Service area maps for autonomous vehicles

1. A method of providing service area maps for an autonomous vehicle transportation service, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving, by one or more server computing devices, a first location from a client computing device;

identifying, by the one or more server computing devices, at least one vehicle available to provide transportation services based on the first location;

accessing for the at least one identified vehicle at least one vehicle-specific polygon corresponding to a service area defined, in part, by the capabilities of the at least one identified vehicle;

using, by the one or more server computing devices, the at least one vehicle-specific polygon to determine a geographic area;

providing, by the one or more server computing devices, map information corresponding to the geographic area of the vehicle-specific polygon to the client computing device for display to a user; and

dispatching to the user, by one or more server computer devices, the at least one identified vehicle, based, at least in part, upon the at least one vehicle-specific polygon.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first location is a pickup location for a trip to be taken by the user.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first location is a current location of the client computing device.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a notification that an application of the client computing device for the autonomous vehicle transportation service has been opened, and wherein the identifying the at least one vehicle is in response to the notification.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the at least one vehicle includes identifying a vehicle able to reach the first location in order to pick up the user.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the geographic area includes determining a largest area covered by all of the polygons associated with the at least one vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the geographic area includes determining an overlapping area where all of the polygons associated with the at least one vehicle overlap with one another.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, reducing the at least one vehicle-specific polygon using a polygon corresponding to a service area for the user, and wherein the reduced at least one vehicle-specific polygon is used to identify the geographic area.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the reduced first polygon corresponds to an area of intersection between the at least one vehicle-specific polygon and the polygon corresponding to a service area for the user.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one vehicle is associated with a set of pick up and/or drop off locations, and the method further comprises:

determining a first set of pick up and/or drop off locations based on the sets of pick up and/or drop off locations for the at least one vehicle; and

providing the first set of pick up and/or drop off locations to the client computing device.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein determining the first set of pick up and/or drop off locations is further based on the geographic area.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising, prior to providing the first set of pick up and/or drop off locations to the client computing device, filtering the first set of pick up and/or drop off locations based on any limitations on pick up and drop off locations for the user.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a notification from the client computing device confirming a trip including a pickup location and a drop off location;

in response to receiving the notification, assigning a vehicle to the trip; and

determining a second portion of map information using the at least one vehicle-specific polygon of the assigned vehicle.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein determining the second portion of map information is further based on a polygon corresponding to a service area for the user.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising determining an intersection between the at least one vehicle-specific polygon of the assigned vehicle and the polygon corresponding to a service area for the user, and wherein determining the second portion of map information is further based on the intersection.

16. The method of claim 13 , further comprising, sending the second portion of map information to the assigned vehicle for display to the user in order to prevent the user from attempting to go outside of the service area for the trip during the trip.

17. The method of claim 13 , further comprising, sending the second portion of map information to the client computing device for display to the user in order to prevent the user from attempting to go outside of the service area for the trip during the trip.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the at least one vehicle is associated with a set of drop off locations, and the method further comprises:

determining a first set of drop off locations based on the set of drop off locations for the assigned vehicle; and

providing the first set of drop off locations to at least one of the assigned vehicle or the client computing device.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising determining an intersection between the at least one vehicle-specific polygon of the assigned vehicle and a polygon corresponding to a service area for the user, and wherein determining the first set of drop off location is further based on the intersection.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising, prior to providing the first set of drop off locations to the assigned vehicle or the client computing device, filtering the first set of drop off locations based on any limitations on drop off locations for the user.