Method, device, vehicle, medium and computer program product for parking

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention relates to a parking method and device, a vehicle, a medium and a program product. The method includes acquiring a state of an autonomous parking function of an adjacent vehicle of a parking space, and determining whether the parking space satisfies a condition of parking a target vehicle based on the state of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicle. And in response to the condition that the parking space meets the target vehicle parking condition, determining the parking space as a target parking space in which the target vehicle is to be parked. According to the embodiment of the invention, an improved scheme for weighing parking space selection during parking is provided, the target parking space is determined through the method, parking space selection during parking can be more comprehensively weighed, available parking spaces in a parking area can be more fully explored, and thus some narrow safe parking spaces are prevented from being missed.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to autonomous driving technology, and more particularly, to methods, devices, and computer program products for parking. Background Art

[0002] Automated parking is a very practical function in the field of autonomous driving and assisted driving. Using various sensors and 3D image analysis technology, the algorithm can analyze the environment around the parking space, plan the parking route, and control the vehicle to park in the exact target location.

[0003] The autonomous parking function can improve the accuracy of the parking position and the safety of the parking process. In addition, the function can park the vehicle in a very narrow space without the need for the driver to operate in the car, so that the driver does not need to worry about opening the door after parking. Summary of the invention

[0004] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for parking.

[0005] In a first aspect of the present disclosure, a method for parking is provided. The method includes: obtaining the status of an autonomous parking function of an adjacent vehicle of a parking space; determining whether the parking space meets a condition for parking a target vehicle based on the status of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicle; and in response to the parking space meeting the condition for parking the target vehicle, determining the parking space as a target parking space to be parked by the target vehicle.

[0006] In a second aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device is provided, comprising a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory has instructions stored therein, and when the instructions are executed by the processor, the device executes the method according to the first aspect of the present disclosure.

[0007] In a third aspect of the present disclosure, a vehicle is provided, comprising the electronic device according to the second aspect of the present disclosure.

[0008] In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable medium is provided, on which machine-executable instructions are stored. When the machine-executable instructions are executed by a machine, the machine is enabled to perform the method according to the first aspect of the present disclosure.

[0009] In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program product is provided, which is tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium and includes machine-executable instructions, which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the method according to the first aspect of the present disclosure.

[0010] Please note that the present summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form, which concepts will be further described in the following detailed description. The present summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent through a more detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0012] Figure 1 A schematic diagram illustrating an example environment in which various embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

[0013] Figure 2 A flowchart showing an example method for parking a vehicle according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown;

[0014] Figure 3 A flowchart showing an example method for determining a target parking space according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown;

[0015] Figure 4-6 shows an example target location where a target vehicle is to be parked, determined according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0016] Figure 7 A schematic block diagram of a device that can be used to implement an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0017] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals refer to the same or similar elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Although certain embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the present disclosure can be implemented in various forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments described herein, which are instead provided for a more thorough and complete understanding of the present disclosure. It should be understood that the drawings and embodiments of the present disclosure are only for exemplary purposes and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

[0019] The term "including" and its variations used in this document are open-ended, i.e., "including but not limited to". The term "based on" means "based at least in part on". The term "one embodiment" means "at least one embodiment"; the term "another embodiment" means "at least one additional embodiment". The relevant definitions of other terms will be given in the following description.

[0020] Autonomous parking is a useful feature in the field of autonomous driving and assisted driving. With this feature, the vehicle can park into a very narrow spot without the need for a driver to operate in the vehicle. However, in real-life scenarios, parking the vehicle into a very narrow spot may have an adverse effect on the safety of the vehicle during parking. For example, even if the vehicle can be parked in a corresponding spot without anyone in the vehicle, if it is parked too close to an adjacent vehicle, the adjacent vehicle may not be able to open its door, or there may be a potential risk of colliding with the vehicle when opening its door.

[0021] Some methods require that the target parking space has sufficient space redundancy (for example, the lateral width of the parking space is a certain amount greater than the width of the vehicle body) when selecting the target parking space to avoid adverse effects caused by the behavior of adjacent vehicles in the parking space. However, autonomously parked and manually parked vehicles often coexist in the same space and time, and different adjacent vehicles may have different behaviors. Such methods may miss some safe narrow parking spaces and do not fully utilize the autonomous function of the vehicle to park accurately. There are still technical challenges on how to balance the selection of parking spaces during autonomous parking.

[0022] To at least partially solve the above problems and other potential problems, the embodiments of the present disclosure propose a parking solution. When selecting a target parking space for the vehicle to be parked, the solution takes into account the impact of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicle on its behavior, thereby taking into account the potential safety hazards caused by this. For example, if the adjacent vehicle does not have an autonomous parking function, the driver needs to open the door to enter and exit when parking in its own parking space, which may cause a collision with the adjacent vehicle.

[0023] Specifically, the scheme obtains the status of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicles of the parking space, and based on the status, determines whether the parking space meets the conditions for parking the target vehicle. If the parking space meets the conditions for parking the target vehicle, the parking space is determined as the target parking space where the target vehicle will be parked. The status of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicles is associated with the possibility of it posing a safety risk to the vehicle in the parking space. By determining the target parking space using the method of the embodiment of the present disclosure, it is possible to more comprehensively weigh the parking space selection when parking, more fully explore the available parking spaces in the parking area, and thus avoid missing certain safe parking spaces that are relatively narrow, for example.

