AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE UNAUTHORIZED PASSENGER OR OBJECT DETECTION

• US 20170080900A1
• Filed: 09/18/2015
• Published: 03/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Huennekens, Johannes, Ellis, Samuel, Foletta, Greg
• Granted Patent: US 10,150,448 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/31 of human presence inside or outside the vehicle
• 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: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• 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: G08B 21/00 Alarms responsive to a single specified undesired or abnormal condition and not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/22 responsive to presence or absence of persons

Abstract

A vehicle system includes a sensor programmed to output an occupant or object detection signal indicating a presence of an unauthorized occupant or unauthorized object in a host vehicle. An autonomous mode controller is programmed to determine, from the occupant or object detection signal, whether to operate the host vehicle in an autonomous mode.

Claims

1. A vehicle system comprising:

a sensor programmed to output an occupant detection signal indicating a presence of an occupant in a host vehicle; and

an autonomous mode controller programmed to determine, from the occupant detection signal, whether an unauthorized passenger is present in the host vehicle and preventing the host vehicle from operating in an autonomous mode in response to detecting the unauthorized passenger.

2. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to autonomously operate the host vehicle in at least one of a pick-up mode, a drop-off mode, and an inspection mode.

3. The vehicle system of claim 2, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to operate the host vehicle in the pick-up mode if the host vehicle has no occupants.

4. The vehicle system of claim 3, wherein operating the host vehicle in the pick-up mode includes autonomously navigating the host vehicle to a pick-up location in response to detecting that the host vehicle has no unauthorized passengers.

5. The vehicle system of claim 2, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to operate the host vehicle in the drop-off mode if the host vehicle has at least one occupant.

6. The vehicle system of claim 5, wherein operating the host vehicle in the drop-off mode includes autonomously navigating the host vehicle, with the at least one occupant, to a drop-off location.

7. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to determine a vehicle status from the occupant detection signal.

8. The vehicle system of claim 7, wherein the vehicle status includes at least one of an occupied status, indicating that the host vehicle is occupied with at least one occupant, and an unoccupied status, indicating that the host vehicle has no occupants.

9. The vehicle system of claim 1, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to receive dispatch information including a destination and navigate the host vehicle to the destination.

10. A vehicle system comprising:

an object sensor programmed to output an object detection signal indicating a presence of an unauthorized object in a host vehicle; and

an autonomous mode controller programmed to determine, from the object detection signal, whether the unauthorized object is present in the host vehicle and preventing the host vehicle from operating in an autonomous mode in response to detecting the unauthorized object.

11. The vehicle system of claim 10, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to autonomously operate the host vehicle in at least one of a pick-up mode, a drop-off mode, and an inspection mode.

12. The vehicle system of claim 11, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to operate the host vehicle in the pick-up mode if the host vehicle has no unauthorized objects.

13. The vehicle system of claim 12, wherein operating the host vehicle in the pick-up mode includes autonomously navigating the host vehicle to a pick-up location in response to detecting no unauthorized objects.

14. The vehicle system of claim 11, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to operate the host vehicle in the drop-off mode if the host vehicle has at least one occupant and operating the host vehicle in the drop-off mode includes autonomously navigating the host vehicle, with the at least one occupant, to a drop-off location.

15. The vehicle system of claim 10, wherein the autonomous mode controller is programmed to receive dispatch information including a pick-up location and navigate the host vehicle to the pick-up location.

16. A method comprising:

receiving a vehicle status signal indicating a presence of at least one of an unauthorized object and an unauthorized occupant in a host vehicle;

determining whether at least one of the unauthorized object and the unauthorized occupant is present in the host vehicle from the vehicle status signal; and

preventing the host vehicle from operating in an autonomous pick-up mode if at least one of the unauthorized object and the unauthorized occupant is detected in the host vehicle.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the autonomous pick-up mode includes autonomously navigating the host vehicle to a pick-up location.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving dispatch information including a pick-up location.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising navigating the host vehicle to the pick-up location if the vehicle status signal indicates that no unauthorized objects and no unauthorized occupants are in the host vehicle.