where the autonomous driving prohibition restrictions indicate that autonomous driving is not possible .

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the objective, the transportation system disclosed herein is a transportation system including an information providing device and a driving assistance information distribution device that distributes driving assistance information to autonomous vehicles traveling in a resort facility, commercial facility or airport, wherein the driving assistance information distribution device includes an information acquisition unit that acquires multiple pieces of information from the information providing device, including traffic information, road design information, weather information and information indicating the vehicle's driving conditions, a requirement item memory unit that stores requirement items used to determine whether or not autonomous driving restrictions are necessary, and an information distribution unit that distributes uniform autonomous driving prohibition restrictions for each vehicle type or uniform regardless of vehicle type to autonomous vehicles based on the multiple pieces of information and requirement items acquired , and the autonomous driving prohibition restrictions indicate that autonomous driving is not possible .

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the objective, the driving assistance information distribution method disclosed herein is a driving assistance information distribution method for distributing driving assistance information to autonomous vehicles traveling in a resort facility, commercial facility, or airport, and includes a step of acquiring a plurality of pieces of information including traffic information, road design information, weather information, and information indicating the vehicle's driving conditions, and a step of distributing a uniform autonomous driving prohibition restriction for each vehicle type or a uniform restriction regardless of vehicle type to the autonomous vehicles based on the acquired plurality of pieces of information and requirement items used to determine whether or not autonomous driving restrictions are necessary, where the autonomous driving prohibition restriction indicates that autonomous driving is not possible .

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the objectives, the vehicle disclosed herein includes a communication unit that receives information for determining whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving or driving assistance functions are required from a driving information distribution device as driving assistance information extracted from information acquired from multiple information providing devices, a judgment condition storage unit that stores judgment conditions indicating conditions for determining whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving or driving assistance functions are required, and a vehicle control unit that determines whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving or driving assistance functions are required using the driving assistance information received by the communication unit and the judgment conditions stored in the judgment condition storage unit.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the objectives, the vehicle control device disclosed herein is a vehicle control device that is mounted on a vehicle and controls the vehicle components of the vehicle, receives driving assistance information for determining whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving or driving assistance functions are required, extracted from information acquired from multiple information providing devices, via a communication unit of the vehicle, and determines whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving or driving assistance functions are required using the received driving assistance information.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the objective, the computer program disclosed herein is a computer program for delivering driving assistance information to autonomous vehicles traveling in a resort facility, commercial facility, or airport, and causes a computer to execute the steps of acquiring a plurality of pieces of information including traffic information, road design information, weather information, and information indicating the vehicle's driving conditions, and delivering a uniform autonomous driving prohibition restriction for each vehicle type or uniform regardless of vehicle type to the autonomous vehicles based on the acquired plurality of pieces of information and the requirement items used to determine whether or not autonomous driving restrictions are necessary, and the autonomous driving prohibition restriction indicates that autonomous driving is not possible .

This disclosure has the effect of contributing to the realization of safer automated driving and driving assistance.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a transportation system including a driving support information distribution device according to a first embodiment. A flowchart showing an example of a driving support information distribution process procedure in the driving support information distribution device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a divided district in the first embodiment; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a relationship between a vehicle's travel route and a district in the first embodiment; A flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure when driving assistance information is received in a vehicle according to the first embodiment. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by a display unit according to the first embodiment; FIG. 1 shows an example of requirements defined in an ODD and regulated contents in the first embodiment. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of information corresponding to geographical conditions among driving support information according to the first embodiment; FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of information corresponding to an infrastructure cooperation condition among driving support information according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of information corresponding to road conditions among driving support information according to the first embodiment; A flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure when driving assistance information is received in a vehicle having a driving assistance function according to a first embodiment. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a computer system that realizes a driving support information distribution device according to a first embodiment. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a transportation system according to a second embodiment. 11 is a flowchart showing an example of a control processing procedure in a traffic control system according to a second embodiment. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a transportation system including a driving support information distribution device according to a third embodiment. A flowchart showing an example of a driving support information distribution process procedure in a driving support information distribution device according to a third embodiment. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a transportation system including a driving support information distribution device according to a fourth embodiment. FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a route along which each vehicle travels in the fourth embodiment; A flowchart showing an example of a driving support information distribution process procedure in a driving support information distribution device according to a fourth embodiment.

The driving assistance information distribution device, transportation system, vehicle, vehicle control device, and computer program according to the embodiments are described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

Embodiment 1.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a traffic system including a driving support information distribution device according to a first embodiment. The traffic system of this embodiment includes a driving support information distribution device 1 and vehicles 8-1 to 8-n. n is an integer of 2 or more. The driving support information distribution device 1 of this embodiment acquires various information from each of a traffic control system 2, a geographic information provision system 3, a road information provision system 4, a weather information provision system 5, a network 6, and a vehicle transmission information provision device 7, extracts information for determining whether or not a restriction on an automatic driving or driving support function is required from the acquired information, and distributes the extracted information to the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n as driving support information. The necessity of a restriction on an automatic driving or driving support function is, for example, whether or not the automatic driving or driving support function can be safely operated, but may also be whether or not a speed restriction is required.

The vehicles 8-1 to 8-n are vehicles capable of automatic driving or vehicles having a driving assistance function. That is, at least some of the driving operations of the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n are automated. The vehicles 8-1 to 8-n are, for example, automobiles that run on expressways, IR (Integrated Resort) facilities, large commercial facilities, etc., but are not limited thereto, and may be automobiles that run on general roads, or work vehicles such as towing cars that run through airports. The driving assistance information for determining whether or not restrictions on automatic driving or driving assistance functions are required is, for example, information indicating driving environment conditions defined as ODD, which is an operation design area. In the following, first, an example will be described in which the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n are automatic driving vehicles and the driving assistance information is information indicating driving environment conditions defined as ODD, but as described above, the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n may be vehicles having a driving assistance function, and in this case, the driving assistance information is information used to determine whether or not restrictions on the driving assistance function are required. In addition, at least some of the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n may be vehicles that can be connected to a communication network such as the Internet and are called connected cars. Hereinafter, when the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n are referred to without being individually distinguished, they will be referred to as vehicle 8.

The driving assistance information distribution device 1 may distribute driving assistance information to the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n, for example, via an antenna installed on a highway, or via a communication device installed on the side of the road such as a roadside unit, or via an Internet line, a wireless LAN (Local Area Network), or the like, or via other communication lines such as a mobile phone network, or may distribute driving assistance information to the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n by vehicle-to-vehicle communication from a vehicle that has received driving assistance information via any of these communication means to another vehicle. The distribution route of the driving assistance information from the driving assistance information distribution device 1 to the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n is not limited to these, and any line may be used.

The traffic control system 2 is a system that provides information on traffic, such as road congestion information, traffic volume, road closures, and speed restrictions. The geographic information providing system 3 is a system that provides geographic information such as the geographic attributes of each section and school zones. The road information providing system 4 is a system that provides road design information such as road shapes such as width, gradient, and curvature, and the presence or absence of sidewalks. The weather information providing system 5 is a system that provides weather information such as current weather, weather forecasts, weather warnings, and weather advisories. The network 6 is, for example, the Internet, and here includes devices such as various servers connected to the Internet. The network 6 includes devices that provide, for example, social media and SNS (Social Networking Service). Here, assuming that SNS is also an example of social media, the network 6 includes a system that distributes information made public by social media.

