Methods and systems for assessing, detecting, and responding to malfunctions involving components of autonomous vehicles and/or smart homes are described herein. Malfunctions may be detected by receiving sensor data from a plurality of sensors. One of these sensors may be selected for assessment. An electronic device may obtain from the selected sensor a set of signals. When the set of signals includes signals that are outside of a determined range of signals associated with proper functioning for the selected sensor, it may be determined that the selected sensor is malfunctioning. In response, an action may be performed to resolve the malfunction and/or mitigate consequences of the malfunction.

Methods and systems for autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle control relating to malfunctions are disclosed. Malfunctioning sensors or software of autonomous vehicles may be identified from operating data of the vehicle, and a component maintenance requirement status associated with such malfunctioning component may be generated. Based upon such status, usage restrictions may be enacted to limit operation of the vehicle while the component is malfunctioning. This may include disabling or restricting use of certain autonomous or semi-autonomous features of the vehicle until the component is repaired or replaced. Repair may be accomplished by automatically scheduling repair of the vehicle or installing an updated or uncorrupted version of a software program, in various embodiments.

Systems, apparatus, articles of manufacture, and methods are disclosed to remove a steering wheel of a vehicle. As disclosed herein, a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause processor circuitry of a vehicle to: detect a request to remove a steering wheel from a steering system of a vehicle; verify a user identity based on a user profile, the user profile stored in a memory associated with the vehicle; determine whether a disengagement criterion is satisfied; and after the user identity is detected and the disengagement criterion is satisfied, disengage a lock to enable removal of the steering wheel from the steering system of the vehicle.

An occupant identification system for enabling a vehicle and method of operating the same includes a plurality of biometric sensors generating sensor signals. A controller is programmed to determine static data from the biometric sensors, determine dynamic biometric data over time from the biometric sensors corresponding to occupant body movements, determine a sensor fusion based on the static data and the dynamic biometric data, compare the sensor fusion to a user profile and enable a vehicle function when the sensor fusion corresponds to the user profile.

Methods and systems for communicating between autonomous vehicles are described herein. Such communication may be performed for signaling, collision avoidance, path coordination, and/or autonomous control. A computing device may receive data for the same road segment from autonomous vehicles, including (i) an indication of a location within the road segment, and (ii) an indication of a condition of the road segment. The computing device may generate, from the data for the same road segment, an overall indication of the condition of the road segment, which may include a recommendation to vehicles approaching the road segment. Additionally, the computing device may receive a request from a computing device within a vehicle approaching the road segment to display vehicle data. The overall indication for the road segment may then be displayed on a user interface of the computing device.

Systems, apparatus, articles of manufacture, and methods are disclosed to remove a steering wheel of a vehicle. As disclosed herein, a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause processor circuitry of a vehicle to: detect a request to remove a steering wheel from a steering system of a vehicle; verify a user identity based on a user profile, the user profile stored in a memory associated with the vehicle; determine whether a disengagement criterion is satisfied; and after the user identity is detected and the disengagement criterion is satisfied, disengage a lock to enable removal of the steering wheel from the steering system of the vehicle.

A golf cart system includes a golf cart and one or more processing circuits. The one or more processing circuits are configured to acquire a unique identifier associated with a user of the golf cart, determine one or more parameters associated with the unique identifier where the one or more parameters define one or more operating conditions of the golf cart, and permit operation of the golf cart by the user in accordance with the one or more operating conditions.

The present disclosure provides a vehicle digital key system including a digital key management server and a vehicle. The vehicle may be configured to transmit, to the digital key management server and based on a user terminal being located within a threshold distance from the vehicle, a digital key authentication request. The digital key management server may be configured to transmit, to the user terminal, the digital key authentication request. The digital key authentication request may cause the user terminal to perform, based on the digital key authentication request and based on biometric identification information of a user, authentication of the user; and transmit, to the digital key management server, an authentication response. The digital key management server may be further configured to transmit, to the vehicle, the authentication response. The vehicle may be further configured to perform an operation of the vehicle.