JP6690194B2 - Driving support transmitter, driving support receiver, program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique of acquiring information on an area in which it can be estimated that an obstacle does not exist around a vehicle and using the acquired information for driving assistance.

  Patent Literature 1 describes a technique of transmitting image data relating to an object obtained by an image transmitting device to an image receiving and displaying device and displaying information based on the image data in the image receiving and displaying device. According to such a technique, the image data transmitted from the image transmission device installed in a place other than the own vehicle is received by the image reception display device installed in the own vehicle and displayed, so that It is said that the situation of places with poor visibility can be grasped.

JP, 2014-89620, A

  In the technique described in Patent Document 1, image data obtained by processing an image captured by a camera is transmitted. However, since such image data is composed of information representing a complicated contour line and color arrangement, there is a problem that the amount of data relating to communication is large. Further, since the position information of the target object obtained from the image data is limited to the time when the target object was imaged, the situation such as the position of the target object in the future where the own vehicle is likely to approach the target object is determined. It cannot be predicted.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems. It is an object of the present invention to provide a technique for sharing information related to an area in which it can be estimated that no obstacle is present with a relatively small amount of communication data so that the information can be used for driving assistance.

  A driving assistance transmission device (10) according to one aspect of the present invention includes a region calculation means (13), a change information calculation means (16), a creation means (20), and a transmission means (21). Note that the claims and the reference numerals in parentheses in this column indicate the correspondence with the specific means described in the embodiments described later as one aspect, and the technical scope of the present invention. It is not limited.

  The area calculation means calculates the safety area at different times based on the information acquired by the detection means for detecting the situation of the surrounding environment. The safe area is an area in which it can be estimated by the detection means that no obstacle exists from its own position. The change information calculation means calculates the change information based on the differences between the plurality of safety areas calculated at different times. The change information is information indicating a portion where the safety area has changed over time. The creating unit creates driving support information that is information to be sent to the outside, and sends this to the outside. The driving support information is information including the change information calculated by the change information calculating means, the information regarding the position and movement of the driver's own position, and the information regarding the passage of time according to the change information.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the situation regarding the surrounding environment of the vehicle and roadside apparatus provided with a driving assistance transmitter can be shared with a surrounding terminal as driving assistance information. The change information included in this driving support information is composed of partial information regarding the time change of the safety region in which it is observed that it can be estimated that there is no obstacle. Therefore, it is advantageous in that information can be shared with surrounding terminals with a small amount of communication data, as compared with the case of transmitting an image having a complicated outline or color scheme such as an image captured by a camera. Also, by notifying the receiving side of the information regarding the change of the safety area due to the passage of time, for example, not only the safety area at the time of observation at the transmitting side, but also the speed information of the transmitting side and the existence outside the safety area. It becomes possible for the receiving side to grasp the information regarding the possible obstacle. Further, by including the element related to the temporal change of the safety area, it is possible for the receiving side to predict the past or future situation of the safety area.

  A driving assistance receiving device (30) which is another aspect of the present invention includes a receiving means (31), a coupling means (34), and an output means (32). The receiving means receives the driving support information transmitted from the driving support transmission device. This driving support information is change information indicating a portion where the safety region, which is an area where it can be estimated that no obstacle exists from the position of the driving support transmission device, has changed over time, the position of the driving support transmission device, and It is information including information regarding movement and information regarding time passage according to change information.

  The coupling means determines the commonality regarding the position or movement status of the obstacle estimated from each of the plurality of driving support information received within a certain period of time, and sets the safety area calculated from each of the plurality of driving support information to the common one. Then, based on the obstacle determined to be the reference, a combined safety area combined with one matching area is calculated. The output means outputs information indicating the bond safety area calculated by the connecting means to a predetermined device.

  According to the present invention, by receiving the driving assistance information from the driving assistance transmission device, the change information regarding the safety region observed in the driving assistance transmission device can be used for the driving assistance in the own vehicle. The change information included in this driving support information is composed of partial information regarding the time change of the safety region in which it is observed that it can be estimated that there is no obstacle. Therefore, it is advantageous in that information can be shared with surrounding terminals with a small amount of communication data, as compared with the case of transmitting an image having a complicated outline or color scheme such as an image captured by a camera. Further, by combining the safety areas related to the plurality of driving assistance information received from the plurality of driving assistance transmission devices into one safety area based on their commonality, the safety area around the own vehicle is grasped over a wide range. It is possible.

The block diagram showing the composition of a driving support system. The flowchart showing the procedure of a transmission process. Explanatory drawing showing the example 1 of creation of the change information regarding a safety area. Explanatory drawing showing the example 2 of creation of the change information regarding a safety area. Explanatory drawing showing the estimation result of speed information. The flowchart showing the procedure of a receiving process and a synthetic process. Explanatory drawing showing the example 1 of creation of a synthetic safety area. Explanatory drawing showing the example 2 of creation of a synthetic safety area. Explanatory drawing showing the example 3 of creation of a synthetic safety area. Explanatory drawing showing the creation example 4 of a synthetic | combination safety area. Explanatory drawing showing the example of a display of safety area information.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited to the following embodiments and can be implemented in various modes.
[Description of driving support system configuration]
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the driving support system according to the present embodiment includes a transmission device 10 provided in a transmission side vehicle 1 traveling on a road or a roadside unit 2 installed at a specific location (for example, an intersection) on the road. And a receiving device 30 provided in the receiving-side vehicle 3 traveling on the road.

  In this driving support system, the receiving-side vehicle 3 receives the driving support information created by the transmitting-side vehicle 1 and the roadside unit 2, and based on the received driving support information, the driving support such as information presentation and vehicle control in the own vehicle. I do. The driving support information mentioned here is information including change information regarding a temporal change in a safety area, which is an area in which it can be estimated that an obstacle does not exist on a road based on a detection result of a sensor or the like. Note that each of the transmission-side vehicle 1 and the reception-side vehicle 3 may have the transmission device 10 and the reception device 30 so as to mutually transmit and receive the driving assistance information.

  The transmission device 10 is an information processing device mainly including a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, a semiconductor memory such as a flash memory, and a communication device for communicating with other devices, which are not shown. The transmitter 10 is embodied by, for example, a microcontroller or the like in which the functions of a computer system are integrated. The function of the transmission device 10 is realized by the CPU executing a program stored in a non-transitional physical storage medium such as a ROM or a semiconductor memory. It should be noted that the number of microcontrollers included in the transmission device 10 may be one or more.

