Vehicle cleaner system and vehicle system

Abstract

A vehicle cleaner system includes: a cleaner unit mounted on a vehicle and configured to clean an external sensor acquiring information on outside of the vehicle; an advanced notification information acquiring unit configured to acquire expressway advanced notification information notifying that the vehicle has arrived within a predetermined distance from an entrance of an expressway; and a cleaner control unit configured to, when the advanced notification information acquiring unit has acquired the expressway advanced notification information, control the cleaner unit to clean the external sensor or diagnose whether or not the external sensor needs to be cleaned by the cleaner unit.

1 . A vehicle cleaner system mounted on a vehicle, the vehicle cleaner system comprising:
 a cleaner unit configured to clean an external sensor with a cleaning medium based on a dirt signal for detecting dirt on the external sensor acquiring information on outside of the vehicle; and   a cleaner control unit configured to control the cleaner unit,   wherein the cleaner control unit is configured such that
 the external sensor is cleaned by the cleaner unit based on the dirt signal, 
 whether or not the external sensor is in a clean state after the external sensor is cleaned is determined, and 
 when an operation amount of the cleaner unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined value even when it is determined that the external sensor is not in the clean state, an operation of the cleaner unit is stopped. 
   
     
     
         2 . The vehicle cleaner system according to  claim 1 ,
 wherein the cleaner control unit is configured to, in a case where at least one of a discharge amount of the cleaning medium, the number of times of discharge of the cleaning medium, the number of times of discharge per unit time of the cleaning medium, and discharge time of the cleaning medium is equal to or more than a predetermined value, determine that the operation amount of the cleaner unit is equal to or greater than the predetermined value.   
     
     
         3 . The vehicle cleaner system according to  claim 1 ,
 wherein the cleaning medium includes a cleaning liquid and air, and   wherein the cleaner control unit is configured to, in a case where the number of times of performing a cleaning set is equal to or greater than a predetermined number of times, determine that the operation amount of the cleaner unit is equal to or greater than the predetermined value, each cleaning set including at least one discharge of the cleaning liquid and at least one subsequent discharge of the air.   
     
     
         4 . The vehicle cleaner system according to  claim 1 ,
 wherein the cleaning medium includes a cleaning liquid and air, and   wherein the cleaner control unit is configured such that
 after the cleaning liquid is discharged toward the external sensor based on the dirt signal, the external sensor is cleaned by discharging the air toward the external sensor, 
 in a case where it is determined that the external sensor is not in the clean state, discharge of the cleaning liquid is stopped and discharge of the air is continued for a predetermined time, and 
 an operation of the cleaner unit is stopped by determining that the operation amount of the cleaner unit is equal to or greater than the predetermined value after lapse of the predetermined time and stopping the discharge of the air. 
   
     
     
         5 . The vehicle cleaner system according to  claim 1 ,
 wherein the vehicle includes a vehicle control unit, and   wherein the cleaner control unit is configured to, in a case where it is determined that the external sensor is not in the clean state, output a non-cleaning signal indicating that the external sensor is not in the clean state to the vehicle control unit.   
     
     
         6 . The vehicle cleaner system according to  claim 5 ,
 wherein the vehicle includes a sensor state display unit capable of presenting the clean state of the external sensor to a user, and   wherein the vehicle control unit is configured to cause the sensor state display unit to display to indicate the external sensor is not in the clean state based on the non-cleaning signal received from the cleaner control unit.   
     
     
         7 . The vehicle cleaner system according to  claim 5 ,
 wherein the vehicle control unit is capable of selectively executing an automatic driving mode and a manual driving mode, and   wherein the vehicle control unit is configured to switch a driving mode from the automatic driving mode to the manual driving mode based on the non-cleaning signal received from the cleaner control unit.