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/or a video system. In various embodiments, the vehicle vending machine may further include a lighting system.
Claims30
A vehicle vending machine, comprising:
- a first delivery bay;
- a tower comprising a series of storage locations on different vertically arranged levels, wherein at least a portion of the series of storage locations are on at least one of the different vertically arranged levels of the tower that is vertically offset from the first delivery bay;
- and
- a lighting system comprising:
- a plurality of lighting fixtures;
- and
- a controller connected to the plurality of lighting fixtures, wherein the controller is configured to control operation of the plurality of lighting fixtures by controlling one or more lighting fixtures of the plurality of lighting fixtures according to a determined lighting sequence, wherein the determined lighting sequence is one of a plurality of different lighting sequences each associated with a respective one of different vehicle vending machine states.
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;
- delivering the vehicle positioned on the vehicle pallet to an appropriate delivery bay of the vehicle vending machine;
- and
- controlling operation of a lighting system of the vehicle vending machine according to a determined lighting sequence while retrieving the vehicle and delivering the vehicle by:
- receiving an indication of a vehicle vending machine state;
- determining a lighting sequence associated with the vehicle vending machine state;
- and
- controlling one or more lighting fixtures of the lighting system according to the determined lighting sequence.
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;
- delivering the vehicle positioned on the vehicle pallet to an appropriate delivery bay of the vehicle vending machine;
- and
- controlling one or more lighting fixtures of the vehicle vending machine according to a determined lighting sequence that is one of a plurality of different lighting sequences each associated with a respective one of different vehicle vending machine states.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.