  The transmission device 10 includes a transmission timer control unit 12, a safety area calculation unit 13, an information creation unit 14, an information addition unit 18, and a transmission unit 21 as functional configurations. The method of realizing these elements that configure the transmission device 10 is not limited to software, and some or all of the elements may be realized using hardware that is a combination of logical circuits and analog circuits. In addition, the transmission-side vehicle 1 and the roadside device 2 that include the transmission device 10 are provided with a sensor 11 that detects the situation of the surrounding environment.

  The transmission timer control unit 12 is a timer for measuring an execution interval of a transmission process, which will be described later, executed in the transmission device 10. The transmission device 10 executes a transmission process described below based on the time measured by the transmission timer control unit 12. The safety area calculation unit 13 calculates the current safety area based on the detection result regarding the situation of the surrounding environment acquired by the sensor 11 at each time interval controlled by the transmission timer control unit 12. In the safe area, in the detectable range where the sensor 11 can effectively detect the situation of the surrounding environment, there is no obstacle from the current position of the self (that is, the transmission-side vehicle 1 or the roadside device 2 including the transmission device 10). This is the region corresponding to the space where we could observe.

  The sensor 11 is embodied by, for example, an ultrasonic sensor, a millimeter wave radar, a laser radar, a stereo camera, or the like. The sensor 11 scans a predetermined detection target range to detect obstacles (for example, other vehicles, pedestrians, walls of buildings, etc.) existing around the transmission-side vehicle 1 and the roadside device 2 and the road surface. Get information that represents distance and direction.

  The information creation unit 14 includes a buffer 15, a change information calculation unit 16, and an information compression unit 17. The buffer 15 is a storage area for temporarily storing the information indicating the safety area calculated by the safety area calculation unit 13. The change information calculation unit 16 compares the safety region at the current time t calculated by the safety region calculation unit 13 with the safety region at the time t−Δt stored in the buffer 15, and the safety region is calculated as the time Δt elapses. Change information representing the portion where is changed is calculated. The information compression unit 17 compresses the data amount of change information by converting the data format of the change information calculated by the change information calculation unit 16.

  The information addition unit 18 includes an own terminal information acquisition unit 19 and an information combination unit 20. The self-terminal information acquisition unit 19 is based on information detected by, for example, a GPS (that is, Global Positioning System) receiver or a speed sensor, and the current position and movement status of the transmission-side vehicle 1 or the roadside device 2 including the transmission device 10 (for example, , Moving direction, speed), and information indicating the current time. The information combination unit 20 creates driving support information in which the various information acquired from the transmission timer control unit 12 and the self-terminal information acquisition unit 19 is added to the change information of the safe area output from the information compression unit 17.

  The transmitting unit 21 is a wireless communication device that performs wireless communication with the receiving device 30 mounted on the receiving vehicle 3. The transmitting unit 21 transmits the driving support information created by the information combining unit 20 to the receiving device 30.

  The receiving device 30 is an information processing device mainly including a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, a semiconductor memory such as a flash memory, and a communication device for communicating with other devices, which are not shown. The receiving device 30 is embodied by, for example, a microcontroller in which the functions of a computer system are integrated. The function of the receiving device 30 is realized by the CPU executing a program stored in a non-transitional physical storage medium such as a ROM or a semiconductor memory. Note that the number of microcontrollers forming the receiving device 30 may be one or more.

  The reception device 30 includes a reception unit 31, an information processing unit 32, and a timer control unit 35 as functional configurations. The method of realizing these elements configuring the reception device 30 is not limited to software, and some or all of the elements may be realized by using hardware in which a logic circuit, an analog circuit, and the like are combined. The reception-side vehicle 3 including the reception device 30 includes a display control unit 36, a vehicle control unit 37, and a display unit 38. Further, when the receiving vehicle 3 calculates the safety area by itself, it is provided with the change information calculation unit 16 and the own terminal information acquisition unit 19.

  The reception unit 31 is a wireless communication device that performs wireless communication with the transmission device 10. The reception unit 31 receives the driving support information transmitted from the transmission device 10 and stores it in the buffer 33. The information processing unit 32 includes a buffer 33 and a safety area composition unit 34. The buffer 33 is a storage area for temporarily accumulating the plurality of driving support information received from the plurality of transmission-side vehicles 1 and the roadside units 2, respectively. The safety area synthesizing unit 34 synthesizes the safety areas respectively calculated from the information included in the plurality of driving support information accumulated in the buffer 33 to calculate a combined safety area which is one matching area.

  In addition to the driving support information acquired from the outside, the safety region composition unit 34 displays the driving support information of the own terminal including the information created by the change information calculation unit 16 and the own terminal information acquisition unit 19 included in the own vehicle. A configuration may be used in which the combined safety area is calculated. The change information calculation unit 16 and the own terminal information acquisition unit 19 are the same as those included in the transmission device 10.

  When the receiving vehicle 3 is equipped with the sensor 11 and the transmitting device 10 and is configured to both receive and transmit the driving assistance information, the driving assistance information of the own terminal is transmitted to the outside and the safety area synthesizing unit 34 It is also used for safety area composition. When the receiving vehicle 3 is provided with the sensor 11 and the configuration of the function related to the creation of the driving support information and only receives the driving support information, the driving support information of the own terminal is stored in the safety area synthesis unit 34. It is used only for the composition of the safety domain. When the receiving vehicle 3 does not include the sensor 11 and only receives the driving assistance information, the change information calculating unit 16 and the own terminal information acquiring unit 19 do not exist in the receiving vehicle 3.

  The timer control unit 35 is a timer for measuring an execution interval of a combining process, which will be described later, executed in the receiving device 30. The receiving device 30 executes a synthesizing process described below based on the time measured by the timer control unit 35. On the output side of the receiving device 30, the display control unit 36 is a display control unit 36 and a vehicle control unit 37 as a control device that performs various controls using the information of the combined safety area created by the safety area combination unit. And are connected.

  The display control unit 36 is an electronic control device that controls the display of an image for presenting information to the driver. The display control unit 36 superimposes the image representing the combined safety area output from the reception device 30 on the corresponding position on the map image around the current position drawn based on the given map data, and the reception side vehicle. The image is displayed on the display unit 38, which is a video display device provided in No. 3.

