Various technologies described herein pertain to controlling an autonomous vehicle to provide indicators to distinguish the autonomous vehicle from other autonomous vehicles in a fleet. The autonomous vehicle includes a vehicle propulsion system, a braking system, a notification system, and a computing system. The notification system outputs an indicator that is perceivable external to the autonomous vehicle. The computing system receives data specifying an identity of a passenger to be picked up by the autonomous vehicle. Moreover, the computing system controls at least one of the vehicle propulsion system or the braking system to stop the autonomous vehicle for passenger pickup. Further, the computing system controls the notification system to output the indicator; a characteristic of the indicator outputted by the notification system is controlled based on the identity of the passenger to be picked up and whether the autonomous vehicle is stopped for passenger pickup.

A communication support device in a vehicle, which has left and right round lights in a front end part of the vehicle, includes: left and right notification devices having ring-shaped light-emitting parts with changeable light-emitting regions while surrounding the left and right round lights respectively when viewed from a front; and a control device controlling light emission of the ring-shaped light-emitting part so that the light-emitting region of the ring-shaped light-emitting part changes according to an operating state of the vehicle. Accordingly, communication of intention in a notification mode as if there were eye contact with a person outside the vehicle can be easily achieved.

A vehicle control apparatus starts driving trouble tackling control designed to decelerate and stop an own vehicle when it is determined that a driver is in a driving trouble state where the driver has trouble driving the own vehicle, then start a deceleration process at a predetermined timing as a process of driving trouble tackling control, and then start a hazard lighting process at a predetermined timing as another process of driving trouble tackling control. The vehicle control apparatus stops driving trouble tackling control when a hazard switch is operated during the performance of the hazard lighting process, and starts the hazard lighting process without stopping the driving trouble tackling control when the hazard switch is operated between a timing when it is determined that the driver is in the driving trouble state and a timing when the hazard lighting process is started.

There is provided an automated valet parking server that causes an autonomous driving vehicle in a parking place to perform automated valet parking by instructing the autonomous driving vehicle. The automated valet parking server includes an illuminance information acquisition unit configured to acquire illuminance information of front lighting devices of the autonomous driving vehicle, an illuminance suppression point setting unit configured to set an illuminance suppression point which is a position in the parking place at which illuminance of the front lighting devices of the autonomous driving vehicle is suppressed based on parking place map information of the parking place and the illuminance information of the front lighting devices of the autonomous driving vehicle, and an illuminance suppression instruction unit configured to instruct the autonomous driving vehicle to perform illuminance suppression at the illuminance suppression point.

A vehicle communication system installed in a vehicle includes: a lamp for illumination, a display or signal; a display that is configured by a planar light emitter and has an information display function; and a control unit that is capable of controlling turning-on of the lamp and of the display. The control unit is configured to control the lamp and the display in a linked manner, and present vehicle information indicating a condition of the vehicle by combining light emission of the lamp with information display of the display.

Disclosed is an electronic device for a vehicle, including a processor acquiring image data acquired by a camera mounted in a vehicle, determining a riding intention of an outside person based on the location, posture, and gesture of the outside person detected from the image data, and generating a control signal to stop the vehicle based on the riding intention.

Systems, apparatus and methods may be configured to implement actively-controlled light emission from a robotic vehicle. A light emitter(s) of the robotic vehicle may be configurable to indicate a direction of travel of the robotic vehicle and/or display information (e.g., a greeting, a notice, a message, a graphic, passenger/customer/client content, vehicle livery, customized livery) using one or more colors of emitted light (e.g., orange for a first direction and purple for a second direction), one or more sequences of emitted light (e.g., a moving image/graphic), or positions of light emitter(s) on the robotic vehicle (e.g., symmetrically positioned light emitters). The robotic vehicle may not have a front or a back (e.g., a trunk/a hood) and may be configured to travel bi-directionally, in a first direction or a second direction (e.g., opposite the first direction), with the direction of travel being indicated by one or more of the light emitters.

Systems, apparatus and methods implemented in algorithms, software, firmware, logic, or circuitry may be configured to process data and sensory input to determine whether an object external to an autonomous vehicle (e.g., another vehicle, a pedestrian, a bicyclist, etc.) may be a potential collision threat to the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle may include a light emitter positioned external to a surface of the autonomous vehicle and being configured to implement a visual alert by emitting light from the light emitter. Data representing a light pattern may be received by the light emitter and the light emitted by the display may be indicative of the light pattern. The light pattern may be selected to gain the attention of the object (e.g., a pedestrian, a driver of a car, a bicyclists, etc.) in order to avoid the potential collision or to alert the object to the presence of the autonomous vehicle.

Systems and methods for interactions between an autonomous vehicle and one or more external observers include virtual models of drivers the autonomous vehicle. The virtual models may be generated by the autonomous vehicle and displayed to one or more external observers, and in some cases using devices worn by the external observers. The virtual models may facilitate interactions between the external observers and the autonomous vehicle using gestures or other visual cues. The virtual models may be encrypted with characteristics of an external observer, such as the external observer's face image, iris, or other representative features. Multiple virtual models for multiple external observers may be simultaneously used for multiple communications while preventing interference due to possible overlap of the multiple virtual models.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provides a method and an apparatus for controlling an unmanned vehicle, an electronic device and a computer readable storage medium. In this method, the computer device of the unmanned vehicle determines occurrence of an event associated with physical discomfort of a passenger in the vehicle. The computer device also determines a severity degree of the physical discomfort of the passenger. The computer device further controls a driving action of the vehicle based on the determined severity degree.