The technology involves pickups of riders by autonomous vehicles in a manner that ensures the rider is picked up within an estimated time of arrival (ETA). For instance, in accordance with customer authorization, the autonomous vehicle may loiter or otherwise stay within a certain proximity (e.g., distance or time) to guarantee rider pickup within a predetermined time. One vehicle may be assigned to a rider for a set timeframe or multiple vehicles may be allocated to a particular event. Either approach may be used to ensure rider pickup with minimal waiting. One benefit is to avoid user-initiated ride requests when the customer is ready to depart a location, because a vehicle will already be present and ready to take the rider to their desired destination. Loitering may include prepositioning a vehicle at a given place, or driving autonomously to be nearby as needed.

A method for operating a navigation system for a motor vehicle with autopilot is disclosed, wherein the autopilot is designed to automatically carry out longitudinal and lateral guidance of the motor vehicle in the activated state during a piloted journey without assistance from a driver. The navigation system determines, for a destination prescribed by the user, a route to the destination on the basis of navigation data. The roads on which the activation of the autopilot is likely to be possible is determined using traffic data and on the basis of a predetermined activation condition for the autopilot.

The on-board apparatus 50 calculates an automated driving route of the vehicle 55 from the parking space of the vehicle 55 to the destination and an estimated time required to reach the destination in the case in which the vehicle 55 drives by automated driving by following the automated driving route. The server apparatus 30 calculates a walking travel route in the case of traveling by walk from the position of the terminal apparatus 10 to the parking space of the vehicle 55 and an estimated time required to reach the parking space of the vehicle 55 in the case of walking by following the walking travel route. The terminal apparatus 10 displays at the display unit 140 the automated driving route, the estimated time required for the automated driving route, the walking travel route, and the estimated time required for the walking travel route; and when a selection of the automated driving route is accepted, the terminal apparatus 10 starts the drive of the autonomous vehicle.

A system includes an autonomous vehicle (AV) configured to travel along a road and a control device communicatively coupled to the AV. The control device determines that the AV should move from a current lane of the road to an adjacent lane of the road. The control device determines two or more candidate windows into which the AV may move in the adjacent lane. Each candidate window corresponds to a space in the adjacent lane between two vehicles traveling in the adjacent lane. The control device determines that the AV should move into a first candidate window, and, in response to this determination, causes the AV to begin moving along a trajectory leading to the first candidate window (e.g., by accelerating or decelerating).

Systems and methods for selecting among different driving modes for autonomous driving of a vehicle may: generate output signals; determine the vehicle proximity information that indicates whether one or more vehicles are within the particular proximity of the vehicle; determine the internal passenger presence information that indicates whether one or more passengers are present in the vehicle; select a first driving mode or a second driving mode based on one or more determinations; and control the vehicle autonomously in accordance with the selection of either the first driving mode or the second driving mode.

Various technologies described herein pertain to routing an autonomous vehicle based upon risk of takeover of the autonomous vehicle by a human operator. A computing system receives an origin location and a destination location of the 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 computer-implemented model. The computer-implemented model is generated based upon labeled data indicative of instances in which autonomous vehicles are observed to transition from operating autonomously to operating based upon conduction by human operators while the autonomous vehicles are executing predefined maneuvers. The computer-implemented model takes, as input, an indication of a maneuver in the predefined maneuvers that is performed by the autonomous vehicle when the autonomous vehicle follows a candidate route. The autonomous vehicle then follows the route from the origin location to the destination location.

An autonomous driving control system of a vehicle includes a processor, a navigation, and a driving controller communicatively connected to one another. The processor is configured to estimate a charging amount of a power source that drives a driving device of a vehicle. The navigation is configured to set a driving route based on a destination and to search for a charging station for the power source based on the set driving route. The processor is further configured to determine a charging strategy of the power source based on the estimated charging amount of the power source, the driving route set by the navigation, and the searched charging station. The driving controller is configured to control driving of the vehicle based on the driving route set by the navigation and the determined charging strategy.

A boarding-alighting position determination method determines a boarding position and an alighting position in a vehicle dispatch system that dispatches a vehicle in response to a vehicle dispatch request. A plurality of boarding position candidates and a plurality of alighting position candidates are calculated around a geographical point from which the vehicle dispatch request was transmitted. A vehicle position is detected when the vehicle dispatch request was transmitted. For each boarding position candidate, a travel route is calculated from the vehicle position at a time of the vehicle dispatch request to at least one of the alighting position candidates via the boarding position candidate. A travel time is calculated for the vehicle to travel the travel route calculated for each of the boarding position candidates. A selected boarding position is determined from among the boarding position candidates based on the traveling time for each boarding position candidate.

An autonomous deceleration control apparatus includes a brake module that receives an input signal; and a brake control module that controls an operational state of the brake module. The brake module includes a pedal link having a preset length and provided to be rotatable within a preset range; and a pedal encoder located adjacent to the one end of the pedal link and configured to detect a rotational state of the pedal link. The brake control module includes: a driver; a movable link rotatable about a movable link shaft located at one end thereof by the driver and provided to press the pedal link downwards according to a rotational state thereof; and a driver encoder connected to the movable link and configured to provide an operational state of the driver and movable link state information on the location of the movable link according to the operational state of the driver.

The present disclosure includes a plurality of sensors that acquire information including an external environment of a vehicle, and an arithmetic unit that controls an onboard device of the vehicle in response to the information input from the plurality of sensors. The arithmetic unit includes: a vehicle status identifier that identifies a status of the vehicle; a plurality of functional sections that are actuated in accordance with the status of the vehicle and generate a control signal to be transmitted to the onboard device; and a power source controller that controls supply and cutoff of power to the functional sections so that the power is supplied to a predetermined combination of the functional sections in accordance with the status of the vehicle.