Autonomous rail or off rail vehicle movement and system among a group of vehicles
OwnerVinod Khoslainventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An Automous vehicle (“AV”) is configured on a railway system. The AV can be configured among the other vehicles and railway to communicate with a rider on a peer to peer basis to pick up the rider on demand, rather than the rider being held hostage to a fixed railway schedule. The rider can have an application on his/her cell phone, which tracks each of the AVs, and contact them using the application on the cell phone.
Claims23
A method for moving an autonomous vehicle among a plurality of vehicles configured on a railway track system, the method comprising:
- initiating movement of the autonomous vehicle configured in a rail of the railway system or configured on the adjacent interacting system, the autonomous vehicle comprising a sensor array system configured spatially on the autonomous vehicle (AV), the sensor array system comprising a plurality of active sensor systems;
- at least one processor device coupled to the sensor array system;
- a memory device coupled to the processing device;
- an instruction stored on the memory device, the instruction when executed by the processor causes the sensor array system to, as the AV travels a current route on the rail of the railway track system or the adjacent interacting system, dynamically detect a reflectance of an event from a plurality of events, the event being selected from an anomaly, a stationary feature, or a location of one of a plurality of vehicles configured on the rail of the railway track system;
- using data from the reflectance of the event or the plurality of events to adjust a movement of the AV in relationship to the event;
- monitoring each of the AVs using a central database in real time, while collecting information associated each AVs in the central database;
- and
- using a cell phone to communicate with the AV to contact the AV for a pickup by a user before initiating movement of the AV configured on the rail of the railway track system.
A method for initiating a call from a user using a network and moving an autonomous vehicle among a plurality of vehicles configured on a railway track system, the method comprising:
- initiating movement of the autonomous vehicle configured in a rail of the railway system, the autonomous vehicle comprising a sensor array system configured spatially on the autonomous vehicle (AV), the sensor array system comprising a plurality of active sensor systems;
- at least one processor device coupled to the sensor array system;
- a memory device coupled to the processing device;
- an instruction stored on the memory device, the instruction when executed by the processor causes the sensor array system to, as the AV travels a current route on the rail of the railway track system, dynamically detect a reflectance of an event from a plurality of events, the event being selected from an anomaly, a stationary feature, or a location of one of a plurality of other vehicles;
- and
- using data from the reflectance of the event or the plurality of events to adjust a movement of the AV in relationship to the event.
A system for transporting a user or other article over a railway system, the system comprising:
- a plurality of autonomous vehicles coupled to the railway system, each of the autonomous vehicles being capable of movement along the railway system on demand by a user of the autonomous vehicle, each of the autonomous vehicles comprising:
- a pod or car comprising at least one to ten seating or standing regions, the pod being coupled to a drive train, the drive train being coupled to a track of the railway system;
- a communication device comprising a transmitter and a receiver, the communication device being capable of receiving an instruction from a user via a mobile communication device of the user to connect with the user through a communication network;
- a controller device coupled to the communication device to initiate movement of the drive train of the autonomous vehicle to move the autonomous vehicle to pick up the user from a pickup location along the railway system and to move the autonomous vehicle, independently from the other plurality of autonomous vehicles, along the railway system to a destination location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.