Self-driving vehicle systems and methods

• US 10,268,192 B1
• Filed: 10/19/2018
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Drivent LLC
• Original Assignee: Drivent Technologies Inc.
• Inventors: Wengreen, Eric John, Schwie, Wesley Edward
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lewandroski, Sara J
• Application Number:
  US16/166,057
• Time in Patent Office: 186 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/06 Automatic manoeuvring for parking
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0016 characterised by the operator's input device input arrangements for computing systems in general G06F3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0022 characterised by the communication link data switching networks in general H04L12/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0027 involving a plurality of vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling fleet control of land vehicles from a control room G05D1/0297; traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00; for marine craft G08G3/00; for aircraft G08G5/00
• 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: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching

Abstract

Self-driving vehicles have unlimited potential to learn and predict human behavior and perform actions accordingly. Vehicle management systems can be configured to help govern self-driving vehicles. A vehicle management system can communicatively couple a self-driving vehicle to a remote computing device of a user of the vehicle. Losing communication with the remote computing device can cause the vehicle management system to take actions designed to safeguard the user.

Claims

1. A method of using a vehicle management system to operate a self-driving vehicle, wherein the vehicle management system is configured to be communicatively coupled with a remote computing device configured to operate software adapted to enable a user to control behaviors of the self-driving vehicle, the method comprising:

coupling communicatively, by the vehicle management system, the remote computing device to the self-driving vehicle;

sending, by the vehicle management system, a notification to an emergency contact in response to determining, by the vehicle management system, that the remote computing device is no longer communicatively coupled to the vehicle management system;

in response to sending the notification, receiving from the emergency contact, by the vehicle management system, an instruction to move the self-driving vehicle to a remote location; and

instructing, by the vehicle management system, the self-driving vehicle to move to the remote location.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the notification in response to determining, by the vehicle management system, that the user is not located at a pick-up location.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from the emergency contact, by the vehicle management system, at least one of a pick-up time and a pick-up location for the user in response to sending the notification.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a first wireless communication from the vehicle management system to the remote computing device in response to determining that the remote computing device is no longer communicatively coupled to the vehicle management system, wherein the first wireless communication is configured to elicit a reply wireless communication from the remote computing device to the vehicle management system after the remote computing device regains wireless communication abilities, and then instructing, by the vehicle management system, the self-driving vehicle to park in response to receiving the reply wireless communication.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote location is a home base.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote location is a parking location.

7. A method of using a vehicle management system to operate a self-driving vehicle, wherein the vehicle management system is configured to be communicatively coupled with a remote computing device configured to operate software adapted to enable a user to control behaviors of the self-driving vehicle, the method comprising:

coupling communicatively, by the vehicle management system, the remote computing device to the self-driving vehicle; and

sending, by the vehicle management system, a notification to an emergency contact in response to determining, by the vehicle management system, that the remote computing device is no longer communicatively coupled to the vehicle management system, wherein the notification comprises a first indication of a most recent drop-off location of the user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the notification comprises a second indication of a location of the self-driving vehicle.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising sending the notification in response to determining, by the vehicle management system, that the user is not located at a pick-up location.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising receiving from the emergency contact, by the vehicle management system, at least one of a pick-up time and a pick-up location for the user in response to sending the notification.

11. A method of using a vehicle management system to operate a self-driving vehicle, wherein the vehicle management system is configured to be communicatively coupled with a remote computing device configured to operate software adapted to enable a user to control behaviors of the self-driving vehicle, the method comprising:

coupling communicatively, by the vehicle management system, the remote computing device to the self-driving vehicle; and

