Deployable autonomous service vehicle
AssigneeUnited Services Automobile Association (USAA)
InventorsCarlos JP Chavez, Gregory David Hansen, Bradly Jay Billman, Kristina Suniga-Cabrera, Dwayne Phillip Wilson, Timothy Benjamin Czerlinsky, David Patrick Dixon
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of deploying a service, the method including: receiving data about a predicted event; determining a density of a population in a service area predicted to be affected by the predicted event; determining a targeted location within the service area using the data about the predicted event and the density of the population in the service area; and instructing an autonomous vehicle to dispatch to the targeted location.
Claims20
A method of deploying a service, the method comprising:
- receiving, at a vehicle dispatch system, data about a predicted event;
- determining, at the vehicle dispatch system, a density of persons in a service area predicted to be affected by the predicted event;
- dividing, at the vehicle dispatch system, the service area into target locations based on the density of persons in the service area and a threshold number of persons to be served by a fleet of autonomous vehicles, the target locations including a targeted location and the fleet including an autonomous vehicle;
- and
- dispatching, via a fleet management controller that includes a device processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions executable by the device processor, the autonomous vehicle to the targeted location before the predicted event, the autonomous vehicle including a garage that houses a number of secondary autonomous vehicles, wherein the threshold number is 2-4 times the number of secondary autonomous vehicles, and each secondary autonomous vehicle is configured to automatically travel between the autonomous vehicle and a residence of one of the persons in the target area.
An autonomous fleet system including an autonomous vehicle, the system comprising a processor and machine-readable media including instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the autonomous vehicle to:
- receive, at a vehicle dispatch system, data about a predicted event;
- determine, at the vehicle dispatch system, a density of persons in a service area predicted to be affected by the predicted event;
- divide, at the vehicle dispatch system, the service area into target locations based on the density of persons in the service area and a threshold number of persons to be served by a fleet of autonomous vehicles, the target locations including a targeted location;
- and
- dispatch, via a fleet management controller that includes a device processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions executable by the device processor, the autonomous vehicle to the targeted location before the predicted event, the autonomous vehicle including a garage that houses a number of secondary autonomous vehicles, wherein the threshold number is 2-4 times the number of secondary autonomous vehicles, and each secondary autonomous vehicle is configured to automatically travel between the autonomous vehicle and a residence of one of the persons in the target area.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to control a system to deploy a service by performing the following:
- receive, at a vehicle dispatch system, data about a predicted event;
- determine, at the vehicle dispatch system, a density of persons in a service area predicted to be affected by the predicted event;
- divide, at the vehicle dispatch system, the service area into target locations based on the density of persons in the service area and a threshold number of persons to be served by a fleet of autonomous vehicles, the target locations including a targeted location and the fleet including an autonomous vehicle;
- and
- dispatch, via a fleet management controller that includes a device processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions executable by the device processor, the autonomous vehicle to the targeted location before the predicted event, the autonomous vehicle including a garage that houses a number of secondary autonomous vehicles, wherein the threshold number is 2-4 times the number of secondary autonomous vehicles, and each secondary autonomous vehicle is configured to automatically travel between the autonomous vehicle and a residence of one of the persons in the target area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.