Autonomous vehicle unauthorized passenger or object detection

• US 10,150,448 B2
• Filed: 09/18/2015
• Issued: 12/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Huennekens, Johannes, Ellis, Samuel, Foletta, Greg
• Primary Examiner(s): Anwari, Maceeh
• Application Number:
  US14/858,114
• Publication Number:
  US 20170080900A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,180 Days
• Field of Search: 701 25
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/31 of human presence inside or outside the vehicle
• 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: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0212 with means for defining a desired trajectory involving a plurality of land vehicles G05D1/0287
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/00 Alarms responsive to a single specified undesired or abnormal condition and not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/22 responsive to presence or absence of persons

Abstract

A vehicle system includes a sensor programmed to output an occupant or object detection signal indicating a presence of an unauthorized occupant or unauthorized object in a host vehicle. An autonomous mode controller is programmed to determine, from the occupant or object detection signal, whether to operate the host vehicle in an autonomous mode.

Claims

1. A vehicle system comprising:

a sensor programmed to output an occupant detection signal indicating a presence of an occupant in a host vehicle;

a camera programmed to capture an image of the occupant in the host vehicle; and

an autonomous mode controller programmed to determine, from the occupant detection signal, whether an unauthorized passenger is present in the host vehicle and temporarily prevent the host vehicle from operating in an autonomous mode in response to detecting the unauthorized passenger,

wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to determine that the occupant is the unauthorized passenger as a result of detecting the occupant after receiving a request for the host vehicle to proceed to a pick-up location and before the host vehicle arrives at the pick-up location,

wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to prompt a user to provide a user input via a remote device external to the host vehicle as a result of detecting the unauthorized passenger and receive the user input after prompting the user to provide the user input, wherein prompting the user includes transmitting the image of the occupant captured by the camera to the remote device and wherein the user input instructs the autonomous mode controller to operate the host vehicle in the autonomous mode despite detecting the unauthorized passenger shown in the image.

2. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to autonomously operate the host vehicle in at least one of the pick-up mode, a drop-off mode, and an inspection mode.

3. The vehicle system of claim 2, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to begin operating the host vehicle in the pick-up mode as a result of determining that the host vehicle has no occupants.

4. The vehicle system of claim 3, wherein operating the host vehicle in the pick-up mode includes beginning to autonomously navigate the host vehicle to the pick-up location in response to detecting that the host vehicle has no occupants.

5. The vehicle system of claim 2, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to operate the host vehicle in the drop-off mode as a result of determining that the host vehicle has at least one occupant after arriving at the pick-up location.

6. The vehicle system of claim 5, wherein operating the host vehicle in the drop-off mode includes autonomously navigating the host vehicle, with the at least one occupant, to a drop-off location.

7. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to determine a vehicle status from the occupant detection signal.

8. The vehicle system of claim 7, wherein the vehicle status includes at least one of an occupied status, indicating that the host vehicle is occupied with at least one occupant, and an unoccupied status, indicating that the host vehicle has no occupants.

9. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to receive dispatch information including a destination and navigate the host vehicle to the destination.

20. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the user input confirms the presence of the occupant in the host vehicle and wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to autonomously navigate the host vehicle to a police station as a result of receiving the user input.

10. A vehicle system comprising:

an object sensor programmed to output an object detection signal indicating a presence of an unauthorized object in a host vehicle;

,

a camera programmed to capture an image of the unauthorized object in the host vehicle; and

an autonomous mode controller programmed to determine, from the object detection signal, whether the unauthorized object is present in the host vehicle and temporarily prevent the host vehicle from operating in an autonomous mode in response to detecting the unauthorized object,

wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to detect the unauthorized object as a result of detecting an object located in the host vehicle after receiving a request for the host vehicle to proceed to a pick-up location and before arriving at the pick-up location,

wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to prompt a user to provide a user input via a remote device external to the host vehicle as a result of detecting the unauthorized object and receive the user input after prompting the user to provide the user input,

wherein prompting the user includes transmitting the image of the unauthorized object captured by the camera to the remote device, the user input instructing the autonomous mode controller to operate the host vehicle in the autonomous mode despite detecting the unauthorized object shown in the image.

11. The vehicle system of claim 10, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to autonomously operate in an inspection mode as a result of receiving the user input, wherein the user input confirms the presence of the unauthorized object.

12. The vehicle system of claim 11, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to begin operating the host vehicle in the pick-up mode as a result of determining that the host vehicle has no unauthorized objects.

13. The vehicle system of claim 12, wherein operating the host vehicle in the pick-up mode includes beginning to autonomously navigate the host vehicle to the pick-up location in response to detecting that the host vehicle has no unauthorized objects.

14. The vehicle system of claim 11, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to operate the host vehicle in the drop-off mode as a result of determining that the host vehicle has at least one occupant after arriving at the pick-up location and wherein operating the host vehicle in the drop-off mode includes autonomously navigating the host vehicle, with the at least one occupant, to a drop-off location.

15. The vehicle system of claim 10, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to receive dispatch information including a pick-up location and navigate the host vehicle to the pick-up location.

16. A method comprising:

receiving a vehicle status signal indicating a presence of at least one of an unauthorized object and an unauthorized occupant in a host vehicle;

determining that at least one of the unauthorized object and the unauthorized occupant is present in the host vehicle from the vehicle status signal;

capturing an image of at least one of the unauthorized object and the unauthorized occupant, wherein the unauthorized occupant is an occupant detected after receiving a request for the host vehicle to proceed to a pick-up location and before the host vehicle arrives at the pick-up location and wherein the unauthorized object is an object detected in the host vehicle after receiving the request for the host vehicle to proceed to the pick-up location and before the host vehicle arrives at the pick-up location;

temporarily preventing the host vehicle from operating in an autonomous pick-up mode as a result of determining that at least one of the unauthorized object and the unauthorized occupant is present in the host vehicle;

transmitting the image to a remote device external to the host vehicle;

prompting a user to provide a user input via the remote device external to the host vehicle as a result of determining that the at least one of the unauthorized object and the unauthorized occupant is present in the host vehicle;

receiving the user input from the remote device external to the host vehicle, the user input confirming the presence of at least one of the unauthorized occupant and the unauthorized object shown in the image; and

authorizing, via the user input, the host vehicle to autonomously navigate the host vehicle to one of a cleaning facility and a police station as a result of receiving the user input.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the autonomous pick-up mode includes autonomously navigating the host vehicle to the pick-up location.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving dispatch information including the pick-up location.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising beginning to navigate the host vehicle to the pick-up location as a result of the vehicle status signal indicating that no unauthorized objects and no unauthorized occupants are in the host vehicle.