[0024] On this basis, when determining the specific position of the vehicle to be parked in the target parking space, some embodiments of the present disclosure may also consider the association between the autonomous parking function status of adjacent vehicles and parking safety. As a result, the vehicle can be parked in the target parking space in a safer manner (for example, offset to a certain side of the parking space), thereby ensuring safe interaction with surrounding vehicles during parking and improving the safety of the vehicle during parking.

[0025] Figure 1A schematic diagram of an example environment 100 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure is shown. In the example environment 100, there are multiple parking spaces (e.g., parking space 120-1 and parking space 120-4, etc.) and a vehicle 110 that needs to be parked. Although in the drawings and descriptions herein, the vehicle 110 is illustrated as a car, the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to a specific type and model of the vehicle. Examples of the vehicle 110 include, but are not limited to, cars, trucks, and electric cars, etc.

[0026] In addition, the example environment 100 also includes a plurality of obstacles that may affect the parking safety of the vehicle 110, such as a wall 130 and other vehicles of various models (e.g., vehicles 140-1 to 140-3), etc. These other vehicles may be parked in the parking space in a variety of ways, such as parked in different directions (e.g., vehicles 140-1 and 140-2 facing different directions), parked in the center of the parking space (e.g., vehicle 140-3), or parked to one side (e.g., vehicles 140-1 and 140-2), etc. It should be understood that Figure 1 The number and distribution of parking spaces and obstacles are shown only as simplified examples, and the environment in which the embodiments of the present disclosure are applied may have common parking space distributions (such as multiple rows of parking spaces) and obstacles (for example, pillars and fences, etc.) of various parking lots.

[0027] The vehicle 110 includes a control system 150. The control system 150 may be implemented on an onboard device within the vehicle 110, for example, as an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) and / or an autonomous driving (AD) system on the vehicle 110 or a part thereof. The control system 150 may perform various actions according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, such as but not limited to obtaining the autonomous parking function status of vehicles near a parking space, determining a target parking space and a target position into which the vehicle 110 is to park, and controlling the vehicle 110 to park at the determined target position, and the like.

[0028] The vehicle 110 also includes one or more sensors 160. The sensor 160 can sense environmental information around the vehicle 110, such as the width of nearby parking spaces and surrounding obstacles. Examples of such sensors may include, but are not limited to, millimeter wave radars, laser radars, automatic positioning devices, and / or vehicle-mounted cameras.

[0029] The control system 150 can use the data collected by the sensor 160 to determine various information for parking, such as the width of the available parking space, the location and size of surrounding vehicles, and the location of other obstacles. The control system 150 can also receive such information from a remote system, such as receiving the autonomous parking function status of the vehicle 140-1 from the control system of the parking lot. In addition, the control system 150 can also send information to the remote system.

[0030] It should be understood that the structure and function of the environment 100 are described for exemplary purposes only, without implying any limitation on the scope of the present disclosure. The entities and functions in the environment 100 may be distributed in a manner different from that shown. For example, for the sake of illustration, the control system 150 in the vehicle 110 will be used as an example to illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure. However, the system that performs the actions of the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be located outside the vehicle 110 (for example, as a central control system of a parking lot) and be communicable with the vehicle 110. Therefore, such a control system may include or be implemented on any electronic device with computing capabilities, including a terminal device or a server device. Examples of such electronic devices include, but are not limited to, servers, mainframes, edge computing nodes, terminal devices (such as personal computers, etc.), computing devices in cloud environments (such as virtual machines), and the like.

[0031] Figure 2 1 shows a flow chart of an example method 200 for parking a vehicle according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 200 may be performed, for example, by Figure 1 It should be understood that the method 200 may also include additional actions not shown, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this respect. Figure 1 The method 200 is described in detail with reference to the example environment 100 of FIG.

[0032] At 210 , the status of the autonomous parking function of the neighboring vehicle of the parking space is obtained. For example, the control system 150 may determine the parking space 120 - 1 that the vehicle 110 may be parked in, and obtain the status of the autonomous parking function of the neighboring vehicle 140 - 1 of the parking space 120 - 1.

[0033] The control system 150 may use dynamic search to search for potential target parking spaces. For example, the control system 150 may find a parking space 120-1 near the vehicle 110 that satisfies the following conditions: the size of the available space of the parking space 120-1 is larger than the size of the vehicle, and the vehicle 110 can be parked in the parking space 120-1 without collision. Then, the control system 150 may use an appropriate method to obtain the status of the autonomous parking function of the vehicle 140-1 adjacent to the parking space 120-1.

[0034] In some embodiments, the control system 150 may obtain the status of the real-time autonomous parking function of the vehicle 140-1 from, for example, a central control system of a parking lot. In some embodiments, the control system 150 may use a sensor 160 to sense the appearance information (e.g., brand logo, etc.) of the vehicle 140-1 and identify its model based on the appearance. Then, the control system 150 may match the autonomous parking function status of 140-1 in the information base based on the identified model. In some embodiments, the control system may identify the license plate number of the vehicle 140-1 and use the license plate number to query relevant information. Depending on the granularity of the implementation, the status of the autonomous parking function may have different representations. For example, the status may be a binary value indicating "available" or "unavailable". For example, in the case where the autonomous parking function is available, the status may further include parameters of the function, such as performance parameters.

