Patents Examined by Andrew Sang Kim
  • Patent number: 11472440
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to provide accident avoidance information to passengers of autonomous vehicles are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a safety analyzer to determine an autonomously controlled vehicle is in a safe situation at a first point in time and in a dangerous situation at a second point in time. The example apparatus also includes a user interface generator to: generate user interface data to define content for a user interface to be displayed via a screen, the user interface to include a graphical representation of the vehicle, the user interface to graphically indicate the vehicle is in the safe situation at the first point in time; and modify the user interface data so that the user interface graphically indicates the vehicle is in the dangerous situation at the second point in time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Matt Yurdana, John Weast, Ignacio Alvarez
  • Patent number: 11458995
    Abstract: Among other things, techniques are described for screening and monitoring the health of a vehicle user including receiving sensor data produced by a sensor at the vehicle, processing the sensor data to determine at least one health condition of the user of the vehicle, and in response to determining the at least one health condition, executing a vehicle function selected from a plurality of vehicle functions based on the at least one health condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignee: Motional AD LLC
    Inventors: Eric Wolff, Abhimanyu Singh, Linh Pham
  • Patent number: 11458994
    Abstract: Systems and methods for semi-autonomously controlling a vehicle are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes determining a trajectory of a semi-autonomous vehicle based on data received from one or more vehicle sensors, determining a state of the vehicle based on data received from the vehicle sensors, determining an optimal trajectory of the vehicle based on the state of the vehicle, determining a level of confidence in the determined state of the vehicle and in the determined optimal trajectory of the vehicle, determining a plurality of possible future states of the vehicle based on the state of the vehicle, the trajectory of the vehicle, and the level of confidence, determining whether a subset of the possible future states of the vehicle are recoverable, and when it is determined that the subset of the possible future states of the vehicle are recoverable, issuing a security certificate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC.
    Inventors: Stephen G. McGill, Guy Rosman
  • Patent number: 11427217
    Abstract: A vehicle control system includes a steering input member rotatably supported by a vehicle body, a first capacitive sensor provided on a first surface portion of the steering input member facing in one direction along a rotational center line of the steering input member, a second capacitive sensor provided on a second surface portion of the steering input member opposite to the first surface portion, and a control unit configured to control a drive unit and/or a brake unit of the vehicle according to signals from the first and second capacitive sensors. The control unit executes an acceleration control to control the drive unit to accelerate the vehicle when a prescribed signal is received from the first capacitive sensor, and to execute a deceleration control to control the drive unit and/or the brake unit to decelerate the vehicle when a prescribed signal is received from the second capacitive sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD
    Inventors: Takashi Yanagi, Ryo Yamazaki, Takeyuki Suzuki
  • Patent number: 11407316
    Abstract: A vehicle travel control device includes: a control section controlling operation of a motor generator and a power storage device. The control section performs SOC reduction control based on determination that while the own vehicle is traveling on a travel scheduled route, a section is present in which a predetermined amount of regenerative power generation by the motor generator in the own vehicle exceeds an SOC upper limit value. The SOC reduction control reduces a current SOC of the power storage device by setting an SOC lower limit value as a lower limit, to recover all electric power generated by the regenerative power generation. The control section performs efficiency priority travel based on determination that the predetermined amount of regenerative power generation is not actually expected to be available. The efficiency priority travel places priority on vehicle fuel economy or electric power efficiency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yutaro Ito
  • Patent number: 11383738
    Abstract: A method for operating a driving assistance system of a motor vehicle includes manoeuvring the motor vehicle autonomously with a driving assistance system while a user with a mobile terminal is located outside the motor vehicle. The user performs, by the driving assistance system and during the manoeuvring, longitudinal guidance and transverse guidance of the motor vehicle. The driving assistance system is operated at a first automation level when communication between the driving assistance system and the mobile terminal is ensured. While the user activates the mobile terminal, the longitudinal guidance, and the transverse guidance in a predetermined fashion, a surrounding area of the motor vehicle is sensed, at the first automation level, by the driving assistance system, and in addition to the longitudinal guidance and the transverse guidance of the motor vehicle. The motor vehicle is then autonomously manoeuvred according to the sensed surrounding area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: Valeo Schalter und Sensoren GmbH
    Inventors: Markus Heimberger, Dimitrios Tzempetzis, Stefanie Prinzhausen
  • Patent number: 11370459
    Abstract: A vehicle control system includes: an operation element configured to receive a driving operation by an occupant; a movement sensor configured to detect a movement of the operation element; a travel control unit configured to select a manual driving mode to control a steering device based on a signal from the movement sensor or an autonomous driving mode to control the steering device regardless of the signal from the movement sensor; a travel information acquiring unit configured to acquire travel information of a vehicle; a grip area setting unit configured to set at least one recommended grip area of the operation element based on the travel information of the vehicle; an indicator configured to turn on so as to illuminate the recommended grip area; and an indicator control unit configured to change a control mode of the indicator according to a driving mode selected by the travel control unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Yosuke Shimizu
  • Patent number: 11364934
    Abstract: A system trains a generator unit and a discriminator unit simultaneously. The generator unit is configured to determine a future trajectory of at least one other road user in the environment of a vehicle considering an observed trajectory of the at least one other road user. The discriminator unit is configured to determine whether the determined future trajectory of the other road user is an actual future trajectory of the other road user. The system is configured to train the generator unit and the discriminator unit simultaneously with gradient descent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Giuseppe Coccia, Tessa Heiden
  • Patent number: 11348381
    Abstract: A mobile identification transmitter for an access arrangement of a vehicle, said access arrangement being supplied by a vehicle battery, comprises an identification-transmitter-side receiving device for receiving a vehicle-side request signal. Furthermore, it comprises an identification-transmitter-side transmitting device for emitting a response signal in response to the reception of the vehicle-side request signal. Finally, the mobile identification transmitter has an identification-transmitter-side control device for identifying and/or estimating the state of charge of the vehicle battery, for comparing the identified and/or estimated state of charge with a predetermined threshold value, and for identifying an emergency state of the access arrangement if the identified and/or estimated state of charge falls below the predetermined threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Inventors: Ulrich Emmerling, Annette Hebling, Christine Igl, Georg Käufl
  • Patent number: 11305893
    Abstract: A method of evaluating continued usage of a particular type of aircraft after a lightning strike includes performing structure assessments of one or more structures of the type of aircraft based on one or more representative values for lightning strike damage for the type of aircraft. The method also includes determining a number indicating how many flights an aircraft of the type of aircraft can fly after a lightning strike and before performing an extended conditional inspection for lightning strike damage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: THE BOEING COMPANY
    Inventors: Gregory J. Sweers, Aydin Akdeniz, Blake A. Bertrand