Safe driving operations of autonomous vehicles
AssigneeTusimple, Inc.
InventorsRobert Patrick Brown, Todd B. Skinner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An autonomous vehicle includes a detection system for identifying the presence of authorities or emergency vehicles on a road, such as law enforcement vehicles, fire engines, fire trucks, police officers, first responders, traffic cones, flares, etc. The detection system may include audio and visual detection system dedicated to the detection of authorities. Additionally, systems that correlate the detected authorities and/or any audible or visual instructions given by the authorities to changes in the behavior of the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle may react to the detected authorities or emergency vehicles by determining a driving related operation to safely operate around the detected authorities or emergency vehicles.
Claims19
A method of autonomous driving operation, comprising:
- determining, by a computer located in an autonomous vehicle, that an emergency vehicle is located on a road on which the autonomous vehicle is being driven;
- obtaining, in response to the determining, a driving related operation of the autonomous vehicle to operate around the emergency vehicle, wherein the obtaining the driving related operation includes:
- performing a first determination that the autonomous vehicle is driving on the road on a first lane having one side that is immediately adjacent to an area or another lane where the emergency vehicle is located,
- performing a second determination that the road includes a second lane immediately adjacent to the first lane and on another side opposite to the one side, and
- performing a third determination, in response to the first determination and the second determination, of an amount of steering to apply to steer the autonomous vehicle from the first lane to the second lane;
- and
- causing the autonomous vehicle to drive according to the driving related operation by sending instructions related to the driving related operation to one or more devices in the autonomous vehicle, wherein the instructions that cause the autonomous vehicle to drive according to the driving related operation include a first instruction that causes the autonomous vehicle to apply the amount of steering to steer the autonomous vehicle from the first lane to the second lane.
A system for autonomous vehicle operation, the system comprising an autonomous vehicle comprising a computer that includes a processor configured to implement a method, comprising:
- determine that an emergency vehicle is located on a road on which the autonomous vehicle is being driven;
- obtain, in response to the determine, a driving related operation of the autonomous vehicle to operate around the emergency vehicle, wherein the obtain the driving related operation includes:
- perform a first determination that the autonomous vehicle is driving on the road on a first lane having one side that is immediately adjacent to an area or another lane where the emergency vehicle is located,
- perform a second determination that the road includes a second lane immediately adjacent to the first lane and on another side opposite to the one side, and
- perform a third determination, in response to the first determination and the second determination, of an amount of steering to apply to steer the autonomous vehicle from the first lane to the second lane;
- and
- cause the autonomous vehicle to drive according to the driving related operation by the processor configured to send instructions related to the driving related operation to one or more devices in the autonomous vehicle, wherein the instructions that cause the autonomous vehicle to drive according to the driving related operation include a first instruction that causes the autonomous vehicle to apply the amount of steering to steer the autonomous vehicle from the first lane to the second lane.
A non-transitory computer readable program storage medium having code stored thereon, the code, when executed by a processor, causing the processor to implement a method comprising:
- determining, by a computer located in an autonomous vehicle, that an emergency vehicle is located on a road on which the autonomous vehicle is being driven;
- obtaining, in response to the determining, a driving related operation of the autonomous vehicle to operate around the emergency vehicle, wherein the obtaining the driving related operation includes:
- performing a first determination that the autonomous vehicle is driving on the road on a first lane having one side that is immediately adjacent to an area or another lane where the emergency vehicle is located,
- performing a second determination that the road includes a second lane immediately adjacent to the first lane and on another side opposite to the one side, and
- performing a third determination, in response to the first determination and the second determination, of an amount of steering to apply to steer the autonomous vehicle from the first lane to the second lane;
- and
- causing the autonomous vehicle to drive according to the driving related operation by sending instructions related to the driving related operation to one or more devices in the autonomous vehicle, wherein the instructions that cause the autonomous vehicle to drive according to the driving related operation include a first instruction that causes the autonomous vehicle to apply the amount of steering to steer the autonomous vehicle from the first lane to the second lane.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.