Patents Assigned to Waymo LLC
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Patent number: 9958379Abstract: A light detection and ranging device associated with an autonomous vehicle scans through a scanning zone while emitting light pulses and receives reflected signals corresponding to the light pulses. The reflected signals indicate a three-dimensional point map of the distribution of reflective points in the scanning zone. A hyperspectral sensor images a region of the scanning zone corresponding to a reflective feature indicated by the three-dimensional point map. The output from the hyperspectral sensor includes spectral information characterizing a spectral distribution of radiation received from the reflective feature. The spectral characteristics of the reflective feature allow for distinguishing solid objects from non-solid reflective features, and a map of solid objects is provided to inform real time navigation decisions.Type: GrantFiled: December 1, 2015Date of Patent: May 1, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: Jiajun Zhu, David I. Ferguson, Dmitri A. Dolgov, Jonathan Baldwin Dowdall
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Patent number: 9958869Abstract: A system and method is provided for identifying an object along a road, where the object may be represented by a bounding box, and projecting a set of obstacle points within the bounding box corresponding to the identified object. In one aspect, a two-dimensional plane oriented perpendicular to a direction of the movement of the vehicle may be identified. In another aspect, the areas of the plane that may be occupied based on the set of obstacle points may be determined to generate a contour of the identified object. Thereafter, the height profiles of the identified object and the vehicle may be determined and identified, respectively. Based on the height profiles, a minimum clearance may be determined.Type: GrantFiled: May 18, 2017Date of Patent: May 1, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: Nathaniel Fairfield, Ian James Mahon
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Patent number: 9950619Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a vehicle for maneuvering an occupant of the vehicle to a destination autonomously as well as providing information about the vehicle and the vehicle's environment for display to the occupant.Type: GrantFiled: April 4, 2016Date of Patent: April 24, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: Min Li Chan, Philip Nemec, Brian Douglas Cullinane, Julien Charles Mercay, Peter Crandall
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Patent number: 9950708Abstract: Methods and apparatus are disclosed for customizing driving operations of a vehicle based on occupant(s) of the vehicle. An autonomous vehicle that includes a passenger compartment can determine a presence of an occupant of the passenger compartment. The autonomous vehicle can determine a location of the occupant within the passenger compartment. Additional information about the occupant can be determined. A driving operation can be selected from among a plurality of driving operations based on the location and additional information about the occupant. The selected driving operation can be performed, perhaps by the autonomous vehicle.Type: GrantFiled: July 1, 2015Date of Patent: April 24, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: Brian Cullinane, Nicholas Kenneth Hobbs
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Patent number: 9947224Abstract: Example systems and methods allow for reporting and sharing of information reports relating to driving conditions within a fleet of autonomous vehicles. One example method includes receiving information reports relating to driving conditions from a plurality of autonomous vehicles within a fleet of autonomous vehicles. The method may also include receiving sensor data from a plurality of autonomous vehicles within the fleet of autonomous vehicles. The method may further include validating some of the information reports based at least in part on the sensor data. The method may additionally include combining validated information reports into a driving information map. The method may also include periodically filtering the driving information map to remove outdated information reports. The method may further include providing portions of the driving information map to autonomous vehicles within the fleet of autonomous vehicles.Type: GrantFiled: December 13, 2016Date of Patent: April 17, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: Nathaniel Fairfield, Joshua Seth Herbach, Andrew Hughes Chatham, Michael Steven Montemerlo
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Patent number: 9939815Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure relate to detecting and responding to stop signs. An object detected in a vehicle's environment having location coordinates may be identified as a stop sign and, it may be determined whether the location coordinates of the identified stop sign correspond to a location of a stop sign in detailed map information. Then, whether the identified stop sign applies to the vehicle may be determined based on the detailed map information or on a number of factors. Then, if the identified stop sign is determined to apply to the vehicle, responses of the vehicle to the stop sign may be determined, and, the vehicle may be controlled based on the determined responses.Type: GrantFiled: June 14, 2017Date of Patent: April 10, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: David Harrison Silver, David Ian Franklin Ferguson, Abhijit S. Ogale, Wan-Yen Lo
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Patent number: 9937924Abstract: A method is provided that includes receiving user input identifying a travel destination for a first vehicle, determining, by a processor, a first route for the first vehicle to follow, and configuring the first vehicle to follow the first route. The method further includes obtaining a model for a second vehicle that shares a road with the first vehicle and comparing model to a pre-determined template for a vehicle that is known to be a special purpose vehicle in order to determine whether the first template and the second template match. The method further includes determining, by the processor, a second route that leads to the travel destination, when a match is found to exist, and switching the first vehicle from following the first route to following the second route.Type: GrantFiled: May 31, 2017Date of Patent: April 10, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventor: David I. Ferguson
