Vehicle management system

• US 10,395,441 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2016
• Issued: 08/27/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aurora Operations Incorporated (Aurora Innovation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Poeppel, Scott, Letwin, Nicholas G., Kelly, Sean J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ramesh, Krishnan
• Application Number:
  US15/379,420
• Publication Number:
  US 20180165895A1
• Time in Patent Office: 986 Days
• Field of Search: 701 24
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 17/22 Devices for monitoring or checking brake systems; Signal devices
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2270/406 Test-mode; Self-diagnosis
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/00 Brake-action initiating means
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/18 operated by wayside apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/22 initiated by contact of vehicle, e.g. bumper, with an external object, e.g. another vehicle , or by means of contactless obstacle detectors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/17 Using electrical or electronic regulation means to control braking detecting or indicating faulty operation B60T8/885
• 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 1/0055 with safety arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005

Abstract

Systems, methods, and vehicles for stopping the motion of a vehicle are provided. In one example embodiment, a method obtaining, by one or more computing devices on-board an autonomous vehicle, data indicative of one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle. The method includes determining an existence of a fault associated with the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle. The method includes determining one or more actions to be performed by the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the existence of the fault. At least one of the actions includes stopping a motion of the autonomous vehicle. The method includes providing one or more control command signals to one or more of the systems on-board the autonomous vehicle to facilitate stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle in response to the existence of the fault.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of stopping autonomous vehicle motion, comprising:

obtaining, by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices on-board an autonomous vehicle, data indicative of one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle, wherein the autonomous vehicle comprises a passenger that is riding in the autonomous vehicle for a requested transportation service;

determining, by the computing system, an existence of a condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle and a level of severity of the condition;

determining, by the computing system, actions to be performed by the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the existence of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle, wherein the actions comprise stopping a motion of the autonomous vehicle and informing the passenger that is riding in the autonomous vehicle of a type of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle;

providing, by the computing system, one or more control command signals to one or more systems on-board the autonomous vehicle to facilitate stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle in response to the existence of the condition, wherein a rate of deceleration associated with stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle is associated with the level of severity of the condition; and

providing, by the computing system for display via a user interface on a display device within the autonomous vehicle, data indicative of the type of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein to facilitate stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle the one or more systems on-board the autonomous vehicle are to determine at least one of a stopped position, a rate of deceleration, or a deceleration time delay for the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle and one or more travelling conditions associated with the autonomous vehicle, and

wherein to facilitate stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle the one or more systems on-board the autonomous vehicle cause a deceleration of the autonomous vehicle.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the stopped position is in a current driving lane of the autonomous vehicle.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the stopped position is out of a current driving lane of the autonomous vehicle.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the actions further comprise taking the autonomous vehicle out-of-service, and wherein the method further comprises:

sending, by the computing system, data to take the autonomous vehicle out-of-service.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the actions further comprise requesting a different vehicle to provide the requested transportation service to the passenger, and wherein the method further comprises:

providing, by the computing system to one or more remote computing devices associated with a service provider, data indicative of a request for the different vehicle to provide the requested transportation service to the passenger.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameters comprise data indicative of a user input associated with the condition that has occurred onboard the autonomous vehicle.

8. A computing system for stopping autonomous vehicle motion, comprising:

one or more processors on-board an autonomous vehicle; and

one or more memory devices on-board the autonomous vehicle, the one or more memory devices storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising;

obtaining data indicative of one or more parameters associated with autonomous vehicle, wherein the autonomous vehicle comprises a passenger that is riding in the autonomous vehicle for a requested transportation service;

determining an existence of a condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle and a level of severity of the condition;

determining actions to be performed by the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle, wherein the actions comprise stopping a motion of the autonomous vehicle and informing the passenger that is riding in the autonomous vehicle of a type of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle; and

providing one or more control command signals to one or more systems on-board the autonomous vehicle to facilitate stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle in response to the existence of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle, wherein a rate of deceleration associated with stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle is associated with the level of severity of the condition; and

providing, for display via a user interface on a display device within the autonomous vehicle, data indicative of the type of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle.

9. The computing system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

providing, to one or more remote computing devices that are remote from the autonomous vehicle, data indicative of a request for maintenance of the autonomous vehicle.

10. The computing system of claim 8, wherein the one or more parameters comprise data indicative of a user input associated with the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle, and wherein the operations further comprise:

providing, to one or more remote computing devices that are remote from the autonomous vehicle, data indicative of a request for a confirmation of the existence of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle.

11. The computing system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

providing data indicative of one or more characteristics of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle for display via one or more display devices.

12. An autonomous vehicle comprising:

one or more systems on-board the autonomous vehicle;

one or more processors on-board the autonomous vehicle; and

one or more memory devices on-board the autonomous vehicle, the one or more memory devices storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising;

obtaining data indicative of one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle, and wherein the autonomous vehicle comprises a passenger that is riding in the autonomous vehicle for a requested transportation service;

determining an existence of a condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle and a level of severity of the condition;

determining actions to be performed by the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle; and

providing, to one or more systems on-board the autonomous vehicle, one or more control command signals to perform the actions to facilitate stopping a motion of the autonomous vehicle in response to the existence of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle, wherein a rate of deceleration associated with stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle is associated with the level of severity of the condition; and

providing, for display via a user interface on a display device within the autonomous vehicle, data indicative of a type of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle.

13. The autonomous vehicle of claim 12, wherein the one or more systems on-board the autonomous vehicle are configured to determine a stopped position for the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle.

14. The autonomous vehicle of claim 12, wherein one or more of the parameters are indicative of a user input indicative of a request to stop the autonomous vehicle.

15. The autonomous vehicle of claim 14, further comprising one or more display devices, and wherein the operations further comprise:

providing for display via the display device data indicative of the request to stop the autonomous vehicle.

16. The autonomous vehicle of claim 15, further comprising one or more audio output devices, and wherein the operations further comprise:

providing, to one or more remote computing devices that are remote from the autonomous vehicle, data indicative of a request for a human operator to communicate with the passenger via at least one of the display device or the audio output devices.