[0035] At 220 , based on the state, it is determined whether the parking space meets the conditions for parking the target vehicle. For example, based on the acquired state of the autonomous parking function of the vehicle 140 - 1 , the control system 150 may determine whether the parking space 120 - 1 meets the conditions for parking the vehicle 110 .

[0036] The state of the autonomous parking function of vehicle 140-1 is associated with the probability that the safety of vehicle 110 will be affected by vehicle 140-1 when parking vehicle 110 in parking space 120-1. The level of this probability reflects the passive safety risk to vehicle 110 caused by vehicle 140-1. Passive safety risk is a potential safety hazard to vehicle 110 caused by the behavior of an entity other than vehicle 110 itself, for example, the safety impact caused by the door of vehicle 140-1 being opened while vehicle 110 is parked. If this probability is low enough (for example, below a certain threshold), the parking space can be determined to meet the conditions for parking the target vehicle, which will be discussed below in conjunction with Figure 3 Describe in more detail the conditions that must be met for parking the target vehicle in the parking space.

[0037] If the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicle is available, it can autonomously park out of the current parking position without the driver opening the door to enter, and can usually park out with a more precise route than manual parking. Such a vehicle may not be considered a source of passive risk or the passive risk it causes is very low. Therefore, in some embodiments, if it is determined that the autonomous parking function state in the vehicle 140-1 is available, the control system 150 may determine that the possibility of affecting the parking safety of the vehicle 110 is low, and therefore determine that the parking space 120-1 meets the conditions for parking the vehicle 110. The specific value of the possibility may depend on the implementation. For example, a low possibility may be represented as "none", a zero value, or some appropriate small value (such as a small value that can be ignored in possible subsequent calculations).

[0038] In some embodiments, when determining whether the parking space 120-1 meets the conditions for parking the vehicle 110, the control system 150 may also determine the space margin of the parking space 120-1 based on the parameters of the autonomous parking function of the vehicle 140-1 (such as the accuracy of its execution of the planned parking route) and the space margin of the parking space 120-1 for parking the vehicle 110. The space margin may be determined based on the width of the actual available space in the parking space and the width of the vehicle body, and its specific representation may be adjusted according to the purpose for which it is to be applied. For example, the space margin may be represented as the difference between the width of the parking space 120-1 and the width of the vehicle 110.

[0039] In some embodiments, if it is determined that the status of the autonomous parking function of at least one of the adjacent vehicles of the evaluated parking space is unavailable, the control system 150 can determine whether the parking space meets the conditions for parking the target vehicle based on at least one of the following: the driver's seat orientation of the at least one vehicle, the space required for the at least one vehicle to open the driver's door, and the space surplus of the parking space for parking the target vehicle.

[0040] For example, if the driver's seat of the adjacent vehicle is not facing the parking space, the driver does not need to open the parking space towards that side when the adjacent vehicle is parked out. Therefore, the control system can determine that the possibility of the adjacent vehicle affecting the parking safety of the vehicle 110 is low, and then determine that the parking space meets the conditions for parking the vehicle 110.

[0041] For example, if the driver's seat of the adjacent vehicle is facing the parking space, the control system 150 can further determine the space required for the driver's door of the vehicle to be opened. As a non-limiting example, the control system 150 can detect the length of the driver's door of the vehicle 140-1 through the sensor 160. Then, the space (e.g., distance) required for the door of the vehicle 140-1 to be opened can be determined based on the door opening angle required to support the driver's entry and exit. Alternatively, the control system 150 can obtain the corresponding information from a local information library or a service on a remote device.

[0042] For the determined required space, the control system 150 can further determine whether the space redundancy of the parking space is sufficient and / or the degree of sufficiency (for example, after the vehicle 110 is parked in the parking space 120-1, the parking space supports the angle at which the vehicle 140-1 can open the driver's door). As the degree of sufficiency increases, the possibility of the vehicle 110 being parked in the parking space 120-1 suffering from passive safety risks decreases. For example, the control system 150 can use a mapping or function reflecting the space redundancy and the above-mentioned possibility to perform a calculation of such a possibility. If the calculated possibility meets a threshold, it can be determined that the parking space 120-1 meets the conditions for parking the vehicle 110.

[0043] There are more than one adjacent vehicle around some parking spaces. The possibility of these vehicles affecting the safety of vehicles in the parking spaces is not independent of each other. When an action is taken to reduce the safety impact of one of the vehicles, the impact of another vehicle on safety may increase accordingly. The control system 150 can comprehensively consider the above-mentioned aspects of these vehicles to determine the overall impact of the adjacent vehicles. For example, for parking space 120-4, the control system 150 can calculate the overall passive safety risk that vehicle 110 suffers from vehicles 140-2 and 140-3 when parked therein.

[0044] For example, the control system 150 can quantify the states of the autonomous parking functions of the vehicles 140-2 and 140-3 and the other aspects mentioned above as variable values, and use an optimization algorithm to determine the minimum overall possibility as a determination result. Depending on the implementation granularity, the result can be a certain level (e.g., low, medium, high, etc.) or a certain value (e.g., in the form of a score or percentage, etc.). When the result meets the threshold, it can be determined that the parking space 120-4 meets the conditions for parking the vehicle 110.

