Autonomous Vehicle Road-Segment Data Sharing for Safe Mode Switching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face challenges in safe operation due to impaired functionality in unusual environmental conditions and sensor damage, requiring effective communication and coordination systems to ensure safe navigation and risk assessment.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method for presenting vehicle data on road segments, allowing autonomous vehicles to communicate with each other and smart infrastructure to share information on road conditions, maneuvers, and hazards, enabling coordinated actions and mode switching between manual and autonomous operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If autonomous vehicles operate in unusual environmental conditions, then vehicle operation continues, but safety is compromised due to impaired functionality
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary assessment of environmental conditions and vehicle functionality before autonomous operation. The server evaluates whether current conditions are suitable for autonomous mode and proactively recommends mode switches before safety issues arise, preventing operation under compromised conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors environmental conditions and vehicle sensor status, providing real-time feedback to the operational mode. When unusual conditions are detected that may impair functionality, the system feeds this information back to recommend switching from autonomous to manual mode, ensuring safety while maintaining operational continuity.
2Measurement precision
If autonomous vehicles use advanced sensors to detect environmental conditions, then measurement precision improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The server acts as an intermediary that receives complex sensor data from multiple vehicle sensors, processes this information centrally, and translates it into simple operational recommendations. This mediator approach allows high measurement precision from advanced sensors while keeping the vehicle's control system relatively simple by offloading complex processing to the server.
Solution Approach 2:
The server provides multi-functional processing of sensor data, handling environmental condition assessment, safety evaluation, mode recommendation, and communication with vehicles. This universal platform approach consolidates multiple functions into a single system, reducing overall complexity while maintaining high measurement precision through centralized processing.
3Reliability
If autonomous vehicles communicate with smart infrastructure, then coordination and safety improve, but loss of time in data transmission occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary assessments and generates mode recommendations in advance based on current conditions, so that when communication with infrastructure is needed, the decision framework is already prepared. This reduces the time required for real-time coordination while maintaining safety through pre-computed assessments.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for communicating between autonomous vehicles are described herein. Such communication may be performed for signaling, collision avoidance, path coordination, and/or autonomous control. A computing device may receive data for the same road segment from autonomous vehicles, including (i) an indication of a location within the road segment, and (ii) an indication of a condition of the road segment. The computing device may generate, from the data for the same road segment, an overall indication of the condition of the road segment, which may include a recommendation to vehicles approaching the road segment. Additionally, the computing device may receive a request from a computing device within a vehicle approaching the road segment to display vehicle data. The overall indication for the road segment may then be displayed on a user interface of the computing device.