Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to communications filed on 12/20/2024. Accordingly, claims 1-10 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1- 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP2021151168A (hereinafter 168) in view of JP2012127427A (hereinafter 427).
As per claim 1, 168 discloses: a battery electric vehicle that includes an electric motor as a driving source, the battery electric vehicle comprising (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 in particular fig. 1 and Abstract; electric vehicle):
an accelerator pedal that is used to drive the battery electric vehicle (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 in particular fig. 1 and Abstract; electric vehicle with accelerator pedal 44);
a pseudo sequential shifter and simulating a sequential shifter that is used to perform a shifting operation of a manual transmission internal combustion engine vehicle (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 in particular fig. 1-9 and Abstract; electric vehicle and virtual shift control device); and
a processor that controls the battery electric vehicle according to an operation of the accelerator pedal, wherein the processor is configured to execute, according to selection by a driver, a control mode in which an operation of the pseudo sequential shifter is associated with a virtual shift position that is a virtually implemented shift position, and an operation amount of the accelerator pedal, the virtual shift position, and a vehicle speed of the battery electric vehicle are associated with torque of the electric motor (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 and Abstract & Description; electric vehicle, plurality of gear stage modes, torque characteristics with respect to rotation speed of the motor generator).
168 discloses the invention as detailed above.
However, 168 does not appear to explicitly disclose, wherein the shifter is installed on a steering automatically shift down the virtual shift position according to the vehicle speed when a steering angle of a steering wheel becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined angle during execution of the control mode.
Nevertheless, 427 who is in the same field of endeavor, discloses wherein the shifter is installed on a steering automatically shift down the virtual shift position according to the vehicle speed when a steering angle of a steering wheel becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined angle during execution of the control mode (see 427 at least fig. 1-6 and in particular fig. 1 [3a, 3b] and Abstract and Description; automatic transmission with automatic shift mode and downshifting based upon curved road/road curvatures).
One of ordinary skill in the art—prior to the effective filing date of the given invention—would have been motivated to combine 427’s disclosure of shift controller of automatic transmission with those of virtual shift control device of an electric vehicle of 168’s in order to form a better user experience (i.e., by reducing the discomfort a driver feels while handling curves on a road).
Motivation to combine 168 with 427 not only comes from knowledge well known in the art, but also from 168 (see at least Description).
Both 168 and 427 disclose claim 2: wherein the pseudo sequential shifter is installed on the steering wheel (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 and Abstract & Description; and see 427 at least fig. 1-6 and in particular fig. 1).
Reason to combine 168 and 427, in the instant claim, is the same as that in claim 1 above.
Both 168 and 427 disclose claim 3: wherein the pseudo sequential shifter is mounted on a steering column (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 and Abstract & Description; and see 427 at least fig. 1-6 and in particular fig. 1).
Reason to combine 168 and 427, in the instant claim, is the same as that in claim 1 above.
Both 168 and 427 disclose claim 4: wherein the pseudo sequential shifter is a button installed on the steering wheel (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 and Abstract & Description; and see 427 at least fig. 1-6 and in particular fig. 1).
Reason to combine 168 and 427, in the instant claim, is the same as that in claim 1 above.
Both 168 and 427 disclose claim 5: wherein the pseudo sequential shifter is a pseudo paddle shifter that simulates a paddle shifter (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 and Abstract & Description; and see 427 at least fig. 1-6 and in particular fig. 1).
Reason to combine 168 and 427, in the instant claim, is the same as that in claim 1 above.
Both 168 and 427 disclose claim 6: wherein the pseudo paddle shifter is a pair of paddles installed on right and left sides of the steering (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 and Abstract & Description; and see 427 at least fig. 1-6 and in particular fig. 1).
Reason to combine 168 and 427, in the instant claim, is the same as that in claim 1 above.
Both 168 and 427 disclose claim 7: wherein when the vehicle speed decreases and falls below a vehicle speed set for each of the virtual shift positions, the virtual shift position is automatically shifted down according to the vehicle speed (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 and Abstract & Description; and see 427 at least fig. 1-6 and in particular fig. 1).
Reason to combine 168 and 427, in the instant claim, is the same as that in claim 1 above.
Both 168 and 427 disclose claim 8: further comprising a speaker that outputs a pseudo engine sound to inside of the battery electric vehicle, the pseudo engine sound being an engine sound that replicates an engine sound of the manual transmission internal combustion engine vehicle, wherein the processor is further configured to, during the execution of the control mode, play the pseudo engine sound from the speaker, and associate the operation amount of the accelerator pedal, the virtual shift position, and the vehicle speed with a volume of the pseudo engine sound (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 and Abstract & Description; and see 427 at least fig. 1-6 and in particular fig. 1).
Reason to combine 168 and 427, in the instant claim, is the same as that in claim 1 above.
Both 168 and 427 disclose claim 9: wherein automatically shifting down the virtual shift position according to the vehicle speed includes shifting the virtual shift position from a current shift position to a shift position that is one gear lower than the current shift position according to the vehicle speed.
Both 168 and 427 disclose claim 10: A non-transitory storage medium storing instructions that are executable by one or more processors of a battery electric vehicle and that cause the one or more processors to perform functions, the battery electric vehicle including an electric motor as a driving source and including: an accelerator pedal that is used to drive the battery electric vehicle (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 in particular fig. 1 and Abstract; electric vehicle); a pseudo sequential shifter installed on a steering and simulating a sequential shifter that is used to perform a shifting operation of a manual transmission internal combustion engine vehicle (see 427 at least fig. 1-6 and in particular fig. 1 [3a, 3b] and Abstract and Description); and the one or more processors that control the battery electric vehicle according to an operation of the accelerator pedal (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 in particular fig. 1 and Abstract; electric vehicle), the functions comprising:
executing, according to selection by a driver, a control mode in which an operation of the pseudo sequential shifter is associated with a virtual shift position that is a virtually implemented shift position, and an operation amount of the accelerator pedal, the virtual shift position, and a vehicle speed of the battery electric vehicle are associated with torque of the electric motor (see 168 at least fig. 1-9 and Abstract & Description; electric vehicle, plurality of gear stage modes, torque characteristics with respect to rotation speed of the motor generator); and
automatically shifting down the virtual shift position according to the vehicle speed when a steering angle of a steering wheel becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined angle during execution of the control mode (see 427 at least fig. 1-6 and in particular fig. 1 [3a, 3b] and Abstract and Description; automatic transmission with automatic shift mode and downshifting based upon curved road/road curvatures).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MACEEH ANWARI whose telephone number is 571-272-7591. The examiner can normally be reached on 9-9:30.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Ortiz can be reached on 571-272-1206. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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MACEEH . ANWARI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3663
/MACEEH ANWARI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3663
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