  The vehicle control unit 37 includes an electronic control device that executes various functions related to control of driving assistance of the vehicle. The vehicle control unit 37 is embodied by, for example, an approach warning ECU (that is, an electronic control unit) that controls an obstacle approach warning function, an automatic driving ECU that controls automatic driving, or the like. The obstacle approach warning is a function of issuing a warning to the driver when it is determined that there is a high risk of collision with the obstacle. At that time, the obstacle approach warning ECU uses the information of the combined safety area acquired from the receiving device 30 to grasp the situation of the obstacle around the own vehicle.

  The automatic driving ECU performs a driving operation such as acceleration, steering, and braking, and controls a function of automatically traveling the own vehicle. Specifically, while comparing the current position of the own vehicle with the road map data, the own vehicle is driven according to the route to the destination. Further, by using the information of the combined safety area acquired from the receiving device 30, various traffic such as surrounding vehicles, various peripheral conditions such as road shape, obstacles, etc. are grasped, and acceleration / steering necessary for safe driving.・ Determine the braking operation. Then, various actuators such as an accelerator, a steering device, and a brake are actuated in accordance with the determined operation to drive the host vehicle. The term "automatic driving" as used herein includes not only driving the own vehicle to a specified destination completely automatically, but also driving that receives driving assistance that is part of the driving operation related to the running of the own vehicle.

[Explanation of transmission processing]
The procedure of the transmission process executed by each unit of the transmission device 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This transmission process is a process that is periodically executed each time a timer (hereinafter, referred to as a transmission timer) measured by the transmission timer control unit 12 for controlling the cycle of the transmission process expires. In addition, in the process of explaining the flowchart of FIG. 2, as a specific example, FIGS.

  In S100, on condition that the transmission timer has expired in the transmission timer control unit 12, the process proceeds to S102. In S102, the safety area calculation unit 13 calculates the safety area at the current time t-Δt based on the detection result of the sensor 11. The specific safety region calculated by the safety region calculation unit 13 will be described with reference to FIG. 3 to 5, it is assumed that the transmission device 10 is installed in a vehicle (hereinafter referred to as the host vehicle A).

  In FIG. 3, reference numeral (a) is an explanatory diagram showing a detectable range T0 and a safety area T1 of the sensor 11 mounted on the host vehicle A. The detectable range of the sensor 11 referred to here is the maximum that a detection target object can be stably detected by scanning a detection wave such as an ultrasonic wave, a millimeter wave, or a laser beam and receiving the reflected wave. Is the operating range of. In addition, the safety region T1 is a region where it can be estimated that no obstacle exists within the detectable range T0 as a result of detection by the sensor 11.

  As a result of the detection by the sensor 11, the relative position between the structure and the obstacle such as another vehicle existing on the road that divides the road from the detectable range and the self is acquired. Based on this, the safety area calculation unit 13 specifies, as a safety area, a range in which the detection wave is not blocked by an obstacle from its own position in the detectable range. On the other hand, a range that exceeds the detectable range of the sensor 11 or a range that cannot be scanned because the detection wave is blocked by an obstacle even if it is the detectable range is treated as an unknown region. That is, the unknown region is a region where the presence or absence of an obstacle cannot be observed by the sensor 11. Further, as an example of the situation of the surrounding environment, when the sensor 11 is configured to be able to determine the road surface, the safety area calculation unit 13 may specify the range detected as the road surface as the safety area. The information on the safety area calculated by the safety area calculation unit 13 is composed of, for example, an image in a bitmap format in which the position and shape of the safety area are represented by a list of pixels.

  Note that the safety area T1 illustrated by reference numeral (a) in FIG. 3 corresponds to the safety area observed from the own vehicle A in the traffic situation at time t-Δt illustrated by reference numeral (b) in FIG. To do. In the case of the symbol (b) of FIG. 3, the own vehicle A is stopped at the intersection to wait for a right turn, and the vehicles B, C, D and the road detected by the sensor 11 mounted on the own vehicle A are divided. It is assumed that the safety area T1 is calculated based on the structure.

  Returning to the description of the flowchart in FIG. In S104, the safety area calculation unit 13 updates the storage content of the buffer 15 with the information of the safety area at time t-Δt calculated in S102. In S106, the transmission device 10 sleeps for Δt seconds set as an interval by the transmission timer control unit 12. After the sleep for Δt seconds, in S108, the safety area calculation unit 13 calculates the safety area at the current time t based on the detection result of the sensor 11. Hereinafter, this time t is also referred to as a detection time.

  In S110, the change information calculation unit 16 compares the safety area at the detection time t calculated in S108 with the safety area at the time t-Δt stored in the buffer 15, and based on the difference, the safety area Change information is calculated. The change information is information indicating a portion in which the safety area has changed with the lapse of Δt seconds. Here, the specifics of the safety area and the change information of the safety area will be described with reference to FIG.

  3, symbol (b) is an explanatory diagram showing a calculation example of the safety region T1 at time t-Δt, and symbol (c) is an explanatory diagram showing a calculation example of the safety region T2 at the detection time t after Δt seconds. Is. In this example, from time t-Δt to time t, the own vehicle A and the vehicle D are still stopped, the vehicle B is in front of the own vehicle A, and the vehicle C is in rear of the own vehicle A. It is assumed that they are each moving toward. As a result, a change occurs between the safety region T1 at time t-Δt and the safety region T2 at time t.

  Reference numeral (d) in FIG. 3 is an example of change information calculated based on the difference between the safety region T1 at time t-Δt and the safety region T2 at time t. The change information calculation unit 16 changes in a manner that is classified into a portion that remains unchanged in the safety region, a portion that changes from the safety region to the unknown region, and a portion that changes from the unknown region to the safety region over time. Calculate information. In the legend shown in Fig. 3, the part that has not changed in the safe area is described as "safety → safety", and the part that changed from the safe area to the unknown area is described as "safety → unknown", and the safety is changed from the unknown area. The part that has changed to the area is described as “unknown → safe”.

  In the case of the symbol (d) in FIG. 3, the change information calculated from the two safety areas T1 and T2 is information representing each area of T3, T4, T5, and T6. T3 corresponds to a portion where the safety region remains unchanged. T4 corresponds to a portion changed from the unknown area to the safety area due to the vehicle B moving to a position away from the position of the own vehicle A. T5 corresponds to a portion in which the unknown area on the rear side of the vehicle C is changed to the safety area because the vehicle C moves to a position approaching the position of the host vehicle A. T6 corresponds to a portion in which the safety area in front of the vehicle C has changed to an unknown area because the vehicle C has moved to a position approaching the position of the host vehicle A. The change information calculated by the change information calculation unit 16 is composed of, for example, an image in a bitmap format in which the position and shape of each area indicating the change in the safety area are represented by a list of pixels.