sending, by the vehicle management system, a notification to an emergency contact in response to determining, by the vehicle management system, that the remote computing device is no longer communicatively coupled to the vehicle management system, wherein the emergency contact comprises an entity chosen prior to the vehicle management system determining that the remote computing device is no longer communicatively coupled to the vehicle management system, and wherein the emergency contact comprises the entity authorized to send movement instructions to the self-driving vehicle in an event that the vehicle management system is communicatively uncoupled from the remote computing device of the user.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving from the emergency contact, by the vehicle management system, a waiting location in response to sending the notification, and then instructing, by the vehicle management system, the self-driving vehicle to move to the waiting location.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the waiting location is located remotely relative to a pick-up location of the user.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the notification comprises an indication of a location of the self-driving vehicle.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising instructing, by the vehicle management system, the self-driving vehicle to go to a most recent drop-off location of the user in response to determining, by the vehicle management system, that the remote computing device is no longer communicatively coupled to the vehicle management system.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising determining, by the vehicle management system, that the user is not located at the most recent drop-off location, and instructing, by the vehicle management system, the self-driving vehicle to move away from the most recent drop-off location and to return to the most recent drop-off location after a first period of time, and determining, by the vehicle management system, that the user is not located at the most recent drop-off location after the first period of time, and instructing, by the vehicle management system, the self-driving vehicle to move away from the most recent drop-off location and to return to the most recent drop-off location after a second period of time that is greater than the first period of time.

17. The method of claim 16, determining that the user is not located at the most recent drop-off location after the second period of time, and instructing, by the vehicle management system, the self-driving vehicle to move away from the most recent drop-off location and to return to the most recent drop-off location after a third period of time that is greater than the second period of time.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the notification comprises an indication of a last known location of the user.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining, by the vehicle management system, that the remote computing device is no longer communicatively coupled to the vehicle management system by sending a wireless communication to the remote computing device and then determining that the remote computing device did not respond to the wireless communication.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining, by the vehicle management system, that the remote computing device is no longer communicatively coupled to the vehicle management system by determining that a battery of the remote computing device is depleted.

21. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining, by the vehicle management system, that the remote computing device is no longer communicatively coupled to the vehicle management system in response to determining that the vehicle management system has not received a wireless communication from the remote computing device for a predetermined amount of time.

22. The method of claim 11, wherein the notification comprises an indication of a most recent drop-off location of the user.

23. The method of claim 11, further comprising after determining the remote computing device is no longer communicatively coupled to the vehicle management system:

instructing, by the vehicle management system, the self-driving vehicle to attempt to pick-up the user, and then

instructing, by the vehicle management system, the self-driving vehicle to find a parking location in response to determining, by the vehicle management system, that communicative coupling between the vehicle management system and the remote computing device has been restored.

24. The method of claim 11, wherein the movement instructions comprise a first instruction, the method further comprising, in response to sending the notification, receiving from the emergency contact, by the vehicle management system, the first instruction to move the vehicle to a remote location, and then instructing, by the vehicle management system, the self-driving vehicle to move to the remote location.

25. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving from the emergency contact, by the vehicle management system, at least one of a pick-up time and a pick-up location for the user in response to sending the notification.

26. The method of claim 11, further comprising sending the notification in response to determining, by the vehicle management system, that the user is not located at a pick-up location.

27. The method of claim 11, further comprising instructing, by the vehicle management system, the self-driving vehicle to attempt to pick-up the user in response to determining, by the vehicle management system, that the remote computing device is no longer communicatively coupled to the vehicle management system.

28. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving, by the vehicle management system, at least one of the movement instructions in response to the notification.

29. A method of using a vehicle management system to operate a self-driving vehicle, wherein the vehicle management system is configured to be communicatively coupled with a remote computing device configured to operate software adapted to enable a user to control behaviors of the self-driving vehicle, the method comprising:

coupling communicatively, by the vehicle management system, the remote computing device to the self-driving vehicle;

sending, by the vehicle management system, a notification to an emergency contact in response to determining, by the vehicle management system, that the remote computing device is no longer communicatively coupled to the vehicle management system, wherein the emergency contact comprises a person that the user chose prior to the vehicle management system determining that the remote computing device is no longer communicatively coupled to the vehicle management system, and wherein the emergency contact comprises the person authorized by the user to send a movement instruction to the self-driving vehicle; and

receiving, by the vehicle management system, the movement instruction in response to the notification.