METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PICKING UP AND DROPING OFF AIR GUESTS AT AN AIRPORT USING AN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE

Abstract

Method in which a control unit of an autonomous vehicle includes: Receiving an instruction to go to an airport, wherein receiving the instruction to go to the airport includes: Receiving an itinerary from a passenger's mobile device; Receiving an airport map from a server system; identifying a terminal according to the travel route; Receiving an instruction to pick up the passenger at the airport; Receiving a notification that the passenger has checked in baggage; Determining an arrival time from the travel route; and Adding a time adjustment to the arrival time in response to receiving the notification that the passenger has checked in baggage, in order to obtain a pick-up time; Instructing the autonomous vehicle to drive to the airport; Preservation of an unoccupied parking space at the airport; and autonomous parking of the autonomous vehicle in the unoccupied parking space, where initiating the autonomous vehicle to go to the airport includes initiating the autonomous vehicle to go to the terminal, and where initiating the autonomous vehicle to go to the airport includes initiating the autonomous vehicle to go to the airport in order to arrive at the pick-up time.

Description

Background FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] This invention relates to a method and a system for picking up and dropping off passengers with an autonomous vehicle. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Autonomous vehicles are becoming increasingly relevant and are used daily. One potentially challenging situation is the drop-off and pick-up of a passenger at an airport. This is a common use case for both a transportation service and a vehicle personally owned by the customer. An airport can be a very large area with many possible drop-off and pick-up locations.

[0003] From document US 2015 / 0 371 157 A1, a method and a system for picking up and dropping off passengers at an airport are known. A flight schedule is monitored for a flight of interest and a message is sent to a user's mobile phone based on an estimated arrival time. The message is intended to contain information identifying a pick-up location at the airport, as well as the option to order a transportation service provider. Similar systems for picking up and dropping off passengers using a vehicle fleet are known from the other documents US 2015 / 0 339 928 A1, US 2017 / 0 108 339 A1, and US 2010 / 0 070 168 A1. To achieve an improved approach for operating an autonomous vehicle at an airport, the present invention proposes a method according to claim 1 and a system according to claim 9. Preferred embodiments of the invention are the subject of the dependent claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] In order that the advantages of the invention may be readily understood, a more detailed description of the invention will be given with reference to specific embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Since these drawings represent only typical embodiments of the invention, the invention will be described in more detail using the accompanying drawings, in which the figures show the following: Fig. is a schematic block diagram of components implementing a system according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. is a schematic block diagram of an example computing device suitable for performing methods according to embodiments of the invention; Fig. is a process flow diagram of a method for dropping off a passenger at an airport according to embodiments of the present invention; Fig. shows a parking scenario at an airport according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. is a process flow diagram of a method for picking up a passenger at an airport according to embodiments of the present invention; Fig. is a process flow diagram of a method for assisting a passenger in identifying an autonomous vehicle according to devices of the present invention; and Fig. is a process flow diagram of a method for detecting baggage volume according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0005] With reference to Fig. The methods disclosed herein may be performed with the illustrated system 100. As explained in more detail herein, a controller 102 may perform autonomous navigation and collision avoidance for a vehicle hosting the controller 102. The vehicle may include all structures and features of a vehicle known in the art, including wheels, a drivetrain coupled to the wheels, an engine coupled to the drivetrain, a steering system, a braking system, and other systems known in the art to be associated with a vehicle.

[0006] The controller 102 may receive one or more outputs from one or more external sensors 104. For example, one or more cameras 106a may be mounted on the vehicle 100 and output image streams to the controller 102. The external sensors 104 may include sensors such as an ultrasonic sensor 106b, a RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) sensor 106c, a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor 106d, a SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging) sensor 106e, and the like.

[0007] Controller 102 may execute an autonomous operation module 108 that receives the outputs of external sensors 104. Autonomous operation module 108 may include an obstacle identification module 110a, a collision prediction module 110b, and a decision module 110c. Obstacle identification module 110a analyzes the outputs of the external sensors and identifies potential obstacles, including people, animals, vehicles, buildings, curbs, and other objects and structures. In particular, obstacle identification module 110a may identify vehicle images in the sensor outputs.

[0008] The collision prediction module 110b predicts which obstacle images are likely to collide with the vehicle 100 based on its current trajectory or current intended path. The collision prediction module 110b may assess the likelihood of a collision with objects identified by the obstacle identification module 110a. The decision module 110c may make a decision to avoid obstacles, stop, accelerate, turn, etc. The manner in which the collision prediction module 110b predicts possible collisions and the manner in which the decision module 110c takes action to avoid potential collisions may be performed according to any method or system known in the autonomous vehicle art.

