Patent ID: 9691279
Date: 2017-06-27
CPC Classifications: G08G

Claim:
1. A method of assisting a driver, the method comprising: acquiring intersection information containing signal indication information on a traffic signal installed at at least one intersection located ahead of a vehicle in a travelling direction of the vehicle and distance information from the vehicle to the at least one intersection through an infrastructure communication apparatus outside of the vehicle; detecting a running speed of the vehicle; calculating, as a recommended speed, a speed of the vehicle at which the vehicle can pass through the at least one intersection during a period in which the traffic signal installed at the at least one intersection is green; notifying a driver of the vehicle of the recommended speed; measuring an actual running distance of the vehicle from a time at which the intersection information is acquired, based on the running speed; calculating a predicted running distance of the vehicle from the time at which the intersection information is acquired in a case where the vehicle runs at the recommended speed, based on the intersection information and the recommended speed; and determining that a road on which the vehicle is running has a traffic jam when a first running distance difference obtained by subtracting the actual running distance from the predicted running distance exceeds a first threshold value which defines an upper limit of the first running distance difference, wherein: the recommended speed is calculated as the speed of the vehicle at which the vehicle can pass through at least a first intersection to pass through of the at least one intersection during the period in which the traffic signal installed at the first intersection is green, based on the intersection information, the running speed, and the actual running distance; and the notification of the recommended speed is terminated when the traffic-jam detecting section detects occurrence of the traffic jam.