Waymo LLC

Jonathan Lee Pedersen

Michael Epstein

John Wesley Dyer

Salil Pandit

Mishika Vora

Kevin Joseph Malta

Daniella Gutlansky

Xu Dong

Eamonn Michael Doherty

Konstantin Pervyshev

Maria Moon

Clement Wright

Ganesh Balachandran

Bruce Mai

Eric Friedman

Lauren Schwendimann

Gaurav Agarwal

Jakob Robert Zwiener

Yu Zheng

Chung Eun Kim

Andrew Chan

Brian Clair Williammee

Aspects of the disclosure provide for controlling an autonomous vehicle to enter a driveway. As an example, an instruction to pickup or drop off a passenger at a location may be received. It may be determined that the vehicle is arriving in a lane on an opposite side of a street as the location, the lane having a traffic direction opposite to a traffic direction of a lane adjacent to the location. A difficulty score to maneuver the vehicle to the lane adjacent to the location may be determined, and the difficulty score may be compared to a predetermined difficulty score. Based on the comparison, it may be determined to an available driveway on the same side of the street as the location. The vehicle may be controlled to enter the available driveway.

Driveway maneuvers for autonomous vehicles

Aspects of the disclosure relate to evaluating quality of a predetermined pullover location for an autonomous vehicle. For instance, a plurality of inputs for the predetermined pullover location may be received. The plurality of inputs may each include a value representative of a characteristic of the predetermined pullover location. The plurality of inputs may be combined to determine a pullover quality value for the predetermined pullover location. The pullover quality value may be provided to a vehicle in order to enable the vehicle to select a pullover location for the vehicle.

Quality scoring for pullovers for autonomous vehicles

Aspects of the disclosure provide for enabling autonomous vehicles to pull over into driveways when picking up or dropping off passengers or goods. For instance, a request for a trip identifying a first location and a second location may be received. The first location may be a location of a client computing device, and the second location may be a starting location or a destination for the trip. A user preference for the trip indicating that a pickup for the trip be in a driveway may be identified. That the first location corresponds with the second location may be identified. Based on the determination that the first location corresponds with the second location, dispatch instructions may be to an autonomous vehicle. The dispatch instructions may identify a polygon for a driveway at the second location in order to cause the autonomous vehicle to pull over into the driveway.

Driveway pullovers for autonomous vehicles

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for selecting a pull-over location using machine learning. One of the methods includes obtaining data specifying a target pull-over location for an autonomous vehicle travelling on a roadway. A plurality of candidate pull-over locations in a vicinity of the target pull-over location are identified. For each candidate pull-over location, an input that includes features of the candidate pull-over location is processed using a machine learning model to generate a respective likelihood score representing a predicted likelihood that the candidate pull-over location is an optimal location. The features of the candidate pull-over location include one or more features that compare the candidate pull-over location to the target pull-over location. Using the respective likelihood scores, one of the candidate pull-over locations is selected as an actual pull-over location for the autonomous vehicle.

Pull-over location selection using machine learning

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

The technology involves pullover maneuvers for vehicles operating in an autonomous driving mode. A vehicle operating in an autonomous driving mode is able to identify parking locations that may be occluded or otherwise not readily visible. A best case estimation for any potential parking locations, including partially or fully occluded areas, is compared against predictions for identified visible parking locations. This can include calculating a cost for each potential parking location and comparing that cost to a baseline cost. Upon determining that an occluded location would provide a more viable option than any visible parking locations, the vehicle is able to initiate a driving adjustment (e.g., slow down) prior to arriving at the occluded location. This enables the vehicle to minimize passenger discomfort while also providing notice to other road users of an intent to pull over.

Speed reasoning in the presence of uncertainty when pulling over

Aspects of the disclosure relate to parking behaviors and maneuvering a vehicle in an autonomous driving mode accordingly. For instance, a pullover location for the vehicle to stop and wait for a passenger may be identified. The vehicle may be maneuvered in the autonomous driving mode in order to pull over by pulling forward into the pullover location. Whether to maneuver the vehicle in reverse in the pullover location before or after the passenger enters the vehicle may be determined based on context for the pull over with respect to the passenger. The vehicle may be maneuvered in the autonomous driving mode in reverse based on the determination of whether to maneuver the vehicle in reverse in the pullover location before or after the passenger enters the vehicle.

Parking behaviors for autonomous vehicles

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Jonathan Lee Pedersen