B60W60/001

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES AND METHODS OF USING SAME

A system for receiving user input from an internal vehicle component surface includes a flat surface layer of the internal vehicle component that includes a first portion made of an elastic material and a second portion that surrounds the first portion, and a push-button assembly located beneath the first portion of the flat surface layer. The push-button assembly includes a push-button switch that is switched into at least a first switching state by downward pressure, and a vertical movement mechanism that when activated causes the push-button switch to move vertically in a direction of the flat surface layer. Vertical movement of the push-button switch causes a vertical displacement of the first portion of the flat surface layer, and downward pressure on the first portion of the flat surface layer when vertically displaced causes a corresponding downward pressure to the push-button switch, switching the push-button switch into the first switch state.

INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD, AND NON-TRANSITORY STORAGE MEDIUM
20230047976 · 2023-02-16 · ·

An information processing apparatus is mounted in a delivery automatic driving vehicle with a monitoring device for remote monitoring. The information processing apparatus includes a controller that suppresses a monitoring function of the monitoring device when determining that a delivery person does not exist inside the automatic driving vehicle in a stopped state of the automatic driving vehicle.

IDENTIFICATION OF SPURIOUS RADAR DETECTIONS IN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE APPLICATIONS
20230046274 · 2023-02-16 ·

The described aspects and implementations enable fast and accurate verification of radar detection of objects in autonomous vehicle (AV) applications using combined processing of radar data and camera images. In one implementation, disclosed is a method and a system to perform the method that includes obtaining a radar data characterizing intensity of radar reflections from an environment of the AV, identifying, based on the radar data, a candidate object, obtaining a camera image depicting a region where the candidate object is located, and processing the radar data and the camera image using one or more machine-learning models to obtain a classification measure representing a likelihood that the candidate object is a real object.

Vehicle lane change
11580859 · 2023-02-14 · ·

Systems and methods for vehicle lane change control are described. Some implementations may include determining a kinematic state of a vehicle moving in an origin lane; detecting, based on data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, objects that are moving in a target lane of the road; determining a headway constraint in terms of a preparation time, a preparation acceleration to be applied to the vehicle during the preparation time, and an execution time during which the vehicle is to transition from the origin lane to the target lane; determining values of the preparation time, the execution time, and the preparation acceleration subject to a set of constraints including the headway constraint; and determining a motion plan that will transition the vehicle from the origin lane to the target lane based at least in part on the preparation time, the execution time, and the preparation acceleration.

Real-time perception system for small objects at long range for autonomous vehicles
11577748 · 2023-02-14 · ·

A small-object perception system, for use in a vehicle, includes a stereo vision system that captures stereo images and outputs information identifying an object having a dimension in a range of ˜20 cm to about ˜100 cm in a perception range of ˜3 meters to ˜150 meters from the vehicle, and a system controller configured to receive output signals from the stereo vision system and to provide control signals to control a path of movement of the vehicle. The stereo vision system includes cameras separated by a baseline of ˜1 meter to ˜4 meters. The stereo vision system includes a stereo matching module configured to perform stereo matching on left and right initial images and to output a final disparity map based on a plurality of preliminary disparity maps generated from the left and right initial images, with the preliminary disparity maps having different resolutions from each other.

Explainability of autonomous vehicle decision making

A processor is configured to execute instructions stored in a memory to determine, in response to identifying vehicle operational scenarios of a scene, an action for controlling the AV, where the action is from a selected decision component that determined the action based on level of certainty associated with a state factor; generate an explanation as to why the action was selected, such that the explanation includes respective descriptors of the action, the selected decision component, and the state factor; and display the explanation in a graphical view that includes a first graphical indicator of a world object of the selected decision component, a second graphical indicator describing the state factor, and a third graphical indicator describing the action.

Efficient road coordinates transformations library

A system and method operate an autonomous vehicle. A sensor senses a road and an object. A processor determines, in a Cartesian reference frame, a representation of the road and a source point representative of the object, samples a first waypoint and a second waypoint from the representation of the road, determines a linear projection of the source point to a line connecting the first waypoint and the second waypoint, determines a first estimate of a longitudinal component of the source point in a road-based reference frame based on the linear projection, the first estimate being on a curve representing the road between the first waypoint and the second waypoint, determines a second estimate of the longitudinal component from the first estimate, determines a coordinate of the source point in the road-based reference frame from the second estimate and operates the vehicle with respect to the object using the coordinate.

Method and device for ascertaining a depth information image from an input image
11580653 · 2023-02-14 · ·

A method for ascertaining a depth information image for an input image. The input image is processed using a convolutional neural network, which includes multiple layers that sequentially process the input image, and each converts an input feature map into an output feature map. At least one of the layers is a depth map layer, the depth information image being ascertained as a function of a depth map layer. In the depth map layer, an input feature map of the depth map layer is convoluted with multiple scaling filters to obtain respective scaling maps, the multiple scaling maps are compared pixel by pixel to generate a respective output feature map in which each pixel corresponds to a corresponding pixel from a selected one of the scaling maps.

Identifying a route for an autonomous vehicle between an origin and destination location

Described herein are technologies relating to computing a likelihood of an operation-influencing event with respect to an autonomous vehicle at a geographic location. The likelihood of the operation-influencing event is computed based upon a prediction of a value that indicates whether, through a causal process, the operation-influencing event is expected to occur. The causal process is identified by means of a model, which relates spatiotemporal factors and the operation-influencing events.

Method for operating at least one automated vehicle
11577747 · 2023-02-14 · ·

A method for operating at least one automated vehicle, including the steps: detecting road users by sensors with the aid of the at least one automated vehicle and/or with the aid of sensor systems in an infrastructure; ascertaining predicted traffic routes for the road users with the aid of a computing device based on defined criteria; transmitting control data corresponding to the predicted traffic route to the automated vehicle; and operating the automated vehicle according to the control data.