Vehicle for performing minimal risk maneuver and method for operating the same

1 . A vehicle comprising:

at least one sensor;

a controller configured to control operations of the vehicle; and

a processor electrically connected to the at least one sensor and the controller, wherein the processor is configured to:

detect, based on surrounding environment information and vehicle state information collected from the at least one sensor, an event associated with a stop;

identify, based on a sensing result of the at least one sensor and based on the detected event, an area for the vehicle to stop;

determine, based on a length of the identified area not satisfying a threshold length, that an oblique stop corresponds to a stop type; and

based on the determination that the oblique stop corresponds to the stop type, cause the controller to control the vehicle to stop in the identified area by controlling the vehicle to drive, with a lane change and without reversing, until making the oblique stop of the vehicle in the identified area.

2 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein:

the stop type corresponds to a combination of:

one of a full-shoulder stop or a half-shoulder stop; and

one of a parallel stop or the oblique stop.

3 . The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

based on a width of the identified area satisfying a threshold width and the length of the identified area satisfying the threshold length, determine that the full-shoulder stop and the parallel stop correspond to the stop type,

based on the width of the identified area not satisfying the threshold width and the length of the identified area not satisfying the threshold length, determine that the half-shoulder stop and the oblique stop correspond to the stop type,

based on the width of the identified area not satisfying the threshold width and the length of the identified area satisfying the threshold length, determine that the half-shoulder stop and the parallel stop correspond to the stop type, and

based on the width of the identified area satisfying the threshold width and the length of the identified area not satisfying the threshold length, determine that the full-shoulder stop and the oblique stop correspond to the stop type.

4 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

based on a width of the identified area satisfying a threshold width, determine that a full-shoulder stop corresponds to the stop type, and

based on the width of the identified area not satisfying the threshold width, determine that a half-shoulder stop corresponds to the stop type.

5 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

based on the length of the identified area satisfying the threshold length, determine that a parallel stop corresponds to the stop type.

6 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:

identify the area by searching for the area within a specified threshold range.

7 . The vehicle of claim 6 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

prioritize the searching:

with a first priority, for an area corresponding to a full-shoulder stop and a parallel stop; and

with a second priority, for an area corresponding to a half-shoulder stop, the second priority being lower than the first priority.

8 . The vehicle of claim 7 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

predict a size of a portion of a driving lane encroached by the vehicle crossing the driving lane for stopping, and

based on the predicted size not satisfying a threshold size, determine that the stop type corresponds to the half-shoulder stop.

9 . The vehicle of claim 6 , wherein the processor is configured to:

identify the area, based on a prior failed search for a road shoulder area for the vehicle to stop, by searching for the area for the vehicle to make a traffic lane stop.

10 . A method performed by at least one processor of a vehicle, the method comprising:

detecting, based on surrounding environment information and vehicle state information collected from at least one sensor, an event associated with a stop;

identifying, based on a sensing result of the at least one sensor and based on the detected event, an area for the vehicle to stop;

determining, based on a length of the identified area not satisfying a threshold length, that an oblique stop corresponds to a stop type; and

causing, based on the determining that the oblique stop corresponds to the stop type, a controller to control the vehicle to stop in the identified area by causing the controller to control the vehicle to drive, with a lane change and without reversing, until making the oblique stop of the vehicle in the identified area.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the determining the stop type comprises:

determining that the stop type corresponds to a combination of:

one of a full-shoulder stop or a half-shoulder stop; and

one of a parallel stop or the oblique stop.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the determining the stop type comprises:

based on a width of the identified area satisfying a threshold width and the length of the identified area satisfying the threshold length, determining that the full-shoulder stop and the parallel stop correspond to the stop type;

based on the width of the identified area not satisfying the threshold width and the length of the identified area not satisfying the threshold length, determining that the half-shoulder stop and the oblique stop correspond to the stop type;

based on the width of the identified area not satisfying the threshold width and the length of the identified area satisfying the threshold length, determining that the half-shoulder stop and the parallel stop correspond to the stop type; or

based on the width of the identified area satisfying the threshold width and the length of the identified area not satisfying the threshold length, determining that the full-shoulder stop and the oblique stop correspond to the stop type.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the stop type corresponds to one of a plurality of shoulder-stop types different from lane-stop types, and wherein the determining of the stop type is further based on a type of an identified state of at least one vehicle part of the vehicle.

14 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the determining the stop type comprises:

based on a width of the identified area satisfying a threshold width, determining that a full-shoulder stop corresponds to the stop type; or

based on the width of the identified area not satisfying the threshold width, determining that a half-shoulder stop corresponds to the stop type.

15 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the identifying the area comprises searching for the area within a specified threshold range.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the searching for the area comprises prioritizing the searching:

with a first priority, for an area corresponding to a full-shoulder stop and a parallel stop; and

with a second priority, for an area corresponding to a half-shoulder stop, the second priority being lower than the first priority, and

wherein the searching with the second priority comprises:

predicting a size of a portion of a driving lane encroached by the vehicle crossing the driving lane for stopping; and

based on the predicted size not satisfying a threshold size, determining that the stop type corresponds to the half-shoulder stop.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the identifying the area comprises identifying the area, based on a prior failed search for a road shoulder area for the vehicle to stop, by searching for the area for the vehicle to make a traffic lane stop.

18 . The method of claim 10 , wherein making the oblique stop of the vehicle comprises stopping the vehicle obliquely with respect to an outermost lane boundary, without being parallel to the outermost lane boundary, and wherein the length of the identified area corresponds to a length of a line segment, of the identified area, that is parallel to the outermost lane boundary.

19 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

setting a moving path of the vehicle for moving to the identified area, wherein the moving path is set such that an intermediate stop is not performed while moving to the identified area, and

wherein the controlling of the vehicle comprises performing a minimum risk maneuver, with the lane change and without reversing, until making the oblique stop of the vehicle in the identified area.

20 . A method performed by at least one processor of a vehicle, the method comprising:

detecting, based on surrounding environment information and vehicle state information collected from at least one sensor, an event associated with a stop;

identifying, based on a sensing result of the at least one sensor and based on the detected event, an area for the vehicle to stop;

determining, based on a size of the identified area, a stop type, wherein the stop type is determined based on a subset of a full-shoulder stop, a half-shoulder stop, a parallel stop, and an oblique stop, wherein the determining the stop type comprises determining, based on a length of the identified area not satisfying a threshold length, that the oblique stop corresponds to the stop type; and

causing, based on the determined stop type being one of a plurality of shoulder-stop types different from lane-stop types, a controller to control the vehicle to stop in the identified area by causing the controller to control the vehicle to drive, with a lane change and without reversing, until stopping the vehicle in the identified area,

wherein the determined stop type corresponds to a combination of:

one of the full-shoulder stop or the half-shoulder stop; and

one of the parallel stop or the oblique stop.