Shifting control apparatus and method in downhill section

1. A shifting control method for controlling a speed change of a vehicle in a downhill section, comprising:

collecting, by a forward road slope information collection device, information on a downhill slope which is present ahead of the vehicle, before the vehicle enters the downhill section;

determining, by a driving information detection device, whether a predetermined inertial driving condition is satisfied, before the vehicle enters the downhill section; and

deciding, by a controller, a shifting mode of the vehicle depending on the downhill slope when the predetermined inertial driving condition is satisfied, and controlling a transmission according to the decided shifting mode, before the vehicle enters the downhill section.

2. The shifting control method of claim 1 , wherein the shifting mode includes a coasting neutral control mode in which the controller operates the transmission in a neutral mode such that the vehicle is inertia-driven, and a D-stage shift control mode in which the controller operates the transmission in a drive gear mode (D stage) such that the vehicle is inertia-driven while drive resistance is caused by an inertia of an engine.

3. The shifting control method of claim 2 , wherein, when the controller determines that an angle of the downhill slope based on the information on the downhill slope is equal to or greater than a predetermined angle, the controller is configured to control the transmission by setting the shifting mode to the D-stage shift control mode before the vehicle enters the downhill section.

4. The shifting control method of claim 3 , further including detecting a current position of the vehicle,

wherein the shifting mode is switched when the current position of the vehicle is within a second distance from a start point of the downhill section.

5. The shifting control method of claim 2 , wherein, when the controller determines that the angle of the downhill slope based on the information on the downhill slope is less than a predetermined angle, the controller is configured to control the transmission by setting the shifting mode to the coasting neutral control mode before the vehicle enters the downhill section.

6. The shifting control method of claim 1 , further including detecting a current position of the vehicle, wherein the determining of whether the predetermined inertia driving condition is satisfied is performed when the current position of the vehicle is within a first distance from a start point of the downhill section.

7. The shifting control method of claim 6 , wherein the shifting mode is switched when the current position of the vehicle is within a second distance from the start point of the downhill section and wherein the second distance is longer than the first distance.

8. The shifting control method of claim 1 , wherein the determining of whether the predetermined inertia driving condition is satisfied is based on at least one of a pedal force of an accelerator pedal, measured by the controller through an accelerator pedal sensor, and a vehicle speed measured by the controller through a speed sensor of the vehicle.

9. The shifting control method of claim 1 , further including:

determining, by the forward road slope information collection device, whether the downhill slope is changed between the start point and an end point of the downhill slope;

deciding whether to switch the shifting mode at a predetermined time before the vehicle enters a new downhill slope to which the downhill slope is to be changed, depending on the new downhill slope, when the angle of the downhill slope is determined by the controller to be changed less than a predetermined angle; and

controlling the transmission depending on the decided shifting mode.

10. The shifting control method of claim 9 , wherein, when the controller determines that an angle of the new downhill slope is lesser than the predetermined angle, the controller is configured to control the transmission by setting the shifting mode to a coasting neutral control mode before the vehicle enters the downhill section.

11. A shifting control apparatus comprising:

a forward road slope information collection device configured to collect slope information related to a downhill section which a vehicle is to enter, before the vehicle enters a start point of the downhill section;

a driving information detection device configured to detect a current driving state of the vehicle to determine whether inertia driving of the vehicle is possible; and

a controller configured to determine whether an inertia driving condition of the vehicle is satisfied, based on the current driving state detected by the driving information detection device, decide a shifting mode during the inertia driving according to a downhill slope received from the forward road slope information collection device, and control a transmission in the decided shifting mode before the vehicle enters the downhill section.

12. The shifting control apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the forward road slope information collection device includes:

a position information collection device configured to collect information on a current position of the vehicle;

a distance information collection device configured to collect distance information between the vehicle and the start point of the downhill section; and

a slope information storage device configured to store information on a slope of a downhill section adjacent to the current position of the vehicle,

wherein the forward road slope information collection device delivers to the controller information on whether an adjacent downhill section is present within a predetermined distance in a traveling direction of the vehicle and information on a corresponding downhill slope thereof.

13. The shifting control apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the driving information detection device is configured to determine whether the inertia driving is possible, based on at least one piece of measurement information between a vehicle speed and a pedal force of an accelerator pedal.

14. The shifting control apparatus of claim 12 , wherein, when the forward road slope information collection device determines that a position of the vehicle is within a first distance from the start point of the downhill section, the controller is configured to control the driving information detection device to determine whether the inertia driving is possible.

15. The shifting control apparatus of claim 12 , wherein, when the driving information detection device determines that the inertia driving is possible and an angle of the downhill slope based on the information on the downhill slope from the forward road slope information collection device is less than a predetermined angle, the controller operates the transmission in a neutral mode such that the vehicle is inertia-driven, before the vehicle enters the downhill section, and

when the downhill slope based on the information on the downhill slope is equal to or greater than the predetermined angle, the controller operates the transmission in a drive gear mode (D stage) such that the vehicle is inertia-driven while drive resistance is caused by an inertia of an engine.

16. The shifting control apparatus of claim 15 , wherein, when the forward road slope information collection device determines that a position of the vehicle is within a second distance from the start point of the downhill section, the controller starts the transmission control based on the decided shifting mode.

17. The shifting control apparatus of claim 14 , wherein, when the forward road slope information collection device determines that a position of the vehicle is within a second distance from the start point of the downhill section, the controller starts the transmission control based on the decided shifting mode and wherein the second distance is longer than the first distance.