Autonomous Navigation System
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Abstract
Some embodiments provide an autonomous navigation system which enables autonomous navigation of a vehicle along one or more portions of a driving route based on monitoring, at the vehicle, various features of the route as the vehicle is manually navigated along the route to develop a characterization of the route. The characterization is progressively updated with repeated manual navigations along the route, and autonomous navigation of the route is enabled when a confidence indicator of the characterization meets a threshold indication. Characterizations can be updated in response to the vehicle encountering changes in the route and can include a set of driving rules associated with the route, where the driving rules are developed based on monitoring the navigation of one or more vehicles of the route. Characterizations can be uploaded to a remote system which processes data to develop and refine route characterizations and provide characterizations to one or more vehicles.
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Citations
47 Claims
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1-6. -6. (canceled)
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7. An apparatus, comprising:
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an autonomous navigation system configured to be installed in a vehicle and selectively enable autonomous navigation of the vehicle along a driving route, wherein the autonomous navigation system comprises; at least one processor; and a memory, comprising program instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the at least one processor to implement a route processing module and a route evaluation module; the route processing module configured to implement a succession of updates to a virtual characterization of the driving route, wherein; each update is based on monitoring a separate one of a succession of navigations of the vehicle along the driving route, and implementing each update of the succession of updates includes associating a confidence indicator with the virtual characterization based on a monitored variation, of the virtual characterization which is associated with the respective update; and the route evaluation module configured to enable autonomous navigation of the driving route by the vehicle, based on a determination that a confidence indicator associated with the characterization of the driving route exceeds a threshold confidence indication. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16-36. -36. (canceled)
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37. A system comprising:
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one or more computing devices that implement a navigation monitoring system; a network interface for the navigation monitoring system via which network communications may be transmitted between the navigation monitoring system and a plurality of different autonomous navigation systems installed at respective vehicles; the navigation monitoring system, configured to; receive, via the network interface, a plurality of virtual characterizations for one or more driving routes from the plurality of different autonomous navigation systems, wherein the plurality of virtual characterizations are generated at the different autonomous navigation systems according to respective sensor data captured at the vehicles during manually controlled navigations of the vehicles along the one or more driving routes; generate a composite virtual characterization of at least one of the driving routes based on at least some of the plurality of virtual characterizations; and send, via the network interface, the composite virtual characterization to one of more of the different autonomous navigation systems. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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44. A method, comprising:
performing, by one or more computing devices; receiving, via the network interface at a navigation monitoring system, a plurality of virtual characterizations for one or more driving routes from a plurality of different autonomous navigation systems installed at respective vehicles, wherein the plurality of virtual characterizations are generated at the different autonomous navigation systems according to respective sensor data captured at the vehicles during navigations of the vehicles along the one or more driving routes; generating, by the navigation monitoring system, a composite virtual characterization of at least one of the driving routes based on at least some of the plurality of virtual characterizations; and sending, by the navigation monitoring system via the network interface, the composite virtual characterization to one of more of the different autonomous navigation systems. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47)
Specification