Autonomous Vehicle Fleet Configuration and Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional autonomous vehicles are sub-optimally designed, inefficient in resource utilization, and poorly suited for managing inventory and rebalancing transportation services, with limitations in detecting and navigating social interactions, such as pedestrian and cyclist safety, and require human intervention for complex scenarios.
Innovation Solution
A fleet of bidirectional autonomous vehicles with advanced sensors and communication systems, including active lighting for safety, are networked to an autonomous vehicle service platform, enabling real-time trajectory calculations and teleoperation for safe navigation, and optimized fleet management to address inventory and demand imbalances.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If conventional autonomous vehicles are designed with manual steering and driver seats, then they can accommodate licensed drivers and provide safety-critical functions, but they are sub-optimally designed and require human intervention for complex scenarios
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the steering wheel and driver seat from the vehicle interior, extracting the human driver component entirely. The vehicle is designed as a purpose-built autonomous platform without manual driving controls, eliminating the need for driver accommodation and reducing design complexity while maximizing automation extent.
Solution Approach 2:
The autonomous vehicle is designed as a multi-functional platform that can serve various transportation purposes without requiring human intervention. The vehicle incorporates sensors, processors, and communication systems that enable it to perform navigation, obstacle detection, and decision-making functions universally across different driving scenarios.
2Productivity
If conventional autonomous vehicles are designed with driver seats and manual controls, then they can provide safety-critical driving functions, but they are inefficient in resource utilization and poorly suited for managing inventory
Solution Approach 1:
The autonomous vehicle manages its own operations including navigation, monitoring, and maintenance without human intervention. The vehicle incorporates self-diagnostic systems and automated maintenance protocols, eliminating the need for driver-related resources and improving overall productivity while reducing resource consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The vehicle design allows for dynamic configuration and optimization of resources based on operational needs. The autonomous platform can adapt its sensor arrays, communication protocols, and processing capabilities to maximize transportation service efficiency while minimizing resource utilization.
3Reliability
If conventional autonomous vehicles lack advanced sensors and communication systems, then they have simpler design, but they cannot detect and navigate social interactions such as pedestrian and cyclist safety
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates multiple sensor types including cameras, LIDAR, radar, and ultrasonic sensors into a unified sensing system. These diverse sensors are merged with communication systems and processing units to create a comprehensive safety network that detects pedestrians, cyclists, and other road users, achieving high reliability through sensor fusion.
Solution Approach 2:
The vehicle incorporates communication systems that act as intermediaries between the autonomous vehicle and other road users. These systems enable the vehicle to detect and navigate social interactions by receiving and transmitting signals about pedestrian and cyclist presence, enhancing safety through mediated communication.
4Extent of automation
If conventional autonomous vehicles require human intervention for complex scenarios, then they have lower automation extent, but they can handle edge cases with human judgment
Solution Approach 1:
The autonomous vehicle is equipped with advanced sensors and communication systems that enable it to detect and anticipate complex scenarios before they require human intervention. The system performs preliminary analysis of road conditions, pedestrian behavior, and cyclist movements, allowing the vehicle to handle edge cases autonomously through pre-programmed decision-making algorithms.
Data Source
AI summary
Various embodiments relate generally to autonomous vehicles and associated mechanical, electrical and electronic hardware, computer software and systems, and wired and wireless network communications to provide an autonomous vehicle fleet as a service. In particular, a method may include identifying a location of a user device associated with a user, transmitting a command to an autonomous vehicle system associated with an autonomous vehicle service to transit to the location, and providing information associated with the user device to the autonomous vehicle system, where the information includes configuration data to adapt one or more sub-systems of the autonomous vehicle. Sub-systems of the autonomous vehicle may include interior lighting, ambient sound, road handling, seating configuration, communication synchronization, and temperature control systems.