Waymo LLC

Pieter Kapsenberg

Pierre-yves Droz

Ryan M Geiss

Andreas Wendel

Michael R James

Lucian Ion

Daniel L Rosenband

Christopher Kennedy Ludwick

Christian Lauterbach

Carl Warren Craddock

Ajay Chandra Venkata Gummalla

Zhinan Xu

Etai Bruhis

Alexander Zbrozek

Xiaoying He

Ryan Joseph Andrade

Emily Chi

Zhuyuan Liu

Sabareeshkumar Ravikumar

Georges Goetz

Kaushik Kannan

A system is provided that includes an image sensor coupled to a vehicle, and control circuitry configured to perform operations including receiving, from the image sensor, an input stream comprising high dynamic range (HDR) image data associated with an environment of the vehicle, and processing the input stream at the vehicle by applying a global tone mapping, followed by offline image processing that can include applying a local tone mapping to the globally tone mapped images of the same input stream.

Systems and methods for a tone mapper solution for an autonomous driving system

An optical receiver may include a plurality of photodetectors, a common processed data pipeline, and a plurality of processors. Outputs of the plurality of processors are communicatively coupled to the common processed data pipeline. Each processor is configured to accept input signals from a respective photodetector of the plurality of photodetectors. Each processor is also configured to process the input signals to provide processed data and output the processed data into a data stream of the common processed data pipeline according to one or more predetermined data locations. A method for using the optical receiver and a non-transitory computer readable medium are also described.

Multi-chip daisychain for output aggregation

An optical receiver includes a plurality of photodetectors, a shared memory, and a pulse calibration processing unit communicatively coupled to the shared memory. The optical receiver also includes a hardware accelerator module configured to accept input waveforms from the plurality of photodetectors and compare an amplitude of the respective input waveforms with a predetermined threshold. Based on the comparison, the hardware accelerator module could determine subsets of the input waveforms and determine information indicative of characteristic aspects of the subsets of the input waveforms. The optical receiver is additionally operable to store the determined information in the shared memory and trigger an interrupt for the pulse calibration processing unit to initiate a pulse calibration process on the determined information.

Two-step return calibration for lidar cross-talk mitigation

Communication links, computing systems, and methods for their use. The communication link includes a low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) driver. The LVDS driver is configured to provide a differential signal that is based on a digital bit stream. The digital bit stream includes a series of digital bits that are temporally arranged based on a nominal bit period. The communication link also includes a controllable delay device. The controllable delay device is configured to provide a delay signal to the LVDS driver so as to cause a rising edge or a falling edge of respective digital bits to vary in time with respect to the nominal bit period based on a predetermined sequence of delay amounts. The delay amounts represent positive and negative differences in time from the nominal bit period.

Low-speed ring with controlled jitter

Examples described relate to systems, methods, and apparatus for transmitting image data. The apparatus may comprise a memory buffer configured to store data elements of an image frame and generate a signal indicating that each of the data elements of the image frame have been written to the memory buffer, a processor configured to initiate a flush operation for reading out at least one data element of the image frame from the memory buffer and to output the at least one data element at a first rate, a rate adjustment unit configured to receive the at least one data element from the processor at the first rate and to output the at least one data element at a second rate, and a multiplexer configured to receive the at least one data element from the processor at the first rate and configured to receive the at least one data element from the rate adjustment unit at the second rate. The multiplexer may select the at least one data element at the second rate for transmitting on a bus in response to receiving the signal from the memory buffer.

Systems, apparatus, and methods for transmitting image data

The technology relates to partially redundant equipment architectures for vehicles able to operate in an autonomous driving mode. Aspects of the technology employ fallback configurations, such as two or more fallback sensor configurations that provide some minimum amount of field of view (FOV) around the vehicle. For instance, different sensor arrangements are logically associated with different operating domains of the vehicle. Fallback configurations for computing resources and/or power resources are also provided. Each fallback configuration may have different reasons for being triggered, and may result in different types of fallback modes of operation. Triggering conditions may relate, e.g., to a type of failure, fault or other reduction in component capability, the current driving mode, environmental conditions in the vicinity of vehicle or along a planned route, or other factors. Fallback modes may involve altering a previously planned trajectory, altering vehicle speed, and/or altering a destination of the vehicle.

Redundant hardware system for autonomous vehicles

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Pieter Kapsenberg