Various technologies described herein pertain to routing autonomous vehicles based upon spatiotemporal factors. A computing system receives an origin location and a destination location of an autonomous vehicle. The computing system identifies a route for the autonomous vehicle to follow from the origin location to the destination location based upon output of a spatiotemporal statistical model. The spatiotemporal statistical model is generated based upon historical data from autonomous vehicles when the autonomous vehicles undergo operation-influencing events. The spatiotemporal statistical model takes, as input, a location, a time, and a direction of travel of the autonomous vehicle. The spatiotemporal statistical model outputs a score that is indicative of a likelihood that the autonomous vehicle will undergo an operation-influencing event due to the autonomous vehicle encountering a spatiotemporal factor along a candidate route. The autonomous vehicle then follows the route from the origin location to the destination location.

A method is provided. An airship is maneuvered to a desired location and oriented with the thruster such that ambient wind is traveling in a direction that is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the fuselage. The airflow from the ambient wind is straightened with the flow straightener to generate a substantially laminar flow. The turbine is engaged with the airflow generated by the ambient wind to generate electricity, and the electricity generated by the turbine is rectified with the rectifier and stored in the storage array.

A method is provided. An airship is maneuvered to a desired location and oriented with the thruster such that ambient wind is traveling in a direction that is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the fuselage. The airflow from the ambient wind is straightened with the flow straightener to generate a substantially laminar flow. The turbine is engaged with the airflow generated by the ambient wind to generate electricity, and the electricity generated by the turbine is rectified with the rectifier and stored in the storage array.

An autonomous driving control device is capable of starting an autonomous driving control without an operation of a driver and reducing a possibility that the driver can not start manual driving. An autonomous driving control is switched to manual driving when a determination section determines that the amount of operation by the driver is equal to or greater than a first threshold, before a predetermined time elapses since the autonomous driving control is automatically started. An autonomous driving control is switched to a manual driving when the determination section determines that the amount of operation by the driver is equal to or greater than a second threshold that is greater than the first threshold, after the predetermined time elapses.

An autonomous driving device includes a map recording a content having different type for each position while one or a plurality of contents and positions are associated with each other, an acquisition unit acquiring the content corresponding to a first position on the map, a specification storage unit storing a plurality of autonomous driving modes of the vehicle and the type of content necessary for the execution of the modes in association with each other, a selection unit selecting an executable autonomous driving mode based on the type of content acquired by the acquisition unit and the type of content stored in the specification storage unit, and a control unit controlling the vehicle at the first position in the selected autonomous driving mode, the selection unit determines one autonomous driving mode based on an order of priority set in advance when there is a plurality of executable autonomous driving modes.

Methods and apparatus for making autonomous vehicle handover decisions are described. A handover decision involves deciding if an autonomous vehicle should be handed off from one worker to another worker. The methods allow for decisions to be made in real or near real time shortly before an autonomous vehicle changes location. Worker time, if a handover is not implemented, is considered including the amount of worker time involved with the worker moving with the autonomous vehicle to the new location as compared to a new worker meeting the autonomous vehicle at the new location or on the way to the new location. Handover decisions can consider worker distribution and/or order priority. Such factors can be used to weight one or more time based cost values with a cost value representation of the cost if a handover is not implemented vs implementing a handover being compared to make the handover decision.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles also known as UAVs or Drones, either autonomous or remotely piloted, are classified as drones by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as weighing under 212 pounds. The system described herein details Autonomous Flight Vehicles (AFV) which weigh over 212 pounds but less than 1,320 pounds which may require either a new classification or a classification such as Sport Light Aircraft, but without the requirement of a pilot due to the safe autonomous flight system such as the Safe Temporal Vector Integration Engine or STeVIE. Safe Autonomous Light Aircraft (SALA) are useful as drone carriers, large scale air package or cargo transport, and even human transport depending on the total lift capability of the platform.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to switching a driving mode of a vehicle. A mode change request from one of a plurality of sources to switch the vehicle from a first driving mode to a second driving mode is received. In response to receiving the mode change request, a status of the vehicle is accessed, and a confirmation request is transmitted to the one of the plurality of sources. Verification of the confirmation request is made, and a driving transition mode is initialized from the first driving mode to the second driving mode based on the status of the vehicle. In response to adhering to safety conditions or safety boundaries within a duration of time, a switching signal is sent to the control system of the vehicle to switch the vehicle from the first driving mode to the second driving mode.

Display data which has information set on a traveling route of a vehicle and indicating offerability of a remote driving assistance service of a control center is generated and displayed. A data processing unit is provided as a unit that generates traveling section display data that has section information indicating an autonomous driving section and a manual driving section on a traveling route of a vehicle and further generates display data that has information set to indicate offerability of a remote driving assistance service of a control center as additional information associated with a traveling position included in the traveling section display data. The data processing unit generates display data that has an icon which indicates offerability of the remote driving assistance service and which is set in association with a traveling position according to the traveling section display data.

An agricultural machine includes a vehicle body, a travel switch operable to issue a command to start autonomous travel of the vehicle body, and an autonomous travel controller to perform autonomous travel of the vehicle body based on a planned travel line when the command is issued. When the command is issued by operating the travel switch, if at least one of a positional deviation between the planned travel line that is selected and the vehicle body and an orientational deviation between the planned travel line and an orientation of the vehicle body is greater than or equal to a corresponding one of respective first thresholds, the autonomous travel controller is configured or programmed to perform line alignment to make the positional deviation and the orientational deviation less than the respective first thresholds.