Patents by Inventor Austin L. Newman

Austin L. Newman has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10031521
    Abstract: Systems of an electrical vehicle and the operations thereof are provided that receives weather forecast information associated with a current geographic location of the vehicle and alters or implement a change to an autonomous driving operational setting and/or selects and activates one or more climate control settings to condition the vehicle interior for one or more occupants.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: NIO USA, Inc.
    Inventor: Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180203443
    Abstract: Systems of an electrical vehicle and the operations thereof are provided that receives weather forecast information associated with a current geographic location of the vehicle and alters or implement a change to an autonomous driving operational setting and/or selects and activates one or more climate control settings to condition the vehicle interior for one or more occupants.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 16, 2017
    Publication date: July 19, 2018
    Inventor: Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180201145
    Abstract: Methods and systems for ejecting a charger handle from an electrical vehicle are provided. In the event that a power system fault or incident is detected, the charger handle of an external vehicle charging system may be automatically and physically separated from the vehicle. The fault or incident can be detected by the vehicle or the external vehicle charging system. The charger handle is ejected using a charging connection separation mechanism. This mechanism can be part of the charging system or part of the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 16, 2017
    Publication date: July 19, 2018
    Inventors: Yadunandana Yellambalase, Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180201187
    Abstract: Methods and systems of an electrical vehicle are provided that detect a power system fault, determine a presence of at least one occupant in the vehicle, and determine an escape route from the vehicle for the at least one occupant. In determining the escape route, the vehicle determines an environment around the vehicle, a location of the power system fault in the vehicle, and a location of the at least one occupant in the vehicle. Based on this information, the vehicle provides an escape route from the vehicle to direct the at least one occupant to a safe area outside of the vehicle. The escape route is provided to the user via at least one display device associated with the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 16, 2017
    Publication date: July 19, 2018
    Inventors: Yadunandana Yellambalase, Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180201138
    Abstract: Methods and systems of an electrical vehicle are provided that recognize a power system fault with the vehicle and in response autonomously drive the vehicle to an identified safe location to self-destruct. Upon reaching the location, the vehicle can evaluate the location using imaging sensors to determine whether the location is free of objects, animals, or people. If not, the vehicle may autonomously drive to another safe location. Prior to destruction, the vehicle sends messages, including information about the power system fault, to at least one device or third party. The messages include location information for the vehicle or information about the power system fault.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 16, 2017
    Publication date: July 19, 2018
    Inventors: Yadunandana Yellambalase, Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180204399
    Abstract: Systems of an electrical vehicle and the operations thereof are provided. Within an autonomous vehicle fleet that can be optionally primarily used for ridesharing, how does an owner or first user of one of the vehicles prevent another customer or second user from approaching a vehicle and using it for their own purposes/trips? How does the first customer lock down the vehicle for their use exclusively? How does a user secure any personal data that they may have stored in the vehicle? As one example, software locking, portable device authentication, human identification, biometric, rolling code and/or a physical identification card can be utilized to secure and/or reserve the vehicle for the first user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2017
    Publication date: July 19, 2018
    Inventor: Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180201144
    Abstract: Systems of an electrical vehicle and the operations thereof are provided. In particular, a towing cable and methods for utilizing the same in a towing scenario are described. The towing cable is described to facilitate the transfer of power between vehicles as well as data between vehicles. The data transferred between the vehicles involved in the towing include sensor information of the towed vehicle as well as control signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2017
    Publication date: July 19, 2018
    Inventor: Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180201152
    Abstract: Systems of an electrical vehicle and the operations thereof are provided that control an operating temperature of an on board battery pack using an external thermal management system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2017
    Publication date: July 19, 2018
    Inventors: Austin L. Newman, Thomas P. Jensen
  • Patent number: 10017037
    Abstract: A vehicle has a body forming a passenger compartment. The vehicle also has a chassis supporting the body. The chassis includes a frame structure having a pair of side rails connected by a plurality of rigid cross rails and defining a plurality of bays between the cross rails. The vehicle additionally has a battery pack including a plurality of electrical storage devices stored in a battery housing. The battery housing defines a plurality of channels. The vehicle further includes a fastening mechanism attaching the battery housing directly to the plurality of cross rails with at least a portion of the battery housing in the plurality of bays and the plurality of cross rails in the plurality of channels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: NIO USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Austin L. Newman, Joshua Smith, Batuhan Yildirim, Leon Kaunitz
  • Publication number: 20180188726
