Embodiments for operational envelope detection (OED) with situational assessment are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method comprises: determining at least one current or future constraint for a trajectory of a vehicle in an environment that is associated with the vehicle becoming immobile for an extended period of time; determining a stopping-reason for immobility of the vehicle based on determining the at least one current or future constraint for the trajectory of the vehicle in the environment; identifying a timeout threshold based on the stopping-reason, wherein the timeout threshold is an amount of time a planning system of the vehicle will wait before initiating at least one remedial action to address the immobility; identifying that the timeout threshold is satisfied; and initiating the at least one remedial action for the vehicle based on the identifying that the timeout threshold is satisfied.

Systems and methods are provided for navigating an autonomous vehicle using reinforcement learning techniques. In one implementation, a navigation system for a host vehicle may include at least one processing device programmed to: receive, from a camera, a plurality of images representative of an environment of the host vehicle; analyze the plurality of images to identify a navigational state associated with the host vehicle; provide the navigational state to a trained navigational system: receive, from the trained navigational system, a desired navigational action for execution by the host vehicle in response to the identified navigational state; analyze the desired navigational action relative to one or more predefined navigational constraints; determine an actual navigational action for the host vehicle, wherein the actual navigational action includes at least one modification of the desired navigational action determined based on the one or more predefined navigational constraints; and cause at least one adjustment of a navigational actuator of the host vehicle in response to the determined actual navigational action for the host vehicle.

Systems and methods for controlling an autonomous vehicle are provided. In one example embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes receiving data indicative of an operating mode of the vehicle, wherein the vehicle is configured to operate in a plurality of operating modes. The method includes determining one or more response characteristics of the vehicle based at least in part on the operating mode of the vehicle, each response characteristic indicating how the vehicle responds to a potential collision. The method includes controlling the vehicle based at least in part on the one or more response characteristics.

The technology relates to autonomous vehicles suffering a breakdown along a roadway. Onboard systems may utilize various proactive operations to alert specific vehicles or other objects on or near the roadway about the breakdown. This can be done alternatively or in addition to turning on the hazard lights or calling for remote assistance. The disabled vehicle is able to detect nearby and approaching objects. The detection may be performed in combination with a determination of the type of object or predicted behavior for that object, enables the vehicle to generate a targeted alert that can be transmitted or otherwise presented to that particular object. This approach provides the other object, such as a vehicle, bicyclist or pedestrian, sufficient time and information about the breakdown to take appropriate corrective action. Different communication options are available and may be selected based on the particular object, environmental conditions and other factors.

A method for contingency planning for an autonomous vehicle (AV) includes determining a nominal trajectory for the AV; detecting a hazard object that does not intrude into a path of the AV at a time of the detecting the hazard object; determining a hazard zone for the hazard object; determining a time of arrival of the AV at the hazard zone; determining a contingency trajectory for the AV; controlling the AV according to the contingency trajectory; and, in response to the hazard object intruding into the path of the AV, controlling the AV to perform a maneuver to avoid the hazard object. The contingency trajectory includes at least one of a lateral contingency or a longitudinal contingency. The contingency trajectory is determined using the time of arrival of the AV at the hazard zone.

Postal, package, and grocery deliveries are performed routinely everywhere around the world. Currently, the delivery truck drives slowly, and the postman or delivery man goes from one house to another. The postman already has a box that he carries with the sorted letters for a few of the contiguous houses, stops the truck, and walks to the different houses in the bunch, and then moves the truck and goes to the next bunch of houses. In this invention, the package delivery truck will automatically follow the mailman while still staying close to the curb to minimize traffic issues. Here, the autonomous package or delivery truck could actually go in front of the mailman to look for a good spot for the next cluster, or can wait for the mailman that is close to the last house of the current cluster, pick him up, and drop off at the center of the next cluster, or at the first house of the next cluster. In addition, there are robots that replace the function of the human (mailman or grocery delivery man).

An alert control apparatus that notifies a driver in advance of a transfer of control relating to a driving operation from an automatic driving function to the driver by controlling an alert device mounted on a vehicle, which is equipped with the automatic driving function, includes: an estimator that estimates an occurrence of a change execution situation that requires a lane change under a condition in which the driving operation of the vehicle is controlled by the automatic driving function; a determiner that determines a level of difficulty of lane change control based on a plurality of travel environment factors in the change execution situation; and a notification device that notifies the driver of a possibility of the transfer of the control together with a reason of the transfer of the control with a notification mode corresponding to the level using the alert device.

A method for detecting vulnerable road users (VRUs) using wireless signals includes receiving, by a wireless receiver, wireless signals from mobile devices and determining received signal strength indication (RSSI) levels of the wireless signals. The wireless signals and the RSSI levels of the wireless signals received by the wireless receiver are analyzed so as to determine at least one location of the VRUs. A notification is issued to the vehicle or a driver of the vehicle based on the at least one determined location of the VRUs.

An apparatus for assisting driving of a vehicle includes a camera mounted to the vehicle for viewing an area in front of the vehicle, a radar sensor mounted to the vehicle to sense around the vehicle, and a controller connected to the camera and/or the radar sensor to detect obstacles and perform collision avoidance control. The controller is further configured to recognize a first obstacle approaching in a lateral direction from an outside of a driving lane of the vehicle, generate and store a collision avoidance path for avoiding collision with the first obstacle, recognize a third obstacle passing behind a second obstacle in the lateral direction after the recognition of the first obstacle is interrupted by the second obstacle, and perform collision avoidance control of the vehicle based on a similarity between the first obstacle and the third obstacle and based on the stored collision avoidance path.

Smart car operations provide information or entertainment content for a person by detecting when a person is alone in a car, adjusting a speech recognizer in the car to focus capturing speech from the person's position in the car; playing content in the car as requested by the person; when the person exits the car and enters a building, transferring the speech recognizer from the car to a building speech recognizer along with a current play state of the content; and resuming playing the content on a device in the house on request without interruption.