Patent Description:
A challenge in making an autonomous driving vehicle is that the user should feel safe and have a pleasant ride when the vehicle is driven in the autonomous driving mode. One of the aspects that effect how the driver/user of the vehicle perceives the safety of the ride in the autonomous driving mode is the lateral position of the vehicle on the road. The autonomous driving vehicle continuously calculates and regulates the lateral position of the vehicle to ensure that the lateral position of the vehicle is safe. Unexpected obstacles in the path of the vehicle (e.g. pot holes, obstacles or vulnerable road users (VRUs)) and threats adjacent/close to current path of the vehicle (e.g. curbs, large vehicles, VRUs, risk of wild animals) are difficult for the autonomous driving vehicle to consider when deciding the lateral position of the vehicle. Even more difficult for the autonomous driving functionality is to take into consideration how the driver feels about the current situation when deciding the lateral position of the vehicle. In some situations the user of the autonomous driving vehicle feels like the vehicle is driving too close to the centre of the road or too close to sides.

Thus, there is a need for the autonomous driving vehicle to take into account how the driver of the vehicle feels when driving in the autonomous mode.

<CIT>, <CIT>, <CIT>, <CIT>, and <CIT> disclose autonomous driving vehicles in which the lateral position of the vehicle can be altered based on user input.

It is known in the art that the autonomous driving vehicle controls the autonomous driving of the vehicle based on a number of pre-set, default settings.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method and a device which seek to mitigate, alleviate, or eliminate one or more of the above-identified deficiencies in the art and disadvantages singly or in any combination.

The inventors have identified that there is a need for the user/driver of the autonomous driving vehicle to be able to adjust/correct the lateral position of the vehicle while using the autonomous driving functionality. In addition to this, there is also a need to over time teach/learn the autonomous driving vehicle what lateral position that is desirable for the specific driver/user in different situations.

In this disclosure, a solution to the problem outlined above is proposed. According to the invention, an autonomous driving vehicle comprising at least one processor circuitry arranged to control a lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle during autonomous driving of the autonomous driving vehicle, and at least one user interface arranged to receive an input indicative of an off-set of the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle from a user of the autonomous driving vehicle is provided.

The processor circuitry of the autonomous driving vehicle is arranged to receive, from the at least one user interface, the off-set information regarding the off-set of the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle during driving in the lateral position based on a default lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle and to adjust the lateral position of the vehicle based on the off-set information.

By allowing the user of the autonomous driving vehicle to be able to change/modify the lateral position of the vehicle during autonomous driving, the user will feel safer and secure. The user could feel more secure since if he desires to change the lateral position based on his perception he could do so. For instance could it be due to that the driver might want to be closer to the centre of the road when having a rock wall along the side as compared to when having an open field to the side, even though the margins in the driving lane and the shoulder are the same.

Further, by allowing the vehicle to receive information of the desired lateral position of the vehicle from the user during autonomous driving, the perception of the ride of the user will be enhanced.

According to an aspect the off-set information of the off-set of the lateral position comprise data of a distance from the default lateral position corresponding to the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle that the autonomous driving vehicle should be adjusted to. By obtaining the distance that the user of the vehicle would like to change the position to, the experience of the driving in the autonomous mode is even further enhanced.

According to an aspect the off-set information of the off-set of the lateral position comprise data of a lateral direction from the default lateral position corresponding to the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle that the autonomous driving vehicle should be adjusted to.

According to an aspect the received off-set information of the lateral position is limited to be between a maximum right and a maximum left off-set of the lateral position. By limiting the off-set to the maximum right and left off-set the security of driving the autonomous driving vehicle in the autonomous mode is not affected by the user changing the lateral position of the vehicle.

According to an aspect the at least one processor circuitry is arranged to continuously set the maximum right and the maximum left off-set of the lateral position at least based on data generated by the autonomous driving vehicle. By continuously set the maximum right and left off-set, the lateral position of the vehicle could be adapted to the specific conditions of the road and the flexibility of how the lateral position of the vehicle could be off-set is increased.

According to an aspect the data generated by the autonomous driving vehicle is one or more of a lane width, a shoulder width, a road curvature, curbs, visibility, a potential threat in the path in the driving lane or adjacent to the lane, a geographical position, a speed limit of the road, hidden curves, crests hiding oncoming traffic, existence of oncoming traffic and road conditions.

