Waymo LLC

Google Inc.

Other

Nvidia Corporation

Philip Nemec

Brian Douglas Cullinane

Manuel Christian Clement

Robertus Christianus Elisabeth Mariet

Christopher Paul Urmson

Andrew Timothy Szybalski

Dmitri A Dolgov

Luis Ricardo Prada Gomez

Sebastian Thrun

Julien Charles Mercay

Joshua Seth Herbach

Min Li Chan

Anne Kristina Aula

Lilli Ing-Marie Jonsson

Nathaniel Fairfield

Peter Crandall

Michael Epstein

Renaud-Roland Hubert

John Wesley Dyer

Keith Hutchings

Saswat Panigrahi

Maria Moon

Salil Pandit

Juliet Rothenberg

YooJung Ahn

Albert Shane

Andrew Hughes Chatham

Ryan Powell

David Tse-Zhou Lu

Christopher Kennedy Ludwick

Calvin Karl Johnson

Cristi Landy

Annissa Al-Alusi

Andy Szybalski

Matthew Schwall

Joshua Newby

Peter Colijn

Hans-olav Cavelie

Bruce Mai

Johan Engstrom

Michael Steven Montemerlo

Hyman Murveit

Bradley Templeton

Anthony Scott Levandowski

Daniel Elliot Wexler

Melissa Cefkin

Larry I Gritz

Eric Enderton

Vishay Nihalani

Anne Kristiina Aula

Orlee Smith

John F Schlag

Radomir Mech

Cong Li

Suneet Shah

Sven Krome

Yoojung Ahn

The technology relates to actively looking for an assigned passenger prior to a vehiclereaching a pickup location. For instance, information identifying the pickup location and client device information for authenticating the assigned passenger is received. Sensor data is received from a perception system of the vehicle identifying objects in an environment of the vehicle. When the vehicle is within a predetermined distance from the pickup location, authenticating a client device using the client device information is attempted. When the client device has been authenticated, the sensor data is used to determine whether a pedestrian is within a first threshold distance of the vehicle. When a pedestrian is determined to be within the first threshold distance of the vehicle, the vehicle is stopped prior to reaching the pickup location, to wait for the pedestrian within the first threshold distance of the vehicle to enter the vehicle.

Early boarding of passengers in autonomous vehicles

Vehicle sign

Aspects of the disclosure relate to a system that includes a memory storing a queue for arranging tasks, a plurality of self-driving systems for controlling an autonomous vehicle, and one or more processors. The one or more processors may receive a non-passenger task request with a priority level of the non-passenger task request. When the non-passenger task request is accepted, the one or more processors may insert the task in the queue based on the priority level of the task request. Then, the one or more processors may provide instructions to one or more self-driving systems according to the non-passenger task request. Having received updates of the status of the autonomous vehicle, the one or more processors may determine that the task is completed based on the updates. After determining that the task is completed, the one or more processors may remove the task from the queue.

Non-passenger requests for autonomous vehicles

Aspects of the disclosure provide for displaying notifications on a display of an autonomous vehicle. In one instance, a distance from the vehicle to a destination of the vehicle or a passenger may be determined. When the distance is between a first distance and a second distance, a first notificationmay be displayed on the display. The second distance may be less than the first distance. When the distance is less than the second distance, a second notificationmay be displayed on the display. The second notification provides additional information not provided by the first notification.

External facing communications for autonomous vehicles

Aspects of the disclosure provide for determining when to provide and providing secondary disengage alerts for a vehicle having autonomous and manual driving modes. For instance, while the vehicle is being controlled in the autonomous driving mode, user input is received at one or more user input devices of the vehicle. In response to receiving the user input, the vehicle may be transitioned from the autonomous driving mode to a manual driving mode and provide a primary disengage alert to an occupant of the vehicle regarding the transition. Whether to provide a secondary disengage alert may be determined based on at least circumstances of the user input. After the transition, the secondary disengage alert may be provided based on the determination.

Secondary disengage alert for autonomous vehicles

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a vehicle for maneuvering an occupant of the vehicle to a destination autonomously as well as providing information about the vehicle and the vehicle's environment for display to the occupant. The information includes a representation of a scene depicting an external environment of the vehicle. The representation of the scene includes a visual representation of the vehicle and a visual representation of objects in an external environment of the vehicle.

Occupant facing vehicle display

A system and method are arranged to provide recommendations to a user of a vehicle. In one aspect, the vehicle navigates in an autonomous mode and the sensors provide information that is based on the location of the vehicle and output from sensors directed to the environment surrounding the vehicle. In further aspects, both current and previous sensor data is used to make the recommendations, as well as data based on the sensors of other vehicles.

System and method of providing recommendations to users of vehicles

Aspects of the present disclosure relate switching between autonomous and manual driving modes. In order to do so, the vehicle's computer may conduct a series of environmental, system, and driver checks to identify certain conditions. The computer may correct some of these conditions and also provide a driver with a checklist of tasks for completion. Once the tasks have been completed and the conditions are changed, the computer may allow the driver to switch from the manual to the autonomous driving mode. The computer may also make a determination, under certain conditions, that it would be detrimental to the driver's safety or comfort to make a switch from the autonomous driving mode to the manual driving mode.

Engaging and disengaging for autonomous driving

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a system having a memory, a plurality of self-driving systems for controlling a vehicle, and one or more processors. The processors are configured to receive at least one fallback task in association with a request for a primary task and at least one trigger of each fallback task. Each trigger is a set of conditions that, when satisfied, indicate when a vehicle requires attention for proper operation. The processors are also configured to send instructions to the self-driving systems to execute the primary task and receive status updates from the self-driving systems. The processors are configured to determine that a set of conditions of a trigger is satisfied based on the status updates and send further instructions based on the associated fallback task to the self-driving systems.

Fallback requests for autonomous vehicles

A vehicle has a plurality of control apparatuses, a user input, a geographic position component, an object detection apparatus, memory, and a display. A processor is also included and is programmed to receive the destination information, identify a route, and determine the current geographic location of the vehicle. The processor is also programmed to identify an object and object type based on object information received from the object detection apparatus and to determine at least one warning characteristic of the identified object based on at least one of: the object type, a detected proximity of the detected object to the vehicle, the location of the detected object relative to predetermined peripheral areas of the vehicle, the current geographic location of the vehicle, and the route. The processor is also configured to select and display on the display an object warning image based on the at least one warning characteristic.

User interface for displaying object-based indications in an autonomous driving system

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a vehicle for maneuvering a passenger to a destination autonomously. The vehicle includes one or more computing devices and a set of user input buttons for communicating requests to stop the vehicle and to initiate a trip to the destination with the one or more computing devices. The set of user input buttons consisting essentially of a dual-purpose button and an emergency stopping button different from the dual-purpose button configured to stop the vehicle. The dual-purpose button has a first purpose for communicating a request to initiate the trip to the destination and a second purpose for communicating a request to pull the vehicle over and stop the vehicle. The vehicle has no steering wheel and no user inputs for the steering, acceleration, and deceleration of the vehicle other than the set of user input buttons.

Autonomous vehicles

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Philip Nemec