  According to such change information, not only the current safety area can be specified, but also information such as the position of the detected obstacle and the moving condition (for example, speed or moving direction) can be estimated. For example, in the case of the symbol (d) in FIG. 3, the range in which the areas T3, T4, and T5 are combined corresponds to the current safety area. Further, by using the lengths of the regions T4 and T6 in the changing direction and the position and speed information of the host vehicle A, the positions, speeds, moving directions, etc. of the vehicles B and C can be estimated. There is.

  Returning to the description of the flowchart in FIG. In S112, the information compression unit 17 compresses the change information calculated in S110 into a predetermined data format. Specifically, the information compressing unit 17 converts the bitmap-format image information of each area forming the change information into vector-format data having a relatively small data amount. In this case, for example, it may be possible to represent the area forming the change information as numerical data of a vector that connects the coordinates corresponding to the position of the vehicle and the coordinates corresponding to the apexes of the boundary of the area forming the change information. To be

  Note that, as a modification, the information compression unit 17 is necessary and sufficient to estimate the information indicating the current safety area and the position and movement status of the obstacle from the change information calculated by the change information calculation unit 16. The information may be further compressed by selecting the information and the information as the information to be transmitted. This specific example will be described with reference to FIG.

  4, symbol (a) is an explanatory diagram showing a calculation example of the safety region T1 at time t-Δt, and symbol (b) is an explanatory diagram showing a calculation example of the safety region T2 at time t after Δt seconds. is there. In this example, it is assumed that the vehicle A and the vehicles B and C are moving forward and the vehicle D is moving backward from time t−Δt to time t. As a result, a change occurs between the safety region T1 at time t-Δt and the safety region T2 at time t after Δt seconds.

  As illustrated by the symbol (c) in FIG. 4, the change information calculated from the two safety areas T1 and T2 includes information representing each area of T3 to T10. Of these, each of the areas T4 to T7 is a portion in which the safety area has changed due to each of the vehicles B, C, and D moving to a position relatively away from or close to the position of the host vehicle A. Equivalent to.

  On the other hand, the region T8 corresponds to a portion changed from the safe region to the unknown region only because the detectable range of the sensor 11 moves forward as the vehicle A moves. The areas T9 and T10 correspond to the areas changed from the unknown area to the safety area only because the detectable range of the sensor 11 has moved forward with the movement of the host vehicle A.

  Of the areas T3 to T10, the areas T4, T5, and T6 are provided with necessary and sufficient information for estimating the positions and speeds of the vehicles B, C, and D, and the moving direction relative to the own vehicle A. Applicable Therefore, the information compressing unit 17 selects the information to be transmitted from the change information illustrated in the code (c) of FIG. 4 as illustrated in the code (d) of FIG. Specifically, the selected change information includes, in addition to the areas T4, T5, and T6, information on the area T11 corresponding to the safety area. In this area T11, among the change information excluding the areas T4, T5, and T6, T3, T7, T9, and T10 corresponding to the safety area at the current time t are combined into one area that represents one safety area. It is a thing. By doing so, the data amount of information to be transmitted can be further reduced.

  Alternatively, as a further modified example, the information compressing unit 17 uses the change information calculated by the change information calculating unit 16 as information indicating the safe area at the current time t and an obstacle that may exist outside the safe area. The configuration may be such that the information is converted into velocity information including information indicating the position and the movement status of the. This specific example will be described with reference to FIG.

  5, symbol (a) is an explanatory diagram showing an example of calculating the safety region T1 at time t-Δt, and symbol (b) is an explanatory diagram showing an example of calculating the safety region T2 at time t after Δt seconds. is there. Reference numeral (c) is an explanatory diagram showing change information calculated from the two safety areas T1 and T2. Note that the situations illustrated by the reference signs (a) to (c) in FIG. 5 are the same as the situations illustrated by the reference signs (a) to (c) in FIG. 4, so a detailed description of the situation will be omitted.

  The information compressing unit 17 determines each of the vehicles B, C based on the position and the movement situation of the host vehicle A, and the areas T4, T5, T6 of the vehicles B, C, D among the areas T3 to T10. The positions and speeds of C and D and the moving direction relative to the host vehicle A are estimated. Specifically, the information compressing unit 17 estimates that the vehicles B and C are present in the unknown area adjacent to the front of each of the areas T4 and T5. It is also estimated that the vehicle D exists in the area T6. The information compression unit 17 also estimates the vehicle B, C, and D in Δt seconds, which is estimated based on the moving amount of the own vehicle A in Δt seconds and the lengths of the regions T4, T5, and T6 in the changing direction. Based on the relationship with the relative movement amount with respect to the own vehicle A, the speed of each vehicle B, C, D and the relative movement direction with respect to the own vehicle A are estimated.

  As illustrated by the reference numeral (d) in FIG. 5, the information compressing unit 17 changes the change information indicated by the reference numeral (c) in FIG. 5 into the information indicating the area T11 corresponding to the safety area at the current time t and each vehicle B. , C, D are converted into speed information including information indicating positions, speeds, and moving directions relative to the own vehicle. The region T11 is a combination of the regions T3, T4, T5, T7, T9, and T10 into one region representing one safety region, and matches the safety region T2 calculated at the current time t. By doing so, the data amount of information to be transmitted can be further reduced.

  Returning to the description of the flowchart in FIG. In S114, the information combination unit 20 adds the various information acquired from the transmission timer control unit 12 and the own terminal information acquisition unit 19 to the change information of the safe area compressed by the information compression unit 17, and adds these pieces of information. Create driving support information including. Here, the information acquired from the transmission timer control unit 12 includes the value of the time Δt set as the interval. In addition, the information acquired from the own terminal information acquisition unit 19 includes information indicating the detection time t, the current location of the user, the moving direction, and the speed. The information combining unit 20 creates driving assistance information including change information of the safety area and information indicating the current location, moving direction, speed, detection time t, and time Δt of the driver.

