Automated vehicle seats

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11376992-B2
Application number	US-201816171827-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 26, 2018
Priority date	Aug 8, 2018
Publication date	Jul 5, 2022
Grant date	Jul 5, 2022

Abstract

Systems, methods, tangible non-transitory computer-readable media, and devices associated with the operation of a vehicle are provided. For example a vehicle computing system can receive occupancy data that includes information associated with occupancy of a vehicle that includes seats. One or more states of the vehicle can be determined. The states of the vehicle can include a disposition of any object that is within the vehicle. Further, a configuration of the seats in the vehicle can be determined based on the occupancy data and the states of the vehicle. The configuration can include a disposition of the seats inside the vehicle. Furthermore, at least one of the seats can be adjusted based on the configuration that was determined.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle comprising:
one or more seats;
one or more processors;
a memory comprising one or more computer-readable media, the memory storing computer-readable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving occupancy data comprising information associated with occupancy of the vehicle;
determining one or more states of the vehicle, wherein the one or more states of the vehicle comprise a disposition of any object within the vehicle;
determining a configuration of the one or more seats based at least in part on the occupancy data and the one or more states of the vehicle, wherein the configuration comprises a disposition of the one or more seats inside the vehicle; and
in response to determining that the vehicle is vacant, automatically adjusting at least one seat of the one or more seats based at least in part on the configuration.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle comprises a seat interface to which the one or more seats are connected, and wherein at least one of the one or more seats is attachable to the seat interface or detachable from the seat interface.

3. The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the seat interface is configured to enable movement of the one or more seats to one or more different locations in the vehicle, and wherein the seat interface comprises one or more tracks, one or more rails, or one or more magnetic regions that attract one or more ferromagnetic portions of the one or more seats.

4. The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein at least two seats of the one or more seats are on a track of the seat interface and are configured to be grouped together by moving at least one seat of the at least two seats along the track of the seat interface.

5. The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the occupancy data comprises a layout of the one or more seats in the vehicle and wherein determining based at least in part on the occupancy data and the one or more states of the vehicle, the configuration of the one or more seats comprises:
determining one or more locations of the one or more seats with respect to the seat interface based at least in part on the occupancy data comprising the layout of the one or more seats in the vehicle.

6. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more seats is configured to be grouped with at least one other seat of the one or more seats.

7. The vehicle of claim 6 , wherein automatically adjusting the at least one seat of the one or more seats based at least in part on the configuration comprises:
grouping the at least one seat of the one or more seats to at least one other seat of the one or more seats based at least in part on the configuration.

8. The vehicle of claim 6 , wherein the occupancy data comprises a number of the one or more seats that will not be occupied and adjusting the at least one seat of the one or more seats based at least in part on the configuration comprises:
grouping the one or more seats that will not be occupied based at least in part on the configuration.

9. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the configuration of the one or more seats comprises a location of at least one of the one or more seats in the vehicle, an orientation of at least one of the one or more seats with respect to the vehicle, or a seating position of at least one of the one or more seats.

10. The vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating based at least in part on the configuration, one or more seating indications associated with a seating status of at least one of the one or more seats, wherein the one or more seating indications comprises one or more visual indications, one or more audible indications, or one or more haptic indications.

11. The vehicle of claim 10 , wherein the one or more visual indications are displayed on one or more areas of the one or more seats, and wherein the one or more visual indications comprise illumination of the one or more areas of the one or more seats, one or more textual messages displayed on the one or more areas of the one or more seats, or one or more colors displayed on the one or more areas of the one or more seats.

12. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the occupancy data comprises an order in which one or more passengers or cargo will enter or exit the vehicle.

13. The vehicle of claim 12 , wherein determining based at least in part on the occupancy data and the one or more states of the vehicle, a configuration of the one or more seats comprises:
determining one or more locations of the one or more seats in the vehicle based at least in part on the order in which the one or more passengers or cargo will enter or exit the vehicle.

14. The vehicle of claim 12 , wherein the vehicle comprises at least one entrance into the vehicle, and wherein determining based at least in part on the occupancy data and the one or more states of the vehicle, the configuration of the one or more seats comprises:
determining that the one or more passengers or cargo that will exit the vehicle earlier are assigned to the one or more seats in greater proximity to the at least one entrance than the one or more passengers or cargo that will exit the vehicle later.

15. A computer-implemented method of operating a vehicle, the computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving occupancy data comprising information associated with occupancy of a vehicle, wherein the vehicle comprises one or more seats;
determining one or more states of the vehicle, wherein the one or more states of the vehicle comprise a disposition of any object within the vehicle;
determining a configuration of the one or more seats based at least in part on the occupancy data and the one or more states of the vehicle, wherein the configuration comprises a disposition of the one or more seats inside the vehicle; and
in response to determining that the vehicle is vacant, automatically adjusting at least one seat of the one or more seats based at least in part on the configuration.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein adjusting the at least one seat of the one or more seats based at least in part on the configuration comprises:
adjusting a location, an orientation, or a seating position of at least one seat of the one or more seats, wherein the seating position comprises a height of the at least one seat with respect to the vehicle, an angle of a seat back portion of the at least one seat, a height of an armrest portion of the at least one seat, or a height of a headrest portion of the at least one seat.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein at least one of the one or more seats comprises one or more passenger facing portions and one or more non-passenger facing portions, and wherein determining the configuration of the one or more seats based at least in part on the occupancy data and the one or more states of the vehicle comprises:
determining based at least in part on the occupancy data, one or more portions of the one or more seats that will be visible to one or more passengers of the vehicle, wherein the occupancy data comprises a seating assignment for the one or more passengers; and
determining that only the one or more passenger facing portions of at least one of the one or more seats will be visible to the one or more passengers of the vehicle.

18. A computing device comprising:
one or more processors;
a memory comprising one or more computer-readable media, the memory storing computer-readable instructions that when executed by the one or

Assignees

• Uatc Llc

Inventors

• D'Eramo Christopher Matthew
• Chan Nicolas Bryan
• Urbanski Janna

Classifications

• B60N2210/20

  Radar · CPC title

• B60N2210/40

  Force or pressure sensors · CPC title

• B60N2210/26

  Ultrasonic, e.g. sonar · CPC title

• B60N2210/24

  Cameras · CPC title

• B60N2220/20

  using a deterministic algorithm · CPC title