[0009] The decision module 110c can control the vehicle's trajectory by actuating one or more actuators 112 that control the direction and speed of the vehicle 100. The actuators 112 can include, for example, a steering actuator 114a, an accelerator actuator 114b, and a brake actuator 114c. The configuration of the actuators 114a-114c can be implemented according to any implementation of such actuators known in the autonomous vehicle art.

[0010] In the embodiments disclosed herein, the autonomous operations module 108 may perform autonomous navigation to a particular location, autonomous parking, and other automated driving activities known in the art. The embodiments disclosed herein provide an approach for picking up and dropping off passengers at an airport. Accordingly, the autonomous operations module 108 may implement an airport module 110d that implements the methods described below.

[0011] The controller 102 may be in data communication with a server system 116. For example, the controller 102 may be in data communication with one or more cell towers 118 that are in data communication with the server system 116 via a network 120, such as a LAN (local area network), a wide area network (WAN), the Internet, or any other wireless or wired network connection.

[0012] The server system 116 may host or access a database 122. The database 122 may store airport information 124. The airport information 124 may be received from the computer system of one or more airports or from another information source. In particular, the airport information 124 for an airport may include a map 126a. The map 126a may be a detailed map of the airport's lanes, parking structures, terminals, etc., which may not be present in map data from a typical navigation system. The airport information 124 may additionally include occupancy information 126b. As described in detail below, the location of unoccupied parking positions may be determined based on outputs from cameras with a parking space in their field of view.Accordingly, the occupancy information 126b for an airport may list the locations of one or both unoccupied and occupied parking spaces as reported by computer systems at the airport.

[0013] As described below, a user may communicate with the controller 102 via a mobile device 128, such as a mobile phone, tablet computer, or wearable computer. The functions attributed to the mobile device 128 may also be performed by a desktop or laptop computer or other computing device. In some embodiments, the interface of the mobile device 128 with the controller 102 may be performed directly or via the server system 116 or another intermediary computing device.

[0014] Fig. is a block diagram illustrating an example computing device 200. Computing device 200 may be used to perform various methods, such as those described herein. Controller 102, server system 116, and mobile device 128 may have some or all of the attributes of computing device 200.

[0015] Computing device 200 includes one or more processors 202, one or more memory devices 204, one or more interfaces 206, one or more mass storage devices 208, one or more input / output (I / O) devices 210, and a display device 230, all coupled to a bus 212. The at least one processor 202 includes one or more processors or controllers that execute instructions stored in memory devices 204 and / or mass storage devices 208. The at least one processor 202 may also include various types of computer-readable media, such as cache memory.

[0016] Storage devices 204 include various computer-readable media, such as volatile memory (e.g., RAM 214) and / or non-volatile memory (e.g., read-only memory (ROM) 216). Storage devices 204 may also include rewritable ROM, such as flash memory.

[0017] Mass storage devices 208 include various computer-readable media, such as magnetic tapes, magnetic disks, optical disks, solid-state memory (e.g., flash memory), etc. As in Fig. As shown, a particular mass storage device is a hard disk 224. Various drives may also be included in mass storage devices 208 to enable reading and / or writing to the various computer-readable media. Mass storage devices 208 include removable media 226 and / or non-removable media.

[0018] I / O device(s) 210 include various devices that can be used to input or retrieve data and / or other information into computing device 200. Examples of I / O devices 210 include cursor control devices, keyboards, keypads, microphones, monitors or other display devices, speakers, printers, network interface cards, modems, lenses, CCDs or other image capture devices, and the like.

[0019] Display device 230 includes any type of device that can display information to one or more users of computing device 200. Examples of display device 230 include a monitor, a display terminal, a video projection device, and the like.

[0020] The at least one interface 206 includes various interfaces that enable the computing device 200 to interact with other systems, devices, or computing environments. The example interfaces 206 include any number of different network interfaces 220, such as interfaces to local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), wireless networks, and the Internet. Other interfaces include the user interface 218 and the peripheral device interface 222. The interface(s) 206 may also include one or more peripheral interfaces, such as interfaces for printers, pointing devices (mice, trackpad, etc.), keyboards, etc.

