REMOTE DRIVING ASSISTANCE

• US 20170243484A1
• Filed: 05/08/2017
• Published: 08/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xinctec Technologies LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Inventors: Li, Daqi, Fang, Jun
• Granted Patent: US 10,078,964 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0145 for active traffic flow control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/052 with provision for determining speed or overspeed speed measuring in general G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096725 where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096783 where the origin of the information is a roadside individual element
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3822 specially adapted for use in vehicles H04B1/3827 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/14 using a plurality of keys or algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/30 Public key, i.e. encryption algorithm being computationally infeasible to invert or user's encryption keys not requiring secrecy
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/32 including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity authentication, data integrity or data verification, non-repudiation, key authentication or verification of credentials
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]

Abstract

In at least some examples, a control center, which provides remote driving assistance service, may be configured to receive traffic data from sensors and to identify an area of congested traffic, based on the received traffic data, within a predetermined range of the sensors. When the control center receives a request for the remote driving assistance service, from a vehicle within the predetermined range of the sensor, the control center may generate and transmit remote driving commands to the vehicle.

Claims

1. A system to control a vehicle, the system comprising:

a request receiver configured to;

receive a verification request, from a requesting vehicle of at least some vehicles,

to verify that a control center that comprises the request receiver is an authorized control center, wherein the verification request includes a message and a copy of the message encrypted with a private key, and wherein the message includes a request for a remote driving assistance service from the requesting vehicle,

decrypt the copy of the message with a public key,

compare the decrypted copy of the message to the message,

return a result of the comparison to the requesting vehicle, wherein the result indicates that the decrypted copy of the message is same as the message, and

verify that the control center is the authorized control center based on the result; and

a remote driving assistance manager configured to, in response to the verification of the control center, control the requesting vehicle, in place of a driver of the requesting vehicle, until the remote driving assistance service determines that either the requesting vehicle is outside an area of congested traffic or a speed of the requesting vehicle exceeds a specific threshold value.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein to control the requesting vehicle, the remote driving assistance manager is configured to transmit remote driving commands to the requesting vehicle.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the remote driving assistance manager is further configured to cease the transmission of the remote driving commands by initial transmission of a warning indicator.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote driving assistance manager is further configured to determine a location of the requesting vehicle relative to the area of congested traffic.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the location of the requesting vehicle is generated by a global positioning system (GPS) device associated with the requesting vehicle.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the request receiver is further configured to receive environmental information collected from one or more sensors associated with the requested vehicle, and

wherein the environmental information includes a distance between the requesting vehicle and a surrounding object, the speed of the requesting vehicle, ambient brightness, traffic signals of the area of congested traffic, or road conditions of the area of the congested traffic.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein content of the message includes at least a combination of letters, numbers, characters, symbols, and randomly generated sequence of characters.

8. A method to control vehicles remotely, the method comprising:

receiving a verification request, from a vehicle of at least some vehicles, to verify that a control center that comprises the request receiver is an authorized control center, wherein the verification request includes a message and a copy of the message encrypted with a private key, and wherein the message includes a request for a remote driving assistance service from the vehicle;

decrypting the copy of the message with a public key;

comparing the decrypted copy of the message to the message;

returning a result of the comparison to the requesting vehicle, wherein the result indicates that the decrypted copy of the message is same as the message;

verifying that the control center is the authorized control center based on the result; and

in response to the verification of the control center, controlling the vehicle, in place of a driver of the vehicle, until the remote driving assistance service determines that either the vehicle is outside an area of congested traffic or a speed of the vehicle exceeds a specific threshold value.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least some vehicles comprise one or more vehicles that have a subscription to the remote driving assistance service.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least some vehicle comprise all vehicles that are capable of being remotely driven within at least a specific range of a sensor.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising transmitting remote driving commands to the requesting vehicle.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising ceasing control of the requesting vehicle after transmission of a warning message.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein content of the message includes at least a combination of letters, numbers, characters, symbols, and randomly generated sequence of characters.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium on a vehicle that stores executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause one or more processors to perform or control performance of operations to:

identify a verification request, from a requesting vehicle of at least some vehicles, to verify that a control center that comprises the request receiver is an authorized control center, wherein the verification request includes a message and a copy of the message encrypted with a private key, and wherein the message includes a request for a remote driving assistance service from the requesting vehicle;

decrypt the copy of the message with a public key;

compare the decrypted copy of the message to the message;

return a result of the comparison to the requesting vehicle, wherein the result indicates that the decrypted copy of the message is same as the message;

verify that the control center is the authorized control center; and

in response to the verification of the control center, control the requesting vehicle, in place of a driver of the requesting vehicle, until the remote driving assistance service determines that either the requesting vehicle is outside an area of congested traffic or a speed of the requesting vehicle exceeds a specific threshold value.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the at least some vehicles comprise one or more vehicles that have a subscription to the remote driving assistance service.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the at least some vehicle comprise all vehicles that are capable of being remotely driven within at least a specific range of a sensor.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein content of the message includes at least a combinations of letters, numbers, characters, symbols, and randomly generated sequence of characters.