[0045] At 230, in response to the parking space satisfying the conditions for parking the target vehicle, the parking space is determined as a target parking space for the target vehicle to be parked. For example, if it is determined at 220 that the possibility determined for the parking space 120-1 satisfies a certain threshold, the control system 150 may determine the parking space 120-1 as the target parking space.

[0046] Using the method 200, when determining whether a parking space is suitable for a target vehicle to park, the different effects of the behaviors of different vehicles around the parking space during parking are taken into consideration. As a result, the available parking spaces in the parking area can be explored more flexibly and fully, and narrower safe parking spaces can be avoided from being missed, which is particularly beneficial when parking spaces are tight, for example.

[0047] In addition to other vehicles, there may be other types of obstacles around the parking space, such as a wall 130 on one side of the parking space 120-1. These other obstacles, together with the adjacent vehicles, constrain the space of the parking space, thereby affecting the parking safety of the target vehicle. In some embodiments, the control system 150 may determine a passive safety score for the vehicle 110 parked in the parking space 120-1 based on the state of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicles and the position of the obstacles around the parking space. The passive safety score indicates the possibility that the safety of the vehicle 110 is affected by obstacles when it is parked in the parking space 120-1. On this basis, by determining whether the passive safety score meets the threshold, the control system 150 may determine whether the parking space 120-1 meets the conditions for parking the vehicle 110. Alternatively, the control system may determine whether the parking space 120-1 meets the conditions for parking 110 based on the state of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicles and the position of the obstacles around the parking space, without calculating or outputting the specific passive safety score value in the middle.

[0048] In some embodiments, the control system 150 may use the overall probability calculated in some of the above embodiments or some transformation thereof (e.g., mapping a high probability to a low score) as the passive safety score. In some embodiments, the passive safety score is further adjusted based on the expected minimum distance of other obstacles from the vehicle 110 during the parking process.

[0049] Reference now Figure 3 , Figure 3 1 shows a flow chart of an example method 300 for determining a target parking space according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, method 300 may be an example implementation of step 230 in method 200, wherein the passive safety score described above is used to determine whether the parking space meets the conditions for parking the target vehicle. It should be understood that in some embodiments, one or more actions in method 300 may be omitted or replaced with Figure 3 In addition, the method 300 may also include additional actions not shown, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this respect. The method 300 may, for example, be performed in the following order: Figure 1 The control system 150 shown in FIG. Figure 1 The method 300 is described in detail with reference to the example environment 100 of FIG.

[0050] The method 300 may start when the vehicle 110 enters a parking area. At 310, the control system 150 may search for an available empty parking space. The control system 150 may control the sensor 160 to detect the surrounding environment while the vehicle 110 is traveling in the parking area to search for an empty parking space, and dynamically evaluate whether the space is sufficient for the vehicle 110 to park.

[0051] At 320 , the control system 150 may determine the parking space 120 - 1 as a candidate parking space for the target parking space. For example, the control system 110 may determine that the available width of the parking space 120 - 1 is greater than the vehicle 110 , and therefore consider the parking space 120 - 1 as a candidate for the target parking space for further evaluation.

[0052] At 330 , the control system 150 may calculate a passive safety score associated with parking the vehicle 110 in the parking space 120 - 1 as described above. Here, the control system 150 may obtain the status of the autonomous parking function of the neighboring vehicle 140 - 1 of the parking space 120 - 1 for calculation.

[0053] At 340, the control system 150 may determine whether the space margin of the parking space 120-1 for parking the vehicle 110 is lower than a threshold margin (hereinafter also referred to as a first margin). The space margin may be as described above with respect to Figure 2 The spatial redundancy is not less than the first redundancy, indicating that the parking space 120-1 has a certain degree of redundancy. This degree of redundancy makes it possible to mitigate the passive safety hazards that the vehicle 110 may suffer by adjusting the parking position of the vehicle 110 in the parking space 120-1. For example, the vehicle 110 may park on one side of the parking space 120-1.

[0054] If the space redundancy is not less than the first redundancy, the method 300 proceeds to 350. At 350, the control system 150 may determine whether the passive safety score is not less than a lower threshold (hereinafter also referred to as the first threshold, for example, it may be "medium" in the hierarchical score). The passive safety score not being less than the first threshold indicates that the passive safety hazard that the vehicle 110 may suffer can be at least mitigated or eliminated by parking the vehicle 110 in a specific position in the parking space 120-1, as will be described later in conjunction with Figure 5-6 as described.

[0055] In this case, the control system 150 may determine that the parking space 120-1 satisfies the conditions for parking the vehicle 110, and may determine the parking space 120-1 as the target parking space where the vehicle 110 is to be parked at 370. Otherwise, the method 300 may return to 310, where the control system 150 may continue to search for an empty parking space. Also, the method 300 may proceed to 320 again, where the control system 150 determines another parking space (e.g., parking space 120-4) whose available width is greater than the width of the target vehicle as a candidate for the target parking space. In some embodiments, the difference between the available width and the width of the target vehicle may be greater than a certain minimum value to take into account possible fluctuations in parking.

[0056] If it is determined at 330 that the space margin is lower than the first margin, it indicates that the parking space is very narrow and cannot be alleviated by adjusting the specific position of the vehicle 110 in the parking space 120-1. This requires that the passive safety of the parking space is high, that is, the possibility of suffering damage (e.g., collision, etc.) due to the behavior and / or position of surrounding obstacles (such as, the opening of the door of the neighboring vehicle) is low. In this case, the method 300 proceeds to 360.

