US 2025/0018984 A1 · Predicting a Parking or Pullover Spot Vacancy for an Autonomous Vehicle Pickup

Abstract

The technology involves to pickups performed by autonomous vehicles. In particular, it includes identifying one or more potential pullover locations adjacent to an area of interest that an autonomous vehicle is approaching. The vehicle detects that a given one of the potential pullover locations is occupied by another vehicle and determines whether the other vehicle will be vacating the given pullover location within a selected amount of time. Upon determining that the other vehicle will be vacating the given potential pullover location within the timeframe, the vehicle determines whether to wait for the other vehicle to vacate the given pullover location. Then a driving system of the vehicle either performs a first action in order to wait for the other vehicle to vacate the given pullover location or performs a second action that is different from the first action when it is determined to not wait.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining, by one or more processors of a vehicle operating in an autonomous driving mode based on signals from one or more sensors of the vehicle, whether a potential pullover location is occupied by another vehicle;
and
responsive to determining that potential pullover location is occupied by the other vehicle:
determining, by the one or more processors, a likelihood that the other vehicle will vacate the potential pullover location within a selected amount of time, based at least on contextual information including a type of the other vehicle;
determining, by the one or more processors according to the likelihood, whether to wait or not to wait for the other vehicle to vacate the potential pullover location;
and
the one or more processors causing a driving system of the vehicle to either:
responsive to determining to wait for the other vehicle to vacate the potential pullover location, perform a first action to wait for the other vehicle;
or
responsive to determining not to wait for the other vehicle, perform a second action that is different from the first action.

7 more elements

A vehicle configured to operate in an autonomous driving mode, the vehicle comprising:

a driving system including a steering subsystem, an acceleration subsystem and a deceleration subsystem to control driving of the vehicle;
and
a control system including one or more processors, the control system operatively coupled to the driving system, the control system being configured to:
determine, based on signals from one or more sensors of the vehicle, whether a potential pullover location is occupied by another vehicle;
and
responsive to a determination that the potential pullover location is occupied by the other vehicle:
determine a likelihood that the other vehicle will vacate the potential pullover location within a selected amount of time, wherein the determination of the likelihood is based at least on contextual information including a type of the other vehicle;
determine, according to the likelihood, whether to wait or not to wait for the other vehicle to vacate the potential pullover location;
and
either:
responsive to a determination to wait for the other vehicle, cause the driving system of the vehicle to perform a first action to wait for the other vehicle;
or
responsive to a determination not to wait for the other vehicle, cause the driving system of the vehicle to perform a second action that is different from the first action.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Predicting a Parking or Pullover Spot Vacancy for an Autonomous Vehicle Pickup

Life of this patent

Predicting a Parking or Pullover Spot Vacancy for an Autonomous Vehicle Pickup

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20