Patent ID: 7074156

Claim:
A drive train for a motor vehicle, said train comprising: a first drive source, a second drive source, a hydrodynamic torque converter, an automatic gearbox, respective control facilities associated with the first and second drive sources, converter and gearbox, and a higher-level drive train control unit, said unit comprising a driver and situation detection facility, wherein the driver and situation detection facility is operable, in the event of detection of downhill travel or in the event of recognizing deceleration, to cause the drive train not to be opened and a converter bridging clutch to be closed such that a battery is charged by the second drive source, wherein the driver and situation detection facility is further operable to automatically classify a driver as one of a plurality of types of drivers based on inputs received from the driver, and wherein the higher-level drive train control unit is operable, in a state in which the first drive source provides a torque to the automatic gearbox, to determine whether to close the converter bridging clutch to activate the second drive source to increase the amount of torque provided by the first drive source, based at least on the type of the driver classified by the driver and situation detection facility.