Systems and methods for predicting travel patterns of a vehicle or one or more occupants in the vehicle are provided. A transceiver may receive data indicative of at least one of passenger information, vehicle occupancy, vehicle status, and vehicle location from at least one of a voice recognition device, IoT sensors such as seat sensors, vehicle status sensors, or a GPS system. A processor may determine travel patterns based on the data, predict travel patterns based on the determined travel patterns, and generate a database comprising the predicted travel patterns. In addition, the processor may generate an alert if the determined travel pattern deviates from the predicted travel patterns.

This document describes methods by which a system determines a pickup/drop-off zone (PDZ) to which a vehicle will navigate to perform a ride service request. The system will define a PDZ that is a geometric interval that is within a lane of a road at the requested destination of the ride service request by: (i) accessing map data that includes the geometric interval; (ii) using the vehicle's length and the road's speed limit at the destination to calculate a minimum allowable length for the PDZ; (iii) setting, start point and end point boundaries for the PDZ having an intervening distance that is equal to or greater than the minimum allowable length; and (iv) positioning the PDZ in the lane at or within a threshold distance from the requested destination. The system will then generate a path to guide the vehicle to the PDZ.

A fleet management system coordinates multiple autonomous vehicles (AVs) to transport a group of passengers from one location to another. A single user can submit a request to the fleet management system to provide a ride for the group, the request specifying the number of passengers and the pickup location. The fleet management system determines a number of AVs to transport the group based on the number passengers, and dispatches this number of AVs to the pickup location. The AVs pick up the passengers at the pickup location, drive the passengers to a destination, and drop the passengers off at the destination.

The present disclosure provides a method comprising receiving a rideshare request from a user, the rideshare request including a destination; transporting the passenger to the destination using an autonomous vehicle (AV) having a plurality of windows comprising electrically switchable smart glass; during the transporting, monitoring a metric related to arrival of the AV at the destination; and untinting the windows when the monitored metric has a prescribed relationship to a threshold value.

An autonomous vehicle (AV) implements a notification system that provides notifications to user devices in nearby vehicles to alert drivers of the nearby vehicles of the AV's planned behavior. The notifications are delivered wirelessly and output by the user device to the drivers. The planned behaviors of the AV may not be conveyed by existing mechanisms, such as turning signals or hazard lights. The AV or the receiving user device may determine when an AV's planned behavior may impact a particular driver, and provide relevant notifications to the driver.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to determining and responding to an internal state of a self-driving vehicle. For instance, an image of an interior of the vehicle captured by a camera mounted in the vehicle is received. The image is processed in order to identify one or more visible markers at predetermined locations within the vehicle. The internal state of the vehicle is determined based on the identified one or more visible markers. A responsive action is identified action using the determined internal state, and the vehicle is controlled in order to perform the responsive action.

Examples are directed toward a system and method relating to mobile screening. For example, a mobile screening vehicle includes a passenger scanner that performs security scanning of a passenger on the mobile screening vehicle. The mobile screening vehicle also includes a verification system that verifies, consistent with the security scanning of passengers, that passengers on the mobile screening vehicle are approved to proceed to a secure area of a travel venue.

A control system for an autonomous vehicle is configured to pick up a passenger at a pickup location. The autonomous vehicle includes a self-driving system and one or more computing devices in communication with the self-driving system. The one or more computing devices are configured to receive a trip request including a pickup location and a destination location, the trip request being associated with a client device; cause the self-driving system to navigate the autonomous vehicle to the pickup location; send a prompt to the client device to collect semantic information; determine a specified location based on the semantic information received in response to the prompt; identify one or more semantic markers for the specified location from the semantic information; and send a message to the client device identifying the specified location using the one or more semantic markers.

A controller includes an extraction unit, an arrival time calculation unit, a departure time calculation unit, a stop location calculation unit and a transmission unit. The extraction unit extracts stop-scheduled vehicles, which are scheduled to stop in a stopping area. The arrival time calculation unit calculates arrival times when the stop-scheduled vehicles will arrive at the stopping area based at least on user-side information of users who use the stop-scheduled vehicles, or on position information of the stop-scheduled vehicles. The departure time calculation unit calculates a scheduled departure order indicating an order in which the stop-scheduled vehicles will depart the stopping area. The stop location calculation unit calculates stop locations of the stop-scheduled vehicles based on the scheduled departure order. The transmission unit transmits information indicating the stop locations to the stop-scheduled vehicles.

A vehicle sharing system includes a vehicle having interior transceiver modules associated with different passenger seating areas and a vehicle computing system (VCS) including a processor and a memory in communication with the modules and programmed to detect occupancy status of each seating area based on signals from the modules and to communicate the occupancy statuses to a remote server to facilitate scheduling of ride-sharing passengers for a specified seating area of the vehicle. The reserved seating location may be used to align the seating location/door with a passenger during pick-up, adjust vehicle accessory settings associated with the reserved seating location, and activate a visual indicator to direct the passenger to the assigned/reserved seating location.