The vehicle-transmitted information providing device 7 is a system that provides information indicating the driving status of each vehicle 8 collected from vehicles 8-1 to 8-n that can connect to a network such as the Internet. The information indicating the driving status includes, for example, the measurement results of vibrations detected by the vehicle 8 and the operating status of the vehicle 8's equipment, such as the windshield wipers.

The traffic control system 2, the geographic information system 3, the road information system 4, the weather information system 5, the network 6, and the vehicle-originated information device 7 are examples of one or more information providing devices that are sources of information acquired by the driving assistance information distribution device 1. The one or more information providing devices are not limited to the example shown in FIG. 1, and may be one or more of the traffic control system 2, the geographic information system 3, the road information system 4, the weather information system 5, the network 6, and the vehicle-originated information device 7, or may include other devices. In addition, the one or more information providing devices may each be operated by a different business owner.

As shown in FIG. 1, the driving support information distribution device 1 includes an information acquisition unit 11, a requirement item storage unit 12, a requirement item extraction unit 13, and an information distribution unit 14. The information acquisition unit 11 acquires information from each of the traffic control system 2, the geographic information provision system 3, the road information provision system 4, the weather information provision system 5, the network 6, and the vehicle-transmitted information provision device 7, and passes the acquired information to the requirement item extraction unit 13.

The requirement item storage unit 12 stores the requirement items defined in the ODD. For example, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's Safety Technology Guidelines for Autonomous Vehicles lists road conditions, geographical conditions, environmental conditions, and other conditions as examples of driving environment conditions, and specifies that ODDs are set for these conditions. Road conditions include the type of road, the number of lanes, and the presence or absence of an autonomous driving road, while geographical conditions include geographical attributes such as mountainous areas and urban areas, environmental conditions include weather and time of day, and other conditions include speed limits and the need for infrastructure coordination. Infrastructure coordination is an autonomous driving method that uses information obtained from devices other than the vehicle 8, such as communication devices that distribute traffic light information, etc.

Note that ODD is not limited to the above safety technology guidelines, and may be defined in other standardization documents and the like. The requirement items defined in the ODD described in this embodiment are not limited to the above safety technology guidelines, and may be any defined requirement items used to determine whether or not autonomous driving restrictions are necessary. The criteria for determining whether or not autonomous driving restrictions are necessary using information on these requirement items may be determined according to the performance of each vehicle, but the requirement items used for the judgment may be commonly defined. In this embodiment, the driving support information distribution device 1 acquires the requirement items for which ODD is set by inputting them from the operator or receiving them from another device not shown, and stores them in the requirement item storage unit 12. Note that the requirement items stored in the requirement item storage unit 12 are not limited to the requirement items defined as ODD, and may be any requirement items used to determine whether or not autonomous driving restrictions similar to ODD are necessary. Details of the requirement items will be described later.

The requirement item extraction unit 13 extracts information for determining whether or not restrictions on the automatic driving or driving assistance function are required from the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 11. In detail, the requirement item extraction unit 13 uses the requirement items stored in the requirement item storage unit 12 to extract information corresponding to the requirement items from the information received from the information acquisition unit 11, and outputs the extracted information to the information distribution unit 14 as driving assistance information. The information distribution unit 14 distributes the received driving assistance information to the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n. That is, the information distribution unit 14 distributes the information extracted by the requirement item extraction unit 13 as driving assistance information. The requirement items include information that differs depending on the location, such as weather and road type. When the device through which the driving assistance information is distributed to the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n is associated in advance with the area (area) corresponding to the device, such as an antenna or wireless communication device installed on a highway or IR facility, the driving assistance information distribution device 1 extracts information about the corresponding area for each device and transmits it as driving assistance information.

In addition, when the communication route between the driving assistance information distribution device 1 and the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n is a route that is not limited to a certain area, such as vehicle-to-vehicle communication or a mobile phone network, the range in which the information can be distributed may be divided into multiple areas, information corresponding to the requirement items for each divided area may be extracted, and the information for the multiple areas may be included in the driving assistance information. In this case, the driving assistance information stores information indicating the location of the area and information corresponding to the requirement items of the area for each area. In addition, the corresponding area may be determined according to the location of a device that relays communication between the driving assistance information distribution device 1 and the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n, and the determined area may be included in the driving assistance information to be distributed to the relay device. Alternatively, the driving assistance information distribution device 1 may obtain the location of the vehicle 8 from the vehicle 8, and distribute information on the area around the vehicle 8 as driving assistance information according to the location of the vehicle 8. For example, information on an area whose distance from the location of the vehicle 8 is equal to or less than a threshold may be distributed to the vehicle 8 as driving assistance information.

As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle 8-1 includes a communication unit 81, a vehicle control unit 82, vehicle components 83, an on-board sensor 84, a judgment condition storage unit 85, a display unit 86, and an input reception unit 87. As described above, the communication unit 81 receives driving assistance information transmitted from the driving assistance information distribution device 1 via any communication path such as an antenna on a highway or vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and outputs the received driving assistance information to the vehicle control unit 82. In addition, if the vehicle 8-1 is a vehicle that can be connected to the vehicle-transmitted information providing device 7 via a network, the communication unit 81 transmits at least a portion of the measurement results measured by the on-board sensor 84 and the information managed by the vehicle control unit 82 as vehicle-transmitted information to the vehicle-transmitted information providing device 7 via the network. The on-board sensor 84 is, for example, at least one of a radar, a lidar, and a camera. The on-board sensor 84 may include a vibration sensor that detects vibrations.

The vehicle components 83 are various devices mounted on the vehicle 8-1, such as an engine, brakes, and a transmission. The vehicle control unit 82, which is a vehicle control device, can control the vehicle components 83 using the measurement results from the on-board sensors 84 without the need for a driver, i.e., human operation. That is, the vehicle control unit 82 can perform automatic driving. In addition, the vehicle control unit 82 can switch between automatic driving and manual driving in which the driver manually operates the vehicle, depending on instructions from the driver. When the vehicle control unit 82 receives driving assistance information from the communication unit 81, it uses the driving assistance information and the judgment conditions stored in the judgment condition storage unit 85 to judge whether or not restrictions on automatic driving are necessary. The judgment conditions are information indicating conditions for judging whether or not restrictions on automatic driving or driving assistance functions are necessary using information corresponding to each of the above-mentioned requirement items. In addition, the vehicle control unit 82 causes the display unit 86 to display information to be presented to the driver. For example, when the vehicle control unit 82 judges that restrictions on automatic driving are necessary, it causes the display unit 86 to display the judgment result.

In addition, the autonomous driving is, for example, level 3 or higher as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers of the United States. As described above, the vehicle 8-1 may have a driving assistance function of levels 1 and 2. In this case, the vehicle control unit 82 performs some of the control of the vehicle components 83 without the driver's operation, and when it receives driving assistance information, it uses the driving assistance information and the judgment conditions stored in the judgment condition storage unit 85 to judge whether or not the driving assistance function needs to be restricted.

The judgment condition storage unit 85 stores the judgment conditions. The judgment conditions are, for example, conditions set as ODD. The vehicle 8-1 acquires the judgment conditions by inputting them from an operator during initial setup or inspection of the vehicle 8-1, or by receiving them from another device (not shown), and stores them in the judgment condition storage unit 85. Details of the judgment conditions will be described later.

