Revving an engine may be helpful in various contexts, such as when servicing the vehicle. For example, in some types of services, a cleaning agent may be introduced into the intake and surrounding regions of an engine, and the engine may be revved to reduce a likelihood that the cleaning agent might puddle. In some instances, a device can be positioned within a vehicle interior and can be used to automatically rev the vehicle engine by depressing on the vehicle throttle. In other examples, an engine revving device may send a signal to an electronic-controlled throttle actuator.

An automated vehicle inspection system includes a diagnostic terminal mounted in a vehicle and connected to an engine control unit (ECU) of the vehicle, sequentially operating individual electric components through the ECU based on stored electric component inspection items while the vehicle passes through a watertight booth and receiving individual operating currents measured to determine whether the electric components normally operate, a transceiver connecting to the diagnostic terminal and a wireless diagnostic communication network through an antenna disposed in the watertight booth process line, and an inspector recognizing a vehicle ID of a vehicle that enters the watertight booth, transmitting inspection items according to a vehicle type and specification of the vehicle ID to the diagnostic terminal through the diagnostic communication network, and recognizing a vehicle ID of a vehicle that leaves the watertight booth to collect inspection results determined in the diagnostic terminal.

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.

Methods and systems for assessing, detecting, and responding to malfunctions involving components of autonomous vehicles and/or smart homes are described herein. Autonomous operation features and related components can be assessed using direct or indirect data regarding operation. Such assessment may be performed to determine the robustness of autonomous systems, including the use of virtual assessment of software components within a simulated environment. To this end, a server may retrieve one or more routines associated with autonomous operation. The server may also generate a set of test data associated with test conditions. The server may also execute an emulator that virtually simulates autonomous environment. The test data may be presented to the routines executing in the emulator to generate output data. The server may then analyze the output data to determine a quality metric.

Methods and systems for assessing, detecting, and responding to malfunctions involving components of autonomous vehicles and/or smart homes are described herein. Autonomous operation features and related components can be assessed using direct or indirect data regarding operation. Such assessment may be performed to determine the robustness of autonomous systems, including the use of virtual assessment of software components within a simulated environment. To this end, a server may retrieve one or more routines associated with autonomous operation. The server may also generate a set of test data associated with test conditions. The server may also execute an emulator that virtually simulates autonomous environment. The test data may be presented to the routines executing in the emulator to generate output data. The server may then analyze the output data to determine a quality metric.

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.

Methods and systems for autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle routing are disclosed. Roadway suitability for autonomous operation is scored to facilitate use in route determination. Maps of roadways suitable for various levels of autonomous operation may be generated. Such map data may be used by autonomous vehicles or other computer devices in determining routes based upon criteria for vehicle trips. Such routes may be automatically updated based upon changes in road conditions, vehicle conditions, operator conditions, or environmental conditions. Emergency routing using such map data is described, such as automatic routing and travel when a passenger is experiencing a medical emergency.

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.

A system includes a controller configured to store a relationship matrix of a plurality of diagnostic estimators and a plurality of failure modes, each failure mode represents a type of failure that can occur with (i) a sensor or (ii) a vehicle component of a vehicle system, each diagnostic estimator is associated with a respective subset of the failure modes, each respective subset defines a control volume within the vehicle system that contains at least one of (i) one or more sensors or (ii) one or more vehicle components; store a healthy diagnostic vector regarding nominal operational parameters of the vehicle system; acquire diagnostic information regarding current operational parameters of the vehicle system to generate an error diagnostic vector; divide the error diagnostic vector by the healthy diagnostic vector to generate a ratio diagnostic vector; multiply the ratio diagnostic vector with the relationship matrix to generate a value for each failure mode.

An on-board communication device, an on-board communication system, and a specific processing prohibition method for a vehicle, in which a specific service can be prevented from being provided without limitation is disclosed. The on-board communication system can perform update processing of a relay processing program for a gateway using a wireless communication path through a wireless communication device or a communication path through a communication cable connected to a connector unit. When receiving an authentication request through either of the two communication paths, the gateway performs authentication processing, and if the authentication processing was successful, the gateway receives an update relay processing program through this communication path, and performs update processing by overwriting a stored relay processing program. At this time, the gateway prohibits update processing through any communication path other than the communication path through which the authentication processing was performed.