According to an aspect the data generated by the autonomous driving vehicle is generated by one or more of a sensor, a radar, a laser light, a positioning system such as a GPS, a odometer and a computer vision system.

According to an aspect the at least one user interface is one or more of a steering wheel of the vehicle, a touch screen, a gesture sensor, a voice sensor, a motion sensor, buttons on the steering wheel and buttons.

According to an aspect the user interface is configured to receive the input indicative of the off-set of the lateral position in a number of discrete steps.

According to an aspect the user interface is configured to receive the input indicative of the off-set of the lateral position as continuous steps.

According to an aspect the processor circuitry is arranged to replace the default lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle in a memory to be the adjusted lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle. By replacing/updating the default lateral position the user experience for the user of the autonomous driving vehicle is enhanced since he does not need to change/correct the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle every time and the autonomous driving vehicle will learn the lateral position of the user that he feels most safe with.

According to an aspect the processor circuitry is arranged to store the input indicative of the off-set of the lateral position received from a specific user of the autonomous driving vehicle in the memory as the default lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle for the specific user of the autonomous driving vehicle. By storing the desired lateral position for a specific user, different users driving the same vehicle does not need to start from another user's preferences.

According to an aspect the at least one processor circuitry is arranged to store a plurality of off-set information, which are associated to different driving scenarios determined at least based on data generated by the autonomous driving vehicle.

According to an aspect the processor circuitry is arranged to store the input indicative of the off-set of the lateral position received from a user of the autonomous driving vehicle for one or more of a specific geographical position of the autonomous driving vehicle, a type of road, the width of the road, number of lanes, roundabouts, visibility, time, weather, a presence of a roadside, driving in ques in the memory as the default lateral position of the vehicle for the specific geographical position of the vehicle. By adding and storing more information to the input indicative of the off-set of the lateral position, different lateral positions could be used for different conditions without the user needs to change the lateral position.

According to the invention, the user interface is arranged to communicate a geographical position of the autonomous driving vehicle to a cloud service and receive, from the cloud service, input indicative of a geographical off-set of the lateral position, wherein the input indicative of the geographical off-set of the lateral position is based on a number of drivers desired lateral positions for the given geographical position and the processor circuitry is arranged to adjust the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle during autonomous driving based on a combination of the default lateral position, the off-set of the lateral position and the geographical off-set of the lateral position. By sharing information and receiving information for the off-set of a specific geographical position the possibility that the user feels safe and secure with the lateral position set by the autonomous driving vehicle itself increases and the need of input from the user is lowered.

In another aspect of the invention, a method for controlling a lateral position of an autonomous driving vehicle is provided. The autonomous driving vehicle comprises at least one processor circuitry and a user interface. The method comprising the steps of: controlling, by the processing circuitry, the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle, receiving, via the user interface, during autonomous driving of the autonomous driving vehicle an input indicative of an off-set of the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle from a user of the autonomous driving vehicle, and adjusting, by the processing circuitry, the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle based on the input indicative of the off-set from the default lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle. The method further comprises the steps of communicating via the the user interface a geographical position or a driving scenario of the autonomous driving vehicle to a cloud service and receiving via the user interface, from the cloud service, information indicative of an off-set of the lateral position, wherein the off-set information is based on a plurality of drivers desired lateral positions for the given geographical position or the driving scenario. The method furthermore comprises the step of adjusting, by the processor circuitry, the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle during autonomous driving based on a combination of the default lateral position, the off-set of the lateral position and the off-set information received from the cloud service.

According to an aspect the method further comprising: replacing, in a memory, the default lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle with the lateral position corresponding to the input indicative of the off-set of the default lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle.

All references to "a/an/the [element, device, component, means, etc.]" are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of said element, device, component, means, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. Further, by the term "comprising" it is meant "comprising but not limited to" throughout the application.

The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the example embodiments and aspects.

The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments and aspects of the invention are shown. The invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments and aspects set forth herein; rather, these embodiments and aspects are provided for thoroughness and completeness. Like reference characters refer to like elements throughout the description. The drawings are not necessarily to scale and certain features may be exaggerated in order to better illustrate and explain the exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

In some implementations and according to some aspects of the disclosure, the functions or steps in the method can occur out of the order noted in the operational illustrations. For example, two steps shown in succession can in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the steps can sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.

Although the invention will be described in relation to a car, the invention is not restricted to this particular vehicle, but may as well be installed in other type of vehicles such as minivans, recreational vehicles, off-road vehicles, trucks, buses or the like.

