Systems and methods for autonomous vehicles
View Patent ↗An autonomous vehicle configured to facilitate its use and/or enhance what it and/or occupants can do with it, such as, for example, by: autonomously acting based on events within the autonomous vehicle, including by autonomously rerouting itself, altering a cabin of the autonomous vehicle, notifying a third party external to the autonomous vehicle, stopping (e.g., parking) the autonomous vehicle, altering how the autonomous vehicle drives itself, and/or performing other actions based on what and/or how an occupant is doing, an emergency, or another event occurring in the cabin of the autonomous vehicle; autonomously acting based on interactions with (e.g., gestures of) humans (e.g., police officers, school-crossing guards, traffic guards at roadwork or other temporary traffic control sites, drivers of other vehicles, etc.) external to the autonomous vehicle; autonomously acting based on indicators placed at particular locations (e.g., drive-through establishments, potholes, parking spots, etc.); facilitating acts of occupants in the cabin of the autonomous vehicle, such as acts unrelated to and normally not done while driving, including, for example, sleeping, exercising, working, eating, cooking, and/or any other suitable act; and/or automatically personalizing the autonomous vehicle for an occupant (e.g., a configuration of the cabin, a self-driving mode, a destination and/or a route, etc.).
1 . A vehicle comprising: a cabin; and a control system configured to autonomously drive the vehicle, monitor an environment of the vehicle, detect a gesture of a human who is outside and controls traffic in the environment of the vehicle, determine that the gesture of the human encodes a command for the vehicle to leave a lane in which the vehicle is located, and autonomously move the vehicle out of the lane based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human; wherein the control system is further configured to detect a scene of an accident from the environment of the vehicle at the scene of the accident and autonomously move the vehicle relative to the lane based on the scene of the accident; wherein, to autonomously move the vehicle relative to the lane based on the scene of the accident, the control system is configured to autonomously return the vehicle to the lane based on the scene of the accident; wherein, to autonomously move the vehicle relative to the lane based on the scene of the accident, the control system is configured to determine a distance from the scene of the accident and autonomously move the vehicle relative to the lane based on the distance from the scene of the accident.
2 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein: the lane is a first lane; the command encoded by the gesture of the human is for the vehicle to go from the first lane to a second lane; and, to autonomously move the vehicle out of the lane based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human, the control system is configured to autonomously move the vehicle from the first lane to the second lane based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human.
3 . The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the second lane is adjacent to the first lane.
4 . The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the second lane is opposite to the first lane.
5 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the control system is configured to determine a re-entry point of the vehicle into the lane based on surroundings of the vehicle other than any gesturing of the human and autonomously return the vehicle to the lane at the re-entry point of the vehicle into the lane.
6 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein, to detect the scene of the accident from the environment of the vehicle at the scene of the accident, the control system is configured to detect at least one of vehicular shape distortions, vehicular position distortions, color anomalies, and broken glass in the environment of the vehicle at the scene of the accident.
7 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein, to detect the scene of the accident from the environment of the vehicle at the scene of the accident, the control system is configured to detect an ambulance in the environment of the vehicle at the scene of the accident.
8 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein, before autonomously moving the vehicle out of the lane based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human, the control system is configured to confirm an authority of the human to provide the command.
9 . The vehicle of claim 8 , wherein, to confirm the authority of the human to provide the command, the control system is configured to detect at least one of a uniform and equipment of the human.
10 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein: the gesture of the human includes a movement of at least one of an arm and a hand of the human; and the control system is configured to detect the gesture of the human by capturing at least one image of the movement of the at least one of the arm and the hand of the human and applying a gesture recognition algorithm to the at least one image to recognize the gesture.
11 . A vehicle comprising: a cabin; and a control system configured to autonomously drive the vehicle, monitor an environment of the vehicle, detect a gesture of a human external to the vehicle from the environment of the vehicle, determine that the gesture of the human external to the vehicle encodes a command directed to the vehicle, detect a scene of an accident from the environment of the vehicle at the scene of the accident, and control autonomous driving of the vehicle based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle and the scene of the accident, wherein, to control the autonomous driving of the vehicle based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle and the scene of the accident, the control system is configured to autonomously move the vehicle out of a lane based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle, determine a distance from the scene of the accident, and autonomously move the vehicle relative to the lane based on the distance from the scene of the accident.
12 . The vehicle of claim 11 , wherein: the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle commands the vehicle to leave the lane.
13 . The vehicle of claim 12 , wherein: the lane is a first lane; the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle commands the vehicle to go from the first lane to a second lane; and, to autonomously move the vehicle out of the lane based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle, the control system is configured to autonomously move the vehicle from the first lane to the second lane based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle.
14 . The vehicle of claim 12 , wherein, to control the autonomous driving of the vehicle based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle and the scene of the accident, the control system is configured to autonomously return the vehicle to the lane based on the scene of the accident.
15 . The vehicle of claim 13 , wherein, to control the autonomous driving of the vehicle based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle and the scene of the accident, the control system is configured to autonomously move the vehicle along the second lane based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle and return the vehicle to the first lane based on the scene of the accident.
16 . The vehicle of claim 13 , wherein the second lane is opposite to the first lane.
17 . The vehicle of claim 11 , wherein the control system is configured to determine a re-entry point of the vehicle into the lane based on surroundings of the vehicle other than any gesturing of the human external to the vehicle and autonomously return the vehicle to the lane at the re-entry point of the vehicle into the lane.
18 . The vehicle of claim 11 , wherein, to detect the scene of the accident from the environment of the vehicle at the scene of the accident, the control system is configured to detect at least one of vehicular shape distortions, vehicular position distortions, color anomalies, broken glass, and an ambulance in the environment of the vehicle at the scene of the accident.
19 . The vehicle of claim 11 , wherein, before autonomously moving the vehicle out of the lane based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle, the control system is configured to confirm that the human external to the vehicle is a police officer.
20 . A vehicle comprising: a cabin; and a control system configured to autonomously drive the vehicle, monitor an environment of the vehicle, detect a gesture of a human external to the vehicle from the environment of the vehicle, determine that the gesture of the human external to the vehicle encodes a command for the vehicle to override a driving rule where the vehicle is located, autonomously move the vehicle based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle such that the vehicle overrides the driving rule while autonomously driven, detect a scene of an accident from the environment of the vehicle at the scene of the accident, and autonomously move the vehicle based on the scene of the accident such that the vehicle ceases to override the driving rule and is autonomously driven consistent with the driving rule; wherein, to autonomously move the vehicle based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle such that the vehicle overrides the driving rule while autonomously driven, the control system is configured to autonomously move the vehicle out of a lane based on the command encoded by the gesture of the human external to the vehicle; wherein, to autonomously move the vehicle based on the scene of the accident such that the vehicle ceases to override the driving rule and is autonomously driven consistent with the driving rule, the control system is configured to determine a distance from the scene of the accident and autonomously move the vehicle relative to the lane based on the distance from the scene of the accident.