DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-13, 15, 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Poull (US 2023/0064358)
As to claim 1 Poull discloses a method of a control system for controlling a vehicle speed (v) of a vehicle, the method comprising:
controlling the vehicle speed (v) towards an adjusted reference speed (v.sub.ref_adj) based on:
a reference speed (v.sub.ref) provided by a speed control system of the vehicle (Paragraph 140 “Despite some discrepancies in selection of constant cruising sectors, both algorithms, when validated in practice, delivered surprisingly almost identical results. FIG. 12 illustrates cumulative energy consumption on the road section B represented in FIG. 11B is given below together with the result representing reference drive with the speed limit 70 mph, with the reference being the upper line, the script-generated sectors being the middle line, and the manually selected sectors being the lower line. “, Paragraph 154 For example, if there is a curve in a cruise speed route segment that would be unsafe to navigate at 70 miles per hour but safe to navigate at 65 miles per hour, and the corresponding cruising speed would otherwise be 70 miles per hour, the corresponding cruising speed could be set to 65 miles per hour.”);and
a visibility through at least one curve of a road ahead of the vehicle (Paragraph 154 For example, if there is a curve in a cruise speed route segment that would be unsafe to navigate at 70 miles per hour but safe to navigate at 65 miles per hour, and the corresponding cruising speed would otherwise be 70 miles per hour, the corresponding cruising speed could be set to 65 miles per hour.”.)
As to claim 2 Poull discloses a method, the method further comprising:
receiving the reference speed (v.sub.ref) from the speed control system determining the adjusted reference speed (v.sub.ref_adj) based on:
the received reference speed (v.sub.ref) (Paragraph 140, 154); and
the visibility through the at least one curve of the road ahead of the vehicle(Paragraph 140, 154).
As to claim 3 Poull discloses a method wherein the control of the vehicle speed (v) towards the adjusted reference speed (v.sub.ref_adj) reduces the vehicle speed (v) below the reference speed (v.sub.ref) if the visibility through the at least one curve is at least partly restricted (Paragraph 154).
As to claim 4 Poull discloses a method wherein the speed control system is one in the group of: a curve speed cruise control system; a one pedal drive system; an adaptive one pedal drive system; a cruise control system; an adaptive cruise control system; an active prediction cruise control system; a cruise control system obtaining a speed demand from an offboard entity; and a cruise control system utilizing traffic sign recognition (Paragraph 37).
As to claim 5 Poull discloses a method wherein the method comprises:
determining the visibility through the at least one curve based on information provided by one or more onboard sensors(Paragraph 43)
As to claim 6 Poull discloses a method wherein the one or more onboard sensors comprise at least one in the group of: a camera; a radar system; a sonar system; a lidar system; a visibility sensor; and a precipitation sensor(Paragraph 43).
As to claim 7 Poull discloses a method wherein the method comprises: determining the visibility through the at least one curve based on map data (Paragraph 122).
As to claim 8 Poull discloses a method wherein the method comprises: determining the visibility through the at least one curve based on vehicle-to-everything information (Paragraph 39).
As to claim 9 Poull discloses a method wherein the adjusted reference speed (v.sub.ref_adj) is determined based also on a lateral road inclination of the at least one curve(Paragraph 60)
As to claim 10 Poull discloses a method wherein the adjusted reference speed (v.sub.ref_adj) is determined based also on a longitudinal road inclination of the at least one curve(Paragraph 60).
As to claim 11 Poull discloses a method wherein the adjusted reference speed (v.sub.ref_adj) is determined based also on a road friction of the at least one curve(Paragraph 84)
As to claim 12 Poull discloses a method wherein the adjusted reference speed (v.sub.ref_adj) is determined based also on a usable road width of the at least one curve(Paragraph 105).
As to claim 13 Poull discloses a method wherein the adjusted reference speed (v.sub.ref_adj) is determined based also on characteristics of at least one off-road area adjacent to the at least one curve(Paragraph 105).
As to claim 15 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 1.
As to claim 17 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 1.
As to claim 18 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Poull (US 2023/0064358) in view of Shiri (US 2014/0032087)
As to claim 14 Shiri teaches a method wherein the adjusted reference speed (v.sub.ref_adj) is determined based also on a center of gravity of the vehicle (Paragraph 72). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Poull to include the teachings of adjusting the speed based on the center of gravity for the purpose of controlling the vehicle at a safe speed along the curve.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IMRAN K MUSTAFA whose telephone number is (571)270-1471. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, James J Lee can be reached at 571-270-5965. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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IMRAN K. MUSTAFA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3668
/IMRAN K MUSTAFA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3668
9/4/2026
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