In <FIG>, to which now is referred to, disclose schematic view of an autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> in the form of a passenger car. The autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> comprises at least one processor circuitry <NUM> and a user interface <NUM>. According to an aspect the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> further comprise a memory <NUM>, a sensor <NUM>, a radar <NUM>, a laser light, a positioning system such as a GPS <NUM>, an odometer (not disclosed) and a computer vision system (not disclosed).

The at least one processor circuitry <NUM> is connected to the user interface <NUM>. According to an aspect the at least one processor circuitry <NUM> is connected to the memory <NUM>. According to an aspect the at least one processor circuitry <NUM> is connected to the sensor <NUM>, the radar <NUM>, the laser light, the GPS <NUM>, the odometer and/or the computer vision system. The processing circuitry <NUM> can be a Central Processing Unit, CPU, or any processing unit carrying out instructions of a computer program or operating system.

The autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> is configured to sense its environment and navigating without input from the user. According to an aspect the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> is connected to a cloud service <NUM>. The autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> as such will not be described in detail here.

According to an aspect the at least one user interface <NUM> is one or more of a steering wheel of the vehicle, a touch screen, a gesture sensor, a voice sensor, a motion sensor, buttons on the steering wheel and buttons.

<FIG> and <FIG>, to which now is referred to, discloses a road <NUM> and three autonomous driving vehicles <NUM> that is driving on the road <NUM>.

The road <NUM> comprises a driving lane <NUM> going in one direction and a driving lane <NUM> going in the opposite direction. The driving lanes <NUM> are defined by a centre line <NUM> in the middle of the road <NUM> and a road side line <NUM> on the edge of the road <NUM>. The road side line <NUM> further defines a roadside/shoulder <NUM>.

A first and a second obstacle <NUM>, here in the form of trees <NUM>, are present close to the road <NUM>.

The at least one processor circuitry <NUM> is arranged to control the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> on the road <NUM> during autonomous driving of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> on the road <NUM>.

A default lateral position <NUM> of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> is represented by the line <NUM>. The default lateral position <NUM> is the lateral position on the driving lane <NUM> that the processor circuitry <NUM> will drive the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> along until it receives input from the user of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM>.

The at least one user interface <NUM> arranged to receive an input indicative of an off-set <NUM> of the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> from a user of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM>. The off-set <NUM> is the change in lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> in view of the default lateral position <NUM>.

According to an aspect the user interface <NUM> is configured to receive the input indicative of the off-set <NUM> of the lateral position in a number of discrete steps. According to an aspect the user interface <NUM> is configured to receive the input indicative of the off-set <NUM> of the lateral position as continuous steps.

According to an aspect the off-set information of the off-set <NUM> of the lateral position comprise data of a distance <NUM>, 11R from the default lateral position <NUM>. The data of the distance <NUM>, 11R corresponds to the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> that the autonomous driving vehicle should be adjusted to. According to an aspect the off-set information of the off-set <NUM> of the lateral position comprise data of a lateral direction 11R, <NUM> from the default lateral position <NUM>. The data of the lateral direction corresponding to the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> that the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> should be adjusted to.

The processor circuitry <NUM> is arranged to receive the off-set information regarding the off-set <NUM> of the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> from the at least one user interface <NUM>. The processing circuitry <NUM> is arranged to receive the off-set information during driving in the autonomous driving mode. The processing circuitry <NUM> is arranged to adjust the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> based on the off-set information. The lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> is thus changed to the off-set lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle, as disclosed in <FIG> by the upper autonomous driving vehicles <NUM> in relation to its position disclosed in <FIG>.

The processor circuity <NUM> is according to an aspect arranged to set a maximum right 12R and a maximum left <NUM> off-set <NUM> of the lateral position.

The maximum right 12R and the maximum left <NUM> off-set <NUM> of the lateral position are the end positions <NUM> between which the lateral position should be altered between. According to an aspect the received off-set information of the lateral position is limited to be between the maximum right 12R and the maximum left <NUM> off-set <NUM> of the lateral position. The distance that the user could change the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> between is thus limited by the maximum right 12R and the maximum left <NUM> off-set <NUM> of the lateral position.

According to an aspect the at least one processor circuitry <NUM> is arranged to continuously set the maximum right 12R and the maximum left <NUM> off-set <NUM> of the lateral position at least based on data generated by the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM>.

