JP-7856086-B2 - Electric vehicles

JP7856086B2JP 7856086 B2JP7856086 B2JP 7856086B2JP-7856086-B2

Inventors

内田貴大
荒川盛司
酒井和人
福原千絵

Assignees

トヨタ自動車株式会社

Dates

Publication Date: 20260511
Application Date: 20231219

Claims (5)

An electric vehicle having an electric motor as its driving source, The system comprises one or more processors configured to generate artificial sounds that change in response to the driving state of the electric vehicle and to output the artificial sounds from a speaker mounted on the electric vehicle. The one or more processors further include: The electric vehicle recognizes the driving conditions of other vehicles traveling around it. An electric vehicle characterized by being configured to perform at least one of the following in response to the driving conditions of the other vehicle: a first process of changing the sound source of the artificial sound and a second process of generating a harmonic sound that harmonizes with the artificial sound, superimposing the harmonic sound on the artificial sound, and outputting it from the speaker.
An electric vehicle according to claim 1, The system further comprises one or more storage devices that store multiple sound sources corresponding to multiple types of vehicle models, The one or more processors are configured to execute the first process when the other vehicles include one or more first target vehicles that fall under any of the multiple types of vehicle models. In the first processing, the one or more processors Obtain one selected target vehicle from the one or more first target vehicles described above, An electric vehicle characterized in that it is configured to change the sound source of the artificial sound to a sound source corresponding to the vehicle type of the selected vehicle from among the plurality of sound sources.
An electric vehicle according to claim 1, The one or more processors are configured to perform the second process when the other vehicle includes one or more second target vehicles that are in a specific positional relationship with the electric vehicle. An electric vehicle characterized in that the aforementioned harmonic sound includes one or more harmonic sounds corresponding to each of the one or more second target vehicles.
An electric vehicle according to claim 3, An electric vehicle characterized in that the one or more second target vehicles are vehicles following the electric vehicle.
An electric vehicle according to any one of claims 1 to 4, The electric vehicle is characterized in that the artificial sound is a simulated engine sound that mimics the engine sound of a conventional engine vehicle.

Description

This disclosure relates to an electric vehicle having an electric motor as its power source. Patent Document 1 discloses a sound control device for use in electric vehicles. The sound control device disclosed in Patent Document 1 controls a simulated engine sound to realistically represent the engine sound generated during gear changes in a gasoline-powered vehicle. Japanese Patent Publication No. 2011-215437 This is a conceptual diagram showing an electric vehicle and vehicle management system according to an embodiment.This is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of the basic functional configuration of a vehicle management system.This is a conceptual diagram illustrating the overview of the sound source change function.This is a conceptual diagram illustrating the overview of the harmonic sound output function.This diagram shows the functional configuration of the vehicle management system related to the sound source change function and the processing flow of the processes executed by the vehicle management system.This diagram shows the functional configuration of the vehicle management system related to the harmonic sound output function and the processing flow of the processes performed by the vehicle management system.This is a block diagram showing an example configuration of a power control system for an electric vehicle. Embodiments of this disclosure will be described with reference to the attached drawings. 1. Electric Vehicle and Vehicle Management System Figure 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an electric vehicle 10 and a vehicle management system 100 according to this embodiment. The electric vehicle 10 has an electric motor 44 as a drive source. Examples of the electric motor 44 include a brushless DC motor and a three-phase AC synchronous motor. The electric vehicle 10 uses the electric motor 44 as a power device for driving. Furthermore, the electric vehicle 10 is equipped with various sensors 11. These sensors 11 detect the driving state of the electric vehicle 10. Examples of these sensors 11 include an accelerator position sensor, a brake position sensor, a steering angle sensor, a steering torque sensor, a wheel speed sensor, an acceleration sensor, a rotational speed sensor, a position sensor, and a recognition sensor. The accelerator position sensor detects the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal. The brake position sensor detects the amount of operation of the brake pedal. The steering angle sensor detects the steering angle of the steering wheel. The steering torque sensor detects the steering torque of the steering wheel. The wheel speed sensor detects the rotational speed of the wheels of the electric vehicle 10. The acceleration sensor detects the lateral and longitudinal acceleration of the electric vehicle 10. The rotational speed sensor detects the rotational speed of the electric motor 44. The position sensor detects the position of the electric vehicle 10. An example of a position sensor is a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) sensor. The recognition sensor is used to recognize (detect) the surrounding conditions of the electric vehicle 10. Examples of recognition sensors include cameras, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), radar, and others. Furthermore, the electric vehicle 10 is equipped with one or more speakers 70. For example, the speaker 70 is an in-vehicle speaker that outputs sound into the cabin of the electric vehicle 10. Alternatively, the speaker 70 may be an external speaker that outputs sound outside the electric vehicle 10. The electric vehicle 10 may have both in-vehicle and external speakers. Furthermore, the electric vehicle 10 is equipped with a human-machine interface (HMI) 12 as an interface with the user. The HMI 12 presents various information to the user through display and sound, and also accepts various inputs from the user. The HMI 12 consists of a display (e.g., multi-information display, meter display), switches, speakerphone, touch panel, etc. The speaker 70 may also be configured as part of the HMI 12. Furthermore, the electric vehicle 10 is equipped with a communication device 13 that communicates with external devices to send and receive information. Examples of the communication device 13 include devices that connect to the internet to send and receive information with various servers, devices that communicate with infrastructure facilities to send and receive infrastructure information, and devices that communicate with surrounding vehicles to send and receive information about other vehicles. The vehicle management system 100 is applied to such an electric vehicle 10 and manages the electric vehicle 10. The entire vehicle management system 100 may be installed in the electric vehicle 10. As another example, at least a part of the vehicle management system 100 may be contained in an external management server outside the electric vehicle 10. In that case, the vehicle management system 100 may manage the electric v