Vehicle management system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10395441-B2
Application number	US-201615379420-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2016
Priority date	Dec 14, 2016
Publication date	Aug 27, 2019
Grant date	Aug 27, 2019

Abstract

Systems, methods, and vehicles for stopping the motion of a vehicle are provided. In one example embodiment, a method obtaining, by one or more computing devices on-board an autonomous vehicle, data indicative of one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle. The method includes determining an existence of a fault associated with the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle. The method includes determining one or more actions to be performed by the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the existence of the fault. At least one of the actions includes stopping a motion of the autonomous vehicle. The method includes providing one or more control command signals to one or more of the systems on-board the autonomous vehicle to facilitate stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle in response to the existence of the fault.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method of stopping autonomous vehicle motion, comprising:
obtaining, by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices on-board an autonomous vehicle, data indicative of one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle, wherein the autonomous vehicle comprises a passenger that is riding in the autonomous vehicle for a requested transportation service;
determining, by the computing system, an existence of a condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle and a level of severity of the condition;
determining, by the computing system, actions to be performed by the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the existence of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle, wherein the actions comprise stopping a motion of the autonomous vehicle and informing the passenger that is riding in the autonomous vehicle of a type of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle;
providing, by the computing system, one or more control command signals to one or more systems on-board the autonomous vehicle to facilitate stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle in response to the existence of the condition, wherein a rate of deceleration associated with stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle is associated with the level of severity of the condition; and
providing, by the computing system for display via a user interface on a display device within the autonomous vehicle, data indicative of the type of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein to facilitate stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle the one or more systems on-board the autonomous vehicle are to determine at least one of a stopped position, a rate of deceleration, or a deceleration time delay for the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle and one or more travelling conditions associated with the autonomous vehicle, and
wherein to facilitate stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle the one or more systems on-board the autonomous vehicle cause a deceleration of the autonomous vehicle.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the stopped position is in a current driving lane of the autonomous vehicle.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the stopped position is out of a current driving lane of the autonomous vehicle.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the actions further comprise taking the autonomous vehicle out-of-service, and wherein the method further comprises:
sending, by the computing system, data to take the autonomous vehicle out-of-service.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the actions further comprise requesting a different vehicle to provide the requested transportation service to the passenger, and wherein the method further comprises:
providing, by the computing system to one or more remote computing devices associated with a service provider, data indicative of a request for the different vehicle to provide the requested transportation service to the passenger.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more parameters comprise data indicative of a user input associated with the condition that has occurred onboard the autonomous vehicle.

8. A computing system for stopping autonomous vehicle motion, comprising:
one or more processors on-board an autonomous vehicle; and
one or more memory devices on-board the autonomous vehicle, the one or more memory devices storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:
obtaining data indicative of one or more parameters associated with autonomous vehicle, wherein the autonomous vehicle comprises a passenger that is riding in the autonomous vehicle for a requested transportation service;
determining an existence of a condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle and a level of severity of the condition:
determining actions to be performed by the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle, wherein the actions comprise stopping a motion of the autonomous vehicle and informing the passenger that is riding in the autonomous vehicle of a type of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle; and
providing one or more control command signals to one or more systems on-board the autonomous vehicle to facilitate stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle in response to the existence of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle, wherein a rate of deceleration associated with stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle is associated with the level of severity of the condition; and
providing, for display via a user interface on a display device within the autonomous vehicle, data indicative of the type of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle.

9. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise:
providing, to one or more remote computing devices that are remote from the autonomous vehicle, data indicative of a request for maintenance of the autonomous vehicle.

10. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more parameters comprise data indicative of a user input associated with the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle, and wherein the operations further comprise:
providing, to one or more remote computing devices that are remote from the autonomous vehicle, data indicative of a request for a confirmation of the existence of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle.

11. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise:
providing data indicative of one or more characteristics of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle for display via one or more display devices.

12. An autonomous vehicle comprising:
one or more systems on-board the autonomous vehicle;
one or more processors on-board the autonomous vehicle; and
one or more memory devices on-board the autonomous vehicle, the one or more memory devices storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:
obtaining data indicative of one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle, and wherein the autonomous vehicle comprises a passenger that is riding in the autonomous vehicle for a requested transportation service;
determining an existence of a condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle and a level of severity of the condition;
determining actions to be performed by the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle; and
providing, to one or more systems on-board the autonomous vehicle, one or more control command signals to perform the actions to facilitate stopping a motion of the autonomous vehicle in response to the existence of the condition that has occurred on-board the autonomous vehicle, wherein a rate of deceleration associated with stopping the motion of the autonomous vehicle is associated wit

Assignees

• Uber Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Poeppel Scott
• Letwin Nicholas G
• Kelly Sean J

Classifications

• B60T2270/406

  Test-mode; Self-diagnosis · CPC title

• B60T7/22

  initiated by contact of vehicle, e.g. bumper, with an external object, e.g. another vehicle {, or by means of contactless obstacle detectors mounted on the vehicle} · CPC title

• B60T7/18

  operated by wayside apparatus · CPC title

• B60T7/00

  Brake-action initiating means · CPC title

• B60T8/17

  Using electrical or electronic regulation means to control braking {(detecting or indicating faulty operation B60T8/885)} · CPC title