System amd method for providing a ride assistant for on-demand autonomy

A method in an On-Demand Autonomy (ODA) system comprising a follower vehicle (Fv), a first leader vehicle (Lv), and a cloud based server (ODAS), the method comprising:

• receiving by the ODAS a trip request for ODA service from a first vehicle;
• seeking by the ODAS an agreement to establish a virtual coupling link between the first vehicle and at least one second vehicle, wherein seeking an agreement comprises:
• broadcasting the trip request to a plurality of second vehicles;
• receiving a set of responses from at least one of the plurality of second vehicles to the broadcast trip request;
• and
• coordinating one or more responses between the first and second vehicles based on results of a matching operation to confirm an acceptance of the agreement and facilitate the establishment of the virtual coupling;
• in response to confirmation of the acceptance of the agreement, creating a trip plan for the ODA service based on a set of preferences received from a plurality of platoon vehicles, wherein the first vehicle is the Fv and the second vehicle is the first Lv;
• monitoring, by the ODAS, the Fv and the first Lv during the platooning trip for information comprising a trip termination request, a trip modification request, platooning status, vehicle health status, virtual coupling health status and safety information;
• communicating and broadcasting, by the ODAS, the information comprising platooning status, vehicle health status, virtual coupling health status, and safety information to the platooned vehicles;
• monitoring, by the ODAS, for periodic heartbeat messages from the platooned vehicles, and computing a first result upon receipt of each heartbeat message to determine whether a fault has occurred with the vehicle that sent the message;
• upon detecting a fault, diagnosing, by the ODAS, a fault type;
• selecting, by the ODAS, a feedback mechanism from one or more options comprising voice, text, and non-verbal cue;
• and
• signaling the platoon vehicles, by the ODAS, using the selected feedback mechanism with an alert message identifying the fault type.

A method in an On-Demand Autonomy (ODA) system comprising a follower vehicle (Fv), a first leader vehicle (Lv), and a cloud based server (ODAS), the method comprising:

• receiving by the ODAS a trip request for ODA service from a first vehicle;
• seeking by the ODAS an agreement to establish a virtual link between the first vehicle and at least one second vehicle, wherein seeking an agreement comprises:
• broadcasting the trip request to a plurality of second vehicles;
• receiving a set of responses from at least one of the plurality of second vehicles to the broadcast trip request;
• and
• coordinating one or more responses between the first and second vehicles based on results of a matching operation to confirm an acceptance of the agreement and facilitate the establishment of a virtual coupling;
• in response to confirmation of the acceptance of the agreement, creating a trip plan for the ODA service based on a set of preferences received from a plurality of platoon vehicles, wherein the first vehicle is the Fv and the second vehicle is the first Lv;
• monitoring by the ODAS the Fv and the first Lv during the platooning trip for information comprising trip termination request, trip modification request, platooning status, vehicle health status, virtual coupling health status and safety information;
• communicating and broadcasting, by the ODAS, the information comprising platooning status, vehicle health status, virtual coupling health status, and safety information to the platooned vehicles;
• monitoring, by the ODAS, for periodic heartbeat messages from the platooned vehicles, and computing a first result upon receipt of each heartbeat message to determine whether a fault has occurred with the vehicle that sent the message;
• upon detecting a fault, diagnosing, by the ODAS, a fault type;
• selecting, by the ODAS, a feedback mechanism from one or more options comprising voice, text, and non-verbal cue;
• and
• signaling the platoon vehicles, by the ODAS, using the selected feedback mechanism with an alert message identifying the fault type;
• wherein the method further comprising:
• providing decoupling instructions for the Fv and first Lv and coupling instructions for the Fv and a second Lv responsive to receipt of the Fv trip modification request;
• broadcasting, by the ODAS, information regarding the trip modification request to the first Lv, monitoring for first Lv acknowledgement of the trip modification request, electing the second Lv as the leader for the platooning trip, computing a rendezvous point at which the second Lv will begin to lead the Fv, and signaling the Fv and the second Lv that the second Lv will take over as the leader for the platooning trip at the rendezvous point;
• and
• monitoring, by the ODAS, for an acknowledgement that indicates acceptance of the second Lv as the leader for the platooning trip at the rendezvous point, wherein the second Lv controls the Fv toward a requested location and the first Lv stops controlling the Fv.