Patents Examined by Patrick M Brady
  • Patent number: 11965748
    Abstract: A transportation system includes: a vehicle hub including a plurality of connection slots. The vehicle hub is configured such that, in response to vehicles being parked respectively in the connection slots, the vehicle hub is connected to interior spaces of the vehicles through the connection slots, the vehicles are categorized by use, and the connection slots are grouped by category such that connection slots grouped together by category, among the connection slots, are disposed adjacent to each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Yong Kwan Ji
  • Patent number: 11940283
    Abstract: A method for matching a vehicle with a user including receiving a user ride request for a vehicle from a plurality of available vehicles from a user, receiving a threshold vehicle risk score preference for the user, receiving a user risk score for the user, receiving a threshold user risk score preference for the plurality of available vehicles, identifying a subset of the plurality of available vehicles having a vehicle risk score at or below the threshold vehicle risk score preference of the user and a threshold user risk score preference at or above the user risk score of the user, and presenting the user with ride options for selecting one of the subset of the plurality of available vehicles of the subset of available vehicles for the user ride request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: Toyota Motor North America, Inc.
    Inventors: Roger A. Kyle, Christopher Risberg, Nikhil Rajendra, Timothy Wang, Jordan Frank, Jiju Thomas, Daniel C. Bracken, Joshua Batie, Michael D. Dorazio, Randy Kaushek
  • Patent number: 11885626
    Abstract: An example method includes setting an initial pickup location. The method includes causing an autonomous vehicle to navigate towards the initial pickup location. The method includes periodically generating a plurality of candidate updated pickup locations. The method includes selecting a suggested pickup location from the plurality of candidate pickup locations that achieves a benchmark for reducing one or more of a time and a distance associated with the initial pickup location for one or more of the autonomous vehicle and the client device. The method includes determining that the suggested pickup location satisfies a set of pre-update checks for limiting a number of pickup location updates. The method includes responsive to (i) selecting the suggested pickup location, and (ii) determining that the suggested pickup location satisfies the set of pre-update checks, causing the autonomous vehicle to navigate to the suggested pickup location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: Waymo LLC
    Inventors: Eric Friedman, Saksiri Tanphaichitr, Donghyun Kim, Ben Wang, Cameron Blume, Mishika Vora, Gaurav Agarwal
  • Patent number: 11859996
    Abstract: An apparatus for suggesting stopping by facilities includes a processor to suggest, as a stop, facilities, which are suitable for a user tendency or a user situation, of facilities positioned on a driving path of an autonomous vehicle, and a storage to store data and an algorithm executed by the processor. The processor provides, to a user, a list of the facilities suitable for the user tendency or the user situation, and adds facilities, which are selected by the user, to the stop on the driving path to guide to the driving path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yeon Hee Choi
  • Patent number: 11846516
    Abstract: A method for facilitating a vehicle travel route includes accessing, via at least one electronic device, a geographic map stored in a memory. Travel regions, curb approach settings and maneuver settings are provided on the geographic map, the travel regions being designated as preferred, restricted or prohibited and the curb approach settings and the maneuver settings being designated as no preference, restricted or prohibited. A first set of one or more of the travel regions, the curb approach settings and the maneuver settings are associated to a first travel scenario. The travel regions, curb approach settings and maneuver settings associated with the first travel scenario are displayed on the geographic map on at least one electronic device. A processor generates a travel route based upon the first travel scenario. The at least one electronic device displays the travel route for the vehicle to travel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2023
    Assignee: TRANSFINDER CORPORATION
    Inventor: Antonio Civitella
  • Patent number: 11815359
    Abstract: A travel service system makes it possible for a driver to pick up a passenger quickly and accurately. The system obtains map information including real-scene picture information, determines a geographic coordinate, obtains a real-scene picture of the geographic coordinate, and analyzes the real-scene picture to identify a salient object in the real-scene picture. A preferable target position is determined on the basis of the identified salient object. The identified salient object and the preferable target position on the real-scene picture are marked. The real-scene picture with the marked salient object and the preferable marked target position are sent to a receiving terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Sam Lai, Andy Liao
  • Patent number: 11781878
    Abstract: An embodiment for recommending routes in an enhanced navigation system is provided. The embodiment may include receiving a destination from a primary user. The embodiment may also include obtaining a tentative list of routes. The embodiment may further include identifying each user and characteristics associated with each user. The embodiment may also include analyzing current conditions of the tentative list of routes and the characteristics. The embodiment may further include identifying one or more optimal routes. The embodiment may also include recommending the one or more optimal routes to the primary user. The embodiment may further include in response to determining the primary user selects an optimal route of the one or more optimal routes, presenting the selected optimal route on a navigation display to the primary user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Prasanna Alur Mathada, Srini Bhagavan, Hrishikesh Sujaya Kumar, Thuan D Ngo
  • Patent number: 11772663
    Abstract: A system performs modeling and simulation of non-stationary traffic entities for testing and development of modules used in an autonomous vehicle system. The system uses a machine learning based model that predicts hidden context attributes for traffic entities that may be encountered by a vehicle in traffic. The system generates simulation data for testing and development of modules that help navigate autonomous vehicles. The generated simulation data may be image or video data including representations of traffic entities, for example, pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vehicles. The system may generate simulation data using generative adversarial neural networks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: PERCEPTIVE AUTOMATA, INC.
