US 12,467,759 B2
Vehicle with switchable forward and backward configurations, control method, and control program
Taizo Masuda, Yokohama (JP); Kiyoto Sasaki, Susono (JP); Daisuke Kakuma, Toyota (JP); Hiroyoshi Masui, Susono (JP); Akihiro Yamaguchi, Toyota (JP); Sokfan Yee, Toyota (JP); and Yuki Nishikawa, Numazu (JP)
Assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Toyota (JP)
Filed by TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Toyota (JP)
Filed on Jul. 28, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/361,334.
Claims priority of application No. 2022-135385 (JP), filed on Aug. 26, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2024/0068827 A1, Feb. 29, 2024
Int. Cl. G01C 21/34 (2006.01); G01C 21/00 (2006.01); G06Q 50/14 (2012.01); G05D 105/22 (2024.01); G05D 109/10 (2024.01)
CPC G01C 21/3484 (2013.01) [G01C 21/3476 (2013.01); G01C 21/3811 (2020.08); G06Q 50/14 (2013.01); G05D 2105/22 (2024.01); G05D 2109/10 (2024.01)] 7 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A vehicle configured to be able to switch between a forward direction and a backward direction, the vehicle comprising:
a first riding space and a second riding space, each of which is a riding position on one side and the other side of a right side and a left side with respect to a front-rear direction of the vehicle, respectively, wherein the vehicle is configured to:
acquire a traveling route;
identify a side where a landscape viewed from the vehicle is good from among the right side and the left side with respect to a traveling direction for the traveling route;
identify, based on attribute information of each of a passenger riding in the first riding space and a passenger riding in the second riding space, a preferential space in which a degree of preferential treatment of the first riding space or the second riding space is high, wherein
the attribute information includes a past riding status of each passenger as to whether each passenger has ridden the vehicle in the preferential space before in a travel route equivalent to the traveling route, and the vehicle determines a number of passengers on each of the first riding space and the second riding space who have not ridden the vehicle in the preferential space before, and
the preferential space is identified to be either the first riding space or the second riding space that has a higher degree of preferential treatment, and the degree of preferential treatment of respective space increases as the number of passengers who have not ridden the vehicle in the preferential space before is high on the respective space;
configure an orientation of the vehicle to be either the forward direction or the backward direction so that, when the vehicle travels on the traveling route, the preferential space is set to the side where the landscape viewed from the vehicle is good; and
control the vehicle to travel the traveling route with the configured orientation.