Communications for autonomous vehicles
AssigneeWaymo LLC
InventorsSalil Pandit, Julien Mercay, Clement Wright
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Aspects of the disclosure provide a method of facilitating communications from an autonomous vehicle to a user. For instance, a method may include, while attempting to pick up the user and prior to the user entering an vehicle, inputting a current location of the vehicle and map information into a model in order to identify a type of communication action for communicating a location of the vehicle to the user; enabling a first communication based on the type of the communication action; determining whether the user has responded to the first communication from received sensor data; and enabling a second communication based on the determination of whether the user has responded to the communication.
Claims21
A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- receiving, by one or more processors of a computing device from a client computing device associated with a user, a request to assist the user in reaching an autonomous vehicle;
- selecting, by the one or more processors based on information associated with the user, at least one of honking a horn of the autonomous vehicle, flashing headlights of the autonomous vehicle, or providing instructions through the client computing device to assist the user in reaching the autonomous vehicle;
- and
- initiating, by the one or more processors, the selected at least one of the honking of the horn, the flashing of the headlights, or the providing of the instructions through the client computing device.
A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- presenting, by one or more processors of a client computing device associated with a user on a display of the client computing device, a plurality of options to assist the user in reaching an autonomous vehicle;
- receiving, by the one or more processors, user input selecting one option of the plurality of options;
- and
- sending, by the one or more processors, a request to cause the autonomous vehicle to generate a particular type of communication associated with the selected one option to assist the user in reaching the autonomous vehicle, the particular type of communication corresponding to the selected one option.
A system for assisting a user in reaching an autonomous vehicle, the system comprising a computing device including one or more processors configured to:
- receive, from a client computing device associated with the user, a request to assist the user in reaching the autonomous vehicle;
- select, based on information associated with the user, at least one of honking a horn of the autonomous vehicle, flashing headlights of the autonomous vehicle, or providing instructions through the client computing device to assist the user in reaching the autonomous vehicle;
- and
- initiate the selected at least one of the honking of the horn, the flashing of the headlights, or the providing of the instructions through the client computing device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.