Autonomous Vehicle Routing via Intermediary Stops for Off-Network Destinations
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles are limited in their ability to navigate to destinations that are not on pre-approved roads, as they lack the capability to determine and select alternative routes that include intermediary destinations for safe and efficient transfer to final destinations.
Innovation Solution
The vehicle system receives an input for a final destination, determines if it is on a pre-approved road, and if not, selects a route to an intermediary destination on pre-approved roads, controlling the vehicle to reach this point and then determining a means to complete the journey to the final destination, potentially using graph theory algorithms and user input.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the vehicle operates only on pre-approved roads in autonomous mode, then safety and reliability are improved, but the operational range and adaptability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces intermediary destinations as mediator points between the vehicle's current location and the final destination. These intermediaries are located on pre-approved roads, allowing the vehicle to maintain autonomous operation safety while progressively reaching locations beyond the pre-approved road network. The system breaks down the journey into segments: current location → intermediary (on pre-approved road) → final destination, thus resolving the contradiction between safety constraints and operational range expansion.
2Device complexity
If the vehicle uses a restricted set of pre-approved roads, then system complexity is reduced, but the ability to reach arbitrary destinations deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the journey into multiple stages with intermediary destinations. Instead of requiring the autonomous vehicle system to handle the entire journey to any arbitrary destination, the system divides it into manageable segments: first navigating to an intermediary location on pre-approved roads, then transitioning to non-autonomous modes for the remaining portion. This segmentation reduces the complexity burden on the autonomous system while still enabling reachability of arbitrary destinations.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the vehicle determines routes to intermediary destinations, then the ability to reach off-road destinations is improved, but the computation time and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by computing routes only to intermediary destinations rather than computing complete routes to all possible final destinations. The system performs route determination partially - enough to reach the intermediary point on pre-approved roads, but not necessarily optimizing the entire journey to the final destination. This partial computation reduces processing time and computational requirements while still enabling the vehicle to reach off-road destinations through the intermediary transition point.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle configured to operate in an autonomous mode is provided. The vehicle is configured to obtain an indication of a final destination, and, if the final destination is not on a pre-approved road for travel by the vehicle, the vehicle is configured to determine a route from the vehicle's current location to an intermediary destination. The vehicle is further configured to determine a means for the vehicle user to reach the final destination from the intermediate destination.