Methods for passenger authentication and door operation for autonomous vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12280740-B2
Application number	US-202318194344-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 31, 2023
Priority date	Aug 29, 2019
Publication date	Apr 22, 2025
Grant date	Apr 22, 2025

Abstract

Disclosed are computer systems and techniques for authenticating a passenger of an autonomous vehicle and operating doors of the autonomous vehicle. For passenger authentication, the computer system is configured to receive a ride request, generate a passcode, transmit the passcode to a user account and the autonomous vehicle, authenticate the user using the passcode, and enable departure of the autonomous vehicle. For door operation, the computer system is configured to detect environmental conditions surrounding an autonomous vehicle, determine based on a set of operational conditions whether one or more doors of the autonomous vehicle are desirable for use, and operate a door if the door is safe to operate and desirable for operation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining that an autonomous vehicle has arrived at a first location, the autonomous vehicle comprising a plurality of doors;
detecting at least one object in an environment of the autonomous vehicle using at least one sensor of the autonomous vehicle;
responsive to determining that the autonomous vehicle has arrived at the first location, determining whether the at least one object is approaching the plurality of doors of the autonomous vehicle;
determining a desirability score for each of the plurality of doors based at least in part on determining that the at least one object is not approaching a first door of the plurality of doors;
identifying the first door of the plurality of doors of the autonomous vehicle to open based at least in part on the desirability scores for the plurality of doors;
causing the first door to open;
based on a determination that authorization criteria for a user account is satisfied, enabling a user to request departure of the autonomous vehicle; and
based on a received request to initiate departure of the autonomous vehicle, initiating departure of the autonomous vehicle from the first location.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the first door of the autonomous vehicle to open comprises identifying a door closest to a passenger and wherein causing the first door to open comprises causing the door closest to the passenger to open.

3. The method of any of claim 1 , wherein identifying the first door of the autonomous vehicle to open comprises weighting the plurality of doors based on at least one operational condition and identifying the first door to open based on the weighting.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the at least one operational condition comprises at least one of a determined seating location of at least one passenger or an identification of a door requested by the at least one passenger.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein identifying the first door of the autonomous vehicle to open comprises weighting the plurality of doors based on at least one environmental condition, and identifying the first door to open based on the weighting.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the at least one environmental condition comprises at least one of: a location of the autonomous vehicle relative to a sidewalk, a location of the autonomous vehicle relative to an intersection, a location of a door relative to oncoming traffic.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein identifying the first door of the autonomous vehicle to open comprises confirming that the first door is not obstructed.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the first door to open comprises operating the first door to partially open.

9. A system comprising:
at least one computer processor configured to:
determine that an autonomous vehicle has arrived at a first location, the autonomous vehicle comprising a plurality of doors;
detect at least one object in an environment of the autonomous vehicle using at least one sensor of the autonomous vehicle;
responsive to determining that the autonomous vehicle has arrived at the first location, determining whether the at least one object is approaching the plurality of doors of the autonomous vehicle;
determine a desirability score for each of the plurality of doors based at least in part on determining that the at least one object is not approaching a first door of the plurality of doors;
identify the first door of the plurality of doors of the autonomous vehicle to open based at least in part on the desirability scores for the plurality of doors;
cause the first door to open;
based on a determination that authorization criteria for a user account is satisfied, enable a user to request departure of the autonomous vehicle; and
based on a received request to initiate departure of the autonomous vehicle, initiate departure of the autonomous vehicle from the first location.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein to identify the first door of the autonomous vehicle to open, the at least one computer processor is configured to identify a door closest to a passenger and to cause the first door to open, the at least one computer processor is configured to cause the door closest to the passenger to open.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein to identify the first door of the autonomous vehicle to open, the at least one computer processor is configured to weight the plurality of doors based on at least one operational condition and identify the first door to open based on the weight.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one operational condition comprises at least one of a determined seating location of at least one passenger or an identification of a door requested by the at least one passenger.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein to identify the first door of the autonomous vehicle to open, the at least one computer processor is configured to weight the plurality of doors based on at least one environmental condition, and identify the first door to open based on the weight.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the at least one environmental condition comprises at least one of: a location of the autonomous vehicle relative to a sidewalk, a location of the autonomous vehicle relative to an intersection, a location of a door relative to oncoming traffic.

15. Non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to:
determine that an autonomous vehicle has arrived at a first location, the autonomous vehicle comprising a plurality of doors;
detect at least one object in an environment of the autonomous vehicle using at least one sensor of the autonomous vehicle;
responsive to determining that the autonomous vehicle has arrived at the first location, determining whether the at least one object is approaching the plurality of doors of the autonomous vehicle;
determining a desirability score for each of the plurality of doors based at least in part on determining that the at least one object is not approaching a first door of the plurality of doors;
identify the first door of the plurality of doors of the autonomous vehicle to open based at least in part on the desirability scores for the plurality of doors;
cause the first door to open;
based on a determination that authorization criteria for a user account is satisfied, enable a user to request departure of the autonomous vehicle; and
based on a received request to initiate departure of the autonomous vehicle, initiate departure of the autonomous vehicle from the first location.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that each of the desirability scores for the plurality of doors is less than a threshold desirability score; and
responsive to determining that each of the desirability scores for the plurality of doors is less than the threshold desirability score, causing the autonomous vehicle to drive until the first door is no longer obstructed and open the first door.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the at least one object approaching the plurality of doors is a pedestrian,
wherein causing the first door to open comprises operating the first door to partially open responsive to determining that the at least one object approaching the plurality of doors is a pedestrian.

Assignees

• Motional Ad Llc

Inventors

• Kim Junsung
• Xu Yunpeng
• Pai Melgangolli Vasudeva
• Sandler Brett
• Sweeny Scott

Classifications

• H04L63/0861

  using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231) · CPC title

• G08G1/202

  Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching · CPC title

• H04W12/06 Primary

  Authentication · CPC title

• H04W4/44

  for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H] · CPC title

• B60W60/00253 Primary

  Taxi operations · CPC title