The display unit 86 presents various information to the driver by displaying the screen. The input reception unit 87 receives input from the driver and notifies the vehicle control unit 82 of the received input. For example, when the input reception unit 87 receives an input of an instruction to switch from automatic driving to manual driving, or from manual driving to automatic driving, it notifies the vehicle control unit 82 of the received instruction. Although not shown in the figure, the vehicles 8-2 to 8-n have the same configuration as the vehicle 8-1. However, the specific devices of the vehicle components 83 and the on-board sensors 84 do not need to be the same for all vehicles 8, and the specific devices of the vehicle components 83 and the on-board sensors 84 of at least some of the vehicles 8 may be different from each other.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of a driving support information distribution processing procedure in the driving support information distribution device 1 of this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the driving support information distribution device 1 acquires information from each information providing device (step S1). Each information providing device is, for example, the traffic control system 2, geographic information providing system 3, road information providing system 4, weather information providing system 5, network 6, and vehicle-transmitted information providing device 7 described above, but may be a part of these, or may include other devices.

In step S1, in detail, the information acquisition unit 11 acquires congestion information, regulation information, etc. from the traffic control system 2, acquires geographic attributes of each section and school zones, etc. from the geographic information provision system 3, acquires road design information from the road information provision system 4, acquires weather information from the weather information provision system 5, acquires information published via social media, SNS, etc. from the network 6, and acquires vehicle transmission information from the vehicle transmission information provision device 7. The information acquisition unit 11 outputs the acquired information to the requirement item extraction unit 13.

Next, the driving assistance information distribution device 1 extracts information corresponding to the requirement items defined in the ODD from the acquired information (step S2). In detail, the requirement item extraction unit 13 refers to the requirement items stored in the requirement item storage unit 12 and extracts information corresponding to the requirement items from the information received from the information acquisition unit 11. The requirement items are, for example, items corresponding to at least one of the above-mentioned geographical conditions, road conditions, environmental conditions, traffic conditions, and infrastructure cooperation conditions. Note that the requirement items include location-dependent information such as geographical attributes and weather information. When the devices through which the driving assistance information is distributed to the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n are associated in advance with the areas corresponding to the devices, the requirement item extraction unit 13 extracts information regarding the corresponding areas for each device. There may be multiple areas corresponding to each device. In addition, when the communication path between the driving support information distribution device 1 and the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n is a route that is not limited to a certain area, such as vehicle-to-vehicle communication or a mobile phone network, the range corresponding to each relay device is divided into multiple areas and information corresponding to the requirement items is extracted for each divided area. When the requirement item extraction unit 13 extracts information for each area with respect to multiple areas, it notifies the information distribution unit 14 of the extracted information together with information indicating the position of the corresponding area. In addition, when the information to be distributed differs depending on the relay device that is a device via which communication between the driving support information distribution device 1 and the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n is passed, that is, when the corresponding area differs depending on the relay device, information is extracted for each relay device and the extracted information is notified to the information distribution unit 14 together with identification information indicating the relay device.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a divided district in this embodiment. In Figure 3, districts A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H are shown. The requirement item extraction unit 13 extracts information corresponding to the requirement items defined in the ODD for each of districts A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H, for example, and notifies the information distribution unit 14 of the extracted information together with information indicating the location of each district.

Incidentally, some information published on social media, SNS, etc., is highly immediate but has low reliability. For this reason, the requirement item extraction unit 13 performs a judgment on the reliability of information published on social media, SNS, etc., such as comparing the information with information provided by other information providing devices and not using the information if it is not consistent, and then uses the information if it is determined to be reliable, or uses information to which flag information indicating the level of reliability has been added.

Return to the explanation of FIG. 2. The driving assistance information distribution device 1 distributes the extracted information (step S3) and ends the process. In detail, the information distribution unit 14 distributes the information notified by the requirement item extraction unit 13 to the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n as driving assistance information. When the corresponding areas differ depending on the relay device, the information distribution unit 14 distributes the driving assistance information corresponding to each relay device to each relay device, so that the driving assistance information is distributed from each relay device to the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n. At this time, it is desirable that each relay device includes information on the area where the vehicle 8 that received the information distributed from the relay device is expected to pass in the future. For example, the driving assistance information distributed to the relay device installed in the area C shown in FIG. 3 includes information on the area C and information on areas A, B, D, etc. adjacent to the area C. In other words, the driving assistance information includes information for determining whether or not restrictions on automatic driving or driving assistance functions are required in the area adjacent to the area where the driving assistance information is received by the vehicle 8.

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the travel route of vehicle 8-1 and the district in this embodiment. In the example shown in Figure 4, vehicle 8-1 travels on road 9 to travel from district C to district A. Assume that vehicle 8-1 receives driving assistance information at point #1 in district C, and that this driving assistance information includes information on district A. For example, assume that the amount of snow in district A exceeds the range in which automatic driving is possible as determined by the ODD judgment conditions. In this case, by receiving the driving assistance information at point #1, vehicle 8-1 can understand that automatic driving is not possible in district A before reaching district A, and can notify the driver. The vehicle can also determine whether automatic driving or restrictions on the driving assistance function are necessary using information detected by the on-board sensor 84, but the on-board sensor 84 cannot obtain medium- to long-distance information. For example, the vehicle sensor 84 detects surrounding information, and the vehicle sensor 84 can detect the amount of snowfall and determine that automated driving is not possible when the vehicle 8-1 reaches point #2, which is the border between districts C and A. In this case, the driver would suddenly have to start driving manually. In contrast, if the driver is notified at point #1 that automated driving is not possible in district A, the driver can switch from automated driving to manual driving at any time before reaching district A. This makes it possible to prevent the driver from suddenly starting manual driving, and to switch to manual driving at a point according to the driver's preference before reaching district A.

The period during which the driving assistance information distribution device 1 obtains information from each information providing device may be the same or different. If the period during which the driving assistance information distribution device 1 obtains information from each information providing device is not the same, the driving assistance information distribution device 1 stores the obtained information in a buffer memory (not shown) or the like, and reads out the information and performs step S2 and subsequent steps at each period during which the driving assistance information distribution device 1 distributes driving assistance information to the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n.

When the driving assistance information distribution device 1 distributes driving assistance information according to the position of the vehicle 8, the position of the vehicle 8 is acquired from the vehicle 8, and information on the corresponding area is extracted for each vehicle 8 and distributed as driving assistance information. In addition, while FIG. 2 shows an example of extracting requirement items defined in the ODD, as described above, the requirement items are not limited to the ODD and may be any requirement items for determining whether or not restrictions on automated driving are necessary or whether or not a driving assistance function can be used.

Next, the operation of the vehicle 8 will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure when the driving assistance information is received in the vehicle 8 of this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 5, the vehicle 8 determines whether or not the driving assistance information has been received (step S11), and if the driving assistance information has not been received (step S11 No), repeats step S11. In detail, in step S11, the vehicle control unit 82 determines whether or not the driving assistance information has been received via the communication unit 81.

When the vehicle 8 receives driving assistance information (step S11 Yes), it determines whether or not autonomous driving restrictions are required based on the driving assistance information and the judgment conditions (step S12). As described above, the judgment conditions are conditions defined as ODD, for example, and are conditions for determining whether or not autonomous driving restrictions are required, and are stored in the judgment condition storage unit 85. In detail, in step S12, the vehicle control unit 82 determines whether or not autonomous driving restrictions are required using the judgment conditions stored in the judgment condition storage unit 85 and the driving assistance information received from the communication unit 81.