[0057] Here, the control system 150 may determine whether the passive safety score is higher than another threshold value (hereinafter also referred to as a second threshold value, for example, it may be "high" in the graded score) that is higher than the aforementioned first threshold value. The passive safety score not being lower than the second threshold value indicates that the possibility of the vehicle 110 being parked in the parking space 120-1 being subjected to safety hazards caused by surrounding obstacles is low, as will be described later in conjunction with Figure 4 In this case, the control system 150 may determine that the parking space 120-1 satisfies the conditions for parking the vehicle 110, and may determine the parking space 120-1 as the target parking space at 370. Otherwise, the method 300 may return to 310, where the control system 150 may continue to search for an empty parking space and determine another candidate parking space.

[0058] Using the method 300 , the passive safety requirements that need to be met by the target vehicle parked in the candidate parking space can be differentially determined according to the spatial redundancy of the candidate parking space, thereby providing a more flexible method for weighing the availability of the candidate parking spaces.

[0059] In some scenarios, the control system 150 may find a very spacious candidate parking space. In this case, the candidate parking space can be directly determined as the target parking space without further calculation, thereby saving computing resources. Therefore, in some embodiments, the control system 150 can also use another threshold redundancy (also referred to as the second redundancy) when determining the target parking space. The second redundancy is higher than the first redundancy for determining whether the parking space supports adjusting the specific parking position in the parking space. The redundancy of the parking space is higher than the second redundancy, indicating that the parking space is very spacious.

[0060] In such an embodiment, the control system 150 may first determine whether the spatial redundancy of the candidate parking space is lower than the second redundancy. If it is determined that the spatial redundancy of the candidate parking space is lower than the second redundancy, the control system 150 will continue to obtain the state of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicle of the candidate parking space for subsequent target parking space determination. Otherwise, the control system 150 may directly determine the candidate parking space as the target parking space.

[0061] It should be understood that the above-mentioned use of the passive safety score to determine the target parking space is only an example implementation. In such an implementation, the passive safety score can reflect the quantified safety level. For example, when there are multiple candidate parking spaces that meet the threshold in the surrounding area, the safety levels of these candidate parking spaces can be compared with each other, so that the control system 150 can select the parking space with the highest safety level as the target parking space. Alternatively, the passive safety score can be displayed to the user by the control system 150, for example, via the vehicle-mounted user interface, for the user's reference to finally confirm or reject the selection of the target parking space.

[0062] In some embodiments, the control system 150 may also determine whether the candidate parking space meets the conditions for parking the target parking space without calculating or outputting the target parking space score for subsequent operations. In some such embodiments, after determining the candidate parking space, the control system 150 may determine whether the space margin of the candidate parking space for parking the target vehicle is lower than the first margin as described in step 340 above.

[0063] If the spatial redundancy is not lower than the first redundancy (i.e., the parking space redundancy can support the adjustment of the specific parking position of the target vehicle), the control system 150 can determine whether there is a specific position in the parking space: when the target vehicle is located at the specific position, for the adjacent vehicles of the candidate parking space, the automatic parking function is not available and the driver's door of each adjacent vehicle facing the candidate parking space will be able to open at least the threshold angle. The control system 150 can use a search algorithm known to those skilled in the art to find the position. If the specific position exists, the control system 150 can determine that the candidate parking space meets the conditions and can be determined as the target parking space. In this step, the control system 150 can also additionally determine a more specific passive safety score based on the different opening angles, for example, to prompt the user.

[0064] If the space margin is lower than the first margin (i.e., the parking space is very narrow), the control system 150 may determine whether there is a vehicle with a driver's seat facing the candidate parking space among the adjacent vehicles for which the automatic parking function of the candidate parking space is not available. If there is no such adjacent vehicle, the control system may determine that the candidate parking space satisfies the condition and can be determined as the target parking space.

[0065] As mentioned above, there may be a variety of obstacles around the target parking space, such as parked vehicles, walls, etc. These obstacles constrain the available space in the target parking space. In addition, different obstacles may have different behaviors, and therefore the required spatial distances between them and the vehicle for safety are different. In some embodiments, based on the unmanned autonomous parking capabilities of the adjacent vehicles of the target parking space and the positions of the obstacles around the target parking space, the control system 150 can also determine the target position that the target vehicle will park in the target parking space.

[0066] It should be understood that in a specific implementation, the determination of the target parking space and the determination of the target position do not necessarily have a fixed order. For example, when the control system 150-1 finds the above-mentioned specific position, it can determine the specific position as the target position and determine the corresponding candidate parking space as the target parking space.

[0067] Figure 4-Figure 6 Simplified schematic diagrams according to some embodiments of the present disclosure are shown, which illustrate example target positions of target vehicles in target parking spaces determined according to some embodiments of the present disclosure (e.g., as described with respect to methods 200 and 300). For illustration purposes, Figure 4-6 A vehicle with a driver's seat on the left side is taken as an example, but the embodiments of the present disclosure are also applicable to vehicles with a driver's seat on the other side.