    Inventor: Samuel English Anthony
  • Patent number: 11768083
    Abstract: In some embodiments, an electronic device displays indications of safety characteristics of one or more navigational segments of a navigation route. In some embodiments, an electronic device displays navigation options. In some embodiments, an electronic device presents indications of navigation directions while navigation along a route.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Usama M. Hajj, Vincent Patrick Arroyo, Giovanni S. Luis, Hollie Renee Figueroa
  • Patent number: 11738804
    Abstract: A system can train a vehicle electronically to accommodate a driver. The system can train the vehicle to accommodate the ability, condition, and/or personality of the driver. The system can change the controls of the vehicle, responsive to the inputs from the driver, to match with the patterns of controls resulting from a predetermined model (such as a safe-driver model). Accordingly, the vehicle can appear as it is being driven by a safe driver when it may not be the case. A driver with a lower driving competence may apply physical controls in a pattern that may be slow, unstable, or insufficient. However, the vehicle can be trained to adjust the transformation from the UI signals to the drive-by-wire signals such that the transformed signals appear to be applied by a more competent driver on the road. And, the transformation can improve over time with training via machine learning.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Junichi Sato
  • Patent number: 11740097
    Abstract: A method of managing smell sensibility according to a route of a moving object includes checking a planned travel route of the moving object, determining whether a bad-smell area is included in the planned travel route, determining whether a bad-smell level of the bad-smell area is equal to or greater than an unpleasantness level of a user of the moving object when the bad-smell area is included, and performing a suppression process for blocking introduction of a bad smell into the moving object when the bad-smell level is equal to or greater than the unpleasantness level of the user and maintaining the planned travel route when the bad-smell level is less than the unpleasantness level of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Corporation
    Inventors: Jae Jun Ha, Young Jun Moon, Tae Hee Lee
  • Patent number: 11709063
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method of providing a safe navigation route for travelling. The method comprises receiving, at a graphical user interface of a processor-based user device, a query for a navigation route from a user, comprising a source station and a destination station, determining, at an application server, a plurality of navigation routes between the source station and the destination station, analyzing, at the application server, each of the plurality of navigation routes to compute a safety index associated with each of the plurality of navigation routes, identifying, at the application server, at least one safe navigation route between the source station and the destination station, and rendering, at the graphical user interface, the at least one safe navigation route between the source station and the destination station in response to the query from the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2023
    Assignee: KAHA PTE. LTD.
    Inventor: Sudheendra Shantharam
  • Patent number: 11704912
    Abstract: A method is disclosed for evaluating a classifier used to determine a traffic light signal state in images. The method includes, by a computer vision system of a vehicle, receiving at least one image of a traffic signal device of an imminent intersection. The traffic signal device includes a traffic signal face including one or more traffic signal elements. The method includes classifying, by a traffic light classifier (TLC), a classification state of the traffic signal face using labeled images correlated to the received at least one image. The classification state controls an operation of the vehicle at the intersection. The method includes evaluating a performance of the classifying of the classification state generated by the TLC. The evaluation is a label-free performance evaluation based on unlabeled images. The method includes training the TLC based on the evaluated performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Guy Hotson, Richard L. Kwant, Brett Browning, Deva Ramanan
  • Patent number: 11691643
    Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for improving user experiences for autonomous driving. In context of a method, the method determines one or more autonomous transition region parameters for a respective autonomous transition region along a route. The method also, based on the one or more autonomous transition region parameters, determines whether an action is to be performed by a vehicle in accordance with user preference data associated with a user. The method also causes the vehicle to perform the action in accordance with a determination that the action is to be performed by the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2023
    Assignee: HERE GLOBAL B.V.
