METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MODIFYING A DRIVE PLAN OF A VEHICLE TOWARDS A DESTINATION
A method and system for modifying a drive plan, especially a drive/rest schedule of such a plan, of a vehicle before and/or during a drive towards a desired destination is provided in which (a) a development of the alertness level of a driver is predicted, (b) points in time are determined and classified as high risk instances, where the predicted development becomes equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold level, (c) the high risk instances are compared with the drive plan or drive/rest schedule and it is determined whether any high risk instance will occur before the destination or a next planned stop or rest is reached and (d 1 ) if a high risk instance is determined to occur before the destination or the next planned stop or rest is reached, a modified drive plan or drive/rest schedule is calculated such that a stop or rest will occur before or at the next high risk instance.
1 . Method for modifying a drive plan, of a vehicle before and/or during a drive towards a desired destination, comprising:
(a) predicting a development of a level of a state of the driver of the vehicle or updating a previous such prediction, by means of at least one of a driver state monitoring device, a known mathematical, a known statistical and a known rule based model of a state of a human being, on the basis of predetermined environment variables and data about a physical condition or impairment of the driver and storing the predicted development in a storage;
(b) determining points in time, where the predicted development of the level of the driver state becomes equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold level and classifying or annotating these points in time as high risk instances;
(c) comparing the high risk instances with the drive plan or drive/rest schedule and determining whether any high risk instance will occur before the destination or a next planned stop or rest is reached;
(d 1 ) if a high risk instance will occur before the destination or the next planned stop or rest is reached, calculating a modified drive plan or drive/rest schedule such that a stop or rest will occur before or at the next high risk instance;
(e) determining whether any high risk instance will occur before the expiration of a preset critical time period which starts from the present time at which the method is conducted, and which is preset with respect to its duration for determining a quick decrease of the level of the driver state, and
(f) if a high risk instance will not occur before the expiration of the critical time period re-classifying or re-annotating the high risk instance as a medium risk instance.
2 . Method according to claim 1 , wherein the driver state is a level of the driver's alertness.
3 . Method according to claim 1 , comprising:
(f 2 ) informing the driver about a medium risk instance if step (f) reveals that the high risk instance will not occur before the expiration of the critical time period; and
(f 3 ) informing the driver about a high risk instance if step (f) reveals that the high risk instance will occur before the expiration of the critical time period.
4 . Method according to claim 1 , comprising:
(g) determining a next appropriate stopover of the drive of the vehicle on the basis of map and route information data, if according to step (e) a high risk instance will occur before the expiration of the critical time period.
5 . Method according to claim 1 , comprising:
(d 2 ) informing the driver about the modified drive plan or drive/rest schedule after the conduction of step (d 1 ) and requesting a confirmation from the driver of the modification; and
(d 3 ) if the driver confirms the modification, storing the modified drive plan or drive/rest schedule in a storage for a next conduction of the method.
6 . Method according to claim 1 , which is conducted before starting the drive.
7 . Method according to claim 1 , which is conducted repeatedly during the drive of the vehicle with a predetermined repetition frequency.
8 . Method according to claim 1 , wherein the conduction and/or the repetition frequency of the conduction of the method is initiated and controlled, respectively, in dependence on an event occurring during the drive which is detected by means of a driver state monitoring device.
9 . Method according to claim 1 , wherein the modified drive plan or drive/rest schedule is determined on the basis of at least one of a preset drive plan, navigation data and environment variables like the actual time of day, the time driven and the distance driven.
10 . Method according to claim 1 , wherein the threshold level is a constant preset level, or it can be input by the driver at the start of the method.
11 . Method according to claim 1 , wherein the critical time period is a constant preset period, or it can be input by the driver at the start of the method.
12 . Computer comprising a computer program code for carrying out the steps of the method according to claim 1 .
13 . Computer program product stored on a tangible computer usable medium, comprising computer program code means adapted to perform the steps of the method according to claim 1 when loaded into the internal memory of a programmable microprocessor means.
14 . System for modifying a drive plan, especially a drive/rest schedule of such a plan, of a vehicle before and/or during a drive towards a desired destination, comprising a microprocessor with a computer program for carrying out the steps of the method according to claim 1 , a second input for receiving a drive plan including a drive/rest schedule to a desired destination, and at least one of a third input for receiving a driver behavior model, a fourth input for receiving a mathematical, statistical and/or a rule-based model of alertness of the driver, and a sixth input for receiving data from one or more driver state monitoring devices.
15 . System according to claim 14 , comprising at least one of a first input for receiving input data from a driver, a fifth input for receiving context variables, and a seventh input for receiving data from one or more vehicle monitoring devices.
16 . System according to claim 14 , comprising at least one of a first output for operating a human machine interface, and a second output for at least one of managing a drive/rest schedule, managing a route planning, proposing safe stopovers, triggering countermeasures and adapting an ADAS (Advanced Driving Assistance System) and/or an IVIS (In-Vehicle Information System).