Zoox, Inc.

Frank Reinaldo Ramirez

Meredith James Goldman

Dennis Schaefer

Matthew Miller Young

Timothy David Kentley-Klay

Ravi Verma Gogna

Rick Zhang

Timothy Caldwell

Auver Cedric Austria

Jannie Wing Sze Lai

Edward William O'Donnell

Wenhao Sheng

A vehicle computing system may identify an obstruction along a route of travel and may connect to a service computing device for guidance. The service computing device may include a guidance system configured to receive waypoint and/or orientation input from an operator. The operator may evaluate the scenario and determine one or more waypoints and/or associated orientations for the vehicle to navigate the scenario. In some examples, the guidance system may validate the waypoint(s) and/or associated orientation(s). The service computing device may send the waypoint(s) and/or associated orientation(s) to the vehicle computing system. The vehicle computing system may validate the waypoint(s) and/or associated orientation(s) and, based on the validation, control the vehicle according to the input. Based on a determination that the vehicle has navigated the scenario, the guidance system may release vehicle guidance back to the vehicle computing system.

Remote vehicle guidance

Display screen or portion thereof having a graphical user interface

A vehicle may include an authority tracker to grant and/or limit authority to provide guidance to the vehicle. The authority tracker may store a state in a memory identifying an actor that currently has the authority. An actor requesting to have authority to provide guidance to the vehicle may transmit a control message to the authority tracker which may, in turn, authorize or deny the request based on a policy. The authority tracker may periodically, and/or in response to a request, broadcast a state message identifying the actor that currently has authority, as recorded in the memory.

Autonomous vehicle guidance authority framework

Techniques for providing a user interface for remote vehicle monitoring and/or control include presenting a digital representation of an environment and a vehicle as it traverses the environment on a first portion of a display and presenting on a second portion of the display a communication interface that is configured to provide communication with multiple people. The communication interface may enable communications between a remote operator and any number of occupants of the vehicle, other operators (e.g., other remote operators or in-vehicle operators), and/or people in an environment around the vehicle. The user interface may additionally include controls to adjust components of the vehicle, and the controls may be presented on a third portion of the display. Furthermore, the user interface may include a vehicle status interface that provides information associated with a current state of the vehicle.

User interface for remote vehicle monitoring

A vehicle computing system may identify a scenario in an environment that violates an operating constraint. The vehicle computing system may request remote guidance from a guidance system of a service computing device. The vehicle computing system may receive input from the guidance system including one or more waypoints and/or associated orientations for the vehicle to navigate through the scenario. The vehicle computing system may be configured to validate the input. A validation may include processing the input to determine whether the waypoint(s) and/or orientation(s) associated therewith may cause the vehicle to violate a safety protocol. Based on a determination that the input will not cause the vehicle to violate the safety protocol, the vehicle computing system may control the vehicle according to the input, such as by causing a drive system to operate the vehicle to each waypoint at the associated orientation.

Vehicle control and guidance

Techniques to provide guidance to a vehicle operating in an environment may include determining a suggested region to block in the environment along a path of the vehicle and causing presentation of the suggested region to block in a user interface of the computer device. Information about the blocked region may be transmitted to one or more vehicles in the environment. Based on the information about the blocked region, at least one of the computer device or a vehicle computer system of the vehicle may control operation of the vehicle to avoid the blocked region.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Frank Reinaldo Ramirez