    Abstract: Systems of an electrical vehicle and the operations thereof are provided. As vehicles become self-driven, safety should be improved. In the rare occurrence that a vehicle is performing an incorrect function or in an incorrect manner, the passengers need to be able to shut down the car and evacuate the vehicle in a safe manner. Highlighted by this is ride sharing vehicle that picks random passengers up. Inside the vehicle would be an override switch. When initiated, the override switch would send a lower level command to the vehicle control unit overriding any upper level signals, alert any near cars of the issue and immediately pull over and bring to a complete stop (unlocking all doors as well) the vehicle. This could optionally be coupled with one or more mechanical/electrical shut down/disconnect mechanisms.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Publication date: July 5, 2018
    Inventor: Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180189683
    Abstract: Systems of an electrical vehicle and the operations thereof are provided. One embodiment details how autonomous EV's can communicate with each other as well as with charging station(s). In accordance with one exemplary embodiment, a vehicle communicates with one or more other vehicle(s) and/or the cloud to understand which vehicle is at what charger, how long until completion of the charge (or until the battery is charged enough for the EV that is charging to finish a scheduled trip), and what priority is associated with the EV and/or occupants. This priority can be compared to other EVs around the EV that needs a charge, as well as current and future commutes/trips of the EV that needs charging optionally with current and future commutes/trips of other EVs also taken into consideration.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2016
    Publication date: July 5, 2018
    Inventor: Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180188332
    Abstract: Systems of an electrical vehicle and the operations thereof are provided. In particular, a vehicle is described with the ability to gather State of Charge (SOC) information as well as State of Health (SOH) information for one or more batteries in a vehicle and then display both SOC and SOH information to a driver of the vehicle as well as other interested parties. The displayed SOH information may be accompanied by suggestions to modify driving and/or charging behaviors that will improve or contribute to a slower degradation in the SOH of the batteries.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Publication date: July 5, 2018
    Inventors: Austin L. Newman, Alexander J. Smith, Adam H. Ing
  • Patent number: 9984572
    Abstract: Systems of an electrical vehicle and the operations thereof are provided that identify parking spaces by on board sensors and negotiate with other currently parked vehicles for parking space access.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2018
    Assignee: NIO USA, Inc.
    Inventor: Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180143298
    Abstract: Methods, devices, and systems of a sensor surface object detection system are provided. Output from sensors of a vehicle may be used to describe an environment around the vehicle. In the event that a sensor is obstructed by dirt, debris, or detritus the sensor may not sufficiently describe the environment for autonomous control operations. The sensor surface object detection system may receive output from the sensors of the vehicle to determine whether any of the sensors are obstructed. The determination may be made by comparing the output of one sensor to another, determining whether the output of a sensor is within a predetermined threshold, or comparing characteristics of multiple sensor outputs to one another. When a sensor is determined to be obstructed, the system may send a command to a cleaning system to automatically remove the obstruction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2016
    Publication date: May 24, 2018
    Inventor: Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180126993
    Abstract: Systems of an electrical vehicle and the operations thereof are provided. In particular, a motor controller is described. The motor controller is described to have the ability to emit an electromagnetic signal via a motor of the electrical vehicle. The motor controller may be designed to control a speed of the motor's rotation so as to control a frequency of the emitted electromagnetic signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2016
    Publication date: May 10, 2018
    Inventor: Austin L. Newman
  • Patent number: 9937818
    Abstract: A vehicle has a body forming a passenger compartment. The vehicle also has a chassis supporting the body. The chassis includes a frame structure having a pair of side rails running longitudinally along the body, a plurality of rigid cross rails extending perpendicular to the side rails and attached at opposing ends to the side rails, and at least one bay defined between the plurality of cross rails. The vehicle also has a battery system including a battery pack. The battery pack has a plurality of electrical storage devices. The battery pack is secured to the side rails and removably positioned in the at least one bay.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2018
    Assignee: NIO USA, Inc.
    Inventor: Austin L. Newman
  • Patent number: 9928734
    Abstract: Vehicle-to-pedestrian information systems that use directional sound transmission on autonomous vehicles are disclosed. A cloud computing system manages messages for transmission to pedestrians via autonomous vehicles having directional speakers. The cloud computing system identifies pedestrians and identifies messages for the pedestrians. Pedestrians may be known and authenticated to the cloud computing system or may be unknown. The cloud computing system maintains profiles for known pedestrians and transmits messages to vehicles based on the profiles. The cloud computing system keeps track of the location of vehicles and causes the vehicles to use directional speakers to transmit messages to the pedestrians based on the relative positions of the vehicles and the pedestrians.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2018
    Assignee: NIO USA, Inc.
    Inventor: Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180040240
    Abstract: Vehicle-to-pedestrian information systems that use directional sound transmission on autonomous vehicles are disclosed. A cloud computing system