Explainability of autonomous vehicle decision making

US11577746B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignees

• NISSAN NORTH AMERICA, INC. · US
• University of Massachusetts · US
• United States of America as represented by the Administrator of NASA · US
• Renault S.A.S. · FR

Inventors

• Kyle Hollins Wray · Fremont, US
• Omar Bentahar · Sunnyvale, US
• Astha Vagadia · San Jose, US
• Laura Cesafsky · San Francisco, US
• Arec Jamgochian · Stanford, US
• Stefan Witwicki · San Carlos, US
• Najamuddin Mirza Baig · San Jose, US
• Julius S. Gyorfi · Vernon Hills, US
• Shlomo Zilberstein · Amherst, US
• Sparsh Sharma · Luxembourg, LU

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 17, 2020
• Grant date: Feb 14, 2023
• Expiry date: Oct 26, 2040

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B60W2050/146
• WIPO field: Transport
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A processor is configured to execute instructions stored in a memory to determine, in response to identifying vehicle operational scenarios of a scene, an action for controlling the AV, where the action is from a selected decision component that determined the action based on level of certainty associated with a state factor; generate an explanation as to why the action was selected, such that the explanation includes respective descriptors of the action, the selected decision component, and the state factor; and display the explanation in a graphical view that includes a first graphical indicator of a world object of the selected decision component, a second graphical indicator describing the state factor, and a third graphical indicator describing the action.