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Patent number: 9932035Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to speed control in an autonomous vehicle. For example, an autonomous vehicle may include a user interface which allows the driver to input speed preferences. These preferences may include the maximum speed above the speed limit the user would like the autonomous vehicle to drive when other vehicles are present and driving above or below certain speeds. The other vehicles may be in adjacent or the same lane the vehicle, and need not be in front of the vehicle.Type: GrantFiled: June 6, 2016Date of Patent: April 3, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: David I. Ferguson, Dmitri A. Dolgov
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Patent number: 9933520Abstract: Disclosed herein are embodiments that relate to phase coded linear frequency modulation for a radar system. Embodiments include transmitting at least one signal pulse with a binary phase shift keying (BPSK) encoding. The method also includes receiving a signal associated with reflection of the at least one transmitted signal pulse. The received signal may include at least two channels. Further, the method may also include processing the received signal to determine target information. The processing may include performing a despread operation that provides a phase offset based on a filtering range. Additionally, the processing may include performing a reconstruction operation that comprises creating a virtual spatial channel based on combining the two received channels. Yet further, the processing may include determining the target information based on the virtual spatial channel. An autonomous vehicle may be controlled based on the determined target information.Type: GrantFiled: June 29, 2015Date of Patent: April 3, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventor: Timothy Campbell
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Patent number: 9935514Abstract: A printed circuit board (PCB) includes a first plurality of conductive paths having first ends at an inner radius of the PCB and second ends at an outer radius of the PCB. The PCB further includes a second plurality of conductive paths having first ends at an outer radius of the PCB and second ends at an inner radius of the PCB. The PCB further includes a first plurality of conductive vias that pass through the PCB at the outer radius of the PCB and couple second ends of the first plurality of conductive paths to first ends of the second plurality of conductive paths. The PCB further includes a second plurality of conductive vias that pass through the PCB at the inner radius of the PCB and electrically couple second ends of the second plurality of conductive paths to first ends of the first plurality of conductive paths.Type: GrantFiled: December 12, 2014Date of Patent: April 3, 2018Assignee: WAYMO LLCInventors: Samuel William Lenius, Paul Karplus, Alexander Danilo Zbrozek
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Patent number: 9933784Abstract: An autonomous vehicle may include a stuck condition detection component and a communications component. The stuck-detection component may be configured to detect a condition in which the autonomous vehicle is impeded from navigating according to a first trajectory. The communications component may send an assistance signal to an assistance center and receive a response to the assistance signal. The assistance signal may include sensor information from the autonomous vehicle. The assistance center may include a communications component and a trajectory specification component. The communications component may receive the assistance signal and send a corresponding response. The trajectory specification component may specify a second trajectory for the autonomous vehicle and generate the corresponding response that includes a representation of the second trajectory. The second trajectory may be based on the first trajectory and may ignore an object that obstructs the first trajectory.Type: GrantFiled: December 7, 2016Date of Patent: April 3, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: Joshua Seth Herbach, Nathaniel Fairfield
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Patent number: 9928431Abstract: A vehicle configured to operate in an autonomous mode may engage in a reverse-parallax analysis that includes a vehicle system detecting an object, capturing via a camera located at a first location a first image of the detected object, retrieving location data specifying (i) a location of a target object, (ii) the first location, and (iii) a direction of the camera, and based on the location data and the position of the detected object in the first image, predicting where in a second image captured from a second location the detected object would appear if the detected object is the target object.Type: GrantFiled: June 20, 2016Date of Patent: March 27, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: Bradley Templeton, Nathaniel Fairfield, Dave Ferguson
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Patent number: 9927813Abstract: Methods and systems are disclosed for determining sensor degradation by actively controlling an autonomous vehicle. Determining sensor degradation may include obtaining sensor readings from a sensor of an autonomous vehicle, and determining baseline state information from the obtained sensor readings. A movement characteristic of the autonomous vehicle, such as speed or position, may then be changed. The sensor may then obtain additional sensor readings, and second state information may be determined from these additional sensor readings. Expected state information may be determined from the baseline state information and the change in the movement characteristic of the autonomous vehicle. A comparison of the expected state information and the second state information may then be performed. Based on this comparison, a determination may be made as to whether the sensor has degraded.Type: GrantFiled: January 25, 2017Date of Patent: March 27, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: David I. Ferguson, Jiajun Zhu
