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Smart platooning of vehicles

  • US 9,940,840 B1
  • Filed: 10/06/2016
  • Issued: 04/10/2018
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2016
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

  • obtaining, by a computing system and for each vehicle of a plurality of vehicles located within a location area, navigation data that indicates a travel route for the vehicle;

    determining, by the computing system and based on the navigation data for the plurality of vehicles, a subset of the plurality of vehicles that are within a threshold distance of each other and have respective travel routes that at least partially overlap;

    selecting, by the computing system and based on a set of selection parameters, two or more vehicles among the subset of vehicles to form a platoon of vehicles that travel in a coordinated arrangement in proximity to each other during at least a portion of the respective travel routes of the selected vehicles;

    selecting, by the computing system, a configuration of the platoon, wherein the configuration specifies a plurality of vehicle positions for vehicles in the platoon and an arrangement of the vehicle positions with respect to each other;

    assigning, by the computing system, each of the selected vehicles to a different one of the plurality of vehicle positions; and

    directing, by the computing system, the selected vehicles to form the platoon of vehicles, the directing the selected vehicles to form the platoon comprising transmitting information that indicates the respective vehicle positions to which each of the selected vehicles is assigned in the selected configuration.

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