[0068] First reference Figure 4 Schematic diagram 400, which shows a target parking space 410 that is very narrow for a target vehicle. For example, according to method 300, the space margin of the target parking space for parking the target vehicle is lower than a first margin threshold. In this case, although the target vehicle may be able to park autonomously, so that the opening of the vehicle door does not need to be considered, if the target vehicle is parked in the parking space 410, it will inevitably be very close to surrounding obstacles. Therefore, the parking space 410 needs to have high safety to be used as a target parking space.

[0069] In the schematic diagram 400, the obstacles on both sides of the parking space 410 are vehicles 420 and 430. For example, based on the fact that both vehicles 420 and 430 have available autonomous parking functions, the control system of the target vehicle can determine that the possibility of these vehicles affecting the parking safety of the target vehicle is low enough to meet the conditions for parking the target vehicle. For example, the control system can determine the passive safety score of the target vehicle parked in the parking space 410 as a value not lower than the higher threshold (i.e., the second threshold above) in the method 300.

[0070] On this basis, the control system can further determine the target parking position 440 based on the positions of the surrounding obstacles. For example, the control system can calculate a path for safely parking the target vehicle into the parking space 410 based on an appropriate autonomous parking algorithm, thereby determining the end position of the path as the target position 440.

[0071] An example situation where a narrow parking space may be determined as a target parking space may include: among the adjacent vehicles on both sides of the parking space, no vehicle with an unavailable autonomous parking function has its driver's seat facing the parking space. Figure 4As shown in the example in FIG. 4 , the driver's seats of vehicle 420 and vehicle 430 are both facing parking space 410. If any of the vehicles does not have the autonomous parking capability, the driver needs to enter and exit from the side close to 410 when the vehicle is parked out of the parking space. In this way, the control system can determine that parking space 410 does not meet the conditions for parking the target vehicle, that is, parking space 410 cannot be used as the target parking space.

[0072] In some embodiments, if the state of the unmanned autonomous parking function of at least one of the adjacent vehicles is unavailable, the control system may determine the target position based on at least one of the following: the direction of the driver's seat of the at least one vehicle, the space required for the at least one vehicle to open the driver's door, and the space surplus of the candidate parking space for parking the target vehicle. Figure 5 and Figure 6 Describe the relevant examples.

[0073] Figure 5 Schematic diagram 500 shows a parking space 510 with a certain space margin for the target vehicle. For example, according to method 300, the space margin of the target parking space for parking the target vehicle is not less than the first margin threshold above. In this case, by adjusting the parking position of the target vehicle in the parking space, it is possible to eliminate the passive safety risk caused by surrounding obstacles or mitigate it to an acceptable level.

[0074] If there is a passive safety risk but it can be eliminated or mitigated, the parking space can also be determined to meet the conditions for parking the target vehicle. In addition, the control system can determine the location where the passive safety risk can be eliminated or mitigated as the target location. For example, the control system can determine the passive safety score of the target vehicle parked in the parking space as a value not lower than the lower threshold (i.e., the first threshold above) in method 300.

[0075] In the schematic diagram 500, one side of the parking space 510 is a wall 520, and the other side is a vehicle 530. The control system can obtain the state of the autonomous parking function of the vehicle 530 to determine whether the parking space 510 can be used as a target parking space. In this example, the state of the autonomous parking function of the vehicle 530 is assumed to be unavailable. Furthermore, the control system determines that the driver's seat of the vehicle 530 is facing the parking space 510, but when the target vehicle is offset to the wall 520 to the position 540, the distance between it and the vehicle 530 will be sufficient to support the door of the vehicle 530 to be fully opened without colliding with the target vehicle (for example, the door is opened to be perpendicular to the body without contacting the target vehicle). Based on this, the control system can determine the parking space 510 as the target parking space and the position 540 as the target position. For example, the control system can determine a passive safety score that meets a predetermined condition for the parking space 510 and the target vehicle.

[0076] As previously described, the relevant information for determining the target parking space and position can be detected by sensors on the target vehicle, or obtained from an external system or service. In some embodiments, the control system can determine the maximum door opening angle of the vehicle 530 that can be supported when the target vehicle is offset from parking, and calculate the passive safety score as a function of the angle. Depending on the specific implementation, the control system can also consider additional conditions when determining the passive safety score, such as the autonomous parking control accuracy of the target vehicle.

[0077] Reference now Figure 6 Schematic diagram 600 shows a parking space 610 with a certain space margin for a target vehicle. For example, according to method 300, the space margin of the target parking space for parking the target vehicle is not less than a first margin threshold.

[0078] In the schematic diagram 600, the parking space 610 is flanked by a vehicle 620 and a vehicle 630. The control system can then obtain the status of the vehicle 630 and the autonomous parking function of the vehicle 630. In this example, the autonomous parking function status of the vehicle 620 is assumed to be available, while the autonomous parking function status of the vehicle 630 is assumed to be unavailable. The control system of the target vehicle or parking lot therefore does not need to further consider the problem of the driver's door being opened when the vehicle 620 is parked out, and can consider the case of parking the target vehicle next to the vehicle 620 in subsequent calculations.

[0079] Then, for the vehicle 630 for which the autonomous parking function is not available, the control system further determines that: the driver's seat of the vehicle 630 faces the parking space 610, but when the target vehicle shifts toward the vehicle 620 to the position 640, the distance between it and the vehicle 630 will be sufficient to support the door of the vehicle 630 to open at a larger angle without contacting the target vehicle. Based on this, similar to the above, the control system can determine the parking space 610 as the target parking space and the position 640 as the target position. For example, the control system can determine a passive safety score that satisfies a predetermined condition as described above.

