DETAILED ACTION
Receipt is acknowledged of applicant’s argument/remarks filed on April 17, 2026, claims 1-11 are pending and an action on the merits is as follows.
Applicant's arguments with respect to claims have been fully considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. Applicant has amended claims 1 and 9.
Response to Argument
Regarding applicant’s arguments with respect to the amendment of the claims, applicant is kindly invited to consider the Office Action below to view the new ground of rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) / 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by over Isami et al. (US 2022/0041070 A1)
Regarding claim 1, Isami et al. disclose an electric vehicle that uses an electric motor as a power unit for traveling (e.g., an electric vehicle 10 comprising an electric motor 2 as a driving source (par. 42)), being configured to be switchable to an autonomous driving mode in which at least acceleration and deceleration are automatically performed without driving operation by a driver (e.g., electric vehicle configured to switch from manual transmission (MT) travel mode to an autonomous travel mode (par. 79)), the electric vehicle comprising:
an accelerator pedal (e.g., an accelerator pedal 22 (par. 44));
a shift device (e.g., a shift lever (26) / pseudo-shift lever (par. 45)) for selecting a gear stage that simulates operation of a transmission (e.g., the shift lever (26) configured to operate as pseudo-shifter for the driver to select virtual gear stage mode simulating the gear stages of manual transmission (MT) vehicle (par. 46 and Figure 1));
a speaker (e.g., a speaker ) that outputs a pseudo engine sound that simulates an engine sound (e.g., the speaker outputs simulating engine sound corresponding to a virtual engine speed (par. 82)); and
a controller (e.g., a processing circuitry of the ECU 50 (par. 50 ),
wherein the controller (e.g., the processing circuitry) is configured to:
when the electric vehicle is not in the autonomous driving mode (e.g., electric vehicle operating on MT travel mode (par. 78-79)), change a motor torque output by the electric motor (e.g., electric motor driving torque TP (par. 68)) and the pseudo engine sound (e.g., engine sound output from the speaker (par. 82)) in response to an operation state of the accelerator pedal (e.g., input accelerator opening Pap (par. 58)) and the shift device operated by the driver (e.g., changing the output of the electric motor driving torque (TP) and engine sound output from the speaker based on the input operation of the clutch pedal and shift lever by the driver (par. 66-68) ); and
when the electric vehicle is in the autonomous driving mode (e.g., the electric vehicle operating under automated driving function / mode – par. 79), virtually determine the operation state of the accelerator pedal and the shift device without relying on any driver inputs and change the motor torque output by the electric motor (e.g., as the electric vehicle performs automatous driving to a destination, the vehicle required to determine a virtual accelerator pedal and shift device operation states for changing the vehicle electric motor torque while driving across multiple road types to a destination (e.g., slope, flat and other surfaces) – par. 79) and the pseudo engine sound in response to the virtual operation state (e.g., under automated driving function / mode, the ECU 50 generates engine sound that simulate the sound of selected engine type based driver selection and virtual engine speed – par. 82).
Regarding claim 2, Isami et al. disclose an electric vehicle wherein the controller is further configured to: manage one or more pieces of operation characteristic information representing a characteristic of an operation related to at least one of the accelerator pedal and the shift device (e.g., processing accelerator opening Pap (%) and shift lever inputs (par. 44-46) ).
when the electric vehicle is in the autonomous driving mode (e.g., the electric vehicle operating under automated driving function / mode – par. 79), determine the virtual operation state based on operation characteristic information selected from the one or more pieces of operation characteristic information (e.g., under automated driving function / mode, engine sound is configured to allow a user to select a preferred engine type to simulate the sound of selected engine type – par. 82).
Regarding claim 3, Isami et al. disclose an electric vehicle wherein the shift device is configured by:
a shift change device configured to arbitrarily select the gear stage from a plurality of gear stages (e.g., the shift lever 26 configured to function as a pseudo-shifter (shift device) for the driver to select one arbitrary virtual gear stage mode from among a plurality of virtual gear stage modes (par. 46)); and
a clutch operation device (e.g., a clutch pedal 28) that simulates operation of a clutch and is operated by the driver when performing a shift change with the shift change device (e.g., the clutch pedal 28 configured to function as a pseudo-clutch (clutch device) having a structure simulating a clutch pedal provided by the MT vehicle, wherein the pedal is depressed when the driver operates the shift lever 26 (par. 48) ).
Regarding claim 4, Isami et al. disclose an electric vehicle wherein each of the one or more pieces of operation characteristic information includes information related to at least one of a characteristic of an operation amount of the accelerator pedal during acceleration, e.g., detecting accelerator opening pedal Pap (%) and shift lever position GP during electric vehicle operation (par. 44 and 72)).
