A management server executes interval adjustment processing to adjust a service frequency of a ride-sharing vehicle group. In the interval adjustment processing, it is judged whether or not a vehicle pair composed of two vehicles in a relationship of a preceding vehicle and a following vehicle includes a stopping vehicle that stops in a pick-up and drop-off point as a following vehicle. Further, it is judged whether or not the vehicle pair corresponds to a separated pair. If it is judged that vehicle pair includes the stopping vehicle as the following vehicle and the said vehicle pair corresponds to the separated pair, selection processing to select an overtaking vehicle is executed. The overtaking vehicle is a ride-sharing vehicle that overtakes with the stopping vehicle to cut into between the separated pair. An overtake instruction is transmitted to the overtaking vehicle selected by the selection processing.

The present disclosure is directed to altering vehicle paths. In particular, a computing system can access map data for a geographic area. The computing system can obtain target zone data describing a target zone within the geographic area. The computing system can determine an altered nominal path to traverse the target zone. The computing system can designate a portion of the altered nominal path as a designated action region associated with the target zone. The computing system can generate a longitudinal plan for an autonomous vehicle through the geographic area based on the altered nominal path. The computing system can generate a target velocity for one or more portions of the nominal path within the designated action region. The computing system can generate a trajectory for the autonomous vehicle based on the target velocity and the altered nominal path.

A vehicle includes: a footstep used to get on or off the vehicle; a driving unit configured to drive the footstep so that at least a part of the footstep is accommodated at an accommodation position hidden in a body of the vehicle; an imaging unit configured to image a vicinity of the vehicle; a person detection unit configured to detect a person from an image captured by the imaging unit; a user determination unit configured to determine whether the person detected by the person detection unit is a registered user who has been registered in advance; and a first control unit configured to control the driving unit such that the footstep is moved from the accommodation position to a use position at which at least a part of the footstep is exposed to outside of the vehicle when the user determination unit determines that the person is the registered user, and the footstep is moved to the accommodation position after the person gets on the vehicle.

A vehicle includes a slope device configured to perform deployment and storage of a slope, a camera, and a door and slope control device configured to communicate with a server including a getting-on reservation database including attribute information of a passenger, and perform deployment and storage of the slope by the slope device, in which the door and slope control device is configured to, when the vehicle is stopped to allow the passenger to get on the vehicle, confirm the attribute information of the passenger acquired from the getting-on reservation database of the server based on an image of the passenger captured by the camera, and perform deployment of the slope depending on the confirmed attribute information.

Various technologies described herein pertain to reserving seats in an autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle includes a plurality of seats that can be occupied by passengers when riding in the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle is configured to assign a particular seat from the plurality of seats in the autonomous vehicle to a passenger based on information pertaining to the passenger and information pertaining to a ride-sharing trip. The autonomous vehicle is to transport at least the passenger and a differing passenger during at least a portion of the ride-sharing trip. Moreover, the passenger and the differing passenger independently request rides in the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle is further configured to output, to the passenger, an indication of the particular seat assigned to the passenger.

Provided herein is technology relating to automated driving and particularly, but not exclusively, to a system configured to provide full vehicle operations and control for connected and automated vehicles (CAV) and, more particularly, to a system configured to manage and/or control CAV by sending individual vehicles with detailed and time-sensitive control instructions for lateral and longitudinal movement of vehicles, including vehicle following, lane changing, route guidance, and related information.

A method of assigning a vehicle to a trip request in a transportation system including a plurality of vehicles configured to autonomously navigate along a roadway may include receiving, at a dispatch server system of the transportation system, a trip request. The trip request may include an origin location, a destination location, and a requested vehicle arrival time. The method may further include identifying a subset of vehicles from the plurality of vehicles, each respective vehicle in the identified subset of vehicles having sufficient energy to travel from the origin location to the destination location and having a respective estimated time of arrival at the origin location corresponding to a time at which the origin location is predicted to have available boarding capacity. The method may further include choosing, from the subset of vehicles, a selected vehicle having an earliest estimated time of arrival at the origin location.

Example systems and methods enable an autonomous vehicle to request assistance from a remote operator in certain predetermined situations. One example method includes determining a representation of an environment of an autonomous vehicle based on sensor data of the environment. Based on the representation, the method may also include identifying a situation from a predetermined set of situations for which the autonomous vehicle will request remote assistance. The method may further include sending a request for assistance to a remote assistor, the request including the representation of the environment and the identified situation. The method may additionally include receiving a response from the remote assistor indicating an autonomous operation. The method may also include causing the autonomous vehicle to perform the autonomous operation.

Systems and methods for creation of custom behavior zones for autonomous vehicles, providing a more tailored experience for passengers as well as businesses. Custom behavior zones allow passengers to request or select a specific pick-up/drop-off location on private property. In some examples, custom behavior zones are created in private gated communities, on residential properties with long driveways, on government property, and at businesses that have multiple entrances and/or offer different services at various locations on the business property.

Disclosed herein is a method and apparatus for managing lost property in a shared autonomous vehicle, which determine a likely lost property spot based on a location and time a passenger is highly likely to lose their property, by monitoring the passenger's movements in the vehicle and classifying the passenger's behavior as a behavior pattern that makes the passenger prone to losing their property. Accordingly, the passenger may send a lost property retrieval request, and the passenger may be given guidance on how to retrieve the lost property, thereby allowing for efficient management of lost property in a shared autonomous vehicle. One or more among an autonomous vehicle, user terminal, and server according to the present invention may be associated with an artificial intelligence module, a drone (or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)) robot, an augmented reality (AR) device, a virtual reality (VR) device, and a 5G service-related device.