    Inventors: Jerome Beaurepaire, Leon Stenneth, Jeremy Michael Young
  • Patent number: 11668578
    Abstract: An interaction device include a processor. The processor being configured to acquire an alertness level of an occupant of a vehicle, request an utterance from the occupant in a case in which the acquired alertness level is below a threshold value, identify a rest point at which the vehicle can stop, measure a cycle spanning from initiation of an interaction until the alertness level falls below the threshold value again, and repeatedly request an utterance from the occupant at a regular interval that is shorter than the measured cycle during a time period from notifying the occupant that the rest point has been set as a destination of the vehicle to the vehicle arriving at the destination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Daisuke Furukawa
  • Patent number: 11608083
    Abstract: A system and method for providing cooperation-aware lane change control in dense traffic that include receiving vehicle dynamic data associated with an ego vehicle and receiving environment data associated with a surrounding environment of the ego vehicle. The system and method also include utilizing a controller that includes an analyzer to analyze the vehicle dynamic data and a recurrent neural network to analyze the environment data. The system and method further include executing a heuristic algorithm that sequentially evaluates the future states of the ego vehicle and the predicted interactive motions of the surrounding vehicles to promote the cooperation-aware lane change control in the dense traffic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Alireza Nakhaei Sarvedani, Kikuo Fujimura, Chiho Choi, Sangjae Bae, Dhruv Mauria Saxena
  • Patent number: 11580861
    Abstract: A platooning controller, a vehicle system including the same, and a method thereof are provided. The platooning controller includes a processor that identifies information about outside vehicles around a platooning line based on sensing information of platooning vehicles, determines whether views of the outside vehicles are obstructed by the platooning line based on the information about the outside vehicles, controls the platooning vehicles such that the views of the outside vehicles are obtained, and performs collision avoidance control and a storage storing the sensing information or a result of determination of whether a view is obstructed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignees: HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kyung Joo Bang, Hong Gi Park, Sang Yeob Lee, Il Hwan Kim, Seung Hyun Kim, Dong Hyuk Kim
  • Patent number: 11536581
    Abstract: An embodiment takes the form of a system that obtains application-usage data from a personal mobile device of a vehicle operator of a vehicle. The application-usage data reflects a usage, during operation of the vehicle, of an application on the personal mobile device. The system identifies a vehicle feature, of the vehicle, that provides a vehicle functionality similar to an application functionality provided by the application on the personal mobile device, and performs a comparison of the obtained application-usage data with feature-usage data. The feature-usage data reflects a usage, during operation of the vehicle, of the identified vehicle feature. The system determines, based on the comparison, a usage preference for the application during operation of the vehicle over the identified vehicle feature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA MOTOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING NORTH AMERICA, INC.
    Inventor: Clinton Williams
  • Patent number: 11507083
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a server, a remote control device, and a remote control method for an automatic (or autonomous) driving vehicle. The method may include: after receiving a remote control request of an automatic driving vehicle, acquiring a target wireless channel of a target wireless network with the shortest communication delay from a plurality of candidate wireless channels of a plurality of candidate wireless networks in combination with the current geographic location of the automatic driving vehicle, and transmitting a corresponding control instruction to the automatic driving vehicle through the target wireless channel of the target wireless network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: Apollo Intelligent Driving Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Jialin Yang
  • Patent number: 11507080
    Abstract: A portable computerized device for an aircraft control system includes an input system for inputting commands, a device display for displaying information on the computerized device, a processor, a wireless communication module, and a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions, the computer executable instructions configured to cause the processor to perform a method. The method can include detecting whether the portable computerized device is in a cockpit state such that the portable computerized device is in and/or docked to an aircraft cockpit or if the portable computerized device is in a remote state such that the portable computerized device is not in an aircraft cockpit or is not docked to an aircraft cockpit. If the portable computerized device is determined to be in a remote state, the method includes operating the remote device in a remote mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Prateek Sahay, Margaret MacIsaac Lampazzi, Sacha Duff