Method and system for controlling an autonomous vehicle

• Main Authors: Ka Hei Suen, Brendan Cawley
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 18.04.2018
• Subjects: CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE ORDIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; CONTROLLING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; REGULATING; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TOTHE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT; SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL

A method of controlling an autonomous vehicle, the method including: determining one or more operational parameters of the vehicle 110 and the ability of a driver to manually control one or more vehicle systems 120. The proportion of autonomous control of the vehicle is adjusted based on the operational parameters and the ability of the driver 150. Operational parameters may include vehicle speed, rate of change of direction, proximity to vehicles or obstacles, fuel economy and route whilst driver capability may be determined based on their physical or emotional state, the functionality of the vehicle or environmental conditions such as precipitation. A driving mode may be selected which defines a threshold for the operational parameters and may be based on driver safety, vehicle reliability, journey time or fuel economy and autonomous control may be increased when parameters are outside of the threshold. A warning may be issued to the driver that the proportion of manual control should be increased.