When the determination result of step S12 indicates that the autonomous driving restriction is required (step S13: Yes), the vehicle control unit 82 notifies the driver (step S14) and repeats the process from step S11. In step S14, for example, the vehicle control unit 82 notifies the driver that the autonomous driving restriction exists by displaying the contents of the autonomous driving restriction on the display unit 86. Alternatively, the vehicle control unit 82 may notify the driver that the autonomous driving restriction exists by voice using a speaker or the like not shown in FIG. 1. In addition, in step S14, the vehicle control unit 82 may display the contents of the autonomous driving restriction on the display unit 86 and may display another route without the autonomous driving restriction on the display unit 86, and may receive a selection from the driver as to whether or not to select the other route.

If the determination result of step S12 is that no restriction on automatic driving is required (step S13 No) , the vehicle control unit 82 repeats the process from step S11. If the driving support information includes information on the area where the vehicle 8 is currently located, the current determination result is displayed in step S14. If the driving support information includes information on the area where the vehicle 8 is scheduled to travel, a notice is given in step S14 to notify the vehicle 8 of the distance to the area or the time expected to be required to reach the area, as well as the fact that restrictions on automatic driving will occur. The vehicle control unit 82 grasps the current position and the travel route using a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver or the like, which is omitted from FIG. 1. Therefore, the vehicle control unit 82 uses these pieces of information to determine whether the driving support information is information on the area where the vehicle 8 is scheduled to travel.

Figure 6 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by the display unit 86 of this embodiment. Figure 6 shows an example of a screen displayed in step S14 when it is determined in step S12 that a restriction on automatic driving is necessary in the area where the vehicle 8 is scheduled to travel. For example, as shown in Figure 6, the vehicle control unit 82 can display a screen such as "Automatic driving is not possible in area A 10 km away" on the display unit 86, so that the driver can understand the distance until automatic driving becomes impossible. Also, as shown in Figure 6, a button for selecting switching to manual driving may be displayed on the display unit 86. In this example, an example is shown in which the display unit 86 is realized by a touch panel integrated with the input receiving unit 87, but the method of switching to manual driving is not limited to this example, and switching may be performed using other operating means. Also, the layout of the specific screen displayed by the display unit 86 and the displayed contents are not limited to the example shown in Figure 6.

Here, an example of autonomous driving constraints will be described. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the requirements defined in the ODD in this embodiment and the regulated contents. FIG. 7 illustrates the identification number of each definition, the information used, i.e., the requirement items, the judgment conditions, and the corresponding regulated contents. Here, geographical conditions, road conditions, environmental conditions, traffic conditions, and infrastructure cooperation conditions are considered as the driving environment conditions for setting the ODD. The traffic conditions and infrastructure cooperation conditions are included in the other conditions described above.

For example, in definition #1, it is defined that information indicating the communication environment, which is information corresponding to the infrastructure cooperation condition, is used as the information (requirement item) used for the judgment, and that when the communication environment is poor or partially poor, it is judged that a restriction is necessary. Furthermore, in definition #1, the content of the restriction when it is judged that a restriction is necessary, i.e., the content of the regulation, is defined as not allowing autonomous driving using infrastructure cooperation. Furthermore, in definition #2, it is defined that the requirement items are a geographic attribute, which is an example of a geographical condition, and the presence or absence of a sidewalk, which is an example of a road condition, and when the geographic attribute is a school zone and the information indicating the presence or absence of a sidewalk indicates that there is no sidewalk, it is judged that a restriction on autonomous driving is necessary. Furthermore, in definition #2, it is defined that the content of the restriction when it is judged that a restriction is necessary, i.e., the content of the regulation, is not allowing autonomous driving. In such an example, instead of the judgment on whether autonomous driving is possible on the vehicle 8 side, it may be transmitted as a uniform restriction on not allowing autonomous driving as a legal restriction from the driving assistance information distribution device 1 regardless of the type of vehicle 8 (light car, four-wheel drive vehicle, large vehicle, etc.).

Definition #3 also defines that the requirement items are the amount of snowfall, which is an example of an environmental condition, and the presence or absence of chain restrictions, which is an example of a traffic condition, and that if the amount of snowfall is H cm or more and there is a chain restriction, it is determined that restrictions on automated driving are necessary. Furthermore, definition #3 defines that the content of the restriction, i.e., the content of the restriction, when it is determined that restrictions are necessary, is that automated driving is prohibited if chains or snow tires are not installed, and that automated driving is permitted at speeds of XX km/h or less if chains or snow tires are not installed.

In addition, definition #4 defines the number of lanes, which is an example of a road condition, and traffic volume, which is an example of a traffic condition, as requirement items, and defines that if the traffic volume per lane is M vehicles/km or more, it is determined that restrictions on autonomous driving are necessary. Furthermore, definition #4 defines that the content of the restrictions, i.e., the content of the regulations, when it is determined that restrictions are necessary, is that autonomous driving by following the vehicle in front at speeds of YY km/h or less is only permitted.

In addition, in definition #5, the communication environment, which is an example of an infrastructure cooperation condition, and the presence or absence of an autonomous driving lane, which is an example of a road condition, are defined as requirement items, and it is defined that when communication is poor or partially poor, it is determined that a restriction on autonomous driving is necessary. Furthermore, in definition #5, the content of the restriction when it is determined that a restriction is necessary, i.e., the content of the regulation, is defined as autonomous driving only in the autonomous driving lane. Therefore, in definition #5, when communication is poor or partially poor, if there is an autonomous driving lane, the vehicle will travel in the autonomous driving lane, and if there is no autonomous driving lane, autonomous driving is not possible. In such an example, the vehicle 8 may not determine whether autonomous driving is possible, but may be transmitted as a legal regulation from the driving assistance information distribution device 1 as a uniform restriction on autonomous driving not being possible, regardless of the type of vehicle 8 (such as a light vehicle, a four-wheel drive vehicle, or a large vehicle).

The above definitions #1 to #5 are examples, and the definition of ODD is not limited to these. In addition, two or more of the above definitions #1 to #5 may be used. The requirement items that define ODD are generally defined by standardization documents, etc. On the other hand, the judgment conditions may be determined by the manufacturer of the vehicle 8, etc., since they differ depending on the vehicle type, etc. In this embodiment, as described above, the requirement items are stored by the driving support information distribution device 1, and the driving support information distribution device 1 extracts information corresponding to the requirement items from the information received from various information providing devices, as described above, and transmits it to the vehicle 8 as driving support information. However, in examples such as definitions #1, #2, and #5, the vehicle 8 does not determine whether or not automatic driving is possible depending on the performance of each vehicle, etc., but may transmit a uniform automatic driving prohibition restriction from the driving support information distribution device as a legal restriction regardless of the type of vehicle 8 (light car, four-wheel drive vehicle, large vehicle, etc.).

Figure 8 is a diagram showing an example of information corresponding to geographical conditions in the driving support information of this embodiment. Figure 9 is a diagram showing an example of information corresponding to infrastructure cooperation conditions in the driving support information of this embodiment. Figure 10 is a diagram showing an example of information corresponding to road conditions in the driving support information of this embodiment. In this way, information corresponding to the requirement items of each condition is stored in the driving support information for each district. Although not shown, environmental conditions and traffic conditions are also similarly stored in the driving support information for each district. Information corresponding to each of these pieces of information is stored in the driving support information together with information indicating the location of each district. When there is only one district to be distributed, the driving support information does not need to include information indicating the location of the district. There are no restrictions on the specific format of the driving support information.

