Autonomous Vehicle Reachability Visualization
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face challenges in communicating reachability status to users due to factors like road congestion, parking regulations, and weather conditions, leading to confusion and delays.
Innovation Solution
A method involving processors associated with autonomous vehicles that receive trip information, determine pickup or drop-off locations, assess uncertainty based on various factors, and transmit visualization information to user devices, indicating a pickup or drop-off zone and uncertainty levels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the autonomous vehicle provides a single fixed pickup or drop-off location, then the user interface is simple, but the user experience deteriorates due to confusion when the actual location differs from the planned location
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the pickup/drop-off location into multiple possible locations within a defined zone rather than providing a single fixed point. The user interface displays multiple candidate locations with their associated uncertainties, allowing users to understand the range of possible locations before the trip occurs. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by maintaining interface simplicity while improving reliability through transparent communication of location variability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback to users about the uncertainty and variability of pickup/drop-off locations through the user interface. By displaying reachability information that includes uncertainty metrics and multiple possible locations, the system gives users advance knowledge about what to expect, reducing confusion when the actual location differs from the planned location and improving overall user experience reliability.
2Reliability
If the autonomous vehicle communicates detailed reachability information with uncertainty metrics, then user expectations are managed better, but the information processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by providing uncertainty metrics and reachability information specifically at the location display elements where users need to understand pickup/drop-off variability. Rather than overwhelming users with comprehensive uncertainty data throughout the entire interface, the system localizes detailed uncertainty information to specific visual indicators and annotations near the displayed locations, improving expectation management while controlling processing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses visual encoding through color changes and visual variations to represent different uncertainty levels and reachability characteristics. By translating complex uncertainty metrics into intuitive visual cues such as color intensity, shading, or graphical annotations, the system enables users to quickly grasp reachability information without processing complex numerical data, thus managing user expectations while minimizing information processing complexity.
3Loss of information
If the autonomous vehicle provides real-time location updates, then user confusion is reduced, but the communication bandwidth and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by providing reachability information and uncertainty metrics to users before the trip occurs. By displaying multiple possible pickup/drop-off locations and their associated uncertainties in advance, the system reduces user confusion about location variability without requiring continuous real-time updates during the trip. This preliminary communication of critical location information achieves confusion reduction while minimizing ongoing communication energy consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
The technology involves communicating the reachability status associated with an autonomous vehicle to a user such as a rider within the vehicle, a person awaiting pickup, or a customer that scheduled a package deliver. Reachability information about pickup and/or drop off locations is presentable via an app on a user device, which helps set expectations with customers about where the vehicle is most likely to be able to perform a pickup and/or drop off. This may include indicating how much variance there may be based on current congestion, parking or idling regulations, or weather conditions. The reachability information may be presented via one or more visualization tools to indicate the uncertainty and/or likely final location. Presenting such contextual information may be done based on real time information, and the presentation may be updated as needed. Historical information about the location may also be used to lower the level of uncertainty.