Vehicles, methods, computer programs, and apparatuses for resolving a deadlock traffic situation of an automatically operated vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12394305-B2
Application number	US-202117464349-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 1, 2021
Priority date	Sep 8, 2020
Publication date	Aug 19, 2025
Grant date	Aug 19, 2025

Abstract

Transportation vehicles, methods, computer programs, and apparatuses for resolving a deadlock traffic situation in an automatically operated transportation vehicle. A method includes detecting the deadlock traffic situation, reporting the deadlock traffic situation to a control center, entering a tele-operated driving session in coordination with the control center, determining information on a reference location for the tele-operated driving session, forwarding the information on the reference location for the tele-operated driving session to other transportation vehicles, and resolving the deadlock traffic situation in the tele-operated driving session.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus for resolving a deadlock traffic situation of a transportation vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
one or more interfaces to communicate in a communication network; and
a control module to control the one or more interfaces, wherein the control module is configured to control the apparatus to resolve the deadlock traffic situation by:
detecting the deadlock traffic situation,
reporting the deadlock traffic situation to a control center,
entering a tele-operated driving session in coordination with the control center at a starting point, which is a physical location of the transportation vehicle at a temporal point, wherein the entering is performed in response to the detection of the deadlock traffic situation,
determining reference location information for the starting point of the tele-operated driving session, wherein the reference location information includes relative or absolute location information that enables other transportation vehicles to locate the starting point of the tele-operated driving session for resolving the deadlock traffic situation,
transmitting tele-operated driving session information including the reference location information for the tele-operated driving session to the other transportation vehicles to create a physical queue based on the starting point so as to provide instructions for the other transportation vehicles to physically queue based on the starting point, and receive tele-operating driving assistance from the control center to resolve the deadlock traffic situation, and
resolving the deadlock traffic situation, by the transportation vehicle, in the tele-operated driving session.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control module is further configured to transmit the reference location information for the tele-operated driving session multiple times.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control module is further configured to transmit tele-operated driving session status information.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control module is further configured to transmit information indicating an end of the tele-operated driving session.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control module is further configured to transmit information indicating a time stamp of the tele-operated driving session.

6. A transportation vehicle comprising the apparatus of claim 1 .

7. The transportation vehicle of claim 6 , wherein the transportation vehicle is an autonomously operated transportation vehicle.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is in an autonomously operated transportation vehicle.

9. A method for resolving a deadlock traffic situation in a transportation vehicle, the method comprising:
detecting the deadlock traffic situation;
reporting the deadlock traffic situation to a control center;
entering a tele-operated driving session in coordination with the control center at a starting point, which is a physical location of the transportation vehicle at a temporal point, wherein the entering is performed in response to the detection of the deadlock traffic situation;
determining reference location information for the starting point of the tele-operated driving session, wherein the reference location information includes relative or absolute location information that enables other transportation vehicles to locate the starting point of the tele-operated driving session for resolving the deadlock traffic situation;
transmitting tele-operated driving session information including the reference location information for the tele-operated driving session to the other transportation vehicles to create a physical queue based on the starting point, and receive tele-operating driving assistance from the control center to resolve the deadlock traffic situation; and
resolving the deadlock traffic situation, by the transportation vehicle, in the tele-operated driving session.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising transmitting the reference location information for the tele-operated driving session multiple times.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising transmitting tele-operated driving session status information.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising transmitting information indicating an end of the tele-operated driving session.

13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising transmitting information indicating a time stamp of the tele-operated driving session.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the transportation vehicle is in an autonomously operated transportation vehicle.

15. A method for resolving a deadlock traffic situation in an autonomously operated transportation vehicle, the method comprising:
receiving tele-operated driving session information for resolving the deadlock traffic situation from another transportation vehicle, the tele-operated driving session information including reference location information for a starting point of a tele-operated driving session of the other transportation vehicle, which is a physical location of the other transportation vehicle at a temporal point, wherein the entering is performed in response to the detection of the deadlock traffic situation, wherein the reference location information for the tele-operated driving session includes relative or absolute location information that enables locating the starting point of the tele-operated driving session for resolving the deadlock traffic situation;
determining a queuing position related to the starting point in a physical queue to receive tele-operating driving assistance from the control center based on the tele-operated driving session information received from the other transportation vehicle, wherein the physical queue is created based on the starting point of the other transportation vehicle; and
communicating with a control center for resolving the deadlock traffic situation for the autonomously operated transportation vehicle based on the queuing position.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the determining of the queuing position comprises comparing a location of the autonomously operated transportation vehicle with the reference location information for the tele-operated driving session.

17. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
transferring into a queuing mode based on the queuing position; and
broadcasting queuing mode information to further transportation vehicles.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the queuing mode information includes information indicating the queuing position and/or a queuing time of the autonomously operated transportation vehicle.

19. The method of claim 15 , further comprising receiving broadcast messages from one or more other transportation vehicles indicating that the one or more other transportation vehicles are in a queuing mode, wherein the determining of the queuing position is further based on the queuing mode of the one or more other transportation vehicles.

20. The method of claim 15 , further comprising engaging in a tele-operated driving session in response to the queuing position indicating that the autonomously operated transportation vehicle is next in the queue to be tele-operated.

21. The method of claim 15 , further comprising engaging in a tele-operated driving session in response to receipt of information indicating an end of a tele-operated driving session of a transportation vehicle queuing directly in front of the autonomously operated transportation vehicle.

22. The method of cla

Assignees

• Volkswagen Ag

Inventors

• Gonzalez Vazquez Israel
• Pfadler Andreas
• Jornod Guillaume
• Kwoczek Andreas

Classifications

• G08G1/096775

  where the origin of the information is a central station · CPC title

• G08G1/096725

  where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control · CPC title

• G08G1/0145 Primary

  for active traffic flow control · CPC title

• G08G1/0133

  for classifying traffic situation · CPC title

• G08G1/0112

  from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD] · CPC title