Patent ID: 11900809
Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G  H | IPC B  G

Claim 0:
1. A vehicle notification sound generation system mounted on a self-driving capable bus-type vehicle, the system comprising a vehicle interior speaker, a central processing unit, an amplifier, and a camera, wherein:
the vehicle interior speaker outputs a verbal speech, based on a verbal speech signal, about arrival of the vehicle at a destination and a non-verbal sound, based on a non-verbal sound signal, corresponding to a state of acceleration/deceleration or a state of turning of the vehicle before acceleration/deceleration operation, during acceleration/deceleration, before a start of turning, or during turning of the vehicle, the non-verbal sound is a sound that differs from the verbal speech in volume;
the central processing unit is configured to:
generate the verbal speech signal about the arrival of the vehicle at the destination based on travel information of the vehicle input from an automatic driving device of the vehicle; and
generate the non-verbal sound signal corresponding to the state of acceleration/deceleration or the state of turning of the vehicle based on behavior information of the vehicle input from the automatic driving device of the vehicle; and
the amplifier is configured to generate a notification sound signal by synthesizing the verbal speech signal and the non-verbal sound signal, and drive the vehicle interior speaker based on the generated notification sound signal;

the camera, while operating, detects either an absence or a presence of a standing passenger or a wheelchair passenger in a vehicle chamber; and
when the camera is operating and detects the absence of the standing passenger or the wheelchair passenger, the central processing unit prohibits output of the non-verbal sound signal.