Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Ford Motor Company Limited

Somak Datta Gupta

Cynthia M Neubecker

Brian Bennie

Brad Alan Ignaczak

Jayanthi Rao

Oliver Lei

Vladyslav Slyusar

Mahmoud Yousef Ghannam

Adil Nizam Siddiqui

Jonathan Diedrich

Haron Abdel-raziq

Cheri Lyn Hansen

Arpita Chand

Kenneth James Miller

Swadad A Carremm

Pramita Mitra

Charles James Miller

Subharthi Banerjee

Perry Robinson Macneille

Allen R Murray

Mario Anthony Santillo

Krishna Bandi

Gregory P Linkowski

Perry Robinson MacNeille

David Hiskens

A method of wirelessly communicating status information of one or more vehicles with one or more infrastructures including the receipt of an onboarding process trigger based on a current status associated with a pre-onboarding process of the one or more vehicles, the determination of a current status associated with an onboarding process of the one or more vehicles based on the onboarding process trigger and an autonomous vehicle marshaling algorithm, and the output of an indication corresponding to the current status associated with the onboarding process of the one or more vehicles via exterior lights of the one or more vehicles to the one or more infrastructures or one or more human operators.

System and method of providing marshaling status via vehicle exterior lights

This disclosure is generally directed to systems and methods pertaining to a group of vehicles that cooperatively provide information about a traffic event. In an example embodiment, a method executed by a first processor in a first vehicle may involve detecting a trigger condition that portends a traffic event. The first vehicle may form a video sharing group with one or more other vehicles. At least one vehicle of the video sharing group may capture a video recording of the traffic event and share the video recording with members of the video sharing group. The video recording may contain information that is useable for various purposes. In an example scenario, a reporting vehicle of the video sharing group may transmit the video recording to a server computer that is configured to allow for further operations such as, for example, initiating an insurance procedure and/or filing a police report.

Systems and methods for conveying information about a traffic event via vehicle communications

Managing vehicle application usage of computing resources is provided. A request for computing resources of a communications network is received from a vehicle application installed to a vehicle. An access point name (APN) is assigned to the vehicle application based on an application identifier corresponding to the vehicle application by accessing stored APN information including a mapping of application identifiers to corresponding APNs. The computing resources are accessed by the vehicle application connecting to the communications network using the APN.

Adaptively selecting network APN for vehicle application remote computing demand

A system includes a plurality of vehicles and at least one first processor in a first vehicle and at least one second processor in each other of the plurality of vehicles. The first vehicle wirelessly receives remote driving commands, from a remote computing system, instructing control of the first vehicle and executes the remote driving commands to control the first vehicle in accordance with the remote driving commands. The first vehicle wirelessly broadcasts the remote driving commands, including a location of the first vehicle where a given of the driving commands was executed. The second vehicle wirelessly receives the broadcast remote driving commands, stores the received remote driving commands in sequence, and executes the given of the driving commands when a location of the second vehicle corresponds to the location of the first vehicle where the given of the driving commands was executed.

Method and apparatus for remote driving a plurality of vehicles in a platoon

An autonomous vehicle may determine that it has an amount of power remaining projected to be needed to reach a recharging point by autonomously traveling with predefined systems disabled. The vehicle may disable the predefined systems and travel towards the recharging point. Subsequent to the disabling, the autonomous vehicle may determine that it no longer has the amount of power remaining projected to be needed to reach the recharging point. The vehicle may then communicate with a server and request assistance. The vehicle may then travel to an instructed rendezvous point with a second autonomous vehicle, the rendezvous received from the server. The two vehicles may then communicate to allow the first vehicle to leverage a capability of the second autonomous vehicle, responsive to the first and second autonomous vehicles being within communication range, allowing the first vehicle to reach the recharging point via the leveraging.

Electric autonomous vehicle ride service assistance

The disclosure generally pertains to systems and methods for providing targeted content to users. In an example method, audio data can be received from a device. Sensor data associated with the device may also be received, and the sensor data may include location data. Upon receiving the audio data, an intent associated with the audio data can be determined. At least one of a product, service, or entity may be determined based on the intent. Content may then be determined based on the sensor data and at least one of the product, service, or entity. The content may be associated with a vehicle. An indication of the content can then be sent to the device.

