User interfaces for autonomy state control and alerts
AssigneeStack AV Co.
InventorsRalph A. Sprang, Dennis Jeffrey Hoff, Brad Allen Dranko, Tekin Alp Meriçli, Michael David George
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In some scenarios, the approach may be used with two or more vehicles travelling in formation where selected vehicles may be fully or partially autonomously controlled. Information is collected at each vehicle and from the drivers and it is shared with other vehicles and drivers to make a collective decision to enter or leave autonomy.
Claims21
A system for controlling an autonomy system of a vehicle comprising:
- a human-operable input device including one or more of a throttle, brake or steering input providing human control inputs;
- one or more processors storing one or more computer programs that include computer instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to provide autonomy control inputs based on autonomy logic, the autonomy control inputs including one or more of a throttle, brake or steering input, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to generate an autonomy ready signal indicating readiness of the autonomy logic to generate autonomy control inputs;
- one or more electronic actuators configured to operate one or more corresponding vehicle sub-systems and to provide an actuator ready signal indicating operating status of the one or more electronic actuators;
- a human-operable mode input device providing a requested mode signal;
- a controller for selecting either a human driving mode or an autonomy driving mode that respectively provide the human control inputs or the autonomy control inputs to operate the vehicle sub-systems, wherein selection of the human driving mode or autonomy driving mode depends on a state of the mode signal, a state of the autonomy ready signal, and a state of the actuator ready signal;
- and
- an output device providing one or more outputs indicating the human driving mode or autonomy driving mode.
A system for enabling collaborative control of at least two vehicles wherein a first vehicle is at least partially controllable by a human driver and a second vehicle is at least partially controllable by autonomy logic, the system comprising one or more processors configured to execute program code stored in one or more memories, which, when executed cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:
- collecting information from human driver inputs and outputs on the first vehicle;
- collecting information regarding an autonomy state of at least the second vehicle;
- sharing the resulting collected information between the first and second vehicles;
- each vehicle using the shared information to maintain a world model;
- using the world model to enable the vehicles to collaboratively engage in a decision as a unit to alter an autonomy state of the second vehicle;
- and
- generating an alert related to the autonomy state of the second vehicle via an apparatus associated with the first vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.