US-20260124930-A1 - VEHICLE CONTROL DEVICE, VEHICLE CONTROL METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

Abstract

The vehicle control device includes a forward information acquisition device that acquires forward information regarding a situation ahead of the host vehicle, and a controller that executes a following travel control for matching a distance between the host vehicle and a following target object located ahead of the host vehicle to a target distance based on the forward information. The following travel control includes acceleration control for accelerating the host vehicle, deceleration control for decelerating the host vehicle, and constant speed control for maintaining the speed of the host vehicle at a constant speed. The controller does not perform the acceleration control in the following travel control when the forward information indicates that the pedestrian is present in the predicted traveling region of the host vehicle in front of the host vehicle and the pedestrian is selected as the following target object during the execution of the following travel control.

Inventors

• Yuma ITO

Assignees

• TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA

Dates

Publication Date

20260507

Application Date

20250422

Priority Date

20241002

Claims (5)

1. 1 . A vehicle control device comprising: a forward information acquisition device configured to acquire forward information related to a state ahead of a host vehicle; and a controller configured to execute driving assistance control including acceleration control for accelerating the host vehicle and deceleration control for decelerating the host vehicle, wherein the controller is configured not to execute the acceleration control when the forward information indicates that a pedestrian is located in a region ahead of the host vehicle during execution of the driving assistance control.
2. 2 . The vehicle control device according to claim 1 , wherein: the controller is configured to, as the driving assistance control, select an object located in a predicted traveling region ahead of the host vehicle where the host vehicle is predicted to travel as a following target object, and execute, based on the forward information, following travel control for causing the host vehicle to travel such that the host vehicle maintains a predetermined target distance from the following target object; and the controller is configured not to execute the acceleration control in the following travel control when the following target object is a pedestrian during execution of the following travel control.
3. 3 . The vehicle control device according to claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to, when the forward information indicates a strong possibility that the host vehicle collides with an object located ahead of the host vehicle during the execution of the following travel control, cancel the following travel control and execute collision avoidance control for avoiding a collision between the host vehicle and the pedestrian.
4. 4 . A vehicle control method for executing driving assistance control including acceleration control for accelerating a host vehicle, deceleration control for decelerating the host vehicle, and constant speed control for maintaining a speed of the host vehicle at a constant speed, the vehicle control method comprising: a step of acquiring forward information related to a state ahead of the host vehicle during execution of the driving assistance control; and a step of continuing the driving assistance control while not executing the acceleration control when the forward information indicates that a pedestrian is located ahead of the host vehicle.
5. 5 . A non-transitory storage medium storing a program to be executed by a computer mounted on a host vehicle, the program causing the computer to execute: a step of executing driving assistance control including acceleration control for accelerating the host vehicle, deceleration control for decelerating the host vehicle, and constant speed control for maintaining a speed of the host vehicle at a constant speed; a step of acquiring forward information related to a state ahead of the host vehicle during execution of the driving assistance control; and a step of continuing the driving assistance control while not executing the acceleration control when the forward information indicates that a pedestrian is located ahead of the host vehicle.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2024-172932 filed on Oct. 2, 2024. The disclosure of the above-identified application, including the specification, drawings, and claims, is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. BACKGROUND 1. Technical Field The present disclosure relates to a vehicle control device, a vehicle control method, and a storage medium that execute driving assistance control for assisting a driver in driving a vehicle. 2. Description of Related Art An example of a related-art vehicle control device is a device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-71087 (JP 2008-71087 A). In this related-art device, when a pedestrian is present ahead of a host vehicle, the danger level of the pedestrian is calculated. When the calculated danger level is high, the speed of the host vehicle (host vehicle speed) is limited to a predetermined speed or lower or the host vehicle speed is reduced. SUMMARY However, the related-art device may accelerate the host vehicle when the danger level is low even though the pedestrian is detected. Therefore, when the host vehicle suddenly approaches the pedestrian and the danger level increases as a result, the related-art device may decelerate the host vehicle. That is, the related-art device accelerates or decelerates the host vehicle when the pedestrian is present ahead of the host vehicle. Therefore, the related-art device may give an anxiety or a sense of discomfort to an occupant of the host vehicle. The present disclosure has been made to solve this issue. In some cases, a pedestrian is located ahead of the host vehicle during the execution of the driving assistance control. An object of the present disclosure is to provide a vehicle control device, a vehicle control method, and a storage medium that can reduce a possibility of giving an anxiety or a sense of discomfort to the occupant of the host vehicle while improving safety in such cases. A vehicle control device according to an aspect of the present disclosure includes a forward information acquisition device (20, 30) configured to acquire forward information related to a state ahead of a host vehicle, and a controller (10) configured to execute driving assistance control including acceleration control for accelerating the host vehicle and deceleration control for decelerating the host vehicle (S325, S350). During execution of the driving assistance control, the acceleration control may be executed even when a pedestrian is present ahead of the host vehicle. Therefore, the host vehicle may suddenly approach the pedestrian, and then the deceleration control may be executed. Therefore, the controller is configured not to execute the acceleration control (S330 to S340) when the forward information indicates that a pedestrian is located ahead of the host vehicle during execution of the driving assistance control (S230, S240). According to this aspect, the acceleration control in the driving assistance control is not executed when a pedestrian is present ahead of the host vehicle during the execution of the driving assistance control. Therefore, the host vehicle does not suddenly approach the pedestrian ahead of the host vehicle. Thus, when the pedestrian is present ahead of the host vehicle, there is a lower possibility that the deceleration control is executed immediately after the acceleration control is executed. Accordingly, the vehicle control device of the above aspect can improve safety and reduce the possibility of giving an anxiety or a sense of discomfort to an occupant of the host vehicle. In the vehicle control device according to the aspect of the present disclosure, the controller is configured to, as the driving assistance control, select an object located in a predicted traveling region ahead of the host vehicle where the host vehicle is predicted to travel as a following target object (S220), and execute, based on the forward information, following travel control for causing the host vehicle to travel such that the host vehicle maintains a predetermined target distance from the following target object (S325, S350), andthe controller is configured not to execute the acceleration control in the following travel control (S330, S335, S340) when the following target object is a pedestrian during execution of the following travel control (S230, S240). According to this aspect, when a pedestrian appears ahead of the host vehicle and the pedestrian is the following target object during the execution of the following travel control, the host vehicle is not accelerated for the pedestrian. Therefore, safety for the pedestrian can be improved and the situation in which the deceleration control is executed after the acceleration control does not occur. Thus, it is possible to prevent the case where the occupant of the host vehicle is given an anxiety or a sense of discomfort. In the vehicle control de