  In S116, the driving support information created by the information combining unit 20 is transmitted to the outside through the transmitting unit 21. In S118, the transmission timer control unit 12 resets the transmission timer and the interval Δt to the specified time.

[Explanation of reception processing and composition processing]
The procedure of the receiving process and the combining process executed by each unit of the receiving device 30 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The reception process is a process executed every time the reception device 30 receives the driving support information from the transmission device 10. In addition, the combining process is a process that is periodically executed each time the timer measured by the timer control unit 35 expires. In the process of explaining the flowchart of FIG. 6, FIGS. 7 to 11 will be referred to as specific examples as needed.

  In the receiving process, in S200, the driving support information transmitted from the transmitting device 10 within the communicable area is received through the receiving unit 31. In S202, the data of the driving support information received by the receiving unit 31 is stored in the buffer 33.

  On the other hand, in the combining process, in S300, the process proceeds to S302 on condition that the timer measured by the timer control unit 35 has expired. In S302, the safety area synthesizing unit 34 synthesizes the plurality of safety areas calculated from the plurality of driving support information accumulated in the buffer 33 into one consistent safety area. This specific example will be described with reference to FIG. 7. 7 to 11, it is assumed that the receiving device 30 is mounted on the vehicle B (hereinafter referred to as the host vehicle B).

  In FIG. 7, reference numeral (a) is an explanatory diagram showing a situation in which the host vehicle B including the receiving device 30 receives the driving assistance information transmitted from each of the transmitting devices 10 included in the surrounding vehicles A and C. is there. In this example, vehicles A, C, X, Y, and Z are traveling around the own vehicle B at speeds of AAkm / h, CCkm / h, XXkm / h, YYkm / h, and ZZkm / h, respectively. I shall. Of these peripheral vehicles, vehicles A and B transmit driving assistance information including change information of the safety region, and vehicles X, Y, and Z do not transmit driving assistance information.

  Reference numerals (b) and (c) of FIG. 7 are explanatory diagrams showing change information of the safety area included in the driving assistance information received by the vehicle B from the vehicle A and the vehicle C. The method of calculating the change information is as described in the above transmission processing. The safety area synthesis unit 34 synthesizes the safety areas specified from the change information obtained from the vehicles A and C into one area in which common portions are overlapped with each other to be matched, so that the safety area is combined. To create.

  Specifically, the safety area synthesizing unit 34 estimates the position, speed, and moving direction of an obstacle that may exist outside the safety area from each of the plurality of pieces of driving support information. Here, the position and speed of the obstacle are estimated based on the area indicating the change caused by the obstacle in the change information included in the driving support information, and the position and movement status of the transmission source terminal. . For the specific method of estimating the position and movement of the obstacle, refer to the method described above with reference to FIG.

  Next, the safety area composition unit 34 determines the mutual matching of the position, speed, and moving direction of the obstacles estimated from each of the plurality of driving support information, and determines the common obstacles that are the same. Identify. Then, the safety area calculated from each of the plurality of pieces of driving support information is overlapped on the basis of the position and the moving direction of the obstacle determined to be common to calculate the combined safety area viewed from the own vehicle. Reference numeral (d) in FIG. 7 indicates a combined safety area Tα combined on the basis of the change information of the signs (b) and (c), the speed of an obstacle estimated to exist outside the combined safety area Tα, and It is explanatory drawing which piled up the moving direction.

  Note that, as a modification, the safety region composition unit 34 is calculated from the information acquired by the change information calculation unit 16 and the own terminal information acquisition unit 19 provided in the own vehicle, in addition to the driving support information received from the outside. Information regarding the safety area and obstacles to be used may be used in the synthesis of the synthetic safety area.

  Next, further contrivances applicable to the processing of the safety area composition unit 34 in S302 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 8, reference numeral (a) is an explanatory diagram showing a situation in which the host vehicle B receives the driving assistance information transmitted from the vehicle C at the detection time t1. Here, the code TC is change information of the safety region included in the driving support information transmitted at this time. On the other hand, symbol (b) is an explanatory diagram showing a situation in which the host vehicle B receives the driving assistance information transmitted from the vehicle A at the detection time t2 after the detection time t1 at the same location. Here, the code TA is the change information of the safety area included in the driving support information transmitted at this time.

  When receiving driving assistance information from a plurality of transmission source terminals, the plurality of driving assistance information is not always transmitted at the same detection time. When the detection times differ from each other in the plurality of pieces of driving support information, it is considered that the situation in the safety area is changing with the passage of time even if the information is in a common place. Therefore, when synthesizing a plurality of safety areas, first, the safety areas at the same time are estimated to match each other temporally. Specifically, the position, speed, and moving direction of the obstacle are estimated based on the change information of the safety area received from a certain transmission source terminal, and only the time difference between the original detection time and the reference time is calculated. By changing the position of each obstacle, the safety area at the same time is estimated. Then, after correcting the deviations of the detection times in the plurality of safety areas, those safety areas are combined. By doing so, it is possible to estimate the combined safety region that is more suitable for the actual situation.

  Reference numeral (c) in FIG. 8 represents an example in which the safety region estimated to be detected by the vehicle C at time t2 is calculated based on the safety region change information received from the vehicle C. By doing so, the detection time of the driving assistance information on the vehicle C side and the detection time of the driving assistance information on the vehicle A side can be unified at time t2. Then, the safety area related to the vehicle C and the safety area related to the vehicle A corrected in accordance with the detection time t2 are combined with each other based on the common obstacle portion, and thus the reference numeral (d) in FIG. A synthetic safety region Tα exemplified in is obtained. In the case of the reference numeral (d) in FIG. 8, for comparison, a broken line area representing the safety area of the vehicle C at the detection time t1 is described by being superimposed on the combined area Tα. According to this, it can be seen that the error in the part indicated by the ellipse is particularly remarkable when the detection times are not unified.

  Furthermore, a device that can be applied to the processing of the safety area composition unit 34 in S302 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 9, symbol (a) is an explanatory diagram showing a situation in which the host vehicle B receives the driving assistance information transmitted from each of the vehicle A and the vehicle C. Since the situation illustrated in FIG. 9A is common to the situation illustrated in FIG. 7A, detailed description of the situation is omitted.

  The symbol (b) of FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the change information TC of the safety region included in the driving assistance information received by the vehicle B from the vehicle C. On the other hand, reference numeral (c) in FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the change information TA of the safety area included in the driving assistance information received by the vehicle B from the vehicle A.

