Selecting vehicle type for providing transport

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10163139-B2
Application number	US-201715849462-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2017
Priority date	May 13, 2015
Publication date	Dec 25, 2018
Grant date	Dec 25, 2018

Abstract

A transport arrangement system operates to receive a transport request from a user, and to make a selection of a vehicle type for the user based at least in part on a set of criteria associated with the transport request or user information. For example, the determination of whether an autonomous vehicle is to be provided can be based at least in part on the destination specified with the transport request.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for arranging transport, the system comprising:
a memory that stores a set of instructions;
one or more processors which use the set of instructions to:
monitor a current location of each vehicle of a plurality of vehicles operating in a geographic region, the plurality of vehicles including autonomous vehicles and human-driven vehicles;
receive a plurality of transport requests over a given time period, each transport request including a pickup location;
for each of one or more of the plurality of transport requests, select a human driver to fulfill individual transport requests based at least in part on a determination that a probability of a route deviation for autonomous vehicles to fulfill the transport request exceeds a threshold; and
for at least one of the plurality of transport requests, dispatch one of the autonomous vehicles to the pickup location specified with the transport request.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the probability of the route deviation is determined based on one or more limitations in the autonomous vehicle's ability to reach the pickup location.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more processors use the set of instructions to determine whether the pickup location is inaccessible for the autonomous vehicle.

4. The system of claim 3 , the one or more processors use the set of instructions to determine whether the pickup location is inaccessible by determining whether a route to the pickup location includes a road under construction or a certain amount of pedestrian traffic.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
each of the plurality of transport requests further includes a drop-off location for the transport request; and
the one or more processors is configured to use the set of instructions to determine whether to select the human driver to fulfill the transport request by identifying whether a variation to the pickup location or the drop-off location is required to fulfill the transport request.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors determine whether to select the human driver to fulfill the transport request based at least in part on one or more special requests made by a user in conjunction with the transport request.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors determine whether to select the human driver to fulfill the transport request based at least in part on availability of the autonomous vehicles.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the autonomous vehicle is a vehicle dedicated to operating in an autonomous mode.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the transport requests originate from a mobile computing device associated with a user.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors determine whether select the human driver to fulfill the transport request based at least in part on one or more routes determined for the autonomous vehicle to a destination.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors use the set of instructions to assign the transport request to the autonomous vehicle based on a determination of whether to fulfill the transport request using the autonomous vehicle.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors determine whether to fulfill the transport request using the autonomous vehicle in response to receiving the transport request.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system includes an autonomous vehicle system that operates within the autonomous vehicle.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system includes one or more servers that communicate with the autonomous vehicle.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to perform operations that comprise:
monitoring a current location of each vehicle of a plurality of vehicles operating in a geographic region, the plurality of vehicles including autonomous vehicles and human-driven vehicles;
receiving a plurality of transport requests over a given time period, each transport request including a pickup location;
for each of one or more of the plurality of transport requests, selecting a human driver to fulfill individual transport requests based at least in part on a determination that a probability of a route deviation for autonomous vehicles to fulfill the transport request exceeds a threshold; and
for at least one of the plurality of transport requests, dispatching one of the autonomous vehicles to the pickup location specified with the transport request.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the operations performed by the computer system further comprise determining whether the pickup location is inaccessible for the autonomous vehicle.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein determining whether to select the human driver to fulfill the transport request is based at least in part on availability of the autonomous vehicles.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein each of the transport requests originate from a mobile computing device associated with a user.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the computer system includes an autonomous vehicle system that operates within the autonomous vehicle.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the computer system includes one or more servers that communicate with the autonomous vehicle.

21. A method for arranging transport, the method being implemented by one or more processors and comprising:
monitoring a current location of each vehicle of a plurality of vehicles operating in a geographic region, the plurality of vehicles including autonomous vehicles and human-driven vehicles;
receiving a plurality of transport requests over a given time period, each transport request including a pickup location;
for each of one or more of the plurality of transport requests, selecting a human driver to fulfill individual transport requests based at least in part on a determination that a probability of a route deviation for autonomous vehicles to fulfill the transport request exceeds a threshold; and
for at least one of the plurality of transport requests, dispatching one of the autonomous vehicles to the pickup location specified with the transport request.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein determining whether to select the human driver to fulfill the transport request includes determining whether the pickup location is inaccessible for the autonomous vehicle.

23. The method of claim 21 , wherein determining whether to select the human driver to fulfill the transport request is based at least in part on availability of the autonomous vehicle.

Assignees

• Uber Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Ross William
• Bares John
• Larose David
• Sweeney Matthew

Classifications

• G06Q30/0283 Primary

  Price estimation or determination · CPC title

• G06Q10/08

  Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management · CPC title

• G06Q10/06

  Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title

• G01C21/3438

  Rendezvous; Ride sharing · CPC title

• G08G1/20

  Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles · CPC title