[0021] Bus 212 enables processor(s) 202, memory device(s) 204, interface(s) 206, mass storage device(s) 208, I / O device(s) 210, and display device 230 to communicate with each other and with other devices or components coupled to bus 212. Bus 212 represents one or more types of bus structures, such as system bus, PCI bus, IEEE 1394 bus, USB bus, etc.

[0022] For illustrative purposes, programs and other executable program components are depicted herein as individual blocks, although it is contemplated that such programs and components may be located in various memory components of computing device 200 at various times, and are executed by at least one processor 202. Alternatively, the systems and methods described herein may be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) may be programmed to execute one or more of the systems and methods described herein.

[0023] With reference to Fig. The illustrated method 300 may be executed by the controller 102 of a vehicle to drop off a passenger at an airport. Accordingly, the method 300 may be preceded by the vehicle navigating to a pickup location, e.g., the passenger's residence, and then navigating to the airport. The method 300 may begin execution before arriving at the airport.

[0024] Method 300 may include synchronizing 302 a passenger's itinerary with the vehicle controller. This step may precede the pickup. For example, when the passenger requests a ride, they may transmit the itinerary via mobile device 128 to server system 116, which then transmits some or all of the trip information to the vehicle. The information provided to the vehicle in step 302 may include, for example, an airport identifier, a terminal of the airline the passenger is traveling with, the passenger's pickup location, a flight departure time, a desired pickup time, or the like.

[0025] The itinerary may be retrieved via an electronic representation of a boarding pass, the passenger calendar, or another information source. In some embodiments, the itinerary is augmented with behavioral data. In particular, information for past trips to the airport may be stored. For example, the airport arrival and departure times, the terminal the passenger arrived at or departed from, the location where the passenger deplaned from the airport, etc. may be stored. In such embodiments, this behavioral data, in combination with the itinerary, may be used to select a pickup location, for example, by traveling to a pickup location selected by the passenger in the past when traveling on the same airline as the current one. Method 300 may include obtaining 304 an airport map.For example, the server system 116 may transmit the map 126a for the airport referenced in the itinerary to the controller 102.

[0026] Controller 102 may then cause the vehicle to proceed to the airport via pickup location 306. Upon arrival at the airport, controller 102 may then identify an unoccupied parking space. For example, controller 102 may conduct vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication with one or more other vehicles at step 308.

[0027] For example, as in Fig. As shown, vehicle 400 can communicate with one or more vehicles 402 in a parking space of the terminal referenced in the travel route. For example, vehicles 402 can report their locations to vehicle 400. Controller 102 can then evaluate these reported locations with respect to the map data. Parking spaces 404 indicated in the map data that do not correspond to the locations of vehicles 402 can be determined as candidate parking spaces.

[0028] In other embodiments, step 308 may include receiving a location of an unoccupied parking space from an infrastructure computer system 406, e.g., vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication. For example, the computer system 406 may be coupled to one or more cameras 408 that have the terminal's parking space in their fields of view. The infrastructure computer system 406 may analyze these images and identify an unoccupied parking space 404, e.g., a parking space where the surface of the parking space is visible and no vehicle is present. Alternatively, ultrasonic sensors, inductive sensors, or other sensors may be mounted in or near parking spaces and provide the infrastructure computer system 406 with an output indicating whether or not a vehicle is near the sensor.

[0029] Method 300 may then autonomously include method 310 to the parking space identified in step 308. This may include autonomously performing a parallel parking maneuver or another parking maneuver known in the art. Step 310 may include detecting obstacles and performing collision avoidance with respect to detected obstacles.

[0030] After the passenger leaves the vehicle, the vehicle can drive to the next pickup location, which can be at the airport or elsewhere. If the vehicle is personally owned by the passenger, the vehicle can drive to a long-term parking lot and park autonomously, e.g., using the map data from step 304. Alternatively, the vehicle can return to the passenger's residence.

[0031] With reference to Fig. The illustrated method 500 may be performed by the air traffic controller 102 when picking up a passenger at the airport. The method 500 may include synchronizing 502 with the server system 116 or the passenger's mobile device 128 to obtain an itinerary, e.g., in the same manner as for step 302 of the method 300. Likewise, the method 500 may include obtaining 504 a map of the airport referenced in the itinerary in the same manner as step 304 of the method 300.

