Patent Publication Number: US-2020290636-A1

Title: Vehicle driving system

Description:
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE 
     The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-044904 filed on Mar. 12, 2019 including the specification, drawing and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     BACKGROUND 
     1. Technical Field 
     The disclosure relates to a vehicle driving system. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Conventionally, there is disclosed an art of making a changeover between automatic driving and manual driving in accordance with an abnormal situation of a vehicle that is equipped with an automatic driving circuit and a manual driving circuit (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2017-159840 (JP 2017-159840 A)). 
     When a case of automatic driving of a vehicle is assumed, a preliminary system (a secondary automatic driving system) for enabling operational input by a driver is required, in addition to an automatic driving system (a primary automatic driving system) that substitutes for the driver, in the event of a malfunction of the system or the like. In short, from a failsafe point of view, the automatically driven vehicle needs to be equipped with two different systems, namely, primary and secondary control systems in charge of vehicle running control. 
     Besides, this automatically driven vehicle also necessitates an operation system control device for automatically actuating pieces of equipment (pieces of in-vehicle operational equipment) subjected to manual input operation by the driver, for example, a wiper, turn lamps, and a horn. 
     SUMMARY 
     However, in the automatically driven vehicle equipped with the two different systems, namely, the primary and secondary automatic driving systems as described above, when an attempt is made to directly connect each of the plurality of the pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment to the systems, individual wire harnesses are required, and the number of wirings increases correspondingly. Besides, the wirings tend to become complicated. 
     Thus, the disclosure aims at providing a vehicle driving system that can restrain wirings from becoming excessive in number and complicated even in the case where a large number of pieces of in-vehicle equipment are connected to two different automatic driving systems. 
     A vehicle driving system according to one aspect of the disclosure is equipped with an automatic driving control unit that outputs a signal for automatically actuating a plurality of pieces of in-vehicle operational equipment that can be operated by a driver, a manual driving control unit that outputs a signal to the pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment based on an operational input by the driver, and an interface control unit that is connected to the automatic driving control unit, the manual driving control unit and the pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment, that receives at least one of the signal output from the automatic driving control unit or the signal output from the manual driving control unit, and that outputs the received signal to the pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment. 
     In this vehicle driving system, the pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment are connected to each of the automatic driving control unit and the manual driving control unit, which constitute the two different systems, namely, the primary and secondary automatic driving systems, through the interface control unit. According to this configuration, the individual wirings as in the case where the respective pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment are directly connected to each of the units are not required. Accordingly, the wirings can be simplified, and the number thereof can be reduced. 
     The interface control unit in the vehicle driving system of the aspect as described above may have a control device that determines which one of the signal output from the automatic driving control unit and the signal output from the manual driving control unit should be given priority, when receiving both the signals. 
     Besides, a vehicle driving system according to another aspect of the disclosure is a vehicle driving system that determines, by an interface control unit, which one of a signal from an automatic driving control unit that outputs a signal for automatically actuating a plurality of pieces of in-vehicle operational equipment that can be operated by a driver, and a signal from a manual driving control unit that outputs a signal to the pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment based on an operational input by the driver should be given priority, when receiving both the signals. 
     According to the disclosure, the wirings can be restrained from becoming excessive in number and complicated even in the case where a large number of pieces of in-vehicle equipment are connected to the two different automatic driving systems. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
       Features, advantages, and technical and industrial significance of exemplary embodiments of the disclosure will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which like numerals denote like elements, and wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a view schematically showing a configuration example of a vehicle driving system. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
     A preferred embodiment of a vehicle driving system according to the disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawing (see  FIG. 1 ). 
     A vehicle driving system  10  is a system for realizing automatic driving of a vehicle  1 , and is configured to be equipped with a plurality of automatic driving systems. 
     The vehicle driving system  10  according to the present embodiment is configured as a system that is equipped with a primary automatic driving system (an automatic driving control unit)  20  for automatically actuating various pieces of in-vehicle operational equipment  50 , a secondary automatic driving system (a manual driving control unit)  30 , and also an interface control unit  40  or the like (see  FIG. 1 ). Besides, in addition to the foregoing, the vehicle driving system  10  according to the present embodiment further includes an antenna  11 , a communication module  12 , an object/own position detection device  13 , a repeater  14 , an object detection device  15 , and a manual vehicle operation device  16 . 
     The primary automatic driving system  20  is a system including a control device for automatically actuating the pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment  50  instead of a driver. Although not shown in particular in the drawing, the control device has a control unit and a storage unit. The control unit may include a computer for the automatic driving systems. The storage unit is constituted of storage devices such as a hard disk drive, a non-volatile memory and a register, and stores determination information. The determination information is information including contents associated with driving control corresponding to detection information from an outside such as the object detection device  15  or the like. 
     The secondary automatic driving system  30  is a system that can function instead of the primary automatic driving system  20  in accordance with a situation. The secondary automatic driving system  30  may be configured as a system similar to the primary automatic driving system  20 . A control unit of a control device of the secondary automatic driving system  30  may include a subsidiary computer for a manual driving system. 
     The antenna  11  communicates with an external device, and receives a signal including information required for automatic driving. The communication module  12  is configured as, for example, an in-vehicle wireless communication device or the like, receives a signal from the antenna  11 , and transmits information to the primary automatic driving system  20  and/or the secondary automatic driving system  30  via the repeater  14 . 
