US 12,630,190 B2Granted

Discerning fault for rule violations of autonomous vehicles for data processing

AssigneeMotional AD LLC

InventorsAnne Collin, Radboud Duintjer Tebbens, Amitai Bin-Nun, Cristhian Guillermo Lizarazo Jimenez, Calin Belta, Noushin Mehdipour, Nathan Otenti

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Abstract

A rule violation leading to a traffic conflict involving a vehicle and at least one agent in real-time driving scenarios, simulation, re-simulation or other application is determined to be the fault of the vehicle by determining whether the situation was “reasonably foreseeable,” determining whether the at least one agent is a vulnerable road user (VRU) and determining whether the at least one agent violated a higher priority rule than the rule violated by the vehicle. In an embodiment, on-vehicle decisions are based on a rulebook with a priority structure that accounts for responsibility and determines an “initiator” of the traffic conflict based on whether the vehicle or the at least one agent was the first to violate a rule and the first to violate a higher priority rule.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

determining, with at least one processor, a first trajectory of a vehicle;
determining, with the at least one processor, a second trajectory of at least one agent;
causing, with a controller of the vehicle, the vehicle to travel the first trajectory;
causing, with the at least one processor, the at least one agent to travel the second trajectory;
determining, with the at least one processor, a traffic conflict involving the vehicle and the at least one agent due to at least one of the first and second trajectories;
determining, with at least one processor, that the vehicle violated at least one rule leading up to the traffic conflict involving the at least one agent;
determining, with the at least one processor, that a behavior of the at least one agent was technically feasible and with a measurable rate of occurrence;
determining, with the at least one processor, that the at least one agent was not a vulnerable road user;
determining, with the at least one processor, that the at least one agent did not violate a higher priority rule leading up to the traffic conflict than the at least one rule violated by the vehicle;
designating, with the at least one processor, the vehicle as being at-fault for the traffic conflict;
and incrementing a count of traffic conflicts that are determined to be the fault of the vehicle based on designating the vehicle as being at-fault for the traffic conflict;
and comparing the count to a statistical safety target to evaluate whether the vehicle maintains a positive risk balance associated with an average human driver.

9 more elements

A system comprising:

at least one processor;
a controller;
memory storing instructions that when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
determining a first trajectory of a vehicle;
determining a second trajectory of at least one agent;
causing, with the controller, the vehicle to travel the first trajectory;
causing the at least one agent to travel the second trajectory;
determining a traffic conflict involving the vehicle and the at least one agent due to at least one of the first and second trajectories;
determining that the vehicle violated at least one rule leading up to the traffic conflict involving the at least one agent;
determining that a behavior of the at least one agent was reasonably foreseeable;
determining that the at least one agent was not a vulnerable road user;
determining that the at least one agent did not violate a higher priority rule leading up to the traffic conflict than the at least one rule violated by the vehicle;
designating vehicle as being at-fault for the traffic conflict;
and incrementing a count of traffic conflicts that are determined to be the fault of the vehicle based on designating the vehicle as being at-fault for the traffic conflict;
and comparing the count to a statistical safety target to evaluate whether the vehicle maintains a positive risk balance associated with an average human driver.

12 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.