  When synthesizing a safety area based on a plurality of driving support information, a common obstacle serving as a reference can be specified by determining the similarity of information on the position, speed, and moving direction of the obstacle. In this case, in order to estimate the accurate position of the obstacle, accurate position information of the terminal that is the transmission source of the driving support information is required. However, if it is assumed that the position of the transmission source terminal included in the driving support information is inaccurate and the position cannot be clearly specified, another common method should be used to specify a common obstacle that serves as a reference for composition. Can be considered.

  The method is to estimate a relative positional relationship between obstacles and identify a common obstacle that serves as a reference for synthesis based on the commonality of the relative positional relationship and the speed. By doing so, even in a situation where the position of the transmission source terminal is unclear, it is possible to appropriately combine the safety areas related to the plurality of driving support information. Specifically, the safety area synthesizing unit 34, based on the change information, the speed, and the movement status of the safety areas of the vehicles A and C, reference numerals (d), (e), (f), (in FIG. 9). Estimate the relative positional relationship as illustrated in g).

  Reference numeral (d) of FIG. 9 indicates the mutual positional relationship of the three obstacles estimated from the change information TC of the safety area received from the vehicle C and the moving direction of each obstacle (that is, north, south, east, and west). It is an example of the relative positional relationship represented by being associated with. Further, this includes information on the speed of each obstacle estimated from the change information TC. Further, in the case where the positional information of the vehicle C is sufficient to estimate the relative positional relationship with the obstacle, the vehicle C is, as illustrated by the symbol (e) in FIG. 9, exemplified. You may estimate the relative positional relationship including.

  Reference numeral (f) in FIG. 9 represents the positional relationship between the two obstacles estimated from the change information TA of the safety area received from the vehicle A and the moving direction of each obstacle in association with the azimuth. It is an example of a relative positional relationship. Further, this includes information on the speed of each obstacle estimated from the change information TA. Further, in the case where the positional information of the vehicle A is sufficient to estimate the relative positional relationship with the obstacle, the vehicle A is, as illustrated by reference numeral (g) in FIG. You may estimate the relative positional relationship including.

  By comparing the relative positional relationship indicated by reference numeral (d) or (e) in FIG. 9 with the relative positional relationship indicated by reference numeral (f) or (g), it is possible to find a common portion surrounded by a broken-line rectangle. This common part includes an obstacle traveling east at a speed of XXkm / h and an obstacle traveling east at a speed of YYkm / h. Therefore, the safety area synthesizing unit 34 determines that these obstacles are the same target, and synthesizes a plurality of safety areas based on this determination. As a result, the combined safety area Tα exemplified by the symbol (h) in FIG. 9 is obtained.

  Furthermore, a device that can be applied to the processing of the safety area composition unit 34 in S302 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 10, reference numeral (a) is an explanatory diagram showing a situation in which the host vehicle B receives the driving assistance information transmitted from the vehicle C at a certain timing. Here, the code TC is change information of the safety region included in the driving support information transmitted at this time. On the other hand, the symbol (b) is an explanatory diagram showing a situation in which the host vehicle B receives the driving assistance information transmitted from the vehicle A at the same location at different timing. Here, the code TA is the change information of the safety area included in the driving support information transmitted at this time.

  In these situations, if it is assumed that the time measured by each of the vehicles A and C is not synchronized, the detected time associated with the respective driving assistance information becomes an unreliable value. In such a case, a plurality of obstacles that are common in a plurality of driving support information are specified, and the time difference between the detection times is estimated based on the change in the positional relationship and the speed difference between the specified plurality of obstacles. Good. By doing this, even if the time is not synchronized between the terminals that are the sources of the driving assistance information, the deviation of the detection time related to the plurality of driving assistance information is corrected and the safety area is appropriately set. Can be synthesized.

  Specifically, as illustrated by reference numeral (c) in FIG. 10, the safe area synthesis unit 34 determines that the common obstacles that are estimated to be the same are selected from the areas represented by the change information TA and TC. Specify multiple. As a method for identifying the common obstacle, the method based on the relative positional relationship described above with reference to FIG. 9 can be used. In the case of the code (c) in FIG. 10, it is assumed that a plurality of common obstacles are specified in the areas indicated by the circles α and β from the change information TA and TC, respectively. The areas α and β include the two obstacles of the vehicle X and the vehicle Y illustrated in the symbols (a) and (b).

  Next, as illustrated by the symbol (d) in FIG. 10, the safety area synthesis unit 34 estimates the distance DA between the two obstacles from the area α on the vehicle A side. Similarly, the distance DC between the two obstacles is estimated from the region β on the vehicle C side. Also, the speeds XX and YY of the two obstacles are estimated. Here, a value obtained by dividing the difference between the distances DA and DB between the two obstacles observed at different detection times by the difference between the speeds YY and XX of the two obstacles is the calculation of the time difference between the detection times.

  By calculating the time difference between the detection times by such a method, it is possible to unify the detection times and synthesize the safety region, similarly to the method for correcting the deviation of the detection times described later with reference to FIG. As a result, the combined safety area Tα exemplified by the symbol (e) in FIG. 10 is obtained.

  Returning to the description of the flowchart in FIG. In S304, all the driving information accumulated in the buffer 33 is deleted, and the storage content of the buffer 33 is reset. In S306, the information processing section 32 outputs the created combined safety area and the safety area information including information on the position, speed, and moving direction of the obstacle to the display control section 36 and the vehicle control section 37. Thereby, each part of the display control part 36 and the vehicle control part 37 uses the outputted safety area information for various controls. In S308, the timer control unit 35 resets the timer according to the processing frequency required by the display control unit 36 and the vehicle control unit 37.

[Display example of safety area information]
The display control unit 36 uses the safety area information output from the information processing unit 32 to cause the display unit 38 to display an image representing the position or movement status of an obstacle estimated to exist in the safety area or outside the safety area. . As a specific display mode, for example, an image representing a geographical range corresponding to a safety area is superimposed on a corresponding position on a map image around the current position drawn based on map data used in a navigation system or the like. It can be cited as a display. A device applicable to such a display mode will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the case of FIG. 11, it is premised that the own vehicle B including the receiving device 30 can create the change information regarding the safety region observed by the own change information calculation unit 16 and the own terminal information acquisition unit 19. Reference numeral (a) in FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a situation in which the stopped vehicle B has created the change information TA of the safety area based on its own observation.

