A new selection procedure for the optimal vehicle mass detection method depending on environmental parameters

The global sales volume of automobiles increased in the last years and electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles are main topics of the automobile industry. Many well-known automobile manufactures have already developed their own electric vehicles. Furthermore, the development of self-driving cars is content of many research projects and the first autonomous vehicles are already driving on the roads worldwide. These changes in the automobile sector lead to new challenges, especially the compliance of safety requirements. Therefore, the industry developed different driver assistance systems for the realization of an adaptive cruise control or trajectory planning. The goals of those systems are the enhancement of safety and comfort. The systems need many input parameters, like the distance to other cars or the current velocity. One important parameter is the current vehicle mass. Based on this, some existing systems and methods as well as different application examples are presented in this paper to clarify their necessity. The focus of this paper is on the presentation of a new selection procedure for the optimal vehicle mass detection method depending on environmental parameters and the advantages of this system in comparison to previous systems.