[0080] After determining the target parking space and the target position, the control system can autonomously move the target vehicle to the target position for disposal. If the door of the target vehicle cannot be opened to allow the occupants to leave when it is at the target position, the control system can prompt the occupants to leave the target vehicle in advance. Therefore, the door opening and closing of the target vehicle itself does not need to be considered during autonomous parking.

[0081] In some embodiments, when controlling the target vehicle to park in the target position, the control system may adopt an additional offset method. In such an embodiment, the control system may determine the middle position in the target parking space and the route for the target vehicle to move from the current position to the middle position based on the current position of the target vehicle, the target position, and the position of the obstacle. For example, the control system may temporarily ignore the passive safety risks during parking and use conventional parking route planning methods to determine the safest route for the target vehicle to enter the target parking space and the corresponding terminal position.

[0082] In such an embodiment, based on the determined route, the control system can first control the target vehicle to move from the current position to the intermediate position. Then, the control system can fine-tune the position, that is, control the target vehicle to move from the intermediate position to the target position. Parking in this additional offset manner can ensure safety during parking as described above, while also ensuring safety during parking.

[0083] Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a device for parking. The device includes an acquisition module, a first determination module, and a second determination module. The acquisition module is configured to acquire the state of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicles of the parking space. The first determination module is configured to: determine whether the parking space meets the conditions for parking the target vehicle based on the state of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicles of the parking space. The second determination module is configured to: in response to the parking space meeting the conditions for parking the target vehicle, determine the parking space as the target parking space where the target vehicle is to be autonomously parked.

[0084] Figure 7 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a device 700 that can be used to implement an embodiment of the present disclosure. The device 700 may be a device or apparatus described in an embodiment of the present disclosure. Figure 7 As shown, the device 700 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 701, which can perform various appropriate actions and processes according to computer program instructions stored in a read-only memory (ROM) 702 or loaded from a storage unit 708 to a random access memory (RAM) 703. In the RAM 703, various programs and data required for the operation of the device 700 can also be stored. The CPU 701, the ROM 702, and the RAM 703 are connected to each other via a bus 704. An input / output (I / O) interface 705 is also connected to the bus 704. Although not shown in FIG. Figure 7 As shown in FIG. 7 , device 700 may further include a coprocessor.

[0085] A number of components in the device 700 are connected to the I / O interface 705, including: an input unit 706, such as a keyboard, a mouse, etc.; an output unit 707, such as various types of displays, speakers, etc.; a storage unit 708, such as a disk, an optical disk, etc.; and a communication unit 709, such as a network card, a modem, a wireless communication transceiver, etc. The communication unit 709 allows the device 700 to exchange information / data with other devices through a computer network such as the Internet and / or various telecommunication networks.

[0086] The various methods or processes described above may be performed by the processing unit 701. For example, in some embodiments, the methods may be implemented as a computer software program, which is tangibly contained in a machine-readable medium, such as the storage unit 708. In some embodiments, part or all of the computer program may be loaded and / or installed on the device 700 via the ROM 702 and / or the communication unit 709. When the computer program is loaded into the RAM 703 and executed by the CPU 701, one or more steps or actions in the methods or processes described above may be performed.

[0087] In some embodiments, the methods and processes described above may be implemented as a computer program product. The computer program product may include a computer-readable storage medium carrying computer-readable program instructions for executing various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0088] Computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that can hold and store instructions used by an instruction execution device. Computer readable storage medium can be, for example, but not limited to, an electrical storage device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination thereof. More specific examples (non-exhaustive list) of computer readable storage medium include: a portable computer disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanical encoding device, for example, a punch card or a convex structure in a groove on which instructions are stored, and any suitable combination thereof. The computer readable storage medium used here is not interpreted as a transient signal itself, such as a radio wave or other freely propagating electromagnetic wave, an electromagnetic wave propagated by a waveguide or other transmission medium (for example, a light pulse by an optical fiber cable), or an electrical signal transmitted by a wire.

[0089] The computer-readable program instructions described herein can be downloaded from a computer-readable storage medium to each computing / processing device, or downloaded to an external computer or external storage device via a network, such as the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, and / or a wireless network. The network can include copper transmission cables, optical fiber transmissions, wireless transmissions, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers, and / or edge servers. The network adapter card or network interface in each computing / processing device receives the computer-readable program instructions from the network and forwards the computer-readable program instructions for storage in the computer-readable storage medium in each computing / processing device.

