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EP-4414217-B1 - VEHICULAR LAMP, CONTROL DEVICE AND CONTROL METHOD FOR VEHICULAR LAMP

EP4414217B1EP 4414217 B1EP4414217 B1EP 4414217B1EP-4414217-B1

Inventors

  • NAKAZAWA YUICHI
  • WATANO YUICHI
  • MARUYAMA YUTA
  • TOTSUKA TAKAHIRO
  • OHTSUKA YASUSHI

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20221003

Claims (6)

  1. A vehicular lamp apparatus (100), comprising: a lamp unit (110R, 110L); a controller (200) structured to control the lamp unit based on vehicle information received from a vehicle controller (300); and an acceleration sensor (202) structured to provide information indicating vehicle acceleration to the controller (200), characterized in that the controller (200) is structured to detect whether or not reception of the vehicle information is interrupted and is structured to control the lamp unit based on the vehicle acceleration when interruption in the reception of the vehicle information is detected, and in that the controller (200) is structured to detect whether the reception of the vehicle information is restored while controlling the lamp unit based on the vehicle acceleration, and structured to return control of the lamp unit to being based on the vehicle information when the reception of the vehicle information is restored.
  2. The vehicular lamp apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein the acceleration sensor (202) is built into the controller (200) .
  3. The vehicular lamp apparatus according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the lamp unit (110R, 110L) comprises a plurality of marker lamps (120a-120d) for providing lamp functions different from each other, and wherein the controller (200) is structured to select a marker lamp from among the plurality of marker lamps (120a-120d) based on the vehicle acceleration and is structured to control the marker lamp thus selected.
  4. The vehicular lamp apparatus according to any one of Claims 1 through 3, wherein the lamp unit (110R, 110L) comprises a tail lamp (120a), and wherein the controller (200) is structured to turn on the tail lamp when the interruption in the reception of the vehicle information is detected.
  5. A control device for use in a vehicular lamp apparatus (100) according to any one of the Claim 1 through 4.
  6. A control method for a vehicular lamp apparatus (100), the control method comprising: detecting whether or not reception of vehicle information for use in control of a lamp unit (110R, 110L) is interrupted; acquiring information indicating vehicle acceleration from an acceleration sensor (202); controlling the lamp unit based on the vehicle acceleration when interruption in the reception of the vehicle information is detected; detecting whether the reception of the vehicle information is restored while controlling the lamp unit based on the vehicle acceleration; and returning control of the lamp unit to being based on the vehicle information when the reception of the vehicle information is restored.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp apparatus, a control device and a control method for a vehicular lamp apparatus. BACKGROUND ART It has been conventionally known that a lamp Electronic Control Unit (ECU) for controlling rear combination lamps is connected to a vehicle ECU for controlling the entire vehicle and controls the lamps based on information input from the vehicle ECU. To the vehicle ECU, various sensors such as a vehicle speed sensor are connected, and information detected by the sensors, such as vehicle speed, is input from the vehicle ECU to the lamp ECU (see Patent Literature 1, for example) . Patent Literature 1 describes a vehicle panel module that includes rear combination lamps and an image display device adjacent thereto. Each of the rear combination lamps includes three light sources, constituted by full-color LEDs, that function as a tail/stop lamp, a backup lamp, and a turn signal lamp, respectively. In this device, although each lamp is lit as it should be while the vehicle is traveling, it is different while the vehicle is parked; each lamp can be lit decoratively in various colors, brightness, and timing, and various images can be displayed on the image display device. RELATED-ART LITERATURE PATENT LITERATURE The following literature has been identified and is captured in the preamble of Claim 1: Patent Literature 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2016-40159;Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent with patent No. JP 5949308 B2;Patent Literature 3: British Patent Application with Publication No. GB 2570133A;Patent Literature 4: German Patent Application with Publication No. DE10 2004 024514A1. SUMMARY OF INVENTION TECHNICAL PROBLEM In general, the vehicle ECU and the lamp ECU are connected by communication lines such as wire harnesses, and information is transmitted between the ECUs via the communication lines. If the communication between the vehicle ECU and the lamp ECU is interrupted due to communication line disconnection or some other communication error, the lamp ECU cannot acquire information from the vehicle ECU. Accordingly, vehicular lamps, such as rear combination lamps, controlled by the lamp ECU will not operate because information necessary to perform the control cannot be acquired. An illustrative purpose of one embodiment of the present invention is to provide a vehicular lamp apparatus with a fail-safe function. In some cases, a vehicular lamp apparatus that includes multiple marker lamps can be realized by defining regions that operate as marker lamps including tail lamps and turn signal lamps, on an array of a number of light emitting elements, such as a display. When these regions on the display are operated as marker lamps, they must satisfy the requirements stipulated by law. Therefore, the region setting is typically performed by the manufacturer of the vehicular lamp apparatus at the manufacturing stage. If users were also allowed to customize this setting, the users would be able to change the appearance of their vehicular lamps according to their own preferences, which could lead to increased user satisfaction. As a matter of course, a vehicular lamp customized by a user must also satisfy the requirements stipulated by law. However, it is actually not easy for a user who does not know such requirements to customize the setting such as to satisfy the requirements. SOLUTION TO PROBLEM A vehicular lamp apparatus according to the present invention includes: a lamp unit; a controller that controls the lamp unit based on vehicle information received from a vehicle; and an acceleration sensor that provides information indicating vehicle acceleration to the controller. The controller detects whether or not the reception of the vehicle information is interrupted and controls the lamp unit based on the vehicle acceleration when interruption in the reception of the vehicle information is detected. According to the invention, even when the vehicle information used to control a lamp unit cannot be acquired, the lamp unit can be operated based on the vehicle acceleration information provided from the acceleration sensor. Therefore, the vehicular lamp apparatus can be provided with a fail-safe function. The acceleration sensor may be built into the controller. Accordingly, compared to the case where the acceleration sensor is provided outside the controller, the risk of the controller being unable to acquire the vehicle acceleration information due to communication failure between the acceleration sensor and the controller, for example, can be reduced. Therefore, the fail-safe function using the acceleration sensor can be provided more certainly. The lamp unit may include a plurality of marker lamps that provide lamp functions different from each other. Also, the controller may select a marker lamp from among the plurality of marker lamps based on the vehicle acceleration and may control the marker lamp thus selected. Acc