DYNAMIC AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE MATCHING OPTIMIZATION

• US 20180315146A1
• Filed: 04/27/2017
• Published: 11/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2017
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: LYFT Incorporated
• Original Assignee: LYFT Incorporated
• Inventors: Matthiesen, Taggart, Kelman, Jody
• Application Number:
  US15/499,527
• Publication Number:
  US 20180315146A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3453 Special cost functions, i.e. other than distance or default speed limit of road segments
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching

Abstract

Embodiments provide techniques for autonomous vehicle management. In an embodiment, service requests are received and a set of service providers responsive to the request are determined. For example, a set of service providers that are eligible to be matched to the service request may be comprised of autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles. The set of service providers are matched to the request based on various factors such as a match score based on at least a location factor and a weighting factor.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a computing system associated with a set of autonomous vehicles, a transportation request from a requestor computing device, the transportation request indicating at least a pickup location and a drop-off location;

identifying, by the computing system, a subset of autonomous vehicles of the set of autonomous vehicles that are eligible for matching to the transportation request;

accessing, by the computing system, road condition data collected by one or more sensors associated with one or more autonomous vehicles in the set of autonomous vehicles;

identifying, by the computing system, a route from the pick location to the drop-off location based on at least the road condition data;

calculating, by the computing system, a dispatch cost associated with an autonomous vehicle in the subset of autonomous vehicles, wherein the dispatch cost is based on the identified route;

based on a comparison of the calculated dispatch cost to dispatch costs for one or more additional autonomous vehicles in the subset of autonomous vehicles, selecting, by the computing system, the autonomous vehicle for the transportation request; and

in response to selecting the autonomous vehicle for the transportation request, instructing the autonomous vehicle to travel the identified route.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the pickup location and the drop-off location each corresponds to one or more street segments indicated as part of an authorized autonomous route, based at least on at least one constraint being satisfied.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the at least one constraint comprises at least one of geofence data, time of day, weather conditions, traffic data, user preference data, road elevation data, or speed limit data.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting the autonomous vehicle for the transportation request based further on determining that a utilization metric associated with the autonomous vehicle is below a threshold value and determining that the identified route between the pickup location and the drop-off location corresponds to a geographical area having at least a threshold number of transportation requests over a particular time period.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the autonomous vehicle is due for cleaning based on data from an interior sensor configured to monitor an interior compartment of the autonomous vehicle; and

weighting the dispatch cost based on a proximity of a cleaning facility to the drop-off location.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the road condition data collected by the one or more autonomous vehicles are weighted based on data-collection time.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the road condition data is generated based on sensor measurements of motion of the one or more autonomous vehicles as they travel on different roads.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on data associated with a user of the requestor computing device, that the user desires the transportation request to be fulfilled by an autonomous vehicle; and

in response to the determination that the user desires the transportation request to be fulfilled by an autonomous vehicle, identifying street segments that are authorized for traveling by autonomous vehicles;

wherein the identifying of the route is further based on the identified street segments.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors comprise at least one of a multi-axis accelerometer or a gyroscope.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the route is further based on traffic data in addition to the road condition data.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the route is further based on how recently the road condition data associated with the route was collected.

29. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a default route and an alternative route from the pick location to the drop-off location based on at least the road condition data;

wherein the identified route is selected from the default route and the alternative route.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

presenting the default route and the alternative route on the requestor computing device for user selection; and

receiving a user selection of the default route or the alternative route from the requestor computing device;

wherein the identified route is selected from the default route and the alternative route based on the received user selection.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

presenting a visualization of the road condition data associated with the default route and the alternative route.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the road condition data associated with the default route and the alternative route indicate that roads in the alternative route are in better condition than roads in the default route.

4. (canceled)

5. (canceled)

6. (canceled)

7. (canceled)

9. (canceled)

10. A system comprising:

a dynamic transportation matching system associated with a set of autonomous vehicles, comprising at least one processor and at least one computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the dynamic transportation matching system to;

receive a transportation request from a requestor computing device, the transportation request indicating at least a pickup location and a drop-off location;

identify a subset of autonomous vehicles of the set of autonomous vehicles that are eligible for matching to the transportation request;

access road condition data collected by one or more sensors associated with one or more autonomous vehicles in the set of autonomous vehicles;

identify a route from the pick location to the drop-off location based on at least the road condition data;

calculate a dispatch cost associated with an autonomous vehicle in the subset of autonomous vehicles, wherein the dispatch cost is based on the identified route;

based on a comparison of the calculated dispatch cost to dispatch costs for one or more additional autonomous vehicles in the subset of autonomous vehicles, select the autonomous vehicle for the transportation request; and

in response to selecting the autonomous vehicle for the transportation request, instruct the autonomous vehicle to travel the identified route.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the dynamic transportation matching system stores instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the dynamic transportation matching system to:

determine that the pickup location and the drop-off location each corresponds to one or more street segments indicated as part of an authorized autonomous route, based at least on at least one constraint being satisfied.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one constraint comprises at least one of geofence data, time of day, weather conditions, traffic data, user preference data, road elevation data, or speed limit data.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the dynamic transportation matching system stores instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the dynamic transportation matching system to:

select the autonomous vehicle for the transportation request based further on determining that a utilization metric associated with the autonomous vehicle is below a threshold value and determining that the identified route between the pickup location and the drop-off location corresponds to a geographical area having at least a threshold number of transportation requests over a particular time period.

13. (canceled)

14. (canceled)

15. (canceled)

16. (canceled)

18. (canceled)

19. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

receive a transportation request from a requestor computing device, the transportation request indicating at least a pickup location and a drop-off location;

identify a subset of autonomous vehicles of a set of autonomous vehicles that are eligible for matching to the transportation request;

access road condition data collected by one or more sensors associated with one or more autonomous vehicles in the set of autonomous vehicles;

identify a route from the pick location to the drop-off location based on at least the road condition data;

calculate a dispatch cost associated with an autonomous vehicle in the subset of autonomous vehicles, wherein the dispatch cost is based on the identified route;

based on a comparison of the calculated dispatch cost to dispatch costs for one or more additional autonomous vehicles in the subset of autonomous vehicles, select the autonomous vehicle for the transportation request; and

in response to selecting the autonomous vehicle for the transportation request, instruct the autonomous vehicle to travel the identified route.

20. The computing device of claim 19, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

determine that the pickup location and the drop-off location each corresponds to one or more street segments indicated as part of an authorized autonomous route, based at least on at least one constraint being satisfied.

22. (canceled)