Autonomous Vehicles and a Mobility Manager as a Traffic Monitor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021035442-A1
Application number	US-201916528268-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 31, 2019
Priority date	Jul 31, 2019
Publication date	Feb 4, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for responding to a public safety alert includes receiving an indication of the public safety alert, wherein the public safety alert comprising a description of a wanted road user; identifying, using sensors of an autonomous vehicle (AV) and in response to the public safety alert, road users; and, in response to determining that an identified road user matches the wanted road user, notifying an authority of the match. A method for road incident reporting by an AV includes identifying road users based on sensor data of the AV; associating respective hypotheses with each of the road users; and, in response to determining that a threshold number of the road users are not proceeding according to at least one of the respective hypotheses, sending a notification indicating a potential traffic issue at a zone of the road users.

First claim

1 . A method for responding to a public safety alert, comprising:
prior to receiving an indication of the public safety alert, capturing, by an autonomous vehicle (AV) and using a camera of the AV, historical images of surroundings of the AV; receiving the indication of the public safety alert, wherein the public safety alert comprising a description of a wanted road user; identifying, using sensors of the AV and in response to the public safety alert, road users; identifying the road users in a subset of the historical images captured within a historical time frame before receiving the indication of the public safety alert; and in response to determining that an identified road user matches the wanted road user, notifying an authority of the match.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the description of the wanted road user comprising at least one of a wanted vehicle description or a wanted license plate.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the identified road user is determined to match the wanted road user based on a license plate of the identified road user matching the wanted license plate.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the identified road user is determined to match the wanted road user based at least on a partial match of a vehicle of the identified road user to the wanted vehicle description.

5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein identifying, using the sensors of the AV and in response to the public safety alert, the road users, comprising:
capturing, by the AV and using the camera of the AV, images of surroundings of the AV; and analyzing the images to identify the road users.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein determining that the identified road user matches the wanted road user, comprising:
identifying the wanted license plate in the images of the surroundings of the AV.

7 . (canceled)

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the public safety alert is an AMBER alert.

9 . A method for road incident reporting by an autonomous vehicle (AV), comprising:
identifying, by the AV based on sensor data of the AV, first road users in a first zone; and in response to determining by the AV that a threshold number of the first road users are not proceeding according to an expected speed limit of the first zone, sending, by the AV, a first notification indicating a potential traffic issue at a-the zone of the road users.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving a response to the notification, wherein the response comprises a request to enable live streaming using a camera of the AV; and in response to the request to enable live streaming, streaming real-time images.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein determining that the threshold number of the first road users are not proceeding according to the expected speed limit of the first zone comprises:
determining that the threshold number of the first road users are proceeding at a speed that is smaller than the expected speed limit.

12 . The method of claim 9 , wherein determining that the threshold number of the first road users are not proceeding according to the expected speed limit of the first zone comprises:
determining that the threshold number of the first road users are stopped.

13 . The method of the claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving, by a tele-operator, the notification indicating the potential traffic issue at the first zone of the first road users; receiving, by the AV, a confirmation from the tele-operator of the potential traffic issue; and flagging the first zone of the road users.

14 . A system for responding to a public safety alert, comprising:
an autonomous vehicle (AV) configured to: prior to receiving an indication of the public safety alert, capture using a camera of the AV, historical images of surroundings of the AV; and forward the historical images to an autonomous mobility system (AMS); and the autonomous mobility system (AMS), wherein the AMS is configured to: receive the indication of the public safety alert, wherein the public safety alert comprises a description of a wanted road user; select a subset of the historical images captured within a historical time frame before the AV receiving the indication of the public safety alert identify, in the subset of the historical images and in response to the public safety alert, road users; and in response to determining that an identified road user matches the wanted road user, notify an authority of the match.

15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the description of the wanted road user comprising at least one of a wanted vehicle description or a wanted license plate.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the identified road user is determined to match the wanted road user based on a license plate of the identified road user matching the wanted license plate.

17 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the identified road user is determined to match the wanted road user based at least on a partial match of a vehicle of the identified road user to the wanted vehicle description.

18 . The system of claim 15 ,
wherein the AV is configured to:
capture, using the camera of the AV, images of surroundings of the AV; and
wherein the AMS is further configured to:
analyze the captured images to identify the road users.

19 . The system of claim 18 , wherein to determine that the identified road user matches the wanted road user, comprises to:
identify the wanted license plate in the images of the surroundings of the AV.

20 . (canceled)

21 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
identifying, by the AV and based on sensor data of the AV, second road users in a second zone, wherein the second zone is flagged as including a potential traffic issue; identifying, by the AV, that the second road users are proceeding according to a speed limit of the second zone; in response to identifying that the second road users are proceeding according to the speed limit of the second zone, sending a second notification indicating that the potential traffic issue is cleared to an autonomous mobility system (AMS); and sending, by the AMS, notifications to a subscriber that the second zone no longer includes the potential traffic issue.

22 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the first zone is a zone that the AV already passed.

Assignees

• Nissan North America Inc
• Renault Sas

Inventors

• Baig Najamuddin
• Ostafew Christopher
• Vagadia Astha
• James Viju
• Guerin Armelle

Classifications

• G08G1/0141 Primary

  for traffic information dissemination · CPC title

• G06F18/22

  Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures · CPC title

• H04L65/61

  for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio · CPC title

• G06V2201/08

  Detecting or categorising vehicles · CPC title

• G06V20/56

  exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle · CPC title