Vehicular computational task allocation

A system, comprising:

• a vehicle including an autonomous driving system;
• a plurality of external computational resources;
• and
• a communications network configured to communicably couple the vehicle and the plurality of external computational resources;
• wherein either the computational resource in the vehicle and/or at least one of the external computational resources is configured to:
• obtain a spatial representation of a region;
• identify a plurality of candidate routes for the vehicle to travel from a first location in the region to a second location in the region;
• obtain data identifying a plurality of external computational resources located in the region and characterizing respective locations and computational capabilities of the external computational resources with which the vehicle can communicate over a vehicular communication network;
• for each respective one of the candidate routes, estimate a respective computational requirement representing an amount of processing power expected to be needed by the vehicle if the vehicle travels along the candidate route, the estimation for the respective candidate route being based at least in part on (I) conditions expected to be present along the respective candidate route and (II) a determination of at least one atomic computational task the vehicle is estimated to require during a prospective movement of the vehicle over a course of the respective candidate route;
• for each of the candidate routes, determine, using the data characterizing the respective locations and computational capabilities of the external computational resources, how well the external computational resources are expected to satisfy the estimated computational requirement for the candidate route;
• select one of the candidate routes as a valid route based at least in part on differences between the candidate routes in terms of how well the external computational resources are expected to satisfy the respective computational requirements;
• and
• based on the selection, initiate traversal by the autonomous driving system of the vehicle of the valid route.

A non-transitory computer readable medium on which is stored a computer program that is executable by a processor and that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform a method for providing a vehicle, the method comprising the following:

• obtaining a spatial representation of a region;
• identifying a plurality of candidate routes for the vehicle to travel from a first location in the region to a second location in the region;
• obtaining data identifying a plurality of external computational resources located in the region and characterizing respective locations and computational capabilities of the external computational resources with which the vehicle can communicate over a vehicular communication network;
• for each respective one of the candidate routes, estimating a respective computational requirement representing an amount of processing power expected to be needed by the vehicle if the vehicle travels along the candidate route, the estimating for the respective candidate route being based at least in part on (I) conditions expected to be present along the respective candidate route and (II) a determination of at least one atomic computational task the vehicle is estimated to require during a prospective movement of the vehicle over a course of the respective candidate route;
• for each of the candidate routes, determining, using the data characterizing the respective locations and computational capabilities of the external computational resources, how well the external computational resources are expected to satisfy the estimated computational requirement for the candidate route;
• selecting one of the candidate routes as a valid route based at least in part on differences between the candidate routes in terms of how well the external computational resources are expected to satisfy the respective computational requirements;
• and
• based on the selection, initiating traversal by the vehicle of the valid route.