A Driver Assisting System for Eco-Vehicles with Motor Drive Systems Which Avoids Collision with Running Vehicles by Using Inter-Vehicle Communications

A driver assisting system for eco-vehicles with motor drive systems like electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid cars and fuel cell cars is described here which avoids traffic accidents by mutually communicating with the vehicle which was judged as being most at risk for a collision. This system is characterized by mutually watching important drive information such as driving and braking torques, motor currents vehicle speeds, and vehicle position information acquired using GPS, CCD cameras and millimeter wave radar through inter-vehicle communications. Here, especially, methods to judge the vehicle which has the highest risk for a collision with its own vehicles currently operated, that is, the driver´s vehicle using GPS and to perform automatic braking control to avoid the collision are described. Effectives of these methods are verified through simulations and experiments using inter-vehicle communications between a prototype EV and bench test equipment.