Explainability of Autonomous Vehicle Decision Making

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021237759-A1
Application number	US-202016821115-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 17, 2020
Priority date	Jan 31, 2020
Publication date	Aug 5, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

A processor is configured to execute instructions stored in a memory to determine, in response to identifying vehicle operational scenarios of a scene, an action for controlling the AV, where the action is from a selected decision component that determined the action based on level of certainty associated with a state factor; generate an explanation as to why the action was selected, such that the explanation includes respective descriptors of the action, the selected decision component, and the state factor; and display the explanation in a graphical view that includes a first graphical indicator of a world object of the selected decision component, a second graphical indicator describing the state factor, and a third graphical indicator describing the action.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus for use in traversing a vehicle transportation network by an autonomous vehicle (AV), comprising:
a memory; and a processor, the processor configured to execute instructions stored in the memory to:
determine, in response to identifying vehicle operational scenarios of a scene, an action for controlling the AV, wherein the action is from a selected decision component that determined the action based on level of certainty associated with a state factor;
generate an explanation as to why the action was selected, wherein the explanation comprises respective descriptors of the action, the selected decision component, and the state factor; and
display the explanation in a graphical view, wherein the graphical view includes a first graphical indicator of a world object of the selected decision component, a second graphical indicator describing the state factor, and a third graphical indicator describing the action.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to determine, in response to identifying the vehicle operational scenarios, the action for controlling the AV comprises to:
identify distinct vehicle operational scenarios; instantiate decision components,
wherein each of the decision components is an instance of a respective decision problem that models a respective distinct vehicle operational scenario of the distinct vehicle operational scenarios, and
wherein the each of the decision components maintains a respective state describing the respective vehicle operational scenario;
receive respective candidate vehicle control actions from the decision components; and select the action from the respective candidate vehicle control actions,
wherein the action is from the selected decision component of the decision components, and
wherein the action is used to control the AV to traverse a portion of the vehicle transportation network.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to:
control the AV to traverse the vehicle transportation network using the action before the displaying the explanation.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to:
control the AV to traverse the vehicle transportation network using the action after the displaying the explanation.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the graphical view includes an arrow indicating a trajectory of the world object of the selected decision component.

6 . The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the second graphical indicator describing the state factor being an icon displayed over the arrow indicating the trajectory, wherein the state factor being the trajectory and the icon indicates uncertainty with respect to the trajectory.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first graphical indicator of the world object being at least one of a bounding box around the world object or a shading of the world object.

8 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the world object being a portion of the vehicle transportation network, and wherein the first graphical indicator being a shading of the portion of the vehicle transportation network.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the state factor describes a predicted action of the world object and wherein the second graphical indicator depicts the state factor.

10 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the state factor describes priority at an n-way stop and wherein the second graphical indicator being a numerical number indicating the priority of the world object at the n-way stop.

11 . A method for use in traversing a vehicle transportation network by an autonomous vehicle (AV), comprising:
determining, in response to identifying vehicle operational scenarios of a scene, an action for controlling the AV, wherein the action is from a selected decision component that determined the action based on a level of certainty associated with a state factor; generating an explanation as to why the action was selected, wherein the explanation comprises respective descriptors of the action, the selected decision component, and the state factor; receiving, at an autonomous system, the explanation; and displaying the explanation to a tele-operator in a graphical view, wherein the graphical view includes a first graphical indicator of a world object of the selected decision component, a second graphical indicator describing the state factor, and a third graphical indicator describing the action.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the graphical view is displayed as an overlay of a satellite view of the scene.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the explanation is displayed to the tele-operator in response to the tele-operator responding to a request from the AV for assistance.

14 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
outputting the explanation in a dialog window, wherein information from the AV is displayed as text in the dialog window.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the world object is displayed using a highlight in the graphical view and wherein the explanation includes a hot word describing the world object and that is formatted using the highlight.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the world object is highlighted using a color and wherein the hot word is underlined using the same color.

17 . A method for use in traversing a vehicle transportation network by an autonomous vehicle (AV), comprising:
determining, in response to identifying vehicle operational scenarios of a scene, an action for controlling the AV, wherein the action is from a selected decision component that determined the action based on level of certainty associated with a state factor; generating an explanation as to why the action was selected, wherein the explanation comprises respective descriptors of the action, the selected decision component, and the state factor; and outputting the explanation in a haptic modality, wherein the haptic modality includes a first haptic output of a world object of the selected decision component, a second haptic output describing the state factor, and a third haptic output describing the action.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the explanation is output by vibrating, using a pattern, at least one of a seat or a steering wheel of the AV.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the pattern is indicative of a combination of a certainty or uncertainty and a state factor.

20 . The method of claim 18 , wherein one side of the at least one of the seat or the steering wheel of the AV is vibrated, wherein the one side corresponds to a location of the world object with respect to the AV.

Assignees

• Nissan North America Inc
• Univ Massachusetts
• Nasa

Inventors

• Wray Kyle Hollins
• Bentahar Omar
• Vagadia Astha
• Cesafsky Laura
• Jamgochian Arec
• Witwicki Stefan
• Baig Najamuddin Mirza
• Gyorfi Julius S
• Zilberstein Shlomo
• Sharma Sparsh

Classifications

• B60W50/14

  Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention · CPC title

• B60W30/18154

  Approaching an intersection · CPC title

• B60W2050/146

  Display means · CPC title

• B60W60/001

  Planning or execution of driving tasks · CPC title

• B60W30/18159

  Traversing an intersection · CPC title