Emergency Vehicle Routing Guidance for Autonomous Path Clearance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles often obstruct emergency response vehicles, leading to delayed responses and potential accidents, as existing systems lack effective methods for automatic operation based on emergency vehicle warnings.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and system that receives emergency vehicle data and autonomous vehicle data to generate route adjustments and operation commands, enabling autonomous vehicles to automatically clear paths for emergency vehicles by re-routing or providing alerts to human drivers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If autonomous vehicles operate independently without emergency vehicle awareness, then autonomous vehicle operation is simple and independent, but emergency response time is delayed and collision risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a central server as an intermediary that receives emergency vehicle location data from emergency vehicles and autonomous vehicle location data from autonomous vehicles. The server processes this data to determine potential collisions and generates guidance data to redirect autonomous vehicles. This intermediary approach allows autonomous vehicles to benefit from emergency awareness without requiring complex direct communication systems in each vehicle, thus improving collision avoidance while managing system complexity centrally.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback loop where the server continuously receives location data from autonomous vehicles, compares it with emergency vehicle locations, and sends guidance commands back to autonomous vehicles that may be obstructing emergency routes. This closed-loop feedback enables dynamic adjustment of autonomous vehicle paths based on real-time emergency conditions, improving safety while maintaining relatively simple vehicle-side hardware.
2Productivity
If autonomous vehicles maintain current routes without emergency awareness, then autonomous vehicle routing is simple and direct, but emergency response speed is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex routing decision-making process from the autonomous vehicle itself and relocates it to a central server. The server receives location data, determines optimal alternate routes for autonomous vehicles to clear emergency paths, and sends guidance commands back to the vehicles. This extraction allows emergency response speed to improve through coordinated routing while the autonomous vehicle's onboard system remains relatively simple, as it only needs to follow server-provided guidance rather than independently solving complex routing problems.
3Measurement precision
If autonomous vehicles are equipped with advanced emergency detection systems, then collision detection accuracy is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the detection and processing functions of multiple autonomous vehicles with the central server to achieve high detection accuracy. Instead of requiring each autonomous vehicle to have sophisticated emergency detection capabilities, the system combines location data from multiple vehicles and emergency vehicles processed by the server's algorithms. This merging approach achieves high measurement precision through collective data processing while keeping individual vehicle systems relatively simple.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure generally relates to generating emergency vehicle warnings, automatic control of autonomous vehicles based upon the emergency vehicle warnings. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to generating data representative of emergency vehicle warnings and alternate autonomous vehicle routing based upon real-time information related to an emergency vehicle. The information related to the emergency vehicle may include emergency vehicle origination location data, emergency vehicle current location data, emergency vehicle route data, and/or emergency vehicle destination location data. An emergency vehicle warning and/or alternate vehicle routing for autonomous vehicles may be generated based further on information related to an autonomous vehicle. In one aspect, an emergency vehicle may wirelessly communicate with the autonomous vehicle and/or an insurance provider remote server. The insurance provider may adjust auto insurance for insured individuals, having vehicles with the vehicle safety functionality discussed herein, to reflect lower risk and provide insurance savings to customers.