Regarding claim 5, Isami et al. disclose an electric vehicle wherein the shift device is configured by a sequential shifter that selects the gear stage by an upshift operation and a downshift operation (e.g., the shift lever 26 configured to shift up or shift down to the virtual gear stage mode on one stage higher or one stage lower during an operating state respectively (par. 89-90)).
Regarding claim 6, Isami et al. disclose an electric vehicle wherein each of the one or more pieces of operation characteristic information includes information related to at least one of a characteristic of an operation amount of the accelerator pedal during acceleration e.g., detecting accelerator opening pedal Pap (%) during the operation of the electric vehicle (par. 44 and 72)).
Regarding claim 7, Isami et al. disclose an electric vehicle wherein the controller comprises:
one or more memories storing a MT vehicle model (e.g., memory 54 for storing various control programs for controlling the electric vehicle 10, the latest shift position Gp, a map, and the like, which covers the MT vehicle model (par. 50)); and
processing circuitry connected to the one or more memories (e.g., a processing circuitry of the ECU 50 configured to read out and executes the control program or the like from the memory 54 (par. 50 )), the MT vehicle model is a model (e.g., electric vehicle operating on MT travel mode (par. 78-79)), simulating a torque characteristic of drive wheel torque in a MT vehicle (e.g., torque characteristic simulating gear stage of the MT vehicle (par. 46)) including an internal combustion engine in which an engine torque is controlled by operation of a gas pedal, a manual transmission in which a gear stage is switched by operation of a shifter, and a clutch that connects the internal combustion engine and the manual transmission (e.g., the torque characteristic simulation is based on virtual engine, manual transmission and clutch mechanism operations (par. 53 and 68) ), and
the processing circuitry (e.g., processing circuitry) is configured to:
determine an operation amount of the gas pedal to the MT vehicle model from the operation state of the accelerator pedal (e.g., determine input accelerator opening degree Pap / accelerator opening Pap (%) (par. 58 and 44));
determine an operation amount of the shifter and an operation of the clutch to the MT vehicle model from the operation state of the shift device (e.g., detecting a shift position Gp of the shift lever 26 representing a position of the virtual gear stage mode via a shift position sensor 36 (par. 47) and detecting the operation of the clutch pedal via sensor (par. 48));
calculate the drive wheel torque and a virtual engine speed of the internal combustion engine using the MT vehicle model (e.g., calculate the virtual engine speed Ne based on a driving condition (par. 55)) based on the operation amount of the gas pedal and the operation amount of the shifter (e.g., the virtual engine speed Ne is calculated based on a shift position Gp of the shift lever 26 and operation of the clutch pedal (abstract, par. 48, 55 and 100));
when changing the motor torque in response to the operation state, change the motor torque to apply the drive wheel torque to a drive wheel of the electric vehicle (e.g., changing the output of the electric motor driving torque (TP) based on the input operation of the clutch pedal and shift lever by the driver (par. 66-68) ); and when changing the pseudo engine sound in response to the operation state, change the pseudo engine sound using the virtual engine speed as a parameter (e.g., generate an engine sound that simulated the sound of the selected engine type (par. 82)).
Regarding claim 8, Isami et al. disclose an electric vehicle wherein the controller is further configured to: acquire a biological state of the driver (e.g., determine when a father is using the electric vehicle and select the MT travel mode (par. 79)); and change the pseudo engine sound based on the biological state (e.g., generating an engine sound that simulated the sound of the selected engine type (par. 82)).
