Mobile device for autonomous vehicle enhancement system

• US 10,444,023 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2018
• Issued: 10/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arnold Chase, William Chase
• Original Assignee: Arnold Chase, William Chase
• Inventors: Chase, Arnold, Chase, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Hongmin
• Application Number:
  US15/974,081
• Publication Number:
  US 20180322775A1
• Time in Patent Office: 525 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3438 Rendez-vous, i.e. searching a destination where several users can meet, and the routes to this destination for these users; Ride sharing, i.e. searching a route such that at least two users can share a vehicle for at least part of the route
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3492 employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• 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 1/0055 with safety arrangements
• 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: G05D 1/0276 using signals provided by a source external to the vehicle involving a plurality of vehicles G05D1/0287; automatically controlling vehicle speed responsive to externally generated signals B60K31/0058
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0291 Fleet control monitoring fleets in traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/127, G08G1/127
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/76 Architectures of general purpose stored program computers with program plugboard G06F15/08; multicomputers G06F15/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/01 Dynamic search techniques; Heuristics; Dynamic trees; Branch-and-bound
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/59 : inside of a vehicle, e.g. relating to seat occupancy, driver state or inner lighting conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 : communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/005 : including pedestrian guidance indicator
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/012 : from other sources than vehicle or roadside beacons, e.g. mobile networks
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 : by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 : Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 : Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 : Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 : for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 : using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/188 : Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 : Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/72 : Subscriber identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 : for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 : Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

The present application is directed to an Autonomous Vehicle Enhancement System (AVES) and method for monitoring and managing a virtual or existing fleet of autonomous vehicles in a transportation network and dispatching the autonomous vehicles to users. The AVES includes an AVES Central Operations Center (COC) that communicates with AVES vehicle equipment installed in the autonomous vehicles and AVES applications installed on computing devices accessible by the users. The AVES improves the operating efficiency of a transportation network by monitoring the condition of autonomous vehicles, optimizing the geographical distribution of the autonomous vehicles and optimizing assignment of the autonomous vehicles to users requesting services. The AVES COC monitors and controls the autonomous vehicles via the AVES vehicle equipment. The AVES COC communicates with the users via the AVES applications to provide services to the users. The AVES vehicle equipment and the AVES applications installed on the computing devices communicate with each other to fulfill user request for services.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing an Autonomous Vehicle Enhancement System (AVES) application comprising a set of computer executable instructions configured to be executed by a processor of a user mobile device to provide a user with transportation network services, where the AVES application, when executed by the processor of the user mobile device, causes the user mobile device to:

prompt the user to provide a user ID;

communicate with an AVES Central Operations Center (COC) to authenticate the user ID;

receive a trip request including pickup location, pickup date/time, destination location, and any intermediate stop location(s);

send the trip request to the AVES COC;

receive a unique trip ID for the trip request and a description of an autonomous vehicle selected to fulfill the trip request;

transmit a signal encoded with the unique trip ID for the selected autonomous vehicle to locate, track and drive toward the user mobile device;

sense a signal encoded with the unique trip ID that is transmitted by the selected autonomous vehicle;

activate a video camera on the user mobile device; and

identify the selected autonomous vehicle transmitting the signal encoded with the unique trip ID on images captured by the video camera.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1, where the AVES application, when executed by the processor of the user mobile device, further causes the user mobile device to:

provide audible feedback and/or haptic feedback on the user mobile device to guide the user to locate the selected autonomous vehicle transmitting the signal encoded with the unique trip ID by giving directions via the user mobile device.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1, where the AVES application, when executed by the processor of the user mobile device, further causes the user mobile device to:

receive real-time vehicle location and estimated pickup time updates from the AVES COC.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1, where the AVES application, when executed by the processor of the user mobile device, further causes the user mobile device to:

receive a modification request from the user to alter the trip information;

send the modification request to alter the trip information to the AVES COC;

receive route modification and/or vehicle change notification; and

prompt the user to accept or reject the route modification and/or vehicle change.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1, where the AVES application, when executed by the processor of the user mobile device, further causes the user mobile device to:

receive a user emergency alert; and

sends the user emergency alert to the AVES COC.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1, where the AVES application, when executed by the processor of the user mobile device, further causes the user mobile device to:

receive at least one of traffic, accident, road closure, road construction and event information from the user; and

send the at least one of traffic, accident, road closure, road construction and event information to the AVES COC.

7. A method of providing transportation network services via an Autonomous Vehicle Enhancement System (AVES) application installed on a user mobile device, comprising the steps of:

the user mobile device rendering a graphical user interface on a display;

the user mobile device prompting a user to provide a user ID via the graphical user interface;

the user mobile device communicating with an AVES Central Operations Center (COC) to authenticate the user ID;

the user mobile device receiving a trip request via the graphical user interface including pickup location, pickup date/time, destination location, and any intermediate stop location(s);

the user mobile device sending the trip request to the AVES COC;

the user mobile device receiving a unique trip ID for the trip request and a description of an autonomous vehicle selected to fulfill the trip request;

the user mobile device providing the unique trip ID for the trip request and the description of the autonomous vehicle selected to fulfill the trip request via the graphical user interface;

the user mobile device transmitting a signal encoded with the unique trip ID for the selected autonomous vehicle to locate, track and drive toward the user mobile device;

the user mobile device sensing a signal encoded with the unique trip ID that is transmitted by the selected autonomous vehicle;

the user mobile device activating a video camera; and

the user mobile device identifying the selected autonomous vehicle transmitting the signal encoded with the unique trip ID on images captured by the video camera.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the step of:

the user mobile device providing audible feedback and/or haptic feedback on the user mobile device to guide the user to locate the selected autonomous vehicle transmitting the signal encoded with the unique trip ID by giving directions via the user mobile device.

9. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

the user mobile device receiving real-time vehicle location and estimated pickup time updates from the AVES COC; and

the user mobile device providing the real-time vehicle location and estimated pickup time updates via the graphical user interface.

10. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

the user mobile device receiving a modification request from the user to alter the trip information via the graphical user interface;

the user mobile device sending the modification request to alter the trip information to the AVES COC;

the user mobile device receiving a route modification and/or vehicle change notification;

the user mobile device providing the route modification and/or vehicle change notification via the graphical user interface; and

the user mobile device prompting the user to accept or reject the route modification and/or vehicle change via the graphical user interface.

11. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

the user mobile device receiving a user emergency alert via the graphical user interface; and

the user mobile device sending the user emergency alert to the AVES COC.

12. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

the user mobile device receiving at least one of traffic, accident, road closure, road construction and event information from the user via the graphical user interface; and

the user mobile device sending the at least one of traffic, accident, road closure, road construction and event information to the AVES COC.