In the above example, the constraints of autonomous driving have been described as an example, but as mentioned above, the driving assistance information may be used to determine whether driving assistance is possible. In this case, the driving assistance information distribution device 1 extracts information on the requirement items for determining whether the driving assistance function is possible and distributes it as driving assistance information, and the vehicle 8 has a driving assistance function and stores the judgment conditions for determining whether the driving assistance function is possible. Figure 11 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure when the driving assistance information is received in the vehicle 8 of this embodiment having the driving assistance function.

Step S21 is the same as step S11. In step S22, the vehicle control unit 82 judges whether or not the driving support function needs to be restricted based on the driving support information and the judgment conditions . If the judgment result in step S22 is that the driving support function cannot be used (step S23 No), the vehicle control unit 82 notifies the driver (step S24) and repeats the process from step S21. In step S24, for example, the vehicle control unit 82 notifies the driver by displaying on the display unit 86 that the driving support function cannot be used. Alternatively, the vehicle control unit 82 may notify the driver that the driving support function cannot be used by voice using a speaker or the like not shown in FIG. 1.

If the determination result in step S22 is that the driving assistance function is available (Yes in step S23) , the vehicle control unit 82 repeats the process from step S21. If the driving assistance information includes information on the area where the vehicle 8 is currently located, the current determination result is displayed in step S24, as in the case of the autonomous driving constraint. If the driving assistance information includes information on the area where the vehicle 8 is scheduled to travel, a notification is given in step S24 in advance that the driving assistance function will be unavailable, along with the distance to the area or the time expected to be required to reach the area.

In the example shown in FIG. 11, the possibility of using the driving assistance function is determined, but instead, the necessity of restricting the driving assistance function may be determined. In other words, one example of determining the necessity of restricting the driving assistance function is determining the possibility of using the driving assistance function.

Next, the hardware configuration of the driving support information distribution device 1 of this embodiment will be described. In this embodiment, a driving support information distribution program, which is a computer program describing the processing in the driving support information distribution device 1, is executed on the computer system, so that the computer system functions as the driving support information distribution device 1. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a computer system that realizes the driving support information distribution device 1 of this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 12, this computer system includes a control unit 101, an input unit 102, a storage unit 103, a display unit 104, a communication unit 105, and an output unit 106, which are connected via a system bus 107.

In FIG. 12, the control unit 101 is a processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and executes a driving support information distribution program in which the processing in the driving support information distribution device 1 of this embodiment is described. The input unit 102 is composed of, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, and the like, and is used by the user of the computer system to input various information. The storage unit 103 includes various memories such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) and a ROM (Read Only Memory), and a storage device such as a hard disk, and stores the program to be executed by the control unit 101, necessary data obtained in the process of processing, and the like. The storage unit 103 is also used as a temporary storage area for the program. The display unit 104 is composed of a display, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display Panel), and the like, and displays various screens to the user of the computer system. The communication unit 105 is a receiver and a transmitter that perform communication processing. The output unit 106 is a speaker, etc. Note that FIG. 12 is an example, and the configuration of the computer system is not limited to the example of FIG. 12.

Here, an example of the operation of the computer system until the driving support information distribution program of this embodiment is in a state where it can be executed will be described. In the computer system having the above-mentioned configuration, for example, the driving support information distribution program is installed in the storage unit 103 from a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM set in a CD (Compact Disc)-ROM drive or DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)-ROM drive (not shown). Then, when the driving support information distribution program is executed, the driving support information distribution program read from the storage unit 103 is stored in the storage unit 103. In this state, the control unit 101 executes processing as the driving support information distribution device 1 of this embodiment according to the program stored in the storage unit 103.

In the above description, a program describing the processing in the driving assistance information distribution device 1 is provided on a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM as a recording medium. However, this is not limiting, and depending on the configuration of the computer system and the capacity of the program to be provided, for example, a program provided by a transmission medium such as the Internet via the communication unit 105 may be used.

The requirement item extraction unit 13 shown in FIG. 1 is realized by executing the driving support information distribution program stored in the storage unit 103 shown in FIG. 12 by the control unit 101 shown in FIG. 12. The requirement item storage unit 12 shown in FIG. 1 is part of the storage unit 103 shown in FIG. 12. The information acquisition unit 11 and information distribution unit 14 shown in FIG. 1 are realized by the communication unit 105 shown in FIG. 12. The driving support information distribution device 1 may be realized by multiple computer systems.

For example, the driving assistance information distribution program of this embodiment causes the driving assistance information distribution device 1 to execute the steps of acquiring information from one or more information providing devices, extracting information from the acquired information for determining whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving or driving assistance functions are required, and distributing the extracted information as driving assistance information.

The vehicle control unit 82 in the vehicle 8 of this embodiment is realized by a control unit similar to the control unit 101 shown in FIG. 12 executing a vehicle control program stored in the storage unit 103 shown in FIG. 12. The judgment condition storage unit 85 is realized by a storage unit similar to the storage unit 103 shown in FIG. 12. The display unit 86 is realized by a display, monitor, etc., similar to the display unit 104 shown in FIG. 12, and the input reception unit 87 is realized by an operation button, etc. As described above, the display unit 104 and the input reception unit 87 may be integrated and realized by a touch panel, etc.

As described above, the driving assistance information distribution device 1 of the present embodiment extracts information corresponding to the requirement items , which is information for determining whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving or driving assistance functions are required, from the information acquired from the information providing device, and distributes the extracted information to the vehicle 8 as driving assistance information. This makes it possible to provide the vehicle 8 with information indicating the driving environment conditions for determining whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving or driving assistance functions are required. Furthermore, by including in the driving assistance information information of areas other than the area in which the vehicle 8 receives the driving assistance information, it is possible to notify the driver in advance of the restrictions on autonomous driving or driving assistance functions in the area in which the vehicle 8 will be traveling, and to prevent the driver from suddenly starting manual operation.

Embodiment 2.
13 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a traffic system according to the second embodiment. In this embodiment, the traffic system includes a driving assistance information distribution device 1 similar to that in the first embodiment, vehicles 8-1 to 8-n similar to those in the first embodiment, and a traffic control system 2a. However, the driving assistance information distribution device 1 distributes driving assistance information to the traffic control system 2a in addition to the vehicles 8. Components having the same functions as those in the first embodiment are given the same reference numerals as those in the first embodiment, and duplicated explanations will be omitted. Below, differences from the first embodiment will be mainly explained.

The traffic control system 2a has the functions of the traffic control system 2 of the first embodiment, receives driving assistance information transmitted from the driving assistance information distribution device 1, and distributes control information indicating the necessity of restricting the automatic driving or driving assistance function to the vehicle 8 using the received driving assistance information. As shown in FIG. 13, the traffic control system 2a includes a driving assistance information receiving unit 21, a requirement storage unit 22, a control information distribution unit 23, a display unit 24, and a determination unit 25.

The driving support information receiving unit 21 receives the driving support information from the driving support information distribution device 1, and outputs the received driving support information to the display unit 24 and the determination unit 25. The requirement storage unit 22 stores a regulation requirement, which is a condition for determining whether or not to implement a traffic regulation. The regulation requirement may be a common condition for determining whether or not to impose a restriction on automatic driving based on the ODD, regardless of the vehicle 8, or may be a condition according to the type of the vehicle 8. The regulation requirement may be a condition for determining whether or not to regulate automatic driving or driving assistance, which is commonly determined separately from the ODD. In other words, the vehicle 8 does not determine whether or not automatic driving is possible depending on the performance of each vehicle, but the traffic control system 2a issues a uniform regulation that prohibits automatic driving as a legal regulation regardless of the type of vehicle 8 (such as a light vehicle, a four-wheel drive vehicle, or a large vehicle), or the vehicle type of the vehicle 8 is specified and information is distributed as a legal regulation.

