System and method for determining a stop point

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11568744-B2
Application number	US-201916569435-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 12, 2019
Priority date	Sep 12, 2019
Publication date	Jan 31, 2023
Grant date	Jan 31, 2023

Abstract

Provided herein is a system and method for a vehicle system on a vehicle. The system comprises a server comprising sensor data of stop points, one or more processors, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform: determining, from the stop points, one or more available stop points; selecting, from the one or more available stop points, a stop point based on a criteria; and stopping the vehicle at the selected stop point.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle system on a vehicle, comprising:
a server comprising sensor data of stop points wherein the server consolidates the sensor data from different vehicles;
one or more processors; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform:
determining, from the stop points, one or more available stop points;
selecting, from the one or more available stop points, a stop point among the available stop points having among a lowest degree of danger, wherein a degree of danger of a particular stop point is based on:
a detection of persons loitering adjacent to the stop point,
a density of the persons, and
respective durations at which the persons have been loitering adjacent to the stop point; and

stopping the vehicle at the selected stop point.

2. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein selecting the stop point comprises:
selecting a desired destination and selecting, from the one or more available stop points, a stop point nearest the desired destination.

3. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein selecting the stop point comprises:
selecting, from the available stop points, the stop point having a minimum difficulty of entry.

4. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein selecting the stop point comprises:
reserving the selected stop point for a duration to notify other vehicles that the selected stop point is unavailable for the duration.

5. The vehicle system of claim 3 , wherein selecting the stop point comprises:
eliminating a stop point that requires reverse parking in order to enter the stop point.

6. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the system to perform:
rotating tires of the vehicle toward or away from a curb in response to a slope of a road at the stop point exceeding a threshold slope.

7. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein determining one or more available stop points comprises:
requesting, by the vehicle, a stopping time for the vehicle to use the one or more available stop points;
determining whether each of the one or more stop points has been reserved by another vehicle;
in response to determining that one of the stop points has been reserved, determining whether a reservation time for which the one of the stop points has been reserved for the another vehicle coincides with the stopping time;
in response to determining that the reservation time coincides with the stopping time, determining that the one of the stop points is not available; and
in response to determining that one of the stop points has not been reserved or that the reservation time does not coincide with the stopping time, determining that the one of the stop points is available.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein selecting the stop point is further based on a duration that a subset of the persons has been present adjacent the stop point.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein selecting the stop point is further based on an air quality index (AQI) adjacent to the stop point, a noise level, and an amount of lighting adjacent to the stop point.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein selecting the stop point is further based on an absence of police activity or construction activity adjacent to the stop point.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the system to perform: in response to determining that one of the stop points has been reserved but the another vehicle has failed to appear at the one of the stop points within a threshold time of the reservation time, cancelling the reservation time and determining that the one of the stop points is available.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein selecting the stop point is further based on a presence or absence of broken glass on a ground adjacent to the stop point.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein selecting the stop point is further based on whether the stop point is intended for short-term stopping or long-term parking, and a duration for which the vehicle intends to stop.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the degree of danger of a particular stop point is further determined based on one or more weapons carried by the persons loitering adjacent to the stop point.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the stop point is further based on a level of safety for one or more surrounding construction workers.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the selecting of the stop point is based on a temperature gradient at or adjacent to the stop point.

17. A method implemented by a vehicle system comprising a server including sensor data of stop points; one or more processors; and storage media storing machine-readable instructions, wherein the method is performed using the one or more processors, the method comprising:
determining, from the stop points, one or more available stop points;
selecting, from the one or more available stop points, a stop point among the available stop points having among a lowest degree of danger, wherein a degree of danger of a particular stop point is based on:
a detection of persons loitering adjacent to the stop point,
a density of the persons, and
respective durations at which the persons have been loitering adjacent to the stop point; and

stopping the vehicle at the selected stop point.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein selecting the stop point comprises eliminating a stop point that requires reverse parking in order to enter the stop point.

19. The method of claim 17 , further comprising rotating tires of the vehicle toward or away from a curb in response to a slope of a road at the stop point exceeding a threshold slope.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein determining one or more available stop points comprises:
requesting, by the vehicle, a stopping time for the vehicle to use the one or more available stop points;
determining whether each of the one or more stop points has been reserved by another vehicle;
in response to determining that one of the stop points has been reserved, determining whether a reservation time for which the one of the stop points has been reserved for the another vehicle coincides with the stopping time; and
in response to determining that the reservation time coincides with the stopping time, determining that the one of the stop points is not available; and
in response to determining that one of the stop points has not been reserved or that the reservation time does not coincide with the stopping time, determining that the one of the stop points is available.

Assignees

• Pony Ai Inc

Inventors

• Diehl Peter G
• Dingli Robert

Classifications

• G06Q10/02 Primary

  Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events · CPC title

• G05D2201/0213

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08G1/141

  with means giving the indication of available parking spaces · CPC title

• G05D1/0055

  with safety arrangements · CPC title

• G05D1/0088

  characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours (using knowledge based models G06N5/00) · CPC title