Self-propelled vehicle safety urging system, self-propelled vehicle safety urging method, and safety urging information processing program

Abstract

Information to urge safety driving is outputted to a driver in dangerous areas including intersections. When a vehicle reaches near an intersection, an on-vehicle system refers to communication availability information previously stored by using a car navigation system, and recognizes whether on-vehicle communication equipment is capable of communicating with roadside communication equipment. If it is recognized that the on-vehicle communication equipment is not capable of communicating with the roadside communication equipment based on information from the car navigation system, it outputs an instruction to output safety urging information to an output device, and the output device outputs safety urging information corresponding thereto.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an illustration showing intersection data stored on the communication availability information storing unit (car navigation system having a communication availability information storing function) shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing operating timings of the respective units of the first embodiment disclosed in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing operating timings of the respective units of the first embodiment continued from FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an illustration for explaining the operation of the first embodiment disclosed in FIG. 1, explaining a traveling states on a road;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation in the case of updating map information data in the first embodiment disclosed in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing operating timings of the respective units of the first embodiment continued from FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is an illustration showing intersection data used in FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing operating timings of the respective units of the second embodiment disclosed in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing operating timings of the respective units of the second embodiment continued from FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a road-vehicle communication system of a third embodiment according to the present invention; and

FIG. 13 is an illustration showing management map information data of the third embodiment disclosed in FIG. 12.

Claims

1. A safety urging system for a self-propelled vehicle, comprising: an on-vehicle communication unit which communicates with roadside communication equipment provided in a predetermined communication area on a road where a vehicle travels, and inputs information about traffic condition in the communication area;a safety urging information output unit which outputs information to urge a driver of the own vehicle to drive safely based on the information obtained by the on-vehicle communication unit;an on-vehicle computation controller which controls operations of the safety urging information output unit and the on-vehicle communication unit; anda communication availability information storing unit which previously stores communication availability information indicating whether communication by the on-vehicle communication unit with the roadside communication equipment is possible, together with map information including the communication area, whereinthe on-vehicle computation controller includes:a communication availability recognizing function, activated when the own vehicle reaches near the communication area, to determine whether communication between the on-vehicle communication unit and the roadside communication equipment is possible based on communication availability information, andan operation instruction output function, activated when communication with the roadside communication equipment is impossible, to send an operation instruction to the safety urging information output unit.

2. The safety urging system for a self-propelled vehicle, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication area is a predetermined range on a road including an intersection.

3. A safety urging system for a self-propelled vehicle, comprising: an output device serving as a safety urging information output unit which outputs safety urging information to urge safety driving at an intersection to the driver of the own vehicle;an on-vehicle communication unit which inputs information about travel condition near the intersection, from a roadside communication equipment previously provided to an area of the intersection;a car navigation system having a communication availability information storing function to previously store communication availability information indicating whether the on-vehicle communication unit is capable of communicating with the roadside communication equipment, for each intersection, andan on-vehicle computation controller, activated when the own vehicle reaches near an intersection, which determines whether the on-vehicle communication unit is capable of communicating with the roadside communication equipment with reference to the communication availability information stored on the car navigation system, whereinthe on-vehicle computation controller has an operation instruction output function, which works when communication between the on-vehicle communication unit and the roadside communication equipment becomes impossible, to send an operation instruction to the output device.

4. The safety urging system for a self-propelled vehicle, as claimed in claim 1, wherein if information indicating travel condition received from the roadside communication equipment is information indicating that an object serving as a factor to urge safety travel exists near the communication area including the intersection, the on-vehicle computation controller has an operation instruction output function to output an operation instruction to an output device serving as the safety urging information output unit.

5. The safety urging system for a self-propelled vehicle, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the on-vehicle computation controller includes: a stand-by instruction output function, activated when the own vehicle reaches near an intersection, to output to the on-vehicle communication unit an instruction to set to a stand-by state before starting communication with the roadside communication equipment, anda stand-by state releasing function to activate the operation instruction output function so as to output an operation instruction to the output device, and to release the stand-by state of the on-vehicle communication unit so as to restore to a state before stand-by, when a communication impossible state is caused with the roadside communication equipment.

6. The safety urging system for a self-propelled vehicle, as claimed in claim 1, wherein if a communication state including communication availability, newly recognized by the communication availability recognition unit, between the on-vehicle communication unit and the roadside communication equipment is different from a communication state including communication availability, previously set, between the on-vehicle communication unit and the roadside communication equipment, the on-vehicle computation controller has a communication state update function to update the communication availability information stored on the communication availability information storing unit to a new communication state between the on-vehicle communication unit and the roadside communication equipment.