The display unit 24 displays the received driving assistance information. This allows the operator of the traffic control system 2a to understand the current state of each area and implement any necessary additional traffic control measures. The display unit 24 may also display the driving assistance information in a graph, or may display the results of statistical processing such as calculating a time average.

The determination unit 25 determines whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving or driving assistance functions are required using the information acquired by the driving assistance information receiving unit 21. In detail, the determination unit 25 determines whether or not restrictions should be imposed for each area using the driving assistance information received from the driving assistance information receiving unit 21 and the regulatory requirements stored in the requirements storage unit 22, and if there is an area where restrictions should be imposed, notifies the control information distribution unit 23 of information indicating the content of the restrictions as control information.

The traffic control information distribution unit 23 distributes traffic control information to the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n. That is, the traffic control information distribution unit 23 distributes the judgment result by the judgment unit 25 as traffic control information to the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n. Any communication path can be used as the communication path between the traffic control system 2a and the vehicles 8-1 to 8-n.

In the example shown in FIG. 13, the driving assistance information described in embodiment 1 is used, but the information used by the traffic control system 2a to determine whether to restrict the automatic driving or driving assistance function is not limited to the driving assistance information described in embodiment 1, and may be similar information. For example, the traffic control system 2a may determine whether to restrict the automatic driving or driving assistance function using information received from another device not shown in FIG. 1, or may determine whether to restrict the automatic driving or driving assistance function based on weather conditions and traffic conditions for each area input by the operator of the traffic control system 2a. The driving assistance information receiving unit 21 is an example of an acquisition unit that acquires information for determining whether or not to restrict the automatic driving or driving assistance function.

Figure 14 is a flowchart showing an example of a control processing procedure in the traffic control system 2a of this embodiment. Although Figure 14 shows an example of determining whether autonomous driving is possible, a similar control processing can also be performed for whether or not a driving assistance function can be used. As shown in Figure 14, the driving assistance information receiving unit 21 acquires information (step S31). This information is information for determining whether or not to restrict autonomous driving or the driving assistance function, and is, for example, the driving assistance information described in embodiment 1. The driving assistance information receiving unit 21 outputs the received information to the display unit 24 and the determination unit 25.

Next, the traffic control system 2a judges whether or not autonomous driving is possible for each area based on the acquired information and regulatory requirements (step S32), and distributes control information indicating areas in which autonomous driving is not possible (step S33). This control information also includes the autonomous driving level and vehicle type. In detail, in step S32, the judgment unit 25 judges whether or not autonomous driving is possible for each area based on the acquired information and regulatory requirements, generates control information indicating areas in which autonomous driving is not possible, the autonomous driving level, the vehicle type, etc., and distributes it to the vehicle 8 via the control information distribution unit 23. The control information may be information indicating areas in which autonomous driving is not possible, the autonomous driving level, and the vehicle type, or information indicating whether or not autonomous driving is possible for each area. In addition, similar to the driving assistance information of the first embodiment, the corresponding area may be determined according to the position of a relay device that relays communication between the traffic control system 2a and the vehicle 8, and information on the area corresponding to each relay device may be stored in the control information. When the vehicle 8 receives the control information, it displays the control information and notifies the driver. Additionally, vehicle 8 can use the control information to determine whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving or driving assistance functions are required.

The traffic control system 2a may not only distribute control information to the vehicle 8, but also distribute the control information to road information boards 90 installed along the road. The road information boards 90 are variable display boards installed for the purpose of providing information such as congestion, traffic accidents, and weather on the road to the driver of the vehicle 8. By displaying the control information distributed from the traffic control system 2a, the road information boards 90 can notify the driver of areas where autonomous driving is not possible, information indicating the autonomous driving level, and vehicle type, as well as information indicating whether autonomous driving is possible in each area.

In the above example, as in the first embodiment, an example has been described in which the driving assistance information distribution device 1 distributes driving assistance information to the vehicle 8. However, the driving assistance information distribution device 1 may distribute the driving assistance information only to the traffic control system 2a without distributing the driving assistance information to the vehicle 8. In this case, too, the traffic control system 2a distributes the control information to the vehicle 8, and the vehicle 8 can receive the control information as information for determining whether or not restrictions on the autonomous driving or driving assistance function are required.

The traffic control system 2a is realized by a computer system exemplified in FIG. 12, similar to the driving support information distribution device of the first embodiment. The determination unit 25 shown in FIG. 13 is realized by the control processing program stored in the storage unit 103 shown in FIG. 12 being executed by the control unit 101 shown in FIG. 12. The requirement storage unit 22 shown in FIG. 13 is a part of the storage unit 103 shown in FIG. 12. The driving support information receiving unit 21 and the control information distribution unit 23 shown in FIG. 13 are realized by the communication unit 105 shown in FIG. 12. The display unit 24 shown in FIG. 13 is realized by the display unit 104 shown in FIG. 12. When the driving support information is displayed after being processed, the control unit 101 and the storage unit 103 are further used to realize the display unit 24. The traffic control system 2a may be realized by multiple computer systems.

As described above, in this embodiment, the traffic control system 2a determines whether or not to restrict autonomous driving or driving assistance functions, and transmits control information indicating the presence or absence of restrictions to the vehicle 8. This makes it possible to provide the vehicle 8 with information for determining whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving or driving assistance functions are required.

Embodiment 3.
15 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a transportation system including a driving assistance information distribution device according to a third embodiment. In this embodiment, the transportation system includes a driving assistance information distribution device 1a and vehicles 8a-1 to 8a-n. Components having the same functions as those in the first embodiment are given the same reference numerals as those in the first embodiment, and duplicated explanations will be omitted. Below, differences from the first embodiment will be mainly explained. Hereinafter, when vehicles 8a-1 to 8a-n are referred to without being individually distinguished, they will be referred to as vehicle 8a.

In this embodiment, the driving assistance information distribution device 1a determines the content of the driving assistance information to be transmitted to the vehicle 8a according to the characteristics of the vehicle 8a, such as the size and role of the vehicle 8a. This makes it possible to suppress the distribution of unnecessary information, reduce the use of wireless resources, and reduce the processing load on the vehicle 8a.

The driving support information distribution device 1a of this embodiment is obtained by adding a characteristic correspondence information storage unit 15 to the driving support information distribution device 1 of embodiment 1, and includes a requirement item extraction unit 13a and an information distribution unit 14a instead of the requirement item extraction unit 13 and the information distribution unit 14. The characteristic correspondence information storage unit 15 stores characteristic correspondence information indicating the correspondence between the characteristics of the vehicle 8a and the requirement items to be distributed. For each vehicle 8a, the requirement item extraction unit 13a uses the characteristic information of the vehicle 8a to extract information corresponding to the characteristics of the vehicle 8a and passes it to the information distribution unit 14a. The information distribution unit 14a receives the characteristic information from the vehicle 8a. In addition, the information distribution unit 14a distributes driving support information corresponding to the vehicle 8a for each vehicle 8a.

