Waymo LLC

Cameron Blume

Eric Friedman

Gaurav Agarwal

Matthew Corey Hall

Mishika Vora

Saksiri Tanphaichitr

Donghyun Kim

Samrat Kansara

Ben Qingzhou Wang

Pawel Fedorynski

Jia-Yu Aw

Aspects of the technology provide a method including receiving a request for a user to be picked up or dropped off by an autonomous vehicle, in which the request identifying a location, and determining a land parcel containing the identified location. The method also includes identifying a set of features that are within a selected distance from the identified location, filtering the set of identified features to obtain only curated features that are within the selected distance from the identified location, determining a distance between each curated feature and the identified location, and inferring an access point for the identified location based on the distances determined between each curated feature and the identified location. The inferred access point can then be provided to enable the autonomous vehicle to perform a pickup or drop-off.

Inferring pickup or drop-off locations using curated data

The technology relates to a seamless interface between an autonomous vehicle service provider and one or more ridesharing, ride-hailing or delivery partner companies, in order to provide timely, efficient rider or delivery services and support. A partner trip application programming interface (API) provides robust features to the ridesharing or ride-hailing partner companies and also supports delivery of meals, groceries, packages or other cargo. For instance, the API may be employed with delivery partners (e.g., food, package or bulk cargo delivery), and/or for concierge services (e.g., a hotel or medical provider or an e-commerce specialist that coordinates deliveries). The technology supports both ad hoc and scheduled trips. Agents for different partners may schedule trips to or from specific stores or other (geofenced) locations, and observe and manage trips for an entire enterprise. Permissions can be tailored for each agent.

Dispatch and local delivery interface for autonomous vehicles

An example method includes setting an initial pickup location. The method includes causing an autonomous vehicle to navigate towards the initial pickup location. The method includes periodically generating a plurality of candidate updated pickup locations. The method includes selecting a suggested pickup location from the plurality of candidate pickup locations that achieves a benchmark for reducing one or more of a time and a distance associated with the initial pickup location for one or more of the autonomous vehicle and the client device. The method includes determining that the suggested pickup location satisfies a set of pre-update checks for limiting a number of pickup location updates. The method includes responsive to (i) selecting the suggested pickup location, and (ii) determining that the suggested pickup location satisfies the set of pre-update checks, causing the autonomous vehicle to navigate to the suggested pickup location.

Systems and methods for updating pickup and dropoff locations for a vehicle

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Cameron Blume