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Patent number: 9916259Abstract: A system and method for low latency and higher bandwidth communication between a central processing unit (CPU) and an accelerator is disclosed. When the CPU updates a copy of data stored at a shared memory, the CPU also sends an “invalidate” command to a cache coherent interconnect (CCI). The CCI forwards the invalidate command to a dedicated cache register (DCR). The DCR marks its copy of the data as “out-of-date” and requests an up-to-date copy of the data from the CCI. The CCI then retrieves up-to-date data for the DCR. When the DCR receives the up-to-date data from the CCI, the DCR replaces the out-of-date data with the up-to-date data, and marks the up-to-date data with the status of “valid.” The DCR can then provide data to an accelerator with a status of “out-of-date” or “valid.Type: GrantFiled: January 27, 2016Date of Patent: March 13, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: Grace Nordin, Daniel Rosenband
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Patent number: 9915947Abstract: Example systems and methods are disclosed for determining vehicle pose data for an autonomous vehicle. The vehicle computer system may receive pose data from multiple pose measurement systems of the autonomous vehicle. Each pose measurement system may include one or more corresponding sensors of the autonomous vehicle. The vehicle computer system may determine a pose data quality for the received pose data for each pose measurement system. The vehicle computer system may set the vehicle pose data to the pose data of the pose measurement system with the highest pose data quality. The vehicle computer system may control the autonomous vehicle based on the vehicle pose data.Type: GrantFiled: February 26, 2016Date of Patent: March 13, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: Seth Michael LaForge, Craig Lewin Robinson, John Tisdale, Russell Smith
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Patent number: 9914452Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure relate to detecting and responding to objects in a vehicle's environment. For example, an object may be identified in a vehicle's environment, the object having a heading and location. A set of possible actions for the object may be generated using map information describing the vehicle's environment and the heading and location of the object. A set of possible future trajectories of the object may be generated based on the set of possible actions. A likelihood value of each trajectory of the set of possible future trajectories may be determined based on contextual information including a status of the detected object. A final future trajectory is determined based on the determined likelihood value for each trajectory of the set of possible future trajectories. The vehicle is then maneuvered in order to avoid the final future trajectory and the object.Type: GrantFiled: September 28, 2016Date of Patent: March 13, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: David Ian Franklin Ferguson, David Harrison Silver, Stéphane Ross, Nathaniel Fairfield, Ioan-Alexandru Sucan
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Patent number: 9910139Abstract: A method is provided that involves mounting a transmit block and a receive block in a LIDAR device to provide a relative position between the transmit block and the receive block. The method also involves locating a camera at a given position at which the camera can image light beams emitted by the transmit block and can image the receive block. The method also involves obtaining, using the camera, a first image indicative of light source positions of one or more light sources in the transmit block and a second image indicative of detector positions of one or more detectors in the receive block. The method also involves determining at least one offset based on the first image and the second image. The method also involves adjusting the relative position between the transmit block and the receive block based at least in part on the at least one offset.Type: GrantFiled: April 8, 2017Date of Patent: March 6, 2018Assignee: WAYMO LLCInventors: Gaetan Pennecot, Pierre-yves Droz
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Patent number: 9910439Abstract: Disclosed herein are methods and apparatus for controlling autonomous vehicles utilizing maps that include visibility information. A map is stored at a computing device associated with a vehicle. The vehicle is configured to operate in an autonomous mode that supports a plurality of driving behaviors. The map includes information about a plurality of roads, a plurality of features, and visibility information for at least a first feature in the plurality of features. The computing device queries the map for visibility information for the first feature at a first position. The computing device, in response to querying the map, receives the visibility information for the first feature at the first position. The computing device selects a driving behavior for the vehicle based on the visibility information. The computing device controls the vehicle in accordance with the selected driving behavior.Type: GrantFiled: January 26, 2016Date of Patent: March 6, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: David Ian Franklin Ferguson, Nathaniel Fairfield, Bradley Templeton
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Patent number: D813245Type: GrantFiled: June 3, 2016Date of Patent: March 20, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: Robertus Christianus Elisabeth Mariet, Manuel Christian Clement
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Patent number: D815124Type: GrantFiled: June 13, 2016Date of Patent: April 10, 2018Assignee: Waymo LLCInventors: Robertus Christianus Elisabeth Mariet, Manuel Christian Clement