Automated driving solution gateway

• US 10,106,106 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2014
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Haggerty, Terry, Visintainer, Randal Henry, Mascarenas, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cuong H
• Application Number:
  US14/491,570
• Publication Number:
  US 20160082903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,495 Days
• Field of Search: 701 2, 701 36, 701 314, 701 22- 25, 701 3, 180204, 705 44, 709 28, 726 3- 5, 726 7
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/023 for transmission of signals between vehicle parts or subsystems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/00 Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of vehicle sub-units
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00

Abstract

A gateway module of a vehicle may be in communication with vehicle components over a vehicle bus and with an autonomous driving system over a non-vehicle bus connection. The gateway module may be configured to send data from the vehicle bus over the connection to the autonomous driving system, receive a vehicle action request over the connection from the autonomous driving system, and provide the vehicle action request to the vehicle bus for processing by the vehicle components to autonomously drive the vehicle. The autonomous driving computing device may be configured to authenticate with the gateway module of a vehicle over the non-vehicle bus connection, receive data from the vehicle bus over the connection to the gateway module, and send the vehicle action request over the connection to the gateway module for providing to the vehicle components over the vehicle bus.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a gateway controller of a vehicle, including a hardware processor in electrical communication with vehicle controllers over a vehicle bus and in electrical communication with an in-vehicle autonomous driving system over a non-vehicle bus connection, the processor programmed to

negotiate a key with the autonomous driving system to use to encrypt messages sent over the non-vehicle bus connection between the autonomous driving computing device and the gateway controller,

send data from the vehicle bus over the connection to the autonomous driving system encrypted using the key,

receive a vehicle action request over the connection from the autonomous driving system encrypted using the key, and

translate the vehicle action request into a command provided to the vehicle bus for processing by the vehicle controllers to autonomously drive the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the gateway controller is further programmed to authenticate the autonomous driving system to validate that the autonomous driving system is authorized to interact with the vehicle.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the gateway controller is further programmed to validate the data from the vehicle bus before providing the data from the vehicle bus over the connection to the autonomous driving system.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein to validate the data from the vehicle bus includes at least one of to:

(i) adjust a data format of the data from the vehicle bus to conform with at least one data format requirement of the autonomous driving system, or to (ii) filter the data from the vehicle bus to provide only a subset of message types sent over the vehicle bus to the autonomous driving system.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the gateway controller is further programmed to include an indication in the vehicle action request identifying the vehicle action request as being an automation command.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the gateway controller is further programmed to send a vehicle action response over the connection to the autonomous driving system indicative of a result of the vehicle action request.

3. A computer-implemented method comprising:

negotiating a key, by a gateway of a vehicle, between the gateway of the vehicle and an autonomous driving system of the vehicle to use to encrypt messages sent over a non-vehicle bus connection between the autonomous driving computing device and the gateway, the gateway being in communication with vehicle components over a vehicle bus and with the autonomous driving system over the non-vehicle bus connection,

sending, by the gateway, data from the vehicle bus over the connection to the autonomous driving system encrypted using the key,

receiving, by the gateway, a vehicle action request over the connection from the autonomous driving system encrypted using the key, and

providing, by the gateway, the vehicle action request to the vehicle bus for processing by the vehicle components to autonomously drive the vehicle.

9. The method of claim 3, further comprising sending a vehicle action response over the connection to the autonomous driving system indicative of a result of the vehicle action request.

14. The method of claim 3, further comprising including an indication in the vehicle action request identifying the vehicle action request as being an automation command.

15. The method of claim 3, further comprising authenticating the autonomous driving system to validate that the autonomous driving system is authorized to interact with the vehicle.

16. The method of claim 3, further comprising validating the data from the vehicle bus before providing the data from the vehicle bus over the connection to the autonomous driving system.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein validating the data from the vehicle bus includes at least one of:

(i) adjusting a data format of the data from the vehicle bus to conform with at least one data format requirement of the autonomous driving system, or (ii) filtering the data from the vehicle bus to provide only a subset of message types sent over the vehicle bus to the autonomous driving system.

8. A system comprising:

an autonomous driving computing device embedded in a vehicle, having one or more processors configured to execute computer instructions, and a storage medium on which the computer-executable instructions are maintained, programmed to

authenticate with gateway hardware of the vehicle by negotiating a key over a non-vehicle bus connection, the vehicle including vehicle controllers connected to the gateway hardware over a vehicle bus,

receive data provided by the vehicle controllers to the vehicle bus via the non-vehicle bus connection to the gateway hardware, and

send, over the non-vehicle bus connection to the gateway hardware based on the data received from the gateway hardware, a vehicle action request encrypted using the key and including an instruction to be provided over the vehicle bus by the gateway hardware to command the vehicle controllers to autonomously drive the vehicle.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the autonomous driving computing device is further configured to:

receive input from autonomous driving sensors, and

determine the vehicle action request further based on the input received from the autonomous driving sensors.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the autonomous driving computing device is further configured to:

receive input from a vehicle connectivity platform configured to perform at least one of vehicle-to-vehicle communication with other vehicles and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication with vehicle infrastructure; and

determine the vehicle action request further based on the input received from the vehicle connectivity platform.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the vehicle action request includes at least one of a throttle adjustment, a steering angle adjustment, and a braking adjustment to be performed by the vehicle controllers.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the autonomous driving computing device is further configured to receive a vehicle action response over the connection to the gateway indicative of a result of the vehicle action request.