Vehicle management system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11847870-B2
Application number	US-202117373197-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 12, 2021
Priority date	Dec 14, 2016
Publication date	Dec 19, 2023
Grant date	Dec 19, 2023

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 vehicle computing system comprising processing resources that execute instructions to cause the vehicle computing system to:
obtain data indicative of one or more parameters associated with a vehicle;
determine a fault on-board the vehicle based at least in part on the one or more parameters;
determine a level of severity of the fault based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the fault, wherein:
the level of severity of the fault is indicative of an operational state of the vehicle; and
the one or more characteristics of the fault is indicative of a location of the fault within the vehicle;

determine the operational state of the vehicle based on the level of severity of the fault, wherein the operational state indicates that the vehicle is not in condition to provide a transportation service; and
in response to determining the operational state of the vehicle, provide data indicating that the vehicle is to be removed from a pool of vehicles that are designated as available to provide the transportation service.

2. The vehicle computing system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is an autonomous vehicle, and the vehicle computing system is on-board the autonomous vehicle.

3. The vehicle computing system of claim 1 , wherein the transportation service is a delivery service, and wherein the vehicle is included in a fleet of vehicles that provide the delivery service.

4. The vehicle computing system of claim 3 , wherein the pool of vehicles that are designated as available to provide the transportation service comprise one or more of the fleet of vehicles.

5. The vehicle computing system of claim 1 , wherein determining the operational state of the vehicle comprises:
obtaining one or more thresholds corresponding to the one or more parameters; and
determining the operational state of the vehicle based on a comparison of the one or more parameters to the one or more thresholds.

6. The vehicle computing system of claim 5 , wherein the one or more parameters comprise at least one of a fuel parameter indicative of a current fuel level of the vehicle, a charge parameter indicative of a current energy level of the vehicle, or a data storage parameter indicative of a current amount of available data storage for the vehicle.

7. The vehicle computing system of claim 6 , wherein the one or more thresholds comprise at least one of a fuel threshold indicative of a threshold level of fuel, a charge threshold indicative of a threshold energy level, or a data storage threshold indicative of a threshold amount of available data storage.

8. The vehicle computing system of claim 7 , wherein determining the operational state of the vehicle comprises:
determining the operational state of the vehicle in response to determining that at least one of: (i) the fuel parameter of the vehicle does not achieve the fuel threshold or (ii) the charge parameter of the vehicle does not achieve the charge threshold.

9. The vehicle computing system of claim 8 , wherein the fuel threshold is determined based at least in part on a distance of the vehicle from at least one of a plurality of depots associated with the vehicle.

10. The vehicle computing system of claim 8 , wherein the fuel threshold determined based at least in part on a travel route for the vehicle.

11. The vehicle computing system of claim 7 , wherein determining the operational state of the vehicle comprises:
determining the operational state of the vehicle in response to determining that data storage parameter of the vehicle does not achieve the data storage threshold.

12. The vehicle computing system of claim 11 , wherein the data storage threshold is determined based at least in part on a distance of the vehicle from at least one of a plurality of depots associated with the vehicle.

13. An autonomous vehicle comprising a vehicle computing system comprising processing resources that execute instructions to cause the vehicle computing system to:
obtain data indicative of one or more parameters associated with a vehicle;
determine a fault on-board the vehicle based at least in part on the one or more parameters;
determine a level of severity of the fault based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the fault, wherein:
the level of severity of the fault is indicative of an operational state of the vehicle; and
the one or more characteristics of the fault is indicative of a location of the fault within the vehicle;

determine the operational state of the vehicle based on the level of severity of the fault, wherein the operational state indicates that the vehicle is not in condition to provide a transportation service; and
in response to determining the operational state of the vehicle, provide data indicating that the vehicle is to be removed from a pool of vehicles that are designated as available to provide the transportation service.

14. The vehicle of claim 13 , wherein the vehicle is an autonomous vehicle that provides a delivery service.

15. A computer-implemented method of taking a vehicle out-of-service, comprising:
obtain data indicative of one or more parameters associated with a vehicle;
determine a fault on-board the vehicle based at least in part on the one or more parameters;
determine a level of severity of the fault based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the fault, wherein:
the level of severity of the fault is indicative of an operational state of the vehicle; and
the one or more characteristics of the fault is indicative of a location of the fault within the vehicle;

determine the operational state of the vehicle based on the level of severity of the fault, wherein the operational state indicates that the vehicle is not in condition to provide a transportation service; and
in response to determining the operational state of the vehicle, provide data indicating that the vehicle is to be removed from a pool of vehicles that are designated as available to provide the transportation service.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein the transportation service is a delivery service, and wherein the method further comprises:
receiving data indicative of a service request for the delivery service.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16 , wherein the vehicle is selected from the pool of vehicles to perform the delivery service.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises:
in response to receiving the data indicative of the service request for the delivery service, providing the data indicating that the vehicle is to be removed from the pool of vehicles that are designated as available to provide the transportation service.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18 , wherein the vehicle is associated with a delivery service provider, wherein the delivery service provider is associated with a fleet of vehicles, and wherein at least one of the fleet of vehicles is associated with a respective vehicle status.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19 , wherein removing the vehicle from the pool of vehicles that are designated as available to provide the transportation service comprises adjusting the respective vehicle status associated with the vehicle to indicate that the vehicle is unavailable to provide the vehicle service.

Assignees

• Uatc Llc

Inventors

• Poeppel Scott
• Letwin Nicholas G
• Kelly Sean J

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

• G06Q10/0631

  Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations · 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