Autonomous Vehicle Emergency Escape Mode Override
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Solution Overview
Problem
Vehicles with autonomous features are vulnerable to theft and bodily harm due to their programming to avoid contact with pedestrians at all costs, making occupants trapped in situations like carjacking.
Innovation Solution
An emergency escape mode is implemented in autonomous vehicles, allowing occupants to override collision avoidance systems, determine a path of least resistance, and direct the vehicle to escape safely by deactivating safety systems and using sensors and displays to navigate through pedestrians, while also alerting authorities and recording evidence.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If the collision avoidance system is activated to prevent contact with pedestrians, then pedestrian safety is improved, but the vehicle becomes vulnerable to trapping in criminal situations like carjacking
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically switches between two operational modes: normal autonomous mode with full collision avoidance activation, and emergency escape mode with collision avoidance deactivated. This dynamic reconfiguration allows the vehicle to adapt its safety behavior based on the situation, resolving the contradiction between protecting pedestrians and protecting occupants in criminal scenarios
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational parameter of the collision avoidance system from 'activated' to 'deactivated' when emergency escape mode is triggered. This parameter change enables the vehicle to transition from a state of high pedestrian protection to a state of escape capability, addressing the contradiction by allowing different parameter states for different operational contexts
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the vehicle is programmed to avoid contact with pedestrians at all costs, then pedestrian protection is improved, but the vehicle loses the ability to escape from dangerous situations
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs dynamic mode switching between normal autonomous operation with pedestrian protection and emergency escape operation with pedestrian protection suspended. This dynamic adaptability allows the vehicle to maintain pedestrian protection during normal operation while gaining escape capability when criminal activity is detected or initiated
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-programming the emergency escape protocol and pre-positioning the collision avoidance system to be rapidly deactivatable. When emergency mode is triggered, the system has already prepared the escape pathway and can immediately switch to escape operations without delay, ensuring both pedestrian protection during normal use and escape capability when needed
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of the present invention provide an autonomous vehicle with an emergency escape mode. When fleeing a scene is critical, embodiments provide an AV that can operate in an emergency escape mode (EEM) to enable the AV to flee a scene, protecting its occupants. Typically, a passenger or operator invokes EEM in an AV when they are in imminent danger from criminal activity such as carjacking. A least resistance route can be computed to determine an escape route that provides for reduced chance of injury and/or increased probability of a successful escape.