Automated vehicle communications system

An autonomous vehicle (AV) comprising:

• a sensor array to continuously collect sensor data representing an operational environment of the AV;
• a communications system operable to communicate with other AVs and a backend system using a plurality of communication protocols;
• an on-board data processing system to process the sensor data;
• and
• an AV control system to:
• perform a localization operation to determine a location and an orientation of the AV relative to proximate base stations;
• while operating the AV along a current route, receive network configuration commands from the backend system to configure the AV control system to connect with a plurality of active networks, the network configuration commands being based on a spectrum heat map and the location and the orientation of the AV relative to the proximate base stations;
• in response to the network configuration commands along the current route, configure the AV control system to connect with the plurality of active networks;
• identify network latency data and cost data for each of the plurality of active networks, the cost data indicating a connection and transmission cost;
• and
• transmit the network latency data and the cost data to the backend system to enable the backend system to update the spectrum heat map.

An AV control system for an autonomous vehicle (AV), the AV control system comprising:

• a communications array to transmit and receive communications from a backend system;
• a memory to store a spectrum heat map indicating locations of base stations, available network types providing coverage from the base stations, and a network quality data of each of the available network types throughout a given region;
• and
• one or more processors to:
• perform localization operation to determine a location and an orientation of the AV relative to proximate base stations;
• receive, from the backend system, update data to update at least the network quality data in the spectrum heat map;
• based on the location and the orientation of the AV relative to the proximate base stations, utilize the updated spectrum heat map, dynamically select optimal network types from the proximate base stations to transmit and receive the communications with the backend system;
• and
• dynamically configure the communications array to connect with the optimal network types to transmit and receive the communications with the backend system.