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US 10,094,131 B1Granted
Vehicle vending machine
AssigneeCarvana, LLC
InventorsErnest C. Garcia, III, Bret Sassenberg, Benjamin E. Huston
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems, methods, non-transitory processor-readable storage media, and devices of the various embodiments enable a vehicle vending machine to retrieve a vehicle from a storage location and deliver the vehicle to a delivery bay for delivery to a customer. Various embodiments may include a vehicle vending machine including a tower, a robotic carrier, a corridor extending from the tower, a plurality of delivery bays positioned along the corridor, a customer interaction kiosk, and a video system.
Claims19
A vehicle vending machine, comprising:
- a tower;
- a robotic carrier;
- a corridor extending from the tower;
- a plurality of delivery bays positioned along the corridor;
- and
- a customer interaction kiosk, wherein:
- a customer inserts a coin including an RFID tag into the customer interaction kiosk;
- an RFID reader within the customer interaction kiosk reads the RFID tag;
- a unique identification code from the RFID tag is compared to unique identification codes in a database to confirm that the unique identification code corresponds to a vehicle that was purchased and that is located in a storage location within the tower;
- and
- in response to a match between unique identification codes and the vehicle being located in a storage location within the tower:
- a signal with a position number corresponding to the storage location of the purchased vehicle within the tower is sent to the tower;
- the vehicle is retrieved from the storage location corresponding to the position number;
- and
- the vehicle is placed within one of the plurality of delivery bays for delivery to the customer.
12 more elements
A vehicle vending machine, comprising:
- a tower;
- a robotic carrier;
- a corridor extending from the tower;
- a plurality of delivery bays positioned along the corridor;
- and
- a video system comprising a plurality of cameras located within the tower, the corridor, and the plurality of delivery bays, each of the plurality of cameras configured to constantly record video synchronized to the same clock, the video system is configured such that:
- in response to a vehicle retrieval command issued to the tower, the video system records timestamps of key events during retrieval of the vehicle;
- the video system automatically retrieves a plurality of recorded video segments from one or more of the plurality of cameras, each retrieved recorded video segment corresponding to one of the recorded timestamps;
- the video system joins the plurality of recorded video segments into one video;
- the video system stores the one video on a server;
- and
- the video system communicates a link to the customer which allows the customer to download the one video or share the one video on a social media site.
9 more elements
A control system for a vehicle vending machine, comprising:
- a terminal;
- and
- a processor coupled to the terminal and configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising:
- retrieving a vehicle positioned on a vehicle pallet from a storage location within a tower of the vehicle vending machine;
- navigating a robotic carrier through a corridor of the vehicle vending machine and to an appropriate one of a plurality of delivery bays of the vehicle vending machine while the robotic carrier carries the vehicle positioned on the vehicle pallet;
- opening an interior delivery bay door positioned between the appropriate delivery bay and the corridor only if an exterior delivery bay door positioned between the appropriate delivery bay and an exterior of the vehicle vending machine is closed;
- and
- delivering the vehicle positioned on the vehicle pallet to the appropriate delivery bay through the opened interior delivery bay door.
5 more elements
A method for operating a vehicle vending machine, comprising:
- retrieving a vehicle positioned on a vehicle pallet from a storage location within a tower of the vehicle vending machine;
- navigating a robotic carrier through a corridor of the vehicle vending machine and to an appropriate one of a plurality of delivery bays of the vehicle vending machine while the robotic carrier carries the vehicle positioned on the vehicle pallet;
- opening an interior delivery bay door positioned between the appropriate delivery bay and the corridor only if an exterior delivery bay door positioned between the appropriate delivery bay and an exterior of the vehicle vending machine is closed;
- and
- delivering the vehicle positioned on the vehicle pallet to the appropriate delivery bay through the opened interior delivery bay door.
2 more elements
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon processor executable instructions configured to cause a processor of a vehicle vending machine to perform operations comprising:
- retrieving a vehicle positioned on a vehicle pallet from a storage location within a tower of the vehicle vending machine;
- navigating a robotic carrier through a corridor of the vehicle vending machine and to an appropriate one of a plurality of delivery bays of the vehicle vending machine while the robotic carrier carries the vehicle positioned on the vehicle pallet;
- opening an interior delivery bay door positioned between the appropriate delivery bay and the corridor only if an exterior delivery bay door positioned between the appropriate delivery bay and an exterior of the vehicle vending machine is closed;
- and
- delivering the vehicle positioned on the vehicle pallet to the appropriate delivery bay through the opened interior delivery bay door.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.