  The display control unit 36 uses reference lines S1, S2, and S3 that serve as a reference for aligning with the topography on the map image from the acquired change information TA, as illustrated by the symbol (b) in FIG. 11. Specify. Specifically, it is estimated that the contour of the area represented by the change information TA does not change with time, that is, the boundary of a roadside structure that divides the road at an intersection or a T-shaped road, a stationary object, or the like. The specified part is specified as the reference line. Then, as illustrated by reference numeral (c) in FIG. 11, the shape of the specified reference lines S1, S2, S3 is collated with the topography of the road represented on the map image, and change information is found at a suitable position. The safety area T1 calculated from TA is superimposed.

  Next, the display control unit 36 matches the combined safety area, which is combined based on the plurality of driving support information received from the outside, with the safety area T1 on the basis of the safety area T1 aligned on the map image. Superimpose it on the position to be combined. Reference numeral (d) in FIG. 11 is an example of the speed and moving direction of the synthetic safety area T2 and the obstacle displayed superimposed on the map image. By displaying such an image on the display unit 38, the driver can specifically grasp the safety area around the vehicle B and the condition of the obstacle.

[effect]
According to the driving support system of the above embodiment, the following effects are achieved.
It is possible to share the driving assistance information indicating the situation of the surrounding environment from the transmission side vehicle 1 or the roadside device 2 including the transmission device 10 with the reception side vehicle 3 including the reception device 30. This driving support information is made up of partial information about the time change of the safety region in which it can be estimated that there is no obstacle. Therefore, it is advantageous in that information can be shared with surrounding terminals with a small amount of communication data, as compared with the case of transmitting an image having a complicated outline or color scheme such as an image captured by a camera.

  The transmission device 10 can classify, in the change information of the safety area, a portion that remains unchanged in the safety area, a portion that changes from the unknown area to the safety area, and a portion that changes from the safety area to the unknown area. . By being classified in this way, it is possible to estimate the position and movement status of an obstacle that may exist outside the safety area. Further, the change information of the safe area calculated by the change information calculation unit 16 of the transmission device 10 can be further compressed or selected by the information compression unit 17, or can be converted into other information. By doing so, the amount of data of the driving support information to be transmitted can be further reduced.

  By notifying the receiver of the change information of the safety area, for example, not only the current safety area observed at the sender, but also speed information of the sender and obstacles that may exist outside the safe area. It becomes possible for the receiving side to grasp the information regarding the above. Further, by including the element related to the temporal change of the safety area, it is possible for the receiving side to predict the past or future situation of the safety area.

  By receiving the driving support information from the transmission device 10, the reception device 30 can use the change information regarding the safety region observed in the transmission device 10 for driving support in the own vehicle. Further, by combining the safety areas related to the plurality of driving support information received from the plurality of transmitters 10 into one safety area based on their commonality, it is possible to grasp the safety area around the own vehicle over a wide range. Is possible.

  In addition, the receiving device 30 estimates a safety region at a certain same time based on a time difference between the detection times, a positional relationship of obstacles common to the plurality of driving support information, and the like for a plurality of driving support information having different detection times. By doing so, a combined safety area can be created. By doing so, it is possible to correct the deviations of the detection times related to the plurality of pieces of driving assistance information and appropriately combine the safety regions.

  In addition, when synthesizing the plurality of safety areas, the reception device 30 estimates the relative positional relationship between the plurality of obstacles from each of the plurality of driving support information, and estimates the relative positional relationship and the speed of the obstacle. Based on and, an obstacle common to a plurality of driving support information can be specified. By doing so, even if the position information of the transmission terminal included in the driving support information is unclear, it is possible to specify a common obstacle in a plurality of driving support information.

  The display control unit 36 of the reception-side vehicle 3 can superimpose the image of the safety area on the map image and display it on the display unit 38. By displaying such an image on the display unit 38, the driver can specifically grasp the safety area around the vehicle B and the condition of the obstacle. At that time, the display control unit 36 adjusts the safety area to an appropriate position on the map image by using the shape of the safety area observed in the own vehicle and the shape of the structure on the map image as a reference. be able to.

[Modification]
The functions of one constituent element in the above-described embodiment may be distributed as a plurality of constituent elements, or the functions of a plurality of constituent elements may be integrated into one constituent element. Moreover, you may omit a part of structure of the said embodiment. Further, at least a part of the configuration of the above-described embodiment may be added or replaced with the configuration of the other above-described embodiment. Note that all aspects included in the technical idea specified only by the wording recited in the claims are embodiments of the present invention.

  In addition to the transmitting device 10 and the receiving device 30 described above, various forms such as a program for causing a computer to function as the transmitting device 10 and the receiving device 30, a non-transitional actual recording medium such as a semiconductor memory in which the program is recorded, etc. The present invention can also be realized with.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Transmission side vehicle, 2 ... Roadside machine, 3 ... Reception side vehicle, 10 ... Transmission device, 11 ... Sensor, 12 ... Transmission timer control part, 13 ... Safety area calculation part, 14 ... Information creation part, 15 ... Buffer, 16 ... Change information calculating unit, 17 ... Information compressing unit, 18 ... Information adding unit, 19 ... Own terminal information acquiring unit, 20 ... Information combining unit, 21 ... Sending unit, 30 ... Receiving device, 31 ... Receiving unit, 32 ... Information processing unit, 33 ... Buffer, 34 ... Safety area composition unit, 35 ... Timer control unit, 36 ... Display control unit, 37 ... Vehicle control unit, 38 ... Display unit.

