Autonomous Vehicle Behavior Zones for Private Property Pickups
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles lack high-fidelity maps of private properties, such as gated communities, residential areas with long driveways, and businesses with multiple entrances, limiting their ability to provide tailored pick-up and drop-off services.
Innovation Solution
Systems and methods for creating user-specified location-based behavior zones, allowing passengers to select specific pick-up and drop-off locations on private property, with public-facing tools for custom behavior zone creation and a central computing system to determine vehicle behaviors for these zones.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If autonomous vehicles use standard mapping data, then they can operate on public roadways, but they cannot provide tailored pick-up and drop-off services on private property
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by creating behavior zones and storing their characteristics in advance. Property owners or authorized users define specific zones on private property with predetermined behaviors (e.g., stop at driveway, proceed to gatehouse) before autonomous vehicles arrive. This preliminary mapping enables vehicles to access private property locations without real-time negotiation or complex on-site decision-making.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by creating location-specific behavior zones with customized characteristics. Each private property location receives tailored behavior definitions (e.g., different stop points, speed limits, or navigation instructions) rather than applying uniform autonomous vehicle behavior across all locations. This allows the system to adapt to the unique requirements of each private property while maintaining overall system consistency.
2Productivity
If autonomous vehicles are restricted from private property, then mapping complexity remains low, but service coverage and passenger experience deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service by allowing property owners or authorized users to independently define and configure behavior zones for their own properties. Through user interfaces, these stakeholders can mark zones on maps, select desired vehicle behaviors, and store configurations without requiring autonomous vehicle operators or system administrators to manually program each location. This self-service approach expands service coverage while minimizing the operational complexity burden on the autonomous vehicle fleet.
3Ease of operation
If custom behavior zones are created for every private property, then tailored passenger experience improves, but system complexity and configuration time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by implementing behavior zones only where explicitly requested and configured by property owners or users, rather than attempting to pre-map all possible private property locations. This selective approach allows the system to provide customized services at specific high-value locations without the prohibitive time and resource cost of comprehensive pre-mapping of all private properties.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for creation of custom behavior zones for autonomous vehicles, providing a more tailored experience for passengers as well as businesses. Custom behavior zones allow passengers to request or select a specific pick-up/drop-off location on private property. In some examples, custom behavior zones are created in private gated communities, on residential properties with long driveways, on government property, and at businesses that have multiple entrances and/or offer different services at various locations on the business property.