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.

A system and method are provided for estimating a fluid level in a reservoir disposed in a vehicle compartment having a compartment cover. The method includes monitoring at least one operational parameter relating to the reservoir, monitoring a state of the compartment cover using a sensing device, detecting a triggering event based on the at least one operational parameter, the state of the compartment cover, or both, and in response to the triggering event, determining an estimate for an amount of fluid in the reservoir based on data related to the triggering event, and initiating a notification to a vehicle occupant when the estimated amount of fluid in the reservoir is less than or equal to a low level threshold.

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 vehicle recharging or refueling are disclosed. Autonomous vehicles may be automatically refueled by routing the vehicles to available fueling stations when not in operation, according to methods described herein. A fuel level within a tank of an autonomous vehicle may be monitored until it reaches a refueling threshold, at which point an on-board computer may generate a predicted use profile for the vehicle. Based upon the predicted use profile, a time and location for the vehicle to refuel the vehicle may be determined. In some embodiments, the vehicle may be controlled to automatically travel to a fueling station, refill a fuel tank, and return to its starting location in order to refuel when not in use.

Systems, apparatus, and computer-readable media for verifying operations of vehicle control systems are disclosed. During a test cycle, a processor may monitor control modules and/or sensors embedded in a vehicle for control system data, may generate and report fingerprint based on a combination of the control system data, and may report the fingerprint to a remote computing device. During deployment, the processor may monitor the control modules/sensors for control system data, may generate and performance results based on a combination of the control system data, and may report the performance results to the processor. The process may verify whether the control systems of the vehicle are operating as desired based on a comparison of the performance results with the fingerprint. The remote computing device may generate and send an alert or flag to a remote device if the control systems of the vehicle are not operating as desired.

A computer-based method for maintaining an autonomous or self-driving vehicle is provided. The method is implemented using a vehicle controlling (“VC”) computer device installed on the vehicle. The method may include determining that a maintenance operation is required for the self-driving vehicle, retrieving an operator schedule for an operator of the self-driving vehicle, retrieving a facility schedule for a facility, determining a time for performing the maintenance operation based upon the operator schedule, the facility schedule, and an amount of time required to (i) complete the maintenance operation, (ii) drive the self-driving vehicle from a first location to the facility to arrive at the determined time, and (iii) drive the self-driving vehicle to a second location, instructing the self-driving vehicle to drive from the first location to the facility to arrive at the determined time; and/or instructing the self-driving vehicle to drive from the facility a second location.

A method for checking a vehicle includes receiving measured data by an electronic computing device which is external to the vehicle and which is different from the vehicle. The measured data are received from a measurement device which is different from the vehicle and different from the electronic computing device and the measured data characterize an acceleration of the vehicle recorded by the measurement device and/or a noise of the vehicle recorded by the measurement device and/or an image of a subregion of the vehicle recorded by the measurement device. The received measured data are evaluated by the electronic computing device and the vehicle is checked for a malfunction based on the evaluating of the received measured data by the electronic computing device.

A method and an apparatus are provided for providing a vehicle component fault score. Faults that occur on vehicle components in a plurality of vehicles are tracked. One or more sets of attribute values are compiled for the tracked faults. A set of attribute values is collected for each item within one or more preset vehicle categories. A fault score is calculated for each set of the compiled attribute values. A set of one or more items with respective fault scores is displayed based on a preset vehicle category selected by a user.

Even in the case where a vehicle is not utilized for a long period of time, not only maintenance notification but notification of countermeasures is performed by use of vehicle information. There are provided a control unit that calculates a maintenance timing based on vehicle information obtained by a vehicle information I/F, a present time measured by a time measurement unit, and maintenance information stored in a memory unit, and a display unit that notifies a user of arrival of the maintenance timing and a maintenance method; from the result of a failure determination based on the vehicle information, a stoppage period during which the vehicle has stopped, a usage period of the vehicle part between the usage-start time and the present time, and mileage of the vehicle or an engine driving time, the control unit detects that the maintenance timing for the vehicle part has arrived; based on detection by the control unit, the display unit notifies the user of arrival of a maintenance timing and a maintenance method.

A computerized, on-road, vehicle service handling method involves, while a user is driving a vehicle between first and second locations, receiving a fault condition signal from an on-board diagnostic system; automatically transmitting information to multiple vehicle service locations ahead of the vehicle, including vehicle and fault information and an individual estimated time of arrival (ETA) based upon current location and speed; receiving individual service responses including at least a parts and labor cost estimate, and at least one appointment time after the ETA; receiving a selection by the user of at least two of the provided vehicle service locations and an order of preference thereof; sending payment information to the first vehicle service location; receiving a communication either accepting or rejecting, and, if accepted, automatically directing the user to the first vehicle service location, but if rejected, sending the payment information to a next preferred vehicle service location.