[0090] The computer program instructions for performing the disclosed operation can be assembler instructions, instruction set architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine-related instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state setting data, or source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, and the programming languages ​​include object-oriented programming languages, and conventional procedural programming languages. Computer-readable program instructions can be executed completely on a user's computer, partially on a user's computer, executed as an independent software package, partially on a user's computer, partially on a remote computer, or completely on a remote computer or server. In the case of a remote computer, the remote computer can be connected to the user's computer by any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or can be connected to an external computer (for example, using an Internet service provider to connect to the Internet). In certain embodiments, by utilizing the state information of computer-readable program instructions to customize electronic circuits, such as programmable logic circuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or programmable logic arrays (PLAs), the electronic circuits can execute computer-readable program instructions, thereby realizing various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0091] These computer-readable program instructions can be provided to a processing unit of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing device, thereby producing a machine, so that when these instructions are executed by the processing unit of the computer or other programmable data processing device, a device for implementing the functions / actions specified in one or more boxes in the flowchart and / or block diagram is generated. These computer-readable program instructions can also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and these instructions cause the computer, programmable data processing device, and / or other equipment to work in a specific manner, so that the computer-readable medium storing the instructions includes a manufactured product, which includes instructions for implementing various aspects of the functions / actions specified in one or more boxes in the flowchart and / or block diagram.

[0092] Computer-readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device so that a series of operational steps are performed on the computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to produce a computer-implemented process, thereby causing the instructions executed on the computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to implement the functions / actions specified in one or more boxes in the flowchart and / or block diagram.

[0093] The flow chart and block diagram in the accompanying drawings show the possible architecture, function and operation of the equipment, method and computer program product according to multiple embodiments of the present disclosure. In this regard, each frame in the flow chart or block diagram can represent a part of a module, program segment or instruction, and a part of the module, program segment or instruction includes one or more executable instructions for realizing the specified logical function. In some implementations as replacements, the functions marked in the frame can also occur in a sequence different from that marked in the accompanying drawings. For example, two continuous frames can actually be executed substantially in parallel, and they can sometimes be executed in reverse order, depending on the functions involved. It should also be noted that each frame in the block diagram and / or flow chart, and the combination of frames in the block diagram and / or flow chart can be implemented with a dedicated hardware-based system that performs a specified function or action, or can be implemented with a combination of dedicated hardware and computer instructions.

[0094] The embodiments of the present disclosure have been described above, and the above description is exemplary, not exhaustive, and is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The choice of terms used herein is intended to best explain the principles of the embodiments, practical applications, or technical improvements to the technology in the market, or to enable other persons of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A method for parking a vehicle, comprising: Get the status of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicles in the parking space; determining whether the parking space satisfies a condition for parking a target vehicle based on the state of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicle; as well as In response to the parking space satisfying a condition for parking the target vehicle, the parking space is determined as a target parking space where the target vehicle is to be parked.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining whether the parking space meets the conditions for parking the target vehicle comprises: determining that a status of an autonomous parking function of at least one of the neighboring vehicles is unavailable; as well as In response to determining that the state of the autonomous parking function of the at least one vehicle is unavailable, determining whether the parking space meets the conditions for parking the target vehicle based on at least one of the following: the orientation of the driver's seat of the at least one vehicle; The space required for opening the driver's door of the at least one vehicle; and The space margin of the parking space for parking the target vehicle.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein determining whether the parking space meets the conditions for parking the target vehicle comprises: Determining whether the space margin of the parking space for parking the target vehicle is lower than a first margin; as well as In response to determining that the spatial redundancy is not less than the first redundancy, determining whether there is a specific position in the parking space, where, when the target vehicle is located at the specific position, a driver's door of each of the at least one vehicle with a driver's seat facing the target parking space can be opened at least by a threshold angle; as well as In response to the existence of the specific position, it is determined that the parking space meets the condition.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein determining whether the parking space satisfies the conditions for parking the target vehicle comprises: In response to determining that the space redundancy is lower than the first redundancy, determining whether there is a vehicle with a driver's seat facing the parking space among the at least one vehicle; as well as In response to the vehicle not being present, it is determined that the parking space satisfies the condition.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein obtaining the status of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicle of the parking space comprises: The state is acquired in response to the spatial richness being lower than a second richness, the second richness being higher than the first richness.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: In response to the parking space not satisfying a condition for parking the target vehicle, another parking space having an available width greater than a width of the target vehicle is determined as a candidate for the target parking space.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: Based on the status of the autonomous parking function of the adjacent vehicle, a target position in the target parking space where the vehicle is to be parked is determined.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining the target location comprises: When the state of the autonomous parking function of a first adjacent vehicle among the adjacent vehicles is available, a position biased toward the first adjacent vehicle is determined as the target position.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein when the state of the autonomous parking function of at least one of the neighboring vehicles is unavailable, determining the target position further comprises determining the target position based on at least one of the following: the orientation of the driver's seat of the at least one vehicle; The space required for opening the driver's door of the at least one vehicle; and The space margin of the parking space for parking the target vehicle.

10. The method according to claim 7, further comprising: Based on the current position of the target vehicle, the target position, and positions of obstacles around the parking space, a middle position in the target parking space and a route for the target vehicle to move from the current position to the middle position are determined.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising: Based on the route, controlling the target vehicle to move from the current position to the intermediate position; as well as The target vehicle is controlled to move from the intermediate position to the target position.

12. An electronic device comprising: at least one processing unit; as well as At least one memory, the at least one memory being coupled to the at least one processing unit and storing instructions for execution by the at least one processing unit, the instructions causing the device to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11 when executed by the at least one processing unit.

13. A vehicle comprising the electronic device according to claim 12.

14. A computer readable medium having machine executable instructions stored thereon, wherein the machine executable instructions implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11 when executed.

15. A computer program product tangibly stored on a computer readable medium and comprising machine executable instructions which when executed implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11.

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