[0032] The method 500 may include assessing 506 whether the passenger has checked baggage for retrieval. This may include transmitting a query to the passenger's mobile device 128 and receiving a response indicating whether or not the passenger has checked baggage. In other embodiments, the itinerary information obtained in step 502 indicates whether or not the passenger has checked baggage. If the passenger 506 is found to have checked baggage, the method 500 may include allocating 508 time for baggage retrieval. For example, if the flight arrives at TA, the vehicle's arrival time may be set to TA + TL, where TL is an estimated time for the passenger to retrieve baggage. The vehicle's departure time to begin a journey to the airport may then be selected as TA + TL - TR, where TR is an estimate of the transit time from the vehicle's current location.

[0033] Method 500 may further include identifying a parking space at the terminal to which the route refers and autonomously parking in the parking space. This may include performing steps 510-512 in the same manner as steps 308-310 of method 300.

[0034] The method 500 may further include assessing 514 whether a post-parking wait time has been exceeded in step 512 without the passenger boarding the vehicle. If so, the method 500 may include the vehicle autonomously circling 516 around the airport. The circuit may be determined from the map data from step 504. After completing the loop and re-approaching the terminal referenced in the route, processing may continue in step 510. If the passenger 514 is found before the post-parking wait time expires, the method 500 may autonomously route to the passenger's drop-off location, e.g., residence. The drop-off location may be included in the route of steps 502 or received after boarding the vehicle.

[0035] In other embodiments, steps 514, 516 may be omitted, and the vehicle may wait in a waiting area, e.g., a "cell phone lot." The vehicle controller 102 may receive a passenger's location from the mobile device 128 and only proceed to the terminal if the passenger's location is within a certain threshold of a vehicle-accessible area, e.g., a terminal loading zone. The location of the vehicle-accessible areas may be indicated in the map data received in step 504 or determined from previous airport pickup locations for the passenger.

[0036] With reference to Fig. A passenger may be provided with a description of the vehicle to help the passenger locate the vehicle at the airport. However, one or more additional techniques may be performed to help the customer arrive at the vehicle. For example, controller 102 may transmit a Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinate of the vehicle to mobile device 128, which then provides directions to that coordinate.

[0037] In some embodiments, an augmented reality interface may additionally or alternatively be provided according to method 600 to enable the passenger to identify the vehicle. Method 600 may be executed by mobile device 128, e.g., by one or more processing devices of mobile device 128 executing an application.

[0038] The method 600 may include receiving 602 the position and orientation of the mobile device 128, e.g., from one or more accelerometers and a GPS receiver of the mobile device 128. The method 600 may further include receiving 604 the location of the parked vehicle, e.g., the GPS coordinate of the parked vehicle.

[0039] The method 600 may also include receiving an image 606 from a camera of the mobile device 128. For example, the passenger may hold up the mobile device 128 with a parking space within the field of view of the parking device 128 and the screen of the mobile device 128 visible to the passenger.

[0040] Method 600 may also highlight the display of the image on the screen of mobile device 128 with vehicle 608 in some way (outlined in a color, overlaid with a visible icon, brightened or darkened relative to its surroundings, etc.). In particular, the position and orientation of the camera and the position of the vehicle may be used to identify the portion of the image corresponding to the vehicle. In particular, highlighting may be performed using any method known in the art of augmented reality (AR).

[0041] With reference to Fig. The illustrated method 700 may be performed by the air traffic controller 102 either when picking up a passenger to deplane at the airport or when picking up a passenger at the airport. The method 700 may include obtaining 702 baggage information for the passenger. For example, the passenger may input this information into an application executing on the mobile device 128, which then forwards this information to the controller 102. The baggage information may include a volume of the baggage and / or dimensions of the baggage, e.g., a height, width, and depth of a bounding box for the baggage.

[0042] Method 700 may include allocating 704 space for the luggage and the passenger in the vehicle. This may include, for example, reducing the number of available seats by the number of passengers to be picked up and reducing the vehicle's cargo volume by the luggage volume.

[0043] Method 700 may then include the assessment 706 of whether the remaining seats and cargo volume are sufficient for an additional passenger. For example, a requester may submit a number of passengers and baggage information. If the number of passengers is less than or equal to the number of seats and the baggage information has a smaller volume than the remaining cargo volume, this passenger 708 may be added to the vehicle's route, i.e., this passenger will also be picked up at the airport where method 700 is executed as part of method 300, or also picked up at the airport if method 700 is executed as part of method 500.

[0044] In some embodiments, both the available volume and dimensions of the already added baggage and the dimensions of the requester's baggage may be evaluated to determine if there is a storage arrangement that accommodates the already added baggage and the requester's baggage to be placed in the storage area.

