US 12,679,403 B1Granted

Electronic control unit clock

AssigneeZoox, Inc.

InventorsJuchan Kim, Aman Sehgal

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Abstract

Techniques for generating and/or updating a timekeeping mechanism for an ECU are described herein. Monotonic and/or global time sources may be used to generate and/or update a real time clock used by component(s) of an autonomous vehicle. In some examples, a clock manager may receive a monotonic time value from a monotonic clock and a global time value from a global clock. The clock manager may use the monotonic time value and the global time value to generate an adjustment factor. In some instances, the clock manager may store the adjustment factor in a read-only shared memory location. In such instances, vehicle component may determine a predicted current time based on reading the adjustment factor from the shared memory and the monotonic time value. Upon determining the predicted current time, the vehicle component may synchronize a real time clock of the vehicle component according to the predicted current time.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

one or more processors;
and
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving, from a monotonic time source associated with an autonomous vehicle, a first time value, wherein the monotonic time source is updated at a first frequency;
receiving, based at least in part on a global positioning system associated with the autonomous vehicle, a second time value, wherein the second time value is updated at a second frequency that is different than the first frequency;
generating, by a computing system associated with the autonomous vehicle and based at least in part on the first time value and the second time value, a time adjustment offset according to a third frequency that is different than an operating system update frequency;
storing, in a shared memory, the time adjustment offset for read access by a user component of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the user component is prevented from writing to the shared memory at a location where the time adjustment offset is stored;
determining, by the user component and based at least in part on the time adjustment offset, a predicted current time;
and
performing an action on the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the predicted current time.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 18/241,097Filed 31 Aug 2023
Granted: 14 Jul 2026
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

B60W 60/001
Drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles: planning or execution of driving tasks
G04R 20/02
Setting the time according to the time information carried or implied by the radio signal: the radio signal being sent by a satellite, e.g. GPS
G06F 1/04
Details not covered by groups G06F3/00 - G06F13/00 and G06F21/00: generating or distributing clock signals or signals derived directly therefrom
B60W 2556/50
External transmission of data to or from the vehicle: of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data