7. A safety urging method for a self-propelled vehicle, comprising: a first step to take information about travel condition in a predetermined communication area on a road where a vehicle travels, from roadside communication equipment provided in the communication area into an on-vehicle communication unit previously mounted in the own vehicle;a second step to output prescribed safety urging information to a driver of the own vehicle, based on traffic information obtained from the roadside communication equipment or information previously set separately;a communication availability recognition step in which before the first step is carried out, an on-vehicle computation controller is activated when the own vehicle reaches near the communication area, and the on-vehicle computation controller previously mounted determines whether the on-vehicle communication unit is capable of communicating with the roadside communication equipment, with reference to communication availability information stored on a communication availability information storing unit previously mounted; andan operation instruction output step in which before or after the first step is carried out, if it is determined that communication with the roadside communication equipment is impossible, the on-vehicle computation controller is activated so as to send an operation instruction to output safety urging information to a safety urging information output unit previously mounted.

8. A safety urging method for a self-propelled vehicle, comprising: a first step to take information about travel condition in a predetermined communication area including an intersection on a road where a vehicle travels, from roadside communication equipment provided in the communication area into an on-vehicle communication unit previously mounted in the own vehicle;a second step to output prescribed safety urging information to a driver of the own vehicle, based on traffic information obtained from the roadside communication equipment or information previously set separately;a stand-by instruction output step in which before the first step is carried out, the on-vehicle computation controller is activated when the own vehicle reaches near the communication area so as to output an instruction to set the on-vehicle communication unit to be in a stand-by state which is a state before starting communication with the roadside communication equipment; anda stand-by state releasing step in which before or after the first step is carried out, if a communication impossible state is recognized with the roadside communication equipment, the on-vehicle computation controller is activated so as to carry out the second step and to release the stand-by state of the on-vehicle communication unit to thereby restore to a state before stand-by.

9. A safety urging method for a self-propelled vehicle, comprising: a first step to take information about travel condition in a predetermined communication area including an intersection on a road where a vehicle travels, from roadside communication equipment provided in the communication area into an on-vehicle communication unit previously mounted in the own vehicle;a second step to output prescribed safety urging information to a driver of the own vehicle based on traffic information obtained from the roadside communication equipment or information previously set separately;a communication state determination step in which an on-vehicle computation controller, mounted separately, determines whether a communication state including communication availability taken in the first step is different from a communication state including communication availability between the on-vehicle communication unit and the roadside communication equipment stored on a communication availability information storing unit previously mounted; anda communication state update step in which when the communication state taken in the first step is determined as being different from the communication state previously set, the communication availability information stored on the communication availability information storing unit is updated to the communication state taken in the first step.

10. A safety urging information processing program for causing a computer to execute: travel information obtainment processing to take information about travel condition in a predetermined communication area including an intersection on a road where a vehicle travels, from roadside communication equipment set in the communication area into an on-vehicle communication unit previously mounted in the own vehicle;urging information output processing to output predetermined safety urging information to a driver of the own vehicle, based on traffic information obtained from the roadside communication equipment or information previously set separately;communication availability recognition processing in which when the own vehicle reaches near the communication area before the travel information obtainment processing is executed, it is determined whether the on-vehicle communication unit is capable of communicating with the roadside communication equipment, with reference to communication availability information stored on a communication availability information storing unit previously mounted; andoperation instruction output processing to, if communication with the roadside communication equipment is determined as impossible, send an operation instruction to a safety urging information output unit, previously mounted, to output safety urging information.

11. The safety urging information processing program, as claimed in claim 10, for further causing a computer to execute: stand-by instruction output processing which is operated when the own vehicle reaches near the communication area so as to output an instruction to set the on-vehicle communication unit to be in a stand-by state which is a state before starting communication with the roadside communication equipment; andstand-by state release processing to, if it is determined that communication with the roadside communication equipment is impossible, output an instruction to release the stand-by state of the on-vehicle communication unit to thereby restore to a state before stand-by.

12. The safety urging information processing program, as claimed in claim 10, for further causing a computer to execute: communication state determination processing to determine whether a communication state including communication availability processed in the travel information obtainment processing is different from a communication state including communication availability, stored on a communication availability information storing unit previously mounted, between the on-vehicle communication unit and the roadside communication equipment; andcommunication state update processing which is activated when the communication state is determined as being different from the communication state previously set through the communication state determination processing so as to update the communication availability information stored on the communication availability information storing unit to the communication state processed in the travel information obtainment processing.