[0045] The method 700 may be repeated until step 706 is encountered to indicate that no other passengers can be added. Once the method 700 is completed, the passengers may be added in a step 708, as described above, with respect to the Fig. be dropped off or picked up at the airport.

[0046] In the foregoing disclosure, reference has been made to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate specific implementations in which the disclosure may be practiced. It is contemplated that other implementations may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. References in the specification to "one embodiment," "an embodiment," "an example embodiment," etc., indicate that the described embodiment may include a particular feature, structure, or feature, but every embodiment does not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or feature. Furthermore, such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment.Further, when a particular feature, structure, or feature is described in connection with one embodiment, it is asserted that it is within the skill of one of ordinary skill in the art to use such feature, structure, or feature in connection with other embodiments, whether or not expressly described. Implementations of the systems, devices, and methods disclosed herein may include or utilize a dedicated or general purpose computer including computer hardware, such as one or more processors and system memory, as explained herein. Implementations within the scope of this disclosure may also include physical and other computer-readable media for carrying or storing computer-executable instructions and / or data structures. Such computer-readable media may be any available media accessible by a general purpose or special purpose computer system.Computer-readable media on which computer-executable instructions are stored are computer storage media (devices). Computer-readable media carrying computer-executable instructions are transmission media. For example, and not as a limitation, implementations of the disclosure may include at least two different types of computer-readable media: computer storage media (devices) and transmission media. Computer storage media (devices) include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM, solid-state drives ("SSDs") (e.g., based on RAM), flash memory, phase-change memory ("PCM"), other types of memory, other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage, or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium capable of storing the desired program code in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures and accessible by a general-purpose or computer.

[0047] An implementation of the devices, systems, and methods described herein may communicate over a computer network. A "network" is defined as one or more data connections that enable the transport of electronic data between computer systems and / or modules and / or other electronic devices. When information is transmitted or delivered to a computer over a network or other communications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or a combination of hardwired and wireless), the computer properly indicates the connection as a transmission medium. Transmission media may include a network and / or data connections that enable the transmission of desired program code in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a general-purpose or computer.Combinations of the above means should also be considered within the scope of computer-readable media. Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions and data that, when executed on a processor, cause a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or a special-purpose processing device to perform a particular function or set of functions. The computer's executable instructions may be, for example, binary files, intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, or even source code. Although the subject matter has been described in a structure-specific language and / or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the described features or acts. Rather, the described features and acts are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

[0048] Those skilled in the art will understand that the disclosure may be practiced in network computing environments having many types of computer system configurations, including a vehicle computer, personal computers, desktop computers, laptops, message processors, handheld devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframes, cellular phones, PDAs, tablets, pagers, routers, switches, various storage devices, and the like. The disclosure may also be practiced in distributed systems environments having local and remote computer systems interconnected over a network (either through hard-wired data links, wireless data links, or through a combination of hard-wired and wireless data links). In a distributed systems environment, program modules may be located on both local and remote storage devices.

[0049] In addition, where appropriate, the functions described herein may be performed in one or more of: hardware, software, firmware, digital components, or analog components. For example, one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) may be programmed to perform one or more of the systems and methods described herein. Certain terms are used throughout the specification, and claims refer to specific system components. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, components may be referred to by different names. This document does not intend to distinguish between components that differ in name but not in function.

[0050] It should be noted that the sensor embodiments described above may include computer hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof to perform at least some of their functions. For example, a sensor may include computer code configured to execute on one or more processors and may include hardware logic / electrical circuitry controlled by the computer code. These example devices are provided herein for illustrative purposes and are not intended to be limiting. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in other types of devices, as would be known to those skilled in the relevant art(s).

[0051] At least some embodiments of the disclosure have been directed to computer program products including such logic (e.g., in the form of software) stored on any computer-usable medium. When such software is executed in one or more computing devices, a device functions as described herein.

