Embodiments herein can determine an optimal route for an autonomous electric vehicle. The system may score viable routes between the start and end locations of a trip using a numeric or other scale that denotes how viable the route is for autonomy. The score is adjusted using a variety of factors where a learning process leverages both offline and online data. The scored routes are not based simply on the shortest distance between the start and end points but determine the best route based on the driving context for the vehicle and the user.

Route planning is provided to a vehicle (or vehicle driver) based at least in part on the type of vehicle and the terrain conditions between the originating location and destination. The vehicle may employ a terrain monitoring system including a surface-penetrating radar (SPR) system for obtaining SPR signals as the vehicle travels along a route; the obtained SPR signals may be used for navigation against reference images associated with the route. In some embodiments, a navigation server bases route selection in part on the terrain associated with various routes and characteristics of the vehicle.

Provided is a computer-implemented method of determining a point of interest and/or a road type in a map, comprising the steps of: acquiring processed sensor data collected from one or more vehicles; extracting from the processed sensor data a set of classification parameters; and determining based on the set of classification parameters one or more points of interest (POI) and its geographic location and/or one or more road types.

The present invention relates to a method for alerting drivers and/or autonomous vehicles of high risk scenarios. The method includes obtaining positional data of a vehicle, where the positional data is indicative of geographical position and heading of the vehicle. The method further includes obtaining environmental data of the vehicle, where the environmental data is indicative of state of the surrounding environment of the vehicle. The method includes determining, by means of trained model, accident intensity for upcoming road portion for the vehicle, the trained model being configured to determine accident intensity associated with the upcoming road portion based on the obtained environmental data and the obtained positional data. Then, if the determined accident intensity exceeds threshold, the method comprises transmitting signal indicating approaching high risk scenario to a Human-Machine-Interface, HMI, of the vehicle and/or to a control system of the vehicle.

A method is disclosed for analyzing historical accident information to adjust driving actions of an autonomous vehicle over a travel route in order to avoid accidents which have occurred over the travel route. Historical accident information for the travel route can be analyzed to, for example, determine accident types which occurred over the travel route and determine causes and/or probable causes of the accident types. In response to determining accident types and causes/probable causes of the accident types over the travel route, adjustments can be made to the driving actions planned for the autonomous vehicle over the travel route. In addition, in an embodiment, historical accident information can be used to analyze available travel routes and select a route which presents less risk of accident than others.

A driving assist method minimizes an incidence of lane changing within a circulatory roadway. In this driving assist method, a recognition assessment processor assesses the travel of a host vehicle, calculates a travel route over which the host vehicle is to travel, and executes a driving assist control based on the travel route. The recognition assessment processor further assesses whether the host vehicle has arrived at a roundabout having a circulatory roadway to which three or more radial roadways are connected. When an assessment has been made that the host vehicle has arrived at the roundabout, a position of a host vehicle entrance and a position of a host vehicle exit are specified. Furthermore, an entrance position is set based on a positional relationship between the host vehicle entrance and the host vehicle exit.

Systems and methods for providing customer navigation include a system provider device that may receive a query for directions to a first merchant physical location. Responsive to receiving the query, the system provider device determines a first travel time to the first merchant physical location and a second travel time to a second merchant physical location. The system provider device further determines a first wait time at the first merchant physical location and a second wait time at the second merchant physical location. Additionally, the system provider device determines that a first total time using the first travel time and the first wait time is shorter than a second total time using the second travel time and the second wait time. Based on determining that the first total time is shorter than the second total time, the system provider device may provide navigation to the first merchant physical location.

A vehicle communication control device includes a processor configured to acquire disaster information, control a communication state between a vehicle and an information distribution server; and restrict communication between the vehicle and the information distribution server when the vehicle is located in a disaster-stricken area.

Techniques for determining a location and type of traffic-related features and using such features in route planning are discussed herein. The techniques may include determining that sensor data represents a feature such as a traffic light, road segment, building type, and the like. The techniques further include determining a cost of a feature, whereby the cost is associated with the effect of a feature on a vehicle traversing an environment. A feature database can be updated based on features in the environment. A cost of the feature can be used to update costs of routes associated with the location of the feature.

Disclosed is a method of providing a safe navigation route for travelling. The method comprises receiving, at a graphical user interface of a processor-based user device, a query for a navigation route from a user, comprising a source station and a destination station, determining, at an application server, a plurality of navigation routes between the source station and the destination station, analyzing, at the application server, each of the plurality of navigation routes to compute a safety index associated with each of the plurality of navigation routes, identifying, at the application server, at least one safe navigation route between the source station and the destination station, and rendering, at the graphical user interface, the at least one safe navigation route between the source station and the destination station in response to the query from the user.