The vehicle 8a-1 is equipped with a characteristic information storage unit 88 in addition to the vehicle 8 of the first embodiment, and a vehicle control unit 82a instead of the vehicle control unit 82. The characteristic information includes at least one of static characteristic information that does not change and dynamic characteristic information that may change depending on the driving situation. The static characteristic information is, for example, at least one of information indicating the vehicle type, the size of the vehicle, and information indicating the role of the vehicle, such as whether it is for personal use, for business use to transport people, or for business use to transport luggage. The dynamic characteristic information is, for example, information indicating whether chains or snow tires are installed. The static characteristic information is, for example, set by the manufacturer, seller, driver, etc. of the vehicle 8a-1 before the vehicle 8a-1 is started to be used, and is stored in the characteristic information storage unit 88. Regarding the dynamic characteristic information, the information stored in the characteristic information storage unit 88 may be updated by input from the driver each time a change is made, or the vehicle control unit 82a may detect the state and automatically update the information in the characteristic information storage unit 88.

The vehicle control unit 82a reads out the characteristic information from the characteristic information storage unit 88 and transmits it to the driving assistance information distribution device 1a via the communication unit 81. Although not shown in the figure, the vehicles 8a-2 to 8a-n have the same configuration as the vehicle 8a-1.

Figure 16 is a flowchart showing an example of a driving assistance information distribution process procedure in the driving assistance information distribution device 1a of this embodiment. Step S1 is the same as in embodiment 1. After step S1, the driving assistance information distribution device 1a acquires characteristic information of each vehicle 8a (step S4). In detail, the information distribution unit 14a receives characteristic information from the vehicle 8a and passes the received characteristic information to the requirement item extraction unit 13a.

Step S2 is the same as in the first embodiment. After step S2, the requirement item extraction unit 13a extracts vehicle-specific information to be distributed from the extracted information using the acquired characteristic information and characteristic correspondence information for each vehicle 8a (step S5). In detail, the requirement item extraction unit 13a determines the requirement items corresponding to the characteristics of the vehicle 8a using the acquired characteristic information and the characteristic correspondence information stored in the characteristic correspondence information storage unit 15 for each vehicle 8a. Then, the requirement item extraction unit 13a extracts information corresponding to the determined requirement items for each vehicle 8a from the information extracted in step S2, and outputs the extracted information to the information distribution unit 14a as vehicle-specific information. For example, even if the width or gradient of a road is not suitable for a large vehicle to travel, it may not be a problem for a light vehicle or a PMV (Personal Mobility Vehicle). In this way, when the vehicle type of the vehicle 8a is a light vehicle, the information indicating the width and gradient of the road is not important, but when the vehicle type of the vehicle 8a is a large vehicle, the information indicating the width and gradient of the road is important. Therefore, for example, the characteristic correspondence information stores correspondence such that for large and standard vehicle types, the corresponding requirement items include information indicating the road width and gradient, and for light vehicles and PMV types, the corresponding requirement items do not include information indicating the road width and gradient. Note that the characteristic correspondence information is not limited to this example.

Next, the information distribution unit 14a distributes vehicle-specific information to each vehicle 8a (step S3a). Note that this vehicle-specific information is also an example of driving assistance information. As described above, the requirement item extraction unit 13a extracts information on items selected for each vehicle 8a from the information extracted in step S2 according to characteristic information indicating the characteristics of that vehicle 8a as vehicle-specific information, and the information distribution unit 14a distributes the corresponding vehicle-specific information for each vehicle as driving assistance information. The operation of this embodiment other than that described above is the same as that of embodiment 1.

Like the driving support information distribution device 1 of embodiment 1, the driving support information distribution device 1a of this embodiment is also realized by the computer system exemplified in FIG. 12. The characteristic correspondence information storage unit 15 is part of the storage unit 103 shown in FIG. 12, and the requirement item extraction unit 13a is realized by the control unit 101 executing the driving support information distribution program of this embodiment stored in the storage unit 103. The information distribution unit 14a is realized by the communication unit 105 shown in FIG. 12.

In addition, this embodiment may be combined with embodiment 2, so that the driving assistance information distribution device 1a also generates driving assistance information similar to that of embodiment 1 and transmits it to the traffic control system 2a of embodiment 2.

As described above, in this embodiment, the driving assistance information distribution device 1a extracts information corresponding to the requirement items, which is information for determining whether or not restrictions on the automatic driving or driving assistance function are required, from the information acquired from the information providing device, as in the first embodiment. Then, from the extracted information, information corresponding to the characteristic information of the vehicle 8a is extracted and transmitted to the vehicle 8a as driving assistance information. This provides the same effects as the first embodiment, and also makes it possible to reduce the wireless resources used for transmitting the driving assistance information.

Embodiment 4.
17 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a transportation system including a driving assistance information distribution device according to a fourth embodiment. In this embodiment, the transportation system includes a driving assistance information distribution device 1b and vehicles 8b-1 to 8b-n. Components having the same functions as those in the first embodiment are given the same reference numerals as in the first embodiment, and duplicated explanations will be omitted. Below, differences from the first embodiment will be mainly explained. Hereinafter, when vehicles 8b-1 to 8b-n are referred to without being individually distinguished, they will be referred to as vehicle 8b.

In this embodiment, the driving assistance information distribution device 1b determines the content of the driving assistance information to be transmitted to the vehicle 8b according to the route on which the vehicle 8b is traveling. This makes it possible to suppress the distribution of unnecessary information and to suppress the use of wireless resources.

The driving assistance information distribution device 1b of this embodiment includes a requirement item extraction unit 13b and an information distribution unit 14a instead of the requirement item extraction unit 13 and the information distribution unit 14. The information distribution unit 14a is the same as in the third embodiment in that it receives information from the vehicle 8b and distributes driving assistance information for each vehicle 8b, and is therefore denoted by the same reference numerals as in the third embodiment.

The vehicle 8b-1 is equipped with a vehicle control unit 82b instead of the vehicle control unit 82. The vehicle control unit 82b holds route information indicating the route along which the vehicle 8b-1 will travel, and transmits the route information to the driving assistance information distribution device 1b via the communication unit 81.

Figure 18 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a route traveled by each vehicle 8b in this embodiment. In the example shown in Figure 18, vehicle 8b-1 is scheduled to travel through area C, area A, and area E in this order via route 201, vehicle 8b-2 is scheduled to travel through area D, area G, area F, and area E in this order via route 202, and vehicle 8b-3 is scheduled to travel from area C in the opposite direction to area A via route 203. In addition, vehicles 8b-1 to 8b-3 are assumed to be located at points indicated by circles in the figure. In this case, information about area A is necessary for vehicle 8b-1 but not necessary for vehicles 8b-2 and 8b-3. For this reason, in this embodiment, the driving support information distribution device 1b uses the route information of each vehicle 8b to extract information about the area where vehicle 8b is scheduled to travel and distributes it to vehicle 8b.

Figure 19 is a flowchart showing an example of a driving assistance information distribution process procedure in the driving assistance information distribution device 1b of this embodiment. Step S1 is the same as in embodiment 1. After step S1, the driving assistance information distribution device 1b acquires route information of each vehicle 8b (step S6). In detail, the information distribution unit 14a receives route information from the vehicle 8a and passes the received route information to the requirement item extraction unit 13b.

