Systems and methods for managing an autonomous vehicle transport service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12073446-B2
Application number	US-202217715398-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 7, 2022
Priority date	May 13, 2015
Publication date	Aug 27, 2024
Grant date	Aug 27, 2024

Abstract

A system can receive a transport request from a computing device of a requesting user, where the transport request indicates a service location. The system can determines a preliminary route for the transport request, and select an autonomous vehicle from a fleet of autonomous vehicles operating in the given area to service the transport request based on determining that the selected autonomous vehicle is capable of traversing the preliminary route without intervention.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer system implementing a transport service for an area, the computer system comprising:
a memory that stores a set of instructions; and
one or more processors executing the set of instructions, causing the computer system to perform operations comprising:
receiving, over one or more networks, a transport request from a computing device of a requesting user, the transport request indicating a service location;
determining a preliminary route for the transport request;
determining that the preliminary route for a first autonomous vehicle from a fleet of autonomous vehicles operating in the area does not include any portion that would cause an intervention by a human operator;
based on the determining that the preliminary route for the first autonomous vehicle does not include any portion that would cause an intervention by a human operator, selecting the first autonomous vehicle to service the transport request; and
causing the selected autonomous vehicle to begin servicing the transport request.

2. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the executed set of instructions further causes the computer system to perform operations comprising selecting the autonomous vehicle to service the transport request based on the selected autonomous vehicle having a lowest monetary cost for servicing the transport request.

3. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the transport request comprises a delivery request for delivering one or more items to the service location.

4. The computer system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more items comprise one or more food items or packages requested by the requesting user.

5. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the requesting user operates an application running on the computing device of the requesting user to configure and transmit the transport request.

6. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the executed set of instructions cause the computer system to perform operations comprising determining that the preliminary route for the first autonomous vehicle does not include any portion that would cause the intervention by the human operator by determining that the selection of the autonomous vehicle would result in a statistically significant likelihood of requiring a deviation from the preliminary route.

7. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the executed set of instructions cause the computer system to perform operations comprising determining that the preliminary route for the first autonomous vehicle does not include any portion that would cause the intervention by the human operator by generating a set of probabilistic determinations based on at least one of current road conditions or present events along the preliminary route, the probabilistic determinations indicating that the preliminary route does not include a portion that is inaccessible to the first autonomous vehicle.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
receive, over one or more networks, a transport request from a computing device of a requesting user, the transport request indicating a service location;
determine a preliminary route for the transport request;
determine that the preliminary route for a first autonomous vehicle from a fleet of autonomous vehicles operating in the area does not include any portion that would cause an intervention by a human operator;
based on the determining that the preliminary route for the first autonomous vehicle does not include any portion that would cause an intervention by a human operator, select the first autonomous vehicle to service the transport request; and
cause the selected autonomous vehicle to begin servicing the transport request.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the executed instructions further cause the one or more processors to select the autonomous vehicle to service the transport request based on the selected autonomous vehicle having a lowest monetary cost for servicing the transport request.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the transport request comprises a delivery request for delivering one or more items to the service location.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the one or more items comprise one or more food items or packages requested by the requesting user.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the requesting user operates an application running on the computing device of the requesting user to configure and transmit the transport request.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the executed instructions cause the one or more processors to determine that the preliminary route for the first autonomous vehicle does not include any portion that would cause the intervention by the human operator by determining that the selection of the autonomous vehicle would result in a statistically significant likelihood of requiring a deviation from the preliminary route.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the executed instructions cause the one or more processors to determine that the preliminary route for the first autonomous vehicle does not include any portion that would cause the intervention by the human operator by generating a set of probabilistic determinations based on at least one of current road conditions or present events along the preliminary route, the probabilistic determinations indicating that the preliminary route does not include a portion that is inaccessible to the first autonomous vehicle.

15. A computer-implemented method of managing a transport service, the method being performed by one or more processors and comprising:
receiving, over one or more networks, a transport request from a computing device of a requesting user, the transport request indicating a service location;
determining a preliminary route for the transport request;
determining that the preliminary route for a first autonomous vehicle from a fleet of autonomous vehicles operating in the area does not include any portion that would cause an intervention by a human operator;
based on the determining that the preliminary route for the first autonomous vehicle does not include any portion that would cause an intervention by a human operator, selecting the first autonomous vehicle to service the transport request; and
cause the selected autonomous vehicle to begin servicing the transport request.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the one or more processors select the autonomous vehicle to service the transport request based on the selected autonomous vehicle having a lowest monetary cost for servicing the transport request.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the transport request comprises a delivery request for delivering one or more items to the service location.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the one or more items comprise one or more food items or packages requested by the requesting user.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the requesting user operates an application running on the computing device of the requesting user to configure and transmit the transport request.

20. The method of claim 15 , wherein the one or more processors determine that the preliminary route for the first autonomous vehicle does not include any portion that would cause the intervention by the human operator by determining that the selectio

Assignees

• Uber Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Ross William
• Bares John
• Larose David
• Sweeney Matthew

Classifications

• G01C21/3492

  employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical (traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968) · CPC title

• G01C21/3484

  Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles · CPC title

• G05D1/243

  Means capturing signals occurring naturally from the environment, e.g. ambient optical, acoustic, gravitational or magnetic signals (using passive navigation aids external to the vehicle G05D1/244; using signals from positioning sensors located off-board the vehicle G05D1/249) · CPC title

• G05D1/692

  involving a plurality of disparate vehicles · CPC title

• G05D1/644

  Optimisation of travel parameters, e.g. of energy consumption, journey time or distance · CPC title