Tele-operation of autonomous cars to negotiate problem situations

US10705539B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignees

• NISSAN NORTH AMERICA, INC. · US
• United States of America as represented by the Administrator of NASA · US

Inventors

• Liam Pedersen · San Francisco, US
• Maarten Sierhuis · San Francisco, US
• Hans Utz · Decatur, US
• Mauro Della Penna · San Francisco, US
• Terrence Fong · Sunnyvale, US
• Mark Allan · Campbell, US
• Maria Bualat · San Jose, US
• Eric Schafer · Poway, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 30, 2017
• Grant date: Jul 7, 2020
• Expiry date: Nov 30, 2037

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q50/40
• WIPO field: Control
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing remote support and negotiating problem situations of autonomous operation of vehicles based on signal states and vehicle information are described. The disclosed technology receives state data for the vehicles by an apparatus such as a remote vehicle support apparatus. The state data indicates a respective current state for the vehicles. The vehicles are each assigned to respective remote vehicle support queues based on the respective state data. An indication that one of the vehicles is requesting remote support is received by the remote vehicle support apparatus. In response to a determination that a change in the state data indicates that autonomous operation of the one of the vehicles is operating outside of defined parameter values, the remote support is provided to the one of the vehicles through a communications link by transmitting instruction data to modify the autonomous operation of the one of the vehicles.