Waymo LLC

Google Inc.

Clement Wright

Julien Charles Mercay

Salil Pandit

Maria Moon

Ryan Powell

Kyle Bechtel

Brandon Kyle Bilinski

Kathleen Hsiang Chen

Nirmal Jitendra Patel

Golden Gopal Krishna

Carsten Hinz

Mishika Vora

Saksiri Tanphaichitr

Sarah Fay Smith

Ben Qingzhou Wang

Zhipeng Pan

Stacy Lou Chiou

Simon Edward Roberts

Rosemary Margaret La Prairie

Shadia Walsh

Jonathan Lee Pedersen

Ganesh Balachandran

Kevin Joseph Malta

Lauren Schwendimann

Daniella Gutlansky

Aspects of the disclosure provide a method of facilitating communications from an autonomous vehicle to a user. For instance, a method may include, while attempting to pick up the user and prior to the user entering an vehicle, inputting a current location of the vehicle and map information into a model in order to identify a type of communication action for communicating a location of the vehicle to the user; enabling a first communication based on the type of the communication action; determining whether the user has responded to the first communication from received sensor data; and enabling a second communication based on the determination of whether the user has responded to the communication.

Communications for autonomous vehicles

Visual search in an operating system of a computing device can process and provide additional information on the content being provided for display. The computing device can include an operating system that includes a visual search interface that obtains and processes display data associated with content currently being provided for display. The visual search interface can generate display data based on the current content provided for display, process the display data with one or more on-device machine-learned models, and provide additional information to the user. The visual search interface may transmit data associated with the display data to perform additional data processing tasks. Application suggestions may be determined and provided based on the visual search data.

Visual search interface in an operating system

Application prediction based on a visual search determination

Aspects of the technology relate to assisting a passenger in an autonomous vehicle without a driver. For instance, after a door of the vehicle is opened, a predetermined period of time may be waited by processors of computing devices of the vehicle. After waiting the predetermined period of time and when the vehicle's door remains open, a set of instructions for closing the vehicle's door may be played by the processors through a speaker of the vehicle. Once the door of the vehicle is closed, an announcement may be played by the processors through the speaker requesting that the passenger press a first button to initiate a ride to a destination. In response to the first button being pressed, the ride to the destination may be initiated by the processors by maneuvering the vehicle autonomously to the destination.

Audible passenger announcements for autonomous vehicle services

The technology employs a holistic approach to passenger pickups and other wayfinding situations. This includes identifying where passengers are relative to the vehicle and/or the pickup location. Information synthesis from different sensors, agent behavior prediction models, and real-time situational awareness are employed to identify the likelihood that the passenger to be picked up is at a given location at a particular point in time, with sufficient confidence. The system can provide adaptive navigation by helping passengers understand their distance and direction to the vehicle, for instance using various cues via an app on the person's device. Rider support tools may be provided, which enable a remote agent to interact with a customer via that person's device, such as using the camera on the device to provide wayfinding support to enable the person to find their vehicle. Ride support may also use sensor information from the vehicle when providing wayfinding support.

Identifying a customer of an autonomous vehicle

Aspects of the disclosure provide for advanced trip planning for an autonomous vehicle service. For instance, an example method may include determining a potential pickup location for a user, determining a set of potential destination locations for a user, and determining a set of potential trips. For each potential trip a vehicle of a fleet of autonomous vehicles of the service may be assigned and trip information, including an estimated time of arrival for the assigned vehicle of the potential trip to reach the destination location of the potential trip, may be determined. The trip information for each potential trip may be provided for display to the user. Thereafter, confirmation information identifying one of the set of potential trips may be received, and the assigned vehicle for one first of the set of potential trips may be dispatched to pick up the user.

Advanced trip planning for autonomous vehicle services

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Clement Wright