Computer-assisted or autonomous driving vehicle incident management method and apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10948915-B2
Application number	US-201816118206-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2018
Priority date	Aug 30, 2018
Publication date	Mar 16, 2021
Grant date	Mar 16, 2021

Abstract

Apparatuses, methods and storage medium associated with computer-assisted or autonomous vehicle incident management, are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a vehicle incident management system includes a main system controller to determine whether a vehicle hosting the apparatus is involved in a vehicle incident; if so, whether another vehicle is involved; and if so, whether the other vehicle is equipped to exchange incident information; and an inter-vehicle communication subsystem to exchange incident information with the other vehicle, on determination that the vehicle is involved in a vehicle incident involving the other vehicle, and the other vehicle is equipped to exchange incident information. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for vehicle incident management, comprising:
a main system controller, disposed in a vehicle, to determine whether the vehicle is involved in a vehicle incident, and if involved in a vehicle incident, whether another vehicle is involved, and if another vehicle is involved, whether the other vehicle is equipped to exchange incident information; and
an inter-vehicle communication subsystem, disposed in the vehicle and coupled with the main system controller, to exchange incident information with the other vehicle, on determination that the vehicle is involved in a vehicle incident involving another vehicle, and the other vehicle is equipped to exchange incident information;
wherein to exchange incident information with the other vehicle includes to negotiate with the other vehicle to mutually agree to remain in place, move to another location or move on.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the main system controller is arranged to receive sensor data from a plurality of sensors of the vehicle, and determines whether the vehicle is involved in a vehicle incident, and if involved in a vehicle incident, whether another vehicle is involved, based at least in part on the sensor data received from the plurality of sensors.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the inter-vehicle communication subsystem is arranged to detect whether the other vehicle has a communication subsystem with which the inter-vehicle communication subsystem can establish a communication channel, on determination the vehicle is involved in a vehicle incident and another vehicle is involved; and to establish a communication channel with the communication subsystem of the other vehicle, on determination that the other vehicle has a communication subsystem with which the inter-vehicle communication subsystem can establish a communication channel.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to exchange incident information with the other vehicle further includes to exchange driver, vehicle or evidentiary information.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an occupant condition assessment subsystem, disposed in the vehicle and coupled to the main system controller, to assess an occupant's physical or emotional condition, on determination that the vehicle is involved in a vehicle incident.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the occupant condition assessment subsystem is arranged to receive sensor data from a plurality of sensors of the vehicle and of a wearable device worn by the occupant, and assess the occupant's physical or emotional condition, based at least in part on the sensor data received from the plurality of sensors.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a vehicle condition assessment subsystem, disposed in the vehicle and coupled to the main system controller, to assess the vehicle's condition, on determination that the vehicle is involved in a vehicle incident.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the vehicle condition assessment subsystem is arranged to receive sensor data from a plurality of sensors of the vehicle and of a wearable device worn by the occupant, and assess a condition of the vehicle's engine, driving train or body, based at least in part on the sensor data received from the plurality of sensors.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an external environment assessment subsystem, disposed in the vehicle and coupled to the main system controller, to assess a condition of an area surrounding the vehicle, on determination that the vehicle is involved in a vehicle incident.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the external environment assessment subsystem is arranged to receive sensor data from a plurality of sensors of the vehicle and from a remote server, and assess a physical, lighting or weather condition of the surrounding, based at least in part on the sensor data received.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the main system controller is arranged to further receive assessment of an occupant, assessment of the vehicle or assessment of a surrounding area, and to determine an occupant caring action or a vehicle action, based at least in part on the received occupant assessment, vehicle assessment or surrounding area assessment.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the main system controller is arranged to further receive incident information from the other vehicle, and to further determine the occupant caring action or the vehicle action, based on the incident information received from the other vehicle.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the occupant caring action or the vehicle action includes one of a) direct the vehicle to a hospital to have the occupant attended to, b) remain in place and summon for first responders, c) direct the vehicle to a roadside with or without summon for first responders, or d) direct the vehicle to a repair shop or continue to a destination.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus further comprises an occupant condition assessment subsystem to assess an occupant's physical or emotional condition, a vehicle condition assessment subsystem to assess the vehicle's condition, and an external environment assessment subsystem to assess a condition of an area surrounding the vehicle, the respective subsystems being disposed in the vehicle and coupled to the main system controller, and the respective assessment being performed on determination that the vehicle is involved in a vehicle incident; and a computer vision and deep learning accelerator disposed in the vehicle and arranged to support the occupant condition assessment subsystem, the vehicle condition assessment subsystem, and the external environment assessment subsystem.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a central communication subsystem, disposed in the vehicle and coupled with the main system controller, to report the incident to a remote server.

16. A method for in-vehicle computing, comprising:
receiving, by an incident management system of a vehicle, from sensors of the vehicle, sensor data;
determining, by the incident management system of the vehicle, whether the vehicle is involved in an incident, based at least in part on the received sensor data, and if involved in an incident, whether another vehicle is involved, and if another vehicle is involved, whether the other vehicle is equipped to exchange incident information;
on determining the vehicle is involved in an incident, assessing, by the incident management system of the vehicle, a condition of the vehicle, based at least in part on the received sensor data; and
on determining another vehicle is involved, and the other vehicle is equipped to exchange incident information, exchanging, by the incident management system of the vehicle, incident information with the other vehicle;
wherein exchanging incident information with the other vehicle includes negotiating with the other vehicle to mutually agree to remain in place, move to another location or move on.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein assessing condition of the vehicle comprises assessing condition of the vehicle's engine, driving train or body, based at least in part on the sensor data received from the plurality of sensors.

18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising assessing, by the incident management system, a condition of an area surrounding the vehicle, on determining that the vehicle is involved in a vehicle incident.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein assessing the condition of an area surrounding the vehicle comprises receiving senso

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Qawami Shekoufeh
• Baron Casey
• Ooi Kooi Chi
• Conde Naissa
• Yu Mengjie

Classifications

• G06N3/0464

  Convolutional networks [CNN, ConvNet] · CPC title

• H04W4/46 Primary

  for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V] · CPC title

• H04W4/44

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

• G06N20/00

  Machine learning · CPC title

• G06N3/08

  Learning methods · CPC title