Vehicle management system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11062535-B2
Application number	US-201916554711-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 29, 2019
Priority date	Dec 14, 2016
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

Systems, methods, and vehicles for taking a vehicle out-of-service are provided. In one example embodiment, a method includes 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 autonomous vehicle is configured to provide a vehicle service to one or more users of the vehicle service. The method includes determining, by the computing devices, 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, by the computing devices, one or more actions to be performed by the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the existence of the fault. The method includes performing, by the computing devices, one or more of the actions to take the autonomous vehicle out-of-service based at least in part on the fault.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method of taking a vehicle out-of-service, comprising:
obtaining, by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices, data indicative of one or more parameters associated with an autonomous vehicle of a plurality of autonomous vehicles designated as available to provide a transportation service;
determining, by the computing system and based at least in part on the one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle, an existence of a fault associated with the autonomous vehicle;
determining, by the computing system and based at least in part on the existence of the fault, that the autonomous vehicle is not in condition to provide the transportation service; and
in response to determining that the autonomous vehicle is not in condition to provide the transportation service, removing, by the computing system, the autonomous vehicle from the plurality of autonomous vehicles designated as available to provide the transportation service.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing, by the computing system to the autonomous vehicle, data indicating that the autonomous vehicle has been removed from the plurality of autonomous vehicles designated as available to provide the transportation service.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of autonomous vehicles comprises a pool of vehicles that are designated as available to provide the transportation service to one or more users.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the autonomous vehicle is not in condition to provide the transportation service comprises:
receiving, by the computing system from the autonomous vehicle, a request for confirmation of the existence of the fault.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the autonomous vehicle is not in condition to provide the transportation service comprises:
determining, by the computing system, a level of severity of the fault based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the fault; and
determining, by the computing system, an operational state of the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the level of severity of the fault, wherein the operational state is indicative of whether the autonomous vehicle is in condition to provide the transportation service.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the operational state indicates that the autonomous vehicle is not in condition to provide the transportation service.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the operational state indicates that the autonomous vehicle is in condition to complete a provision of the transportation service to one or more current users before being removed from the plurality of autonomous vehicles designated as available to provide the transportation service.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing, by the computing system to the autonomous vehicle, data indicative of one or more maintenance locations.

9. A computing system for taking a vehicle out-of-service, the system comprising:
one or more processors; and
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 an autonomous vehicle of a plurality of autonomous vehicles designated as available to provide a transportation service;
determining, based at least in part on the one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle, an existence of a fault associated with the autonomous vehicle;
determining, based at least in part on the existence of the fault, that the autonomous vehicle is not in condition to provide the transportation service; and
in response to determining that the autonomous vehicle is not in condition to provide the transportation service, removing the autonomous vehicle from the plurality of autonomous vehicles designated as available to provide the transportation service.

10. The computing system of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise:
providing data to the autonomous vehicle indicating that the autonomous vehicle has been removed from the plurality of autonomous vehicles designated as available to provide the transportation service.

11. The computing system of claim 9 , wherein removing the autonomous vehicle from the plurality of autonomous vehicles designated as available to provide the transportation service comprises:
removing the autonomous vehicle from a service queue associated with the transportation service.

12. The computing system of claim 9 , wherein determining that the autonomous vehicle is not in condition to provide the transportation service comprises:
receiving a request for confirmation of the existence of the fault.

13. The computing system of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise:
providing one or more control command signals to the autonomous vehicle to cause the autonomous vehicle to initiate travel to a maintenance location.

14. The computing system of claim 9 , wherein at least one of the parameters is indicative of an amount of available data storage on-board the autonomous vehicle.

15. The computing system of claim 14 , wherein:
determining the existence of the fault is based at least in part on a comparison of the one or more parameters to one or more thresholds; and
the one or more thresholds include at least one threshold indicative of a threshold amount of data storage.

16. One or more tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media that collectively store instructions that, when executed by 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 an autonomous vehicle of a plurality of autonomous vehicles designated as available to provide a transportation service;
determining, based at least in part on the one or more parameters associated with the autonomous vehicle, an existence of a fault associated with the autonomous vehicle;
determining, based at least in part on the existence of the fault, that the autonomous vehicle is not in condition to provide the transportation service; and
in response to determining that the autonomous vehicle is not in condition to provide the transportation service, removing the autonomous vehicle from the plurality of autonomous vehicles designated as available to provide the transportation service.

17. The one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 16 , wherein the plurality of vehicles are associated with a service provider.

18. The one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 17 , wherein the one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media are associated with the service provider.

19. The one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise:
providing data to the autonomous vehicle indicating that the autonomous vehicle has been removed from the plurality of autonomous vehicles designated as available to provide the transportation service.

20. The one or more tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 16 , wherein the one or more parameters are associated with one or more image capture devices of the autonomous ve

Assignees

• Uatc Llc

Inventors

• Poeppel Scott
• Letwin Nicholas G
• Kelly Sean K

Classifications

• G07C5/0808 Primary

  Diagnosing performance data (testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005) · CPC title

• G06Q10/047

  Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem · CPC title

• G07C5/0825

  using optical means · CPC title

• G06Q10/20

  Administration of product repair or maintenance · CPC title

• G07C5/008

  communicating information to a remotely located station (transmission systems for measured values G08C) · CPC title