Communicating vehicle information to pedestrians

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11738682-B2
Application number	US-202117481018-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 21, 2021
Priority date	Oct 8, 2020
Publication date	Aug 29, 2023
Grant date	Aug 29, 2023

Abstract

Among other things, techniques are described for expressive vehicle systems. These techniques may include obtaining, with at least one processor, data associated with an environment, the environment comprising a vehicle and at least one object; determining an expressive maneuver including a deceleration of the vehicle such that the vehicle stops at least a first distance away from the at least one object and the vehicle reaches a peak deceleration when the vehicle is a second distance away from the at least one object; generating data associated with control of the vehicle based on the deceleration associated with the expressive maneuver; and transmitting the data associated with the control of the vehicle to cause the vehicle to decelerate based on the deceleration associated with the expressive maneuver.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
obtaining, with at least one processor, data associated with an environment, the environment comprising a vehicle and at least one object;
determining, with the at least one processor, an expressive deceleration profile associated with an expressive maneuver, wherein determining the expressive deceleration profile comprises:
determining an expressive initiation distance based on a location of the vehicle in the environment and a location of the at least one object in the environment, the expressive initiation distance representing a distance between the location of the vehicle and the location of the at least one object when the vehicle initiates the expressive maneuver,
determining an expressive maximum deceleration distance based on the location of the vehicle in the environment and the location of the at least one object in the environment, the expressive maximum deceleration distance representing a distance between the location of the vehicle and the location of the at least one object when the vehicle reaches a maximum deceleration,
determining an expressive stopping distance based on the location of the vehicle in the environment and the location of the at least one object in the environment, the expressive stopping distance representing a distance between the location of the vehicle and the location of the at least one object when the vehicle reaches a stop,
determining: i) a starting point based on the expressive initiation distance and the location of the at least one object in the environment, ii) a maximum deceleration point based on the expressive maximum deceleration distance and the location of the at least one object in the environment, and iii) a stopping point based on the expressive stopping distance and the location of the at least one object in the environment, and
determining the expressive deceleration profile based on the starting point, the maximum deceleration point, and the stopping point;

generating, with the at least one processor, data associated with control of the vehicle based on the expressive deceleration profile associated with the expressive maneuver; and
transmitting, with the at least one processor, the data associated with the control of the vehicle to a controller of the vehicle for controlling the vehicle to cause the vehicle to perform the expressive deceleration profile of the expressive maneuver.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the expressive stopping distance comprises determining the expressive stopping distance to be at least 2 meters and determining the expressive maximum deceleration distance comprises determining the expressive maximum deceleration distance to be at least 35 meters.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the expressive initiation distance comprises determining the expressive initiation distance to be at least 100 meters.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the expressive deceleration profile comprises determining the expressive deceleration profile based on a velocity of the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein determining the expressive initiation distance comprises determining the expressive initiation distance to be a distance representing at least 7.5 seconds driving time away from the location of the at least one object based on the velocity of the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein determining the expressive maximum deceleration distance comprises determining the expressive maximum deceleration distance to be at least 35 meters away from the location of the at least one object when the velocity of the vehicle is between 5 m/s and 35 m/s.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising
selecting at least one entry condition for initiating the expressive maneuver based on the obtained data associated with the environment.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein selecting the at least one entry condition for initiating the expressive maneuver based on the obtained data associated with the environment comprises:
selecting the at least one entry condition to comprise a condition requiring that the expressive initiation distance is greater than a minimum initiation distance threshold and a condition requiring that the expressive stopping distance is greater than a minimum expressive stopping distance threshold.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
identifying the at least one object as at least one of a pedestrian, a cyclist, another vehicle, a traffic controller, or a jay-walker based on the obtained data associated with the environment.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein selecting the at least one entry condition for initiating the expressive maneuver based on the obtained data associated with the environment is further based on the identification of the at least one object.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
determining a pose of the at least one object when the at least one object is identified as at least one of the pedestrian, the cyclist, the traffic controller, or the jay-walker,
wherein selecting the at least one entry condition for initiating the expressive maneuver based on the obtained data associated with the environment comprises selecting a condition requiring that the pose of the at least one object is an a direction toward the location of the vehicle.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
determining a location of a crosswalk in the environment based on the obtained data,
wherein selecting the at least one entry condition for initiating the expressive maneuver based on the obtained data associated with the environment comprises selecting a condition requiring that the location of the crosswalk is within a crosswalk distance from the location of the at least one object in the environment.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
determining a clearance distance to another vehicle in front of the vehicle based on the obtained data,
wherein selecting the at least one entry condition for initiating the expressive maneuver based on the obtained data associated with the environment comprises selecting a condition requiring that the expressive stopping distance is less than the clearance distance.

14. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
determining whether all of the at least one entry conditions for initiating the expressive maneuver are satisfied,
wherein transmitting the data associated with the control of the vehicle to a controller of the vehicle for controlling the vehicle to cause the vehicle to perform the expressive deceleration profile of the expressive maneuver is performed in response to determining that all of the at least one entry conditions are satisfied.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
selecting at least one exit condition for terminating the expressive maneuver based on the obtained data associated with the environment.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein selecting the at least one exit condition for terminating the expressive maneuver based on the obtained data associated with the environment comprises:
selecting the at least one exit condition to comprise selecting a condition based on a passage of time after the vehicle has reached a stop at the expressive stopping distance from the at least one object.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein selecting the at least one exit condition for terminating the expressive maneuver based on the obtained data associated with the environment comprises:
selecting the at least one exit condition to comprise a condition based on an indication that the at least one ob

Assignees

• Motional Ad Llc

Inventors

• Schmitt Paul
• Frazzoli Emilio
• Lizarazo Jimenez Cristhian Guillermo
• Fletcher Luke

Classifications

• B60W60/0017 Primary

  of other traffic participants · CPC title

• B60Q1/525

  automatically indicating risk of collision between vehicles in traffic or with pedestrians, e.g. after risk assessment using the vehicle sensor data · CPC title

• B60Q5/006

  indicating risk of collision between vehicles or with pedestrians · CPC title

• B60W10/20

  including control of steering systems · CPC title

• B60W30/181

  Preparing for stopping · CPC title