Method and system to manage vehicle groups for autonomous vehicles

A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations for forming a vehicle group for autonomous driving vehicles, the operations comprising:

• receiving route segment information from a first autonomous driving vehicle over a network, wherein the route segment information includes one or more route segments of a route to a destination and estimated entrance times, each of the entrance times being associated with one of the route segments and representing a time the first autonomous driving vehicle enters the route segment;
• determining whether the first autonomous driving vehicle is within a specific route segment based on an entrance time associated with the specific route segment and a current location of the first autonomous driving vehicle;
• and
• if the first autonomous driving vehicle is within the specific route segment, sending a request to invite the first autonomous driving vehicle to join a vehicle group of one or more autonomous driving vehicles traveling in a same route segment as the first autonomous driving vehicle, wherein the vehicle group is one of a plurality of vehicle groups that were determined based on route segment information received from a plurality of autonomous driving vehicles.

A data processing system, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor to store instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations for forming a vehicle group for autonomous driving vehicles, the operations including:
• receiving route segment information from a first autonomous driving vehicle over a network, wherein the route segment information includes one or more route segments of a route to a destination and estimated entrance times, each of the entrance times being associated with one of the route segments and representing a time the first autonomous driving vehicle enters the route segment;
• determining whether the first autonomous driving vehicle is within a specific route segment based on an entrance time associated with the specific route segment and a current location of the first autonomous driving vehicle;
• and
• if the first autonomous driving vehicle is within the specific route segment, sending a request to invite the first autonomous driving vehicle to join a vehicle group of one or more autonomous driving vehicles traveling in a same route segment as the first autonomous driving vehicle, wherein the vehicle group is one of a plurality of vehicle groups that were determined based on route segment information received from a plurality of autonomous driving vehicles.

A computer-implemented method for operating an autonomous vehicle, the method comprising:

• obtaining an itinerary responsive to an input destination, the itinerary including a route to the input destination of a first autonomous driving vehicle, the route having a plurality of points of interest;
• segmenting the route into a plurality of route segments based on the points of interest and location and map information and, estimating an entrance time of the autonomous vehicle entering into each of the plurality of route segments;
• transmitting route segment information, including the plurality of route segments and entrance times, to a remote server over a network, wherein the remote server receives route segment information from a plurality of autonomous vehicles over the network;
• receiving a vehicle group identifier (ID) identifying a group of one or more vehicles that are travelling in a same route segment as the first autonomous driving vehicle, from the remote server, wherein the remote server determined a plurality of vehicle groups based on the route segment information received from the plurality of autonomous vehicles and the group of one or more vehicles that are travelling in the same route segment as the first autonomous driving vehicle is determined based an entrance time associated with a specific route segment and a current location of the first autonomous driving vehicle;
• and
• in response to the vehicle group ID, joining the group of one or more vehicles that are travelling in the same route segment as the first autonomous driving vehicle, to allow passengers of the one or more vehicles to communicate with each other.