Employing Wi-Fi Communications To Activate An Operation Of An Autonomous Vehicle At A Scheduled Time

A method of operating a vehicle controller of an autonomous vehicle, the method comprising:

• detecting an unavailability of cellular communication coverage at a parking spot;
• transitioning to a powered-down state after the autonomous vehicle is parked at the parking spot;
• transitioning to a first powered-up state to transmit a query in a local wireless communication format, to a cloud-based device to check for a directive to execute an autonomous operation;
• transitioning to a second powered-up state upon detecting the directive;
• and
• executing the autonomous operation after transitioning to the second powered-up state.

A vehicle controller of an autonomous vehicle, the vehicle controller comprising:

• a memory that stores computer-executable instructions;
• and
• a processor configured to access the memory and execute the computer-executable instructions to at least:
• detect an unavailability of cellular communication coverage at a parking spot;
• transition to a powered-down state after the autonomous vehicle is parked at the parking spot;
• transition to a first powered-up state to transmit a query in a local wireless communication format, to a cloud-based device to check for a directive to execute an autonomous operation;
• transition to a second powered-up state upon detecting the directive;
• and
• execute the autonomous operation after transitioning to the second powered-up state.