Regarding claim 9, Isami et al. disclose system of an electric vehicle that uses an electric motor as a power unit for traveling (e.g., an electric vehicle 10 comprising an electric motor 2 as a driving source (par. 42)), comprising:
one or more memories (e.g., memory 54 (par. 50)); and
processing circuitry connected to the one or more memories (e.g., a processing circuitry of the ECU 50 configured to read out and executes the control program or the like from the memory 54 (par. 50 )),
wherein the electric vehicle is configured to be switchable to an autonomous driving mode in which at least acceleration and deceleration are automatically performed without driving operation by a driver (e.g., electric vehicle configured to switch from manual transmission (MT) travel mode to an autonomous travel mode (par. 79)), the electric vehicle comprises:
an accelerator pedal (e.g., an accelerator pedal 22 (par. 44));
a shift device (e.g., a shift lever (26) / pseudo-shift lever (par. 45)) for selecting a gear stage that simulates operation of a transmission (e.g., a shift lever (26) configured to operate as pseudo-shifter for the driver to select virtual gear stage mode simulating the gear stages of manual transmission (MT) vehicle (par. 46 and Figure 1)); and
a speaker (e.g., a speaker) that outputs a pseudo engine sound that simulates an engine sound (e.g., the speaker outputs simulating engine sound corresponding to a virtual engine speed (par. 82)), and
the processing circuitry (e.g., a processing circuitry of the ECU 50 (par. 50 ) is configured to:
when the electric vehicle is not in the autonomous driving mode (e.g., electric vehicle operating on MT travel mode (par. 78-79)), change a motor torque output by the electric motor (e.g., electric motor driving torque TP (par. 68)) and the pseudo engine sound (e.g., engine sound output from the speaker (par. 82)) in response to an operation state of the accelerator pedal (e.g., input accelerator opening Pap (par. 58)) and the shift device operated by the driver (e.g., changing the output of the electric motor driving torque (TP) and engine sound output from the speaker based on the input operation of the clutch pedal and shift lever by the driver (par. 66-68) ); and
when the electric vehicle is in the autonomous driving mode (e.g., the electric vehicle operating under automated driving function / mode – par. 79), virtually determine the operation state of the accelerator pedal and the shift device without relying on any driver input and change the motor torque output by the electric motor (e.g., as the electric vehicle performs automatous driving to a destination, the vehicle required to determine a virtual accelerator pedal and shift device operation states for changing the vehicle electric motor torque while driving across multiple road types to a destination (e.g., slope, flat and other surfaces) – par. 79) and the pseudo engine sound in response to the virtual operation state (e.g., under automated driving function / mode, the ECU 50 generates engine sound that simulate the sound of selected engine type based driver selection and virtual engine speed – par. 82).
Regarding claim 10, Isami et al. disclose system of an electric vehicle wherein the one or more memories stores one or more pieces of operation characteristic information representing a characteristic of an operation related to at least one of the accelerator pedal and the shift device (e.g. ,the memory 54 stores various control programs for controlling the electric vehicle 10, the latest shift position Gp, a map, and the like (par. 50 and 58)).
when the electric vehicle is in the autonomous driving mode (e.g., the electric vehicle operating under automated driving function / mode – par. 79), determine the virtual operation state based on operation characteristic information selected from the one or more pieces of operation characteristic information (e.g., under automated driving function / mode, engine sound is configured to allow a user to select a preferred engine type to simulate the sound of selected engine type – par. 82).
Regarding claim 11, Isami et al. disclose system of an electric vehicle wherein the one or more memories stores a MT vehicle model simulating a torque characteristic of drive wheel torque in a MT vehicle (e.g., memory 54 for storing various control programs for controlling the electric vehicle 10, the latest shift position Gp, a map, and the like (par. 50) and torque characteristic simulating gear stage of the MT vehicle (par. 46)) including an internal combustion engine in which an engine torque is controlled by operation of a gas pedal, a manual transmission in which a gear stage is switched by operation of a shifter, and a clutch that connects the internal combustion engine and the manual transmission (e.g., the torque characteristic simulation is based on virtual engine, manual transmission and clutch mechanism operations (par. 53 and 68) ), and
the processing circuitry (e.g., processing circuitry) is further configured to:
determine an operation amount of the gas pedal to the MT vehicle model from the operation state of the accelerator pedal (e.g., determine input accelerator opening degree Pap / accelerator opening Pap (%) (par. 58 and 44));
determine an operation amount of the shifter and an operation of the clutch to the MT vehicle model from the operation state of the shift device (e.g., detecting a shift position Gp of the shift lever 26 representing a position of the virtual gear stage mode via a shift position sensor 36 (par. 47) and detecting the operation of the clutch pedal via sensor (par. 48));
calculate the drive wheel torque and a virtual engine speed of the internal combustion engine using the MT vehicle model (e.g., calculate the virtual engine speed Ne based on a driving condition (par. 55)) based on the operation amount of the gas pedal and the operation amount of the shifter (e.g., the virtual engine speed Ne is calculated based on a shift position Gp of the shift lever 26 and operation of the clutch pedal (abstract, par. 48, 55 and 100));
when changing the motor torque in response to the operation state, change the motor torque to apply the drive wheel torque to a drive wheel of the electric vehicle (e.g., changing the output of the electric motor driving torque (TP) based on the input operation of the clutch pedal and shift lever by the driver (par. 66-68) ); and when changing the pseudo engine sound in response to the operation state, change the pseudo engine sound using the virtual engine speed as a parameter (e.g., generating an engine sound that simulated the sound of the selected engine type (par. 82)).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
Isami et al. (US 2024/0300505 A1) is directed to an electric vehicle configured to simulate manual transmission and reproduce engine sound.
Imamura et al. (US 2022/0041157 A1) is directed to an electric vehicle configured to imitate behavior of convention vehicle having an engine and a manual transmission and imitate engine noise sound.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jorge O. Peche whose telephone number is (571)270-1339. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Khoi H. Tran can be reached at 571 272 6919. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/J.O.P/ Examiner, Art Unit 3656 /KHOI H TRAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3656
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