Multiple destination trips for autonomous vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10877479-B2
Application number	US-201816217805-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 12, 2018
Priority date	Dec 12, 2018
Publication date	Dec 29, 2020
Grant date	Dec 29, 2020

Abstract

Aspects of the disclosure relate to a method of managing a fleet of autonomous vehicles providing trip services. The method includes receiving information identifying an intermediate destination and a final destination for a trip. In this example, the intermediate destination is a destination where an autonomous vehicle will drop off and wait for a passenger in order to continue the trip, and the final destination is a destination where the trip ends. The method also includes determining an amount of waiting time the vehicle is likely to be waiting for the passenger at the intermediate destination, determining how a vehicle of the fleet of autonomous vehicles should spend the amount of waiting time, and sending an instruction to the vehicle, based on the determination of how the vehicle should spend the amount of waiting time.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of managing a fleet of autonomous vehicles providing trip services, the method comprising:
receiving, by one or more computing devices, information identifying an intermediate destination and a final destination for a first trip, wherein the intermediate destination is a destination where an autonomous vehicle of the fleet of autonomous vehicles will drop off and wait for a passenger to return to the autonomous vehicle in order to continue the first trip and the final destination is a destination where the first trip ends;
determining, by the one or more computing devices, an amount of waiting time the autonomous vehicle is likely to be waiting for the passenger at the intermediate destination, wherein the determining the amount of waiting time is based on a plurality of factors each associated with a weight indicating a confidence in an estimation of an amount of time for that factor, and combining the amounts of time for the plurality of factors using the weights;
determining, by the one or more computing devices, that the autonomous vehicle can perform a second trip within a predetermined period of time less than the determined amount of waiting time; and
sending, by the one or more computing devices, an instruction to the autonomous vehicle to proceed with performing the second trip.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, receiving second information indicating how long the passenger expects to spend at the intermediate destination.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the amount of waiting time is based on a plurality of factors including historical waiting time data associated with the intermediate destination.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the amount of waiting time is based on a plurality of factors including historical waiting time data associated with time spent by the passenger at a location of a same type as the intermediate destination.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the amount of waiting time is based on a plurality of factors including historical waiting time data associated with time spent by other passengers at the intermediate destination, the other passengers having a characteristic in common with the passenger.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the amount of waiting time is based on a plurality of factors including whether the first trip includes picking up or dropping off a second passenger at the intermediate destination.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the amount of waiting time is based on a plurality of factors including whether the first trip includes picking up or dropping off of cargo at the intermediate destination.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the amount of waiting time is based on a plurality of factors including a number of passengers for the first trip.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the amount of waiting time is based on a plurality of factors including third party data indicating time spent by other people at a location associated with the intermediate destination.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the amount of waiting time is based on a plurality of factors including third party data indicating time spent by other people at a location of a same type as the intermediate destination.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the amount of waiting time is based on determining an amount of time for each of a plurality of factors and taking an average of any determined amounts of time.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the combining includes taking an average of the amounts of time for the plurality of factors using the weights.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining that the autonomous vehicle can perform the second trip is based on a monetary cost for parking the vehicle during the waiting time.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining that the autonomous vehicle can perform a second trip is based on a hierarchy of preferences including different activities.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the hierarchy of preferences includes a preference for addressing a maintenance need of the vehicle, the place of the preference in the hierarchy depending upon a level of urgency of the maintenance issue.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the hierarchy of preferences includes a preference for scheduling the vehicle for another trip of a predetermined duration.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the place in the hierarchy of the preference for scheduling the vehicle for another trip is below another preference for addressing a maintenance need of the vehicle.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining that the autonomous vehicle can perform the second trip is based on whether the second trip is estimated to take less than a first threshold period of time.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the determining that the autonomous vehicle can perform the second trip is based on whether the second trip would allow the vehicle to reach the intermediate destination again, after completing the second trip, within a buffer period of the determined amount of waiting time before the passenger is expected to return to the vehicle at the intermediate destination.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the buffer period is determined based on a confidence in the determined amount of waiting time.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second trip is from the intermediate destination to a maintenance location to service the vehicle and return back to the intermediate destination.

22. A method of managing a fleet of autonomous vehicles providing trip services, the method comprising:
receiving, by one or more computing devices, information identifying an intermediate destination and a final destination for a first trip, wherein the intermediate destination is a destination where an autonomous vehicle of the fleet of autonomous vehicles will drop off and wait for a passenger to return to the autonomous vehicle in order to continue the first trip and the final destination is a destination where the first trip ends;
determining, by the one or more computing devices, an amount of waiting time the autonomous vehicle is likely to be waiting for the passenger at the intermediate destination, wherein the determining the amount of waiting time is based on a plurality of factors each associated with a weight indicating a confidence in an estimation of an amount of time for that factor, and combining the amounts of time for the plurality of factors using the weights;
determining a threshold amount of time less than the determined amount of waiting time;
determining, by the one or more computing devices, that the autonomous vehicle can perform a second trip within the threshold amount of time; and
sending, by the one or more computing devices, an instruction to the autonomous vehicle to proceed with performing the second trip.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein the second trip is for transporting a person to a location close to the intermediate destination.

24. The method of claim 22 , wherein the second trip is from the intermediate destination to a maintenance location to service the vehicle and return back to the intermediate destination.

Assignees

• Waymo Llc

Inventors

• Landy Cristi
• Mercay Julien
• Tanphaichitr Saksiri
• Feenstra Laurens Andreas
• Pandit Salil

Classifications

• B60W40/00

  Estimation or calculation of {non-directly measurable} driving parameters for road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub unit, {e.g. by using mathematical models} · CPC title

• B60W40/04

  Traffic conditions · CPC title

• H04W4/44

  for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H] · CPC title

• G08G1/202 Primary

  Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching · 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