Claims (12)

Based on the information acquired by the detection means (11) for detecting the situation of the surrounding environment, a safety area, which is an area where it can be estimated that no obstacle exists from its own position, is calculated at different times. Area calculation means (13),
Change information, which is information indicating a portion where the safety region has changed over time, based on a difference between a plurality of safety regions calculated at different times by the region calculation means, and is represented by vector-format numerical data. Change information calculation means (16) for calculating change information
It is driving support information that is information to be transmitted to the outside, and includes the change information calculated by the change information calculating unit, information about the position and movement of the person, and information about the passage of time according to the change information. Creating means (20) for creating driving support information including
Transmitting means (21) for transmitting the driving support information created by the creating means to the outside;
Bei to give a,
The change information calculation means is a portion that has not changed in the safety area, a portion that has changed from an unknown area that is an area in which the presence or absence of an obstacle cannot be observed to the safety area, and that has changed from the safety area to the unknown area. Calculating the change information that classifies the changed portion,
A driving support transmitter. The driving assistance transmission device according to claim 1 ,
Among the change information calculated by the change information calculating means, change information regarding a portion to be transmitted based on the advancing direction of an obstacle that may exist outside the detectable range and the safety area of the detecting means is displayed. Equipped with a sorting means (17) for sorting,
The creating means creates the driving support information including the change information selected by the selecting means,
A driving support transmitter. The driving assistance transmission device according to claim 1 ,
Estimating the position and speed of an obstacle that may exist outside the safety area based on the change information calculated by the change information calculating means, information indicating the current state of the safety area, and the obstacle. An information converting means (17) for creating area information with speed including information indicating a position and speed,
The creating means creates the driving support information including the speed-added area information created by the information converting means instead of the change information,
A driving support transmitter. A change that represents a part of the driving assistance information transmitted from the driving assistance transmitting device, which is a region in which it is observed that it can be estimated that there is no obstacle from the position of the driving assistance transmitting device, the safety region has changed over time. Information, which is represented by vector-format numerical data, is a portion that remains unchanged in the safe area, and a portion that changes from an unknown area that is an area in which the presence or absence of an obstacle cannot be observed to the safe area, Receiving driving assistance information including change information that classifies a portion that has changed from the safe area to the unknown area, information about the position and movement of the driving assistance transmission device, and information about the passage of time according to the change information. Receiving means (31),
The receiving unit determines the commonality regarding the position or movement status of the obstacle estimated from each of the plurality of driving support information received from the plurality of different driving support transmission devices within a certain time, and the plurality of driving support information Combining means (34) for calculating a combined safety area obtained by combining the safety areas calculated from the respective ones into one area that matches with an obstacle determined to be common,
Output means (32) for outputting information representing the combined safety area calculated by the combining means to a predetermined device;
A driving assistance receiving device. The driving assistance receiving device according to claim 4 ,
The synthesizing unit estimates the safety region at a certain same time based on the change information included in each of the driving support information and the information regarding the time lapse related to the change information, and estimates a plurality of safety at the same estimated time. Merging regions into one matching region,
A driving support receiving device. The driving assistance receiving device according to claim 4 or 5 ,
The synthesizing unit estimates a relative positional relationship between a plurality of obstacles from each of the plurality of driving support information, and based on the estimated relative positional relationship and the speed of the obstacle, the plurality of Determining common obstacles among driving assistance information,
A driving support receiving device. The driving assistance receiving device according to claim 6 ,
The synthesizing unit estimates the relative positional relationship including the position of the driving assistance transmitting apparatus that is the transmission source of the driving assistance information, and estimates the relative positional relationship and the obstacle and the driving assistance transmitting apparatus. Based on the speed of, to determine the common obstacle among the plurality of driving support information,
A driving support receiving device. The driving assistance receiving device according to claim 7 ,
For the obstacles determined to be common, the synthesizing unit estimates the safety region at a certain same time based on the time difference calculated using the speed and the positional relationship of the obstacles estimated from the respective driving support information. And combining the estimated multiple safety regions at the same time into one consistent region,
A driving support receiving device. The driving assistance receiving device according to any one of claims 4 to 8 ,
Area calculation means for calculating, at different times, a safety area, which is an area in which it can be estimated that there is no obstacle from its own position, based on the information acquired by the detection means for detecting the surrounding environment When,
Based on the difference between the plurality of safety areas calculated for each different time by the area calculation means, information indicating a portion in which the safety area has changed over time, information regarding the position and movement of the self, and the change information And a change information creating means for creating change information including information on the passage of time,
The synthesizing unit matches a plurality of safety regions including a safety region calculated based on the change information created by the change information creating unit, in addition to the safety region calculated from the driving support information received by the receiving unit. Calculating a combined safety area combined into one area,
A driving support receiving device. The driving assistance receiving device according to any one of claims 4 to 9 ,
A display control means (36) for superimposing an image representing the combined safety area calculated by the combining means on a corresponding position on the map image around the current position drawn based on the map information and displaying the superimposed image on the display means. ,
The display control means, with respect to the change information of the safety area, identifies the shape of the boundary portion of the safety area that has not changed over time, and identifies the identified shape and the shape of the structure represented by the map information. On the basis of, superimposing the image of the synthetic safety region in accordance with the corresponding position on the map image,
A driving support receiving device. Based on the information acquired by the detection means for detecting the situation of the surrounding environment, the area calculation step for calculating the safety area, which is the area where it can be estimated that no obstacle exists from its own position, at different times (S102, S108),
Change information, which is information indicating a portion in which the safety region has changed over time, based on a difference between a plurality of safety regions calculated at different times in the region calculation step, and is represented by vector-format numerical data. A part that has not changed from the safety region, a part that has changed from the unknown region to the safety region where the presence or absence of an obstacle cannot be observed, and a part that has changed from the safety region to the unknown region. A change information calculation step (S110) of calculating the classified change information,
It is driving assistance information that is information to be transmitted to the outside, and includes the change information calculated in the change information calculation step, information about the position and movement of the person, and information about the passage of time according to the change information. A creation step (S114) of creating driving support information including
A transmitting step (S116) of transmitting the driving support information created in the creating step to the outside,
A program that causes a computer to execute. A change that represents a part of the driving assistance information transmitted from the driving assistance transmitting device, which is a region in which it is observed that it can be estimated that there is no obstacle from the position of the driving assistance transmitting device, the safety region has changed over time. Information, which is represented by vector-format numerical data, is a portion that remains unchanged in the safe area, and a portion that changes from an unknown area that is an area in which the presence or absence of an obstacle cannot be observed to the safe area, Receiving driving assistance information including change information that classifies a portion that has changed from the safe area to the unknown area, information about the position and movement of the driving assistance transmission device, and information about the passage of time according to the change information. A receiving step (S200),
In the receiving step, the commonality regarding the position or the moving state of the obstacle estimated from each of the plurality of driving support information received from the plurality of different driving support transmission devices within a certain time is determined, and the plurality of driving support information is determined. A combining step (S302) for calculating a combined safety area obtained by combining the safety areas calculated from the respective
An output step (S306) of outputting information representing the combined safety area calculated in the combining step to a predetermined device;
A program that causes a computer to execute.