External Sensor Coordination for Vehicle Hazard Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles face limitations in detecting potential safety hazards due to obstructed views, electromagnetic interference, and software errors, leading to accidents such as the Tesla crash, where objects like bicycles or trucks may not be detected until it's too late.
Innovation Solution
The integration of external sensors, such as cameras installed on buildings or traffic lights, which provide additional data to the vehicle's AI system to enhance its awareness of the environment, using video analytic algorithms and domain-specific rules to identify obstacles and predict potential collisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If external sensors are integrated to enhance environmental awareness, then detection capability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs external sensors positioned on infrastructure elements (buildings, traffic lights, poles) as intermediaries to detect environmental hazards. These external sensors act as mediators between the vehicle's AI system and the surrounding environment, providing detection capabilities without requiring all sensors to be mounted on the vehicle itself. This resolves the contradiction by distributing sensing functions externally while maintaining integrated processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from a single-vehicle sensor platform to a multi-dimensional sensing network involving infrastructure-mounted sensors, mobile devices, and cloud processing. By adding spatial and architectural dimensions to the sensing system, the patent enhances detection capability without proportionally increasing the complexity of any single device, as the complexity is distributed across the network.
2Reliability
If more sensors are deployed to overcome obstructed views, then safety hazard detection is improved, but cost and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes existing infrastructure elements (buildings, traffic lights, poles) serve multiple functions: they continue their primary purposes while simultaneously hosting sensors for vehicle safety detection. This multi-functionality approach improves safety hazard detection reliability without adding dedicated sensor structures, thereby avoiding proportional increases in system complexity and cost.
Solution Approach 2:
The system leverages existing infrastructure that is already present in the environment to provide additional safety functions. Rather than requiring the vehicle to carry all necessary sensing equipment, the infrastructure 'self-services' by providing detection capabilities as a byproduct of its existing presence, reducing the burden on the vehicle system.
3Loss of time
If external sensors are used to predict potential collisions, then response time is improved, but data processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
External sensors positioned on infrastructure continuously monitor the environment and detect potential hazards before they become immediate threats to the vehicle. By performing detection actions in advance and maintaining a ready state, the system reduces response time without requiring complex real-time processing of all sensor data only when needed, as the preliminary detection work is already done by the distributed sensor network.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback loops where external sensors provide real-time environmental data to the vehicle's AI system, which then adjusts vehicle operation accordingly. This feedback mechanism enables timely responses to detected hazards while processing only relevant data streams that are continuously updated, rather than requiring complex batch processing of all possible sensor inputs.
Data Source
AI summary
In embodiments, sensors from an environment in which a mobile device is moving may be used to provide extra input to allow for improved risk analysis and detection in the environment. To prevent unwanted surveillance, proximity to the environment's sensors may be required. It will be appreciated a coordinator in the environment may assist with handling multiple sensor data provided to the mobile device, and may also assist with identifying risk. The environment may also act as a data feed allowing the mobile device to simply receive additional sensor data and perform its analysis and operation.