     The object/own position detection device  13  detects positions of an external object and an own vehicle from information obtained through the use of, for example, an in-vehicle radar or an in-vehicle camera (including a 3D camera). The positional information detected by this object/own position detection device  13  is transmitted to the primary automatic driving system  20  and/or the secondary automatic driving system  30  via the repeater  14 . 
     The object detection device  15  is a device that detects an object around the vehicle at the time of automatic driving, and is constituted of, for example, a front camera that images an area in front of the vehicle, and a rear camera that images an area behind the vehicle. Information detected by the object detection device  15  is transmitted to the primary automatic driving system  20  (see  FIG. 1 ). 
     The manual vehicle operation device  16  is a device that transmits a signal corresponding to the driver&#39;s operation to the primary automatic driving system  20  and/or the secondary automatic driving system  30 , and is constituted of, for example, various input devices such as an operation lever, an operation switch, an operation handle and the like. 
     The interface control unit  40  is a unit that is configured as an interface device (i.e., an IFBOX), and is connected to each of the primary automatic driving system  20  and the secondary automatic driving system  30  via a bus (CAN-Bus)  18 . Besides, the various pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment  50  are connected to the interface control unit  40  (see  FIG. 1 ). The interface control unit  40  includes a control device  42 . The control device  42  has a so-called setting function for determining which one of a signal transmitted from the primary automatic driving system  20  and a signal transmitted from the secondary automatic driving system  30  should be given priority and selecting one of the signals, based on which one of the primary automatic driving system  20  and the secondary automatic driving system  30  is mainly in operation, when the interface control unit  40  receives both the signals. 
     The pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment  50  are various pieces of in-vehicle equipment (operational systems) that are conventionally operated by the driver or that can be operated by the driver. The pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment  50  in the vehicle according to the present embodiment include an input device  50   a  to which a signal is input, a piece of lighting equipment  50   b,  a window control device  50   c,  a mirror control device  50   d,  a door control device  50   e,  a slope control device  50   f,  a shift  50   g,  a parking brake  50   h,  a display device  50   i,  a defogger  50   j,  a wiper  50   k,  an air-conditioner  50   l,  a horn  50   m,  a hazard lamp  50   n,  a turn lamp (right)  50   o,  and a turn lamp (left)  50   p  (see  FIG. 1 ). Each of these pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment  50  ( 50   a  to  50   p ) is connected to the interface control unit  40 . Incidentally, it goes without saying that these various pieces of equipment are nothing more than concrete examples, and that the pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment  50  can include pieces of equipment other than those mentioned herein. 
     In the vehicle driving system  10  as described above, it is assumed that the driver operates the input device  50   a  (e.g., a switch for the turn lamps) and inputs a signal for a predetermined direction indicating operation. The signal is received by the primary automatic driving system  20  and/or the secondary automatic driving system  30  through the interface control unit  40  and the bus  18 . The primary automatic driving system  20  and/or the secondary automatic driving system  30  that have/has received the signal transmit/transmits a signal for causing the turn lamp (right)  50   o  or the turn lamp (left)  50   p  to perform the predetermined direction indicating operation, based on the received signal. 
     When the interface control unit  40  receives this signal, the control device  42  carries out setting, if necessary, based on which one of the primary automatic driving system  20  and the secondary automatic driving system  30  is mainly in operation, and causes the turn lamp (right)  50   o  or the turn lamp (left)  50   p  to perform the direction indicating operation (see  FIG. 1 ). 
     In the vehicle driving system  10  according to the present embodiment, there is adopted a configuration in which the respective pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment  50  are connected to each of the primary automatic driving system  20  and the secondary automatic driving system  30  through (with the intermediary of) the interface control unit  40 . In this configuration, the wirings are easier to simplify than in the case where the respective pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment  50  are directly connected to each of the systems  20  and  30 . Besides, it is easy to restrain the wirings from becoming excessive in number or complicated even when a large number of pieces of in-vehicle operational equipment  50  are connected to each of the systems  20  and  30 . Besides, it is hence also easy to avoid an increase in cost. 
     Besides, in the case where the respective pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment are directly connected to each of the systems  20  and  30 , and the pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment are endowed with setting functions (the functions of selecting which one of the signals from the primary automatic driving system  20  and the secondary automatic driving system  30 , which constitute the two different systems, namely, the primary and secondary systems of the vehicle driving system  10 , should be given priority when both the signals are simultaneously output therefrom), the number of required setting functions increases as the number of pieces of in-vehicle operational equipment increases, and the functions are scattered. In contrast, however, in the present embodiment, (the control device  42  of) the interface control unit  40  is endowed with the setting function, so it is easy to avoid the scattering thereof 
     Incidentally, the above-mentioned embodiment is a preferred example of implementation of the disclosure, but the disclosure should not be limited thereto. The disclosure can be carried out after being modified in various manners within a range that does not depart from the gist of the disclosure. For example, the vehicle driving system  10  having the single interface control unit  40  has been described in the above-mentioned embodiment, but is nothing more than a preferred example. Although not shown in particular in the drawing, it is also acceptable to adopt a configuration in which, for example, a plurality of (e.g., two) interface control units  40  are arranged in parallel, and half of the plurality of the pieces of the in-vehicle operational equipment  50  are connected to each of the units  40 . 
     The disclosure is preferably applicable to a vehicle driving system for realizing automatic driving of a vehicle.