According to an aspect the received off-set <NUM> should be smaller than the maximum right 12R and the maximum left <NUM> off-set <NUM>.

The data generated by the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> is according to an aspect generated by the sensor <NUM>, the radar <NUM>, the laser light, the positioning system such as a GPS <NUM>, the odometer and/or the computer vision system.

According to an aspect the data generated by the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> is one or more of the driving lane width <NUM>, a road side <NUM>, a road curvature, curbs, visibility, a potential threat in the path in the lane or adjacent to the lane <NUM>, a geographical position, a speed limit of the road, hidden curves, crests hiding oncoming traffic, existence of oncoming traffic and road conditions.

According to an aspect the processor circuitry <NUM> is arranged to store the input indicative of the off-set <NUM> of the lateral position received from a specific user of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> in the memory <NUM> as the default lateral position <NUM> of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> for the specific user of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM>.

According to an aspect the processor circuitry <NUM> is arranged to store the input indicative of the off-set <NUM> of the lateral position received from a user of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> for one or more of a specific geographical position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM>, a type of road, the width of the road, number of lanes, roundabouts, visibility, time, weather, a presence of a roadside, driving in ques in the memory as the default lateral position of the vehicle for the specific geographical position of the vehicle.

According to the invention the user interface <NUM> is arranged to communicate a geographical position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> to the cloud service <NUM> and receive, from the cloud service <NUM>, input indicative of a geographical off-set of the lateral position, wherein the input indicative of the geographical off-set of the lateral position is based on a number of drivers desired lateral positions for the given geographical position and the processor circuitry <NUM> is arranged to adjust the lateral position <NUM> of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> during autonomous driving based on a combination of the default lateral position <NUM>, the off-set <NUM> of the lateral position and the geographical off-set of the lateral position.

According to an aspect at least one processor circuitry <NUM> is arranged to control the autonomous driving of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> at least based on data generated by the vehicle <NUM> and on a number of default parameters stored in the memory <NUM>. According to an aspect the number of default parameters at least comprises a lateral parameter of a default lateral position of the vehicle <NUM>.

According to an aspect the processor circuitry <NUM> is arranged to replace the default lateral position <NUM> of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> in the memory <NUM> to be the adjusted lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM>.

Hereafter a method of controlling the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> will be described in more detail with reference to <FIG>. A user of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> drives the vehicle <NUM> along a driving lane <NUM>. The user thereafter initiates the autonomous driving mode of the vehicle <NUM> and the vehicle <NUM> starts to drive in the autonomous driving mode without a need for any input from the user. The processor circuitry <NUM> will drive the vehicle <NUM> along the default lateral position <NUM>. Put in another way, the processing circuitry <NUM> are controlling S1 the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> on the road <NUM>.

If the user is of the opinion that the default lateral position <NUM> is not a desired lateral position to be driving in, the user can change the lateral position of the vehicle without exiting the autonomous driving mode.

The user interacts with the user interface <NUM> and gives input to the user interface <NUM> indicative of the off-set of the lateral position that the user would like to move the vehicle <NUM> to.

The user interface <NUM> is receiving S2, during autonomous driving of the autonomous driving vehicle, the input indicative of the off-set <NUM> of the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> from the user of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM>. The user interface <NUM> receives the information during the vehicle <NUM> is driving in the autonomous driving mode and without exiting said autonomous driving mode.

The user interface <NUM> sends the input indicative of the off-set <NUM> of the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> to the processing circuitry <NUM>.

The processing circuitry <NUM> receives the input indicative of the off-set <NUM> of the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM>. The processing circuitry <NUM> is adjusting S3 the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> based on the input indicative of the off-set <NUM> from the default lateral position <NUM> of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM>.

The method thus makes it possible for a user to change the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> during autonomous driving and without exiting driving in the autonomous driving mode.

According to an aspect the method could comprise replacing S4, in the memory <NUM>, the default lateral position <NUM> of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> with the lateral position corresponding to the input indicative of the off-set <NUM> of the default lateral position <NUM> of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM>.

According to an aspect the user adjust the lateral position by steering the vehicle to the desired position. Put in another way, the user interface is the steering wheel of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> and the input indicative of the off-set <NUM> of the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> is the movement of the steering wheel. According to an aspect the user input could be a combination of input on different user interfaces <NUM>. According to an aspect the user input is received as a combination of the user steering the wheel and pressing a button.