Step S2 is the same as in the first embodiment. After step S2, the requirement item extraction unit 13b extracts vehicle-specific information to be distributed from the extracted information using the acquired route information for each vehicle 8b (step S7). In detail, the requirement item extraction unit 13b extracts information on the area where the vehicle 8b is scheduled to travel from the information extracted in step S2 for each vehicle 8b using the route information for each vehicle 8b, and outputs the extracted information to the information distribution unit 14a as vehicle-specific information. The information distribution unit 14a distributes the vehicle-specific information to each vehicle 8b (step S3a). As described above, the requirement item extraction unit 13b extracts information on the items selected according to the route that the vehicle 8b is scheduled to travel for each vehicle 8b from the information extracted in step S2 as vehicle-specific information, and the information distribution unit 14a distributes the corresponding vehicle-specific information as driving support information for each vehicle 8b.

The driving support information distribution device 1b of this embodiment is also realized by the computer system illustrated in FIG. 12, similar to the driving support information distribution device 1 of embodiment 1. The requirement item extraction unit 13b is realized by the control unit 101 executing the driving support information distribution program of this embodiment stored in the storage unit 103. The information distribution unit 14a is realized by the communication unit 105 illustrated in FIG. 12, similar to embodiment 3.

The present embodiment may be combined with the second embodiment, and the driving support information distribution device 1b may generate driving support information similar to that of the first embodiment and transmit it to the traffic control system 2a of the second embodiment. Furthermore, the present embodiment may be combined with the third embodiment, and the driving support information distribution device 1b may extract information for each vehicle 8b based on not only the route information but also the characteristic information and distribute it as vehicle-specific information. Furthermore, the present embodiment may be combined with the third embodiment and also with the second embodiment, and the driving support information distribution device 1b may generate driving support information similar to that of the first embodiment and transmit it to the traffic control system 2a of the second embodiment.

As described above, in this embodiment, the driving assistance information distribution device 1b extracts information corresponding to the requirement items, which is information for determining whether or not restrictions on the automatic driving or driving assistance function are required, from the information acquired from the information providing device, as in the first embodiment. Then, from the extracted information, information corresponding to the route information of the vehicle 8b is extracted and transmitted to the vehicle 8b as driving assistance information. This provides the same effects as the first embodiment, and also makes it possible to reduce the wireless resources used for transmitting the driving assistance information.

The configurations shown in the above embodiments are merely examples, and may be combined with other known technologies, or the embodiments may be combined with each other. In addition, parts of the configurations may be omitted or modified without departing from the spirit of the invention.

1, 1a, 1b Driving support information distribution device, 2, 2a Traffic control system, 3 Geographic information provision system, 4 Road information provision system, 5 Weather information provision system, 6 Network, 7 Vehicle-transmitted information provision device, 8-1 to 8-n, 8a-1 to 8a-n, 8b-1 to 8b-n Vehicle, 11 Information acquisition unit, 12 Requirement item storage unit, 13, 13a, 13b Requirement item extraction unit, 14, 14a Information distribution unit, 15 Characteristics correspondence information storage unit, 21 Driving support information reception unit, 22 Requirement storage unit, 23 Traffic control information distribution unit, 24, 86 Display unit, 25 Judgment unit, 81 Communication unit, 82, 82a, 82b Vehicle control unit, 83 Vehicle component, 84 On-board sensor, 85 Judgment condition storage unit, 87 Input reception unit, 88 Characteristics information storage unit, 90 Road information board.

Claims (15)

A driving assistance information distribution device that distributes driving assistance information to an autonomous vehicle traveling in a resort facility, a commercial facility, or an airport,
an information acquisition unit that acquires a plurality of pieces of information among information related to traffic, information related to road design, information related to weather, and information related to vehicle driving conditions;
A requirement item storage unit that stores requirement items used to determine whether or not constraints on autonomous driving are required;
An information distribution unit that distributes uniform autonomous driving prohibition regulations for each vehicle type or uniform autonomous driving prohibition regulations regardless of vehicle type to the autonomous driving vehicle based on the acquired multiple pieces of information and the requirement items;
Equipped with
The driving assistance information distribution device, wherein the autonomous driving disabling regulation indicates that autonomous driving is not possible . The driving support information distribution device according to claim 1, characterized in that the information acquisition unit acquires the information from multiple information providing devices. The driving support information distribution device according to claim 2, characterized in that the multiple information providing devices are each operated by a different business owner. The driving support information distribution device according to claim 2, characterized in that the multiple information providing devices are two or more of a traffic control system, a geographic information providing system, a road information providing system, a weather information providing system, a network, and a vehicle-generated information providing device. 2. The driving support information distribution device according to claim 1, wherein the traffic-related information includes at least one of congestion information, traffic volume, road closures, restriction information , and geographical attributes of each section. The driving support information distribution device according to claim 1, characterized in that the road design information includes at least one of road shape and road design information. The driving support information distribution device according to claim 1, characterized in that the weather information includes at least one of the following information: current weather, weather forecast, weather warning, and weather advisory. The driving support information distribution device according to claim 1, characterized in that the information indicating the vehicle's driving status includes at least one of the vibration measurement results and the operating status of the vehicle's equipment. The driving support information distribution device according to claim 1, characterized in that the necessity of the constraints on the autonomous driving is whether the autonomous driving can be operated safely. The driving support information distribution device according to claim 1, characterized in that the requirement items correspond to at least one of geographical conditions, road conditions, environmental conditions, traffic conditions, and infrastructure cooperation conditions. The driving support information distribution device according to claim 10, characterized in that it determines whether autonomous driving is impossible by using a plurality of the conditions as the requirement items. The driving support information distribution device according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that the autonomous vehicle traveling through the airport is a towing car. An information providing device;
A driving assistance information distribution device that distributes driving assistance information to an autonomous vehicle traveling in a resort facility, a commercial facility, or an airport;
A transportation system comprising:
The driving assistance information distribution device includes:
an information acquisition unit that acquires from the information providing device a plurality of information among information related to traffic, information related to road design, weather information, and information indicating vehicle driving conditions;
A requirement item storage unit that stores requirement items used to determine whether or not constraints on autonomous driving are required;
An information distribution unit that distributes uniform autonomous driving prohibition regulations for each vehicle type or uniform autonomous driving prohibition regulations regardless of vehicle type to the autonomous driving vehicle based on the acquired multiple pieces of information and the requirement items;
Equipped with
A transportation system characterized in that the autonomous driving prohibition regulation indicates that autonomous driving is not permitted . A driving assistance information distribution method for distributing driving assistance information to an autonomous vehicle traveling in a resort facility, a commercial facility, or an airport, comprising:
acquiring a plurality of pieces of information among information related to traffic, information related to road design, information related to weather, and information related to vehicle driving conditions;
A step of transmitting a uniform autonomous driving prohibition restriction for each vehicle type or a uniform autonomous driving prohibition restriction regardless of vehicle type to the autonomous driving vehicle based on the acquired plurality of pieces of information and requirement items used to determine whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving are necessary;
Equipped with
A driving assistance information distribution method, characterized in that the autonomous driving disabling regulation indicates that autonomous driving is not possible . A computer program for delivering driving assistance information to an autonomous vehicle traveling in a resort facility, a commercial facility, or an airport,
On the computer,
acquiring a plurality of pieces of information among information related to traffic, information related to road design, information related to weather, and information related to vehicle driving conditions;
A step of transmitting a uniform autonomous driving prohibition restriction for each vehicle type or a uniform autonomous driving prohibition restriction regardless of vehicle type to the autonomous driving vehicle based on the acquired plurality of pieces of information and requirement items used to determine whether or not restrictions on autonomous driving are necessary;
Run the command ,
The computer program is characterized in that the autonomous driving disabling regulation indicates that autonomous driving is not possible .