Method for checking whether a switch of a driving mode can be safely carried out
A method for operating a vehicle, wherein a check is carried out to determine whether a switch of the driving mode can be safely carried out and a corresponding output is provided, wherein an estimation is made as to whether the road class traversed by the vehicle corresponds to a target road class, including the steps of: ascertaining the position of the vehicle using a satellite navigation system, comparing the ascertained position with a road map, wherein the road map includes an allocation of roads according to road classes, and determining whether a road of the target road class is located in a specified area around the ascertained position on the road map.
1 . A method for operating a vehicle, wherein a check is carried out to determine whether a switch of a driving mode can be safely carried out and a corresponding output is provided, wherein an estimation is made as to whether the road class traversed by the vehicle corresponds to a target road class, comprising a control device adapted to perform:
ascertaining the position of the vehicle using a satellite navigation system;
comparing the ascertained position of the vehicle with a road map, wherein the road map comprises an allocation of roads according to road classes;
determining whether a road of the target road class is located within a predetermined radius of the ascertained position of the vehicle on the road map, wherein the target road class comprises one of a highway, a highway having congestion or stop-go traffic, a highway having danger spots or construction sites, a country road, a country road having a risk of wild animals crossing, an urban road, or an urban roads having potholes;
weighting, with weighting factors, indications regarding the road class traversed by the vehicle to refute or confirm by the indications that the road class traversed by the vehicle corresponds to the target road class, wherein the indications refuting that the road class traversed by the vehicle corresponds to the target road class comprise an infrastructure, a road structure, a road marking, or a road sign;
distinguishing the indications according to whether the indications refute or confirm that the road class traversed by the vehicle corresponds to the target road class, wherein in the event of one or more indications refuting that the road class traversed by the vehicle corresponds to the target road class, an output is provided that a switch of the driving mode cannot be safely carried out;
switching the driving mode of the vehicle to a driving mode having a different degree of automation from that of the current driving mode based on a result of the determining whether the road of the target road class is located within the predetermined radius of the ascertained position of the vehicle on the road map and based on the weighting, with the weighting factors, of the indications regarding the road class traversed by the vehicle, wherein it is ascertained based on an entirety of the weighted indications and based on a total of the weighting factors, whether the switch of the driving mode can be safely carried out, and wherein the driving mode having the different degree of automation comprises a driver-controlled driving mode, a partially driver-controlled driving mode, or a fully autonomous driving mode;
wherein in the event that a road of the target road class is located in the specified area around the ascertained position on the road map, a check is carried out on the basis of the vehicle environment to determine whether an indication or a group of multiple indications regarding the road class traversed by the vehicle exist(s), wherein the check is performed by one or more sensors of the vehicle; and
wherein the existence of the indication is not evaluated positively for one or more indications until the indication has been recognized multiple times by the one or more sensors of the vehicle.
2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein, in addition to the position of the vehicle, a direction of movement of the vehicle is ascertained using the satellite navigation system and is compared with the road map.
3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein a corresponding output, in the form of an electrical signal, is provided dependent on a determination of whether a switch of the driving mode can be safely carried out or not.
4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors of the vehicle comprises at least one of a sensor for recognizing objects, a camera sensor, a lidar sensor, a radar sensor, or an ultrasonic sensor.
5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the indication or the group of indications comprise(s) one or more of the following:
recognition of the structural separation between lanes or roads,
recognition of the form, size, color and/or the distances of the lane marking,
recognition of the form, size, color and/or the distance of the lane edges, the guardrail and/or the reflector posts,
recognition of the signage, the color, form, size of the traffic sign and/or of the semantic content of the inscription,
recognition of the direction of travel of the traffic in the environment of the vehicle,
information obtained from vehicle-to-vehicle communication,
reference marks of the road and/or of the road environment,
recognition of signage regarding autonomous driving,
recognition of infrastructure, toll gantries, toll stations, border checkpoints,
recognition of a speed limit on a traffic sign,
history of the distance traveled, wherein the distance traveled is extracted from an electronic memory.
6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the time at which an indication exists is in each case saved, wherein, depending on the type of indication, a specific validity period is assigned to the indication.
7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein as a consequence of the output that a switch of the driving mode can be safely carried out, the vehicle switches to a driving mode having an increased degree of automation of the vehicle control, to a fully automated driving mode, or the vehicle, if it is already in the driving mode having an increased degree of automation of the vehicle control, retains the latter.
8 . A vehicle, the vehicle control of which has multiple driving modes having different degrees of automation, between which it is possible to switch, comprising the control device according to claim 1 .
9 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the indications is weighed, with a respective weighting factor of the weighting factors, according to how meaningful each of the indications is regarding the road class traversed by the vehicle and/or how reliably it can be refuted or confirmed by the respective indication that the road class traversed by the vehicle corresponds to the target road class.