According to an aspect, if the user would like to adjust the lateral position of the vehicle more than the maximum allowed lateral adjustment, the driver will feel in the steering wheel that the limit has been reached. If the driver, however, continuous to apply a torque on the steering wheel, the autonomous driving mode will ramp out and the user takes over the lateral control. According to an aspect the feedback to the driver could be one or more of a sound, a light, tactile or any combination thereof.

According to an aspect an immediate or upcoming threat will override the lateral position set by the user.

According to an aspect the processing circuitry <NUM> will set the lateral position to the default lateral position <NUM> when entering a new road. According to an aspect the processing circuitry <NUM> will set the lateral position to the default lateral position <NUM> when entering new conditions. According to an aspect the conditions is one or more of a specific geographical position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM>, a type of road, the width of the road, number of lanes, roundabouts, visibility, time, weather, a presence of a roadside, driving in ques in the memory as the default lateral position of the vehicle for the specific geographical position of the vehicle.

According to an aspect the processing circuitry <NUM> comprise machine learning functionality. The processing circuitry <NUM> learns the user's desired lateral position in relation to surrounding conditions and automatically adjusts to it to increase the satisfaction of the user, leading to less manual adjustments. According to an aspect the surrounding conditions is one or more of threats, light conditions, road types, geographical position, road conditions etc..

An example could be that the processing circuitry <NUM> learns that the user prefers to have a lateral position that is off-set to the left <NUM> of the default lateral position <NUM> when overtaking a truck on the left side. Another example could be that the processing circuitry <NUM> learns that the user prefers to position the vehicle <NUM> to the center of the road when driving in darkness on a geographically specific unlit country road.

According to an aspect the adjusted lateral position, including a geographical position can be communicated to the cloud service <NUM> where several user desired lateral positions are collected and weighed together. In turn, the processing circuitry <NUM> receives a predicted suitable geographical lateral position for a given geographical position, which can be used to improve the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle even further.

According to an aspect the processor circuitry <NUM> is arranged to receive, from the cloud service <NUM>, information regarding the off-set <NUM> of the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> during driving in the lateral position based on a default lateral position <NUM> of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> and to adjust the lateral position of the vehicle based on the off-set information. The information could be supplied to the cloud service <NUM> and to the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> from a person or system monitoring the traffic and/or the driving of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> from a remote position.

According to an aspect the processor circuitry <NUM> is arranged to receive, from the cloud service <NUM>, an updated default lateral position <NUM> of the autonomous driving vehicle <NUM> and to replace the default lateral position <NUM> with the updated default lateral position <NUM>.

Although the invention has been described in relation to specific combinations of components, it should be readily appreciated that the components may be combined in other configurations as well which is clear for the skilled person when studying the present application. Thus, the above description of the example embodiments of the present invention and the accompanying drawings are to be regarded as a non-limiting example of the invention and the scope of protection is defined by the appended claims. Any reference sign in the claims should not be construed as limiting the scope.

Claim 1:
An autonomous driving vehicle (<NUM>), comprising
at least one processor circuitry (<NUM>) arranged to control a lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle (<NUM>) during autonomous driving of the autonomous driving vehicle (<NUM>), and
at least one user interface (<NUM>) arranged to receive an input indicative of an off-set (<NUM>) of the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle (<NUM>) from a user of the autonomous driving vehicle (<NUM>),
wherein the processor circuitry (<NUM>) is arranged to receive, from the at least one user interface (<NUM>), information regarding the off-set (<NUM>) of the lateral position of the autonomous driving vehicle (<NUM>) during driving in the lateral position based on a default lateral position (<NUM>) of the autonomous driving vehicle (<NUM>) and to adjust the lateral position of the vehicle based on the off-set information,
characterized in that
the user interface (<NUM>) is arranged to communicate a geographical position or a driving scenario of the autonomous driving vehicle (<NUM>) to a cloud service (<NUM>) and receive, from the cloud service (<NUM>), information indicative of an off-set of the lateral position, wherein the off-set information is based on a plurality of drivers desired lateral positions for the given geographical position or the driving scenario and the processor circuitry (<NUM>) is arranged to adjust the lateral position (<NUM>) of the autonomous driving vehicle (<NUM>) during autonomous driving based on a combination of the default lateral position (<NUM>), the off-set (<NUM>) of the lateral position and the off-set information received from the cloud service (<NUM>).