Patent ID: 11872884
Assignee: MAGNA ELECTRONICS INC.
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 20:
21. A vehicular driver monitoring system, said vehicular driver monitoring system comprising:
a driver status information acquisition system operable to determine status of a driver of a vehicle;
wherein an in-vehicle control system of the vehicle is operable to autonomously drive the vehicle along a road;
wherein said driver status information acquisition system receives data from a plurality of sensors in the vehicle and determines the driver status responsive to processing of the received data;
wherein said plurality of sensors comprises at least one camera viewing the face of the driver of the vehicle;
wherein the in-vehicle control system is responsive at least in part to the driver status determined by processing image data captured by said camera of said driver status information acquisition system;
wherein, while the driver is not driving the vehicle and the in-vehicle control system is autonomously driving the vehicle, and responsive to determination that the driver of the vehicle should take over driving the vehicle from the in-vehicle control system, and responsive to the determined driver status of the driver while the driver is not driving the vehicle as determined by said driver status information acquisition system being indicative of the driver being able to take over driving the vehicle from the in-vehicle control system, the in-vehicle control system alerts the driver to indicate that the driver should take over driving the vehicle;
wherein the driver status of the driver is determined by said driver status information acquisition system as being indicative of the driver being able to take over driving the vehicle from the in-vehicle control system based on (i) determination that an attentiveness level of the driver corresponds to the driver being alert to take over driving the vehicle and (ii) determination that a health level of the driver corresponds to the driver being physically able to take over driving the vehicle;
wherein, while the driver is not driving the vehicle and the in-vehicle control system is autonomously driving the vehicle, and responsive to determination that the driver of the vehicle should take over driving the vehicle from the in-vehicle control system, and responsive to the determined driver status of the driver while the driver is not driving the vehicle as determined by said driver status information acquisition system being indicative of the driver not being able to take over driving the vehicle from the in-vehicle control system, the in-vehicle control system continues autonomously driving the vehicle and initiates an emergency action;
wherein the emergency action comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of (i) driving the vehicle to a safe location, (ii) calling an emergency call center and (iii) alerting drivers of other vehicles; and
wherein the in-vehicle control system, while the driver is not driving the vehicle and the in-vehicle control system is autonomously driving the vehicle, and responsive at least in part to the determined driver status of the driver while the driver is not driving the vehicle as determined by said driver status information acquisition system being indicative of a disabled driver, continues autonomously driving the vehicle and will not allow the driver to take over driving of the vehicle from the in-vehicle control system.