Systems and methods for providing an autonomous vehicle vendor lot

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12131641-B2
Application number	US-202017114641-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 8, 2020
Priority date	Jun 5, 2020
Publication date	Oct 29, 2024
Grant date	Oct 29, 2024

Abstract

An autonomous vehicle vendor lot may include a plurality of vehicle selection indicators, a visual navigation system, and a control system. The indicators may be distributed in the lot, associated with a respective parking spot in the lot, and operable to generate a visual indication indicative of a selection of a vehicle in the respective parking spot. The navigation system may be operable to generate a visual indication of a route between various locations in the lot. The control system may be operatively connected to the indicators and the navigation system, and configured to: receive a vehicle search query; identify at least one vehicle in the lot corresponding to the query; operate each vehicle selection indicator corresponding to each identified vehicle; identify a respective location in the lot for each identified vehicle; and operate the visual navigation system to generate a visual indication of a route to at least one identified vehicle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An autonomous lot, comprising:
a plurality of vehicle selection indicators distributed in the lot, each vehicle selection indicator associated with a respective parking spot in the lot and operable to generate a visual indication indicative of a selection of a vehicle in the respective parking spot;
a visual navigation system operable to generate a visual indication of a route between various locations in the lot; and
a control system operatively connected to the plurality of vehicle selection indicators and the visual navigation system, and configured to:
receive a vehicle search query;
identify at least one vehicle in the lot corresponding to the vehicle search query;
operate each vehicle selection indicator corresponding to the identified at least one vehicle;
identify a respective location in the lot for the at least one identified vehicle; and
operate the visual navigation system to generate a visual indication of a route to the at least one identified vehicle.

2. The autonomous lot of claim 1 , wherein the route to the at least one identified vehicle originates at a predetermined start location in the lot.

3. The autonomous lot of claim 1 , wherein:
the control system is further configured to determine a location in the lot of a user associated with the vehicle search query; and
the route to the at least one identified vehicle originates at the determined location of the user in the lot.

4. The autonomous lot of claim 3 , wherein the location of the user in the lot is determined via a positioning mechanism of a user device that transmitted the vehicle search query to the control system.

5. The autonomous lot of claim 4 , wherein the control system is further configured to perform at least the operation of each vehicle selection indicator corresponding to the identified at least one vehicle and of the navigation system in response to detecting that the user has entered the lot.

6. The autonomous lot of claim 3 , further comprising:
a plurality of sensors distributed in the lot, wherein the location of the user in the lot is determined via the plurality of sensors.

7. The autonomous lot of claim 6 , wherein:
the plurality of sensors includes a plurality of audio sensors; and
the control system is further configured to:
receive voice data from the user at various locations in the lot via the plurality of audio sensors; and
generate the vehicle search query based on the received voice data.

8. The autonomous lot of claim 1 , further comprising:
an entrance element associated with the lot, wherein the control system is further configured to perform at least the operation of each vehicle selection indicator corresponding to the identified at least one vehicle and of the navigation system in response to receiving an indication that the entrance element has been captured by a sensor of a user device associated with the user.

9. The autonomous lot of claim 8 , wherein the entrance element includes one or more of a visual element, an audio element, or an electronic signal.

10. The autonomous lot of claim 1 , further comprising:
a user interface device positioned in the lot and configured to receive the vehicle search query and transmit the vehicle search query to the control system.

11. The autonomous lot of claim 1 , wherein the control system is further configured to authenticate a user associated with the vehicle search query, and only identify the at least one vehicle in the lot in response to the authentication of the user.

12. The autonomous lot of claim 1 , wherein the visual navigation system includes a plurality of visual indicators distributed in the lot.

13. The autonomous lot of claim 12 , wherein at least one of the plurality of visual indicators and the plurality of vehicle selection indicators are configured to generate light of difference colors corresponding to different users in the lot.

14. The autonomous lot of claim 1 , wherein the visual navigation system is configured to generate an augmented reality visual display indicative of the route to the at least one identified vehicle.

15. A control system for an autonomous lot, comprising:
a memory storing instructions; and
a processor operatively connected to the memory and configured to execute the stored instruction to perform acts including:
receiving a vehicle search query;
identifying a plurality of vehicles in the lot corresponding to the vehicle search query;
operating a respective vehicle selection indicator in the lot corresponding to each identified vehicle in the plurality of vehicles to generate a visual indication of the identification of the plurality of vehicles;
identifying a respective location in the lot for each identified vehicle of the plurality of vehicles; and
operating a visual navigation system to generate a visual indication of a route that includes each identified vehicle in the plurality of vehicles.

16. The control system of claim 15 , wherein the acts further include:
detecting that a vehicle associated with the lot is entering the lot;
identifying at least one further vehicle in the lot that is likely to be identified along with the entering vehicle in a vehicle search query;
determining a parking spot for the entering vehicle in the lot configured to optimize a search navigation route to include the entering vehicle and the at least one further vehicle; and
operating the visual navigation system to generate a visualization of a parking route to the determined parking spot for the entering vehicle.

17. The control system of claim 16 , wherein identifying the at least one further vehicle includes employing a first machine learning model that is trained, based on previous vehicle search queries and vehicles identified from the previous search queries, to identify other vehicle likely to be identified in a given search query along with the entering vehicle.

18. The control system of claim 15 , wherein the acts further include:
tracking a location of a user associated with the vehicle search query; and
operating the visual navigation system to adjust the visual indication of the route based on the tracked location.

19. The control system of claim 15 , wherein the acts further include:
receiving a vehicle selection indication corresponding to one of the identified plurality of vehicles; and
in response to receiving the vehicle selection indication, one or more of:
causing a key storage device to release a key corresponding to the selected vehicle; or
initiating a vehicle purchase or rental transaction associated with the selected vehicle.

20. A computer-implemented method of providing an autonomous lot, the method comprising:
receiving voice data from a user via a plurality of audio sensors;
determining a location of the user in the lot via the plurality of audio sensors;
generating a vehicle search query based on the received voice data;
identifying at least one vehicle in the lot corresponding to the vehicle search query;
operating a respective vehicle selection indicator in the lot corresponding to the at least one identified vehicle to generate a visual indication of a selection of the at least one identified vehicle;
identifying a respective location in the lot for the at least one identified vehicle; and
operating a visual navigation system to generate a visual indication of a route to the at least one identified vehicle, wherein:
the route originates at the determined location of the user; and
the visual navigation system includes

Assignees

• Capital One Services Llc

Inventors

• Dagley Geoffrey
• Tang Qiaochu
• Hoover Jason
• Ghamsari Avid
• Price Micah

Classifications

• G06V2201/08

  Detecting or categorising vehicles · CPC title

• G06V20/20

  in augmented reality scenes · CPC title

• G06Q10/087

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G06Q30/0613

  using intermediate agents · CPC title

• G06Q30/0645

  Rental transactions; Leasing transactions · CPC title