Claims

[1] Method in which a control unit of an autonomous vehicle comprises: Receiving an instruction to go to an airport, wherein receiving the instruction to go to the airport comprises: Receiving an itinerary from a passenger’s mobile device; receiving an airport map from a server system; identifying a terminal according to the itinerary; Receiving an instruction to pick up the passenger at the airport; Receiving an indication that the passenger has checked baggage; Determining an arrival time from the itinerary; and Adding a time adjustment to the arrival time in response to receiving the indication that the passenger has checked baggage in order to obtain a pickup time; Causing the autonomous vehicle to drive to the airport; Maintaining an unoccupied parking space at the airport; and autonomous parking of the autonomous vehicle in the unoccupied parking space, wherein causing the autonomous vehicle to travel to the airport comprises causing the autonomous vehicle to travel to the terminal, and wherein causing the autonomous vehicle to travel to the airport comprises causing the autonomous vehicle to travel to the airport to arrive at the pickup time. [2] The method of claim 1, wherein the indication that the passenger has checked baggage comprises a volume of the checked baggage, the method further comprising: determining an available volume of the autonomous vehicle corresponding to the volume of the checked baggage. [3] The method of claim 2, further comprising determining that the available volume is sufficient for an additional passenger; in response to determining that the available volume is sufficient for the additional passenger, causing the autonomous vehicle to travel to a location of the additional passenger. [4] The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining a location of the unoccupied parking space comprises: Receiving one or more notifications about one or more vehicles at the airport, the notifications containing locations of one or more vehicles; and Identify the unoccupied parking space using airport map data and the locations of one or more vehicles. [5] The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining a location of the unoccupied parking space comprises: to obtain the location of the unoccupied parking space from an infrastructure system at the airport. [6] The method of claim 5, further comprising: Receipt by the infrastructure system of one or more images from one or more cameras with a parking space in their field of view; and Identification of the unoccupied parking space in one or more images by the infrastructure system. [7] The method according to claim 1 further comprises: Evaluation of the time elapsed since arrival at the unoccupied parking space; Determining that the elapsed time exceeds a threshold time; and in response to determining that the elapsed time exceeds the threshold time by driving the autonomous vehicle autonomously around a loop at the airport. [8] The method according to claim 1 further comprises: Receiving, by the processing device of the mobile device, a location and an orientation of the mobile device; Receiving a location of the autonomous vehicle by the processing device; Receiving an image from a camera of the mobile device by the processing device; Identification by the processing device of a part of the image corresponding to the autonomous vehicle according to the position and orientation of the mobile device and the location of the autonomous vehicle; and Displaying the image on a screen of the mobile device by the processing device, highlighting the part of the image. [9] A system that includes: an autonomous vehicle a control unit located in the autonomous vehicle, the control unit being programmed to: to receive an instruction to go to an airport, comprising: Receiving an itinerary from a passenger’s mobile device; Receiving an airport map from a server system; Identifying a terminal according to the itinerary; Causing the autonomous vehicle to drive to the terminal; Receiving an instruction to pick up a passenger at the airport; receive an indication that the passenger has checked baggage; Determining an arrival time from the itinerary; Causing the autonomous vehicle to drive to the airport, comprising: Adding a time adjustment to the arrival time in response to receiving the indication that the passenger has checked baggage in order to obtain a pickup time; and Causing the autonomous vehicle to drive to the airport to arrive at the pickup time; Receiving a position of a free parking space at the airport; and to park the autonomous vehicle autonomously in the free parking space. [10] The system of claim 9, wherein the indication that the passenger has checked baggage includes a volume of the checked baggage; wherein the controller is further programmed to calculate an available volume of the autonomous vehicle corresponding to the volume of the checked baggage. [11] The system of claim 10, further comprising, when the available volume is sufficient for an additional passenger, causing the autonomous vehicle to travel to a location of the additional passenger. [12] The system of claim 9, wherein the control unit is further programmed to: to receive one or more reports about one or more vehicles at the airport, wherein the notifications include locations of one or more vehicles; and identifying the unoccupied parking space using the map data for the airport and the locations of the one or more vehicles. [13] The system of claim 9, wherein the control unit is further programmed to obtain the location of the unoccupied parking space from an infrastructure system at the airport. [14] The system of claim 13, further comprising the infrastructure system programmed to: to receive one or more images from one or more cameras that have a parking area in their field of view; and to identify the unoccupied parking space in one or more images. [15] The system of claim 9, wherein the controller is further programmed to: to evaluate the time elapsed since arrival at the unoccupied parking space; If the elapsed time exceeds a threshold time, the autonomous vehicle will drive autonomously around a loop at the airport. [16] The system of claim 9, further comprising a mobile device, the mobile device comprising a processing device programmed to: receive a location and orientation of the mobile device; to receive a location of the autonomous vehicle; receive an image from a camera of the mobile device; a part of the image corresponding to the autonomous vehicle, according to the position and Orientation of the mobile device and the location of the autonomous vehicle, and Displaying the image on a mobile device screen with that part of the image highlighted.

Images