Systems and methods for providing targeted content to users

A vehicle receives a first portion of content via ATSC broadcast, generates a random nonce, responsive to receiving the content, and sends the nonce and a request for content verification to a remote server. The vehicle receives a message from the remote server indicating whether the first portion of content is likely valid, the message including a second portion of content and a hash value when the content is likely valid. The vehicle then calculates a second hash value, using the random nonce and the first portion of content. The vehicle compares the second hash value to the first hash value, and responsive to the second hash value matching the first hash value, combines the second portion of content and the first portion of content to create combined content. The vehicle then uses a security strategy to convert the combined content into utilizable content, and utilizes the content.

Secure broadcast delivery and verification

Methods and apparatus for vehicle-based drone charging are disclosed herein. A vehicle-based drone charging apparatus includes a charging device to be operatively coupled to a vehicle. The charging device is to charge a drone in response to the drone being operatively coupled to the charging device. The vehicle-based drone charging apparatus further includes a communication interface to be operatively coupled to the vehicle. The communication interface is to broadcast use information associated with the charging device. The use information includes location information associated with a location of the vehicle and fee information associated with a cost for use of the charging device.

Methods and apparatus for vehicle-based drone charging

Synchronized work zone traffic management systems and methods are disclosed herein. An example method includes synchronizing, by a first vehicle, communication with a second vehicle over a wireless link, and displaying alternatingly, by the first vehicle, one of two messages on a first external display according to an alternating schema. A first message indicates to drivers to drive slowly and a second message indicates to the drivers to stop. The first message being displayed on the first external display when the second vehicle is displaying the second message on a second external display. The first vehicle displaying the second message on the first external display when the second vehicle is displaying the first message on the second external display. The alternating displaying of the first and second messages being used to control flow of traffic on a one-way street.

Synchronized work zone traffic management systems and methods

Method and apparatus are disclosed for facilitating active protection of peripheral sensors. An example vehicle includes a sensor and a sensor protector. The example sensor protector is configured to, responsive to a vehicle collision, obtain diagnostic information from the sensor. The example sensor protector is also configured to determine whether to move the sensor from a first position to a second position based on the diagnostic information. The example sensor protector is also configured to cause the sensor to from the first position to the second position based on the determination.

Methods and apparatus to facilitate active protection of peripheral sensors

A system includes a stationary infrastructure element including a camera mounted to the infrastructure element and an infrastructure server. The infrastructure server includes a processor and a memory, the memory storing instructions executable by the processor to receive a request from a movable vehicle, the request identifying a data anomaly including at least one of (1) a sensor of the vehicle collecting data below a confidence threshold or (2) a geographic location outside a geographic database of the vehicle, to actuate the camera to collect image data of one of the vehicle or the geographic location, to identify geo-coordinates of the vehicle or the geographic location based on identified pixels in the image data including the vehicle or the geographic location, and to provide the geo-coordinates to the vehicle to address the data anomaly.

Enhanced infrastructure

This disclosure is generally directed to harvesting electrical energy from RF signals that may be present in a vehicle. The RF signals may include cellular signals and Wi-Fi signals, for example. In an example system, an RF signal strength evaluator may be used to evaluate the RF signals in order to identify a strongest RF signal or a strongest band of RF signals that can be harvested to obtain electrical energy. An RF-to-electrical energy converter converts the RF signals(s) to electrical energy, which can be stored in an energy storage element. The energy storage element can be coupled to a device charger for charging various types of devices in the vehicle. In some instances, the system can be used to generate an ambient RF energy map that may be used by one or more vehicles to identify an optimal spot to park for harvesting RF signals.

Harvesting electrical energy from an RF signal in a vehicle

A container includes a transportation section and a drone section. The drone section has a drone place holder and a door. The drone place holder is accessible when the door is in an open position. The container includes a processor that is programmed to actuate the door to the open position, actuate a drone, fittable in the drone place holder, to fly out of the container, and actuate the drone to transport the container to a destination.

Drone-based goods transportation

Vehicles that are autonomous or human-operated may drive in a platoon to achieve energy savings. A leader vehicle receives information broadcasts from following vehicles that include a state of energy and one or more other values such as energy usage rates, range, destination, and aerodynamic properties. The leader vehicle may then determine an ordering of vehicles that increases the range of the platoon, e.g., reduces the number of refueling/recharging stops of the platoon. Other considerations for ordering the vehicles may include overall energy savings and a fair distribution of energy savings. A desired ordering may be achieved by transmitting swap commands to pairs of vehicles until the platoon is in the correct ordering.

Range-based vehicle platoon ordering

A computer is programmed to determine a trajectory of a moving target based on data from one or more vehicle sensors. The computer is programmed to deploy an aerial drone from the vehicle to track the moving target based on the determined trajectory.

Growing community of inventors

Novi, MI, United States of America

Somak Datta Gupta