The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 30, 2022
Filed:
Dec. 15, 2020
Waymo Llc, Mountain View, CA (US);
Jennifer Iglesias, San Francisco, CA (US);
Diomidis Katzourakis, San Jose, CA (US);
Kerrie Wu, Fremont, CA (US);
Bruce Lin, Mountain View, CA (US);
Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
The technology involves determining a minimum lateral gap distance between a vehicle configured for autonomous driving and one or more other objects in the vehicle's environment. The minimum lateral gap is used when determining whether to have a driver take over control of certain driving operations. This provides a measure of safety during disengagements or other change of control events. Determining the minimum lateral gap includes calculating a budgeted distance based on a cross-track error for a lateral position of the vehicle, an allowed actual gap distance to an object in the vehicle's environment, and a perception error associated with a location of the object in the vehicle's environment. This determination can be done for a set of possible operating speeds and steering rate limit combinations. The vehicle's control system may notify the driver to take control, for instance with audible, visual and/or haptic notifications.