Patent ID: 11964689
Assignee: MAGNA ELECTRONICS INC.
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 0:
1. A vehicular trailer guidance system, the vehicular trailer guidance system comprising:
a rear backup camera disposed at a rear portion of a vehicle, the vehicle equipped with (i) an electronically controlled power steering system and (ii) a trailer ball hitch configured for connection to a trailer tongue of a trailer;
wherein the rear backup camera comprises a CMOS imaging array having at least one million photosensors arranged in rows and columns;
wherein the rear backup camera views at least rearward of the vehicle;
wherein, with a trailer tongue of a trailer hitched at the trailer ball hitch of the vehicle to form a pivoting joint attaching the trailer to the vehicle, the rear backup camera views at least a portion of the trailer tongue hitched to the vehicle;
wherein the rear backup camera captures image data;
a human machine interface provided in an interior cabin of the vehicle and operable by a driver in a driver seat of the vehicle during a backing up maneuver of the vehicle and trailer, wherein the human machine interface is operable in (i) a backing up trailer left-backup mode, (i) a backing up trailer straight-backup mode and (iii) a backing up trailer right-backup mode;
wherein the human machine interface comprises a rotary knob, and wherein (i) the human machine interface operates in the backing up trailer left-backup mode when rotated counter-clockwise, (ii) the human machine interface operates in the backing up trailer straight-backup mode when one selected from the group consisting of (a) the rotary knob is pushed and (b) the rotary knob is pulled and (iii) the human machine interface operates in the backing up trailer right-backup mode when rotated clockwise;
an electronic control unit (ECU) comprising electronic circuitry and associated software, the electronic circuitry comprising an image processor operable to process image data captured by the rear backup camera;
wherein the vehicular trailer guidance system, responsive at least in part to processing by the image processor of image data captured by the rear backup camera, determines trailer angle of the trailer tongue relative to a longitudinal axis of the vehicle;
wherein, responsive to selection by the driver of the backing up trailer left-backup mode by rotating the rotary knob in the counter-clockwise direction, the vehicular trailer guidance system sets a desired trailer angle of the trailer tongue leftward relative to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle to an angle that is commensurate with a driver-selected setting of the rotary knob;
wherein, responsive to selection by the driver of the backing up trailer right-backup mode by rotating the rotary knob in the clockwise direction, the vehicular trailer guidance system sets the desired trailer angle of the trailer tongue rightward relative to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle to an angle that is commensurate with a driver-selected setting of the rotary knob;
wherein, responsive to selection by the driver of the backing up trailer straight-backup mode by one selected from the group consisting of (a) pushing the rotary knob and (b) pulling the rotary knob, the vehicular trailer guidance system sets the desired trailer angle of the trailer tongue to a zero degree angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle;
wherein the vehicular trailer guidance system, based at least in part on the determined trailer angle and the set desired trailer angle, and while the vehicle is backing up the trailer, controls the electronically controlled power steering system of the vehicle to steer the vehicle to back up the trailer to have the determined trailer angle coincide with the set desired trailer angle;
a video display disposed in the interior cabin of the vehicle and viewable by the driver of the vehicle, wherein the video display, while the vehicle is backing up the trailer, displays video images derived from image data captured by the rear backup camera;
wherein the video display, responsive to the determined trailer angle and the set desired trailer angle, displays graphic overlays indicative of the determined trailer angle and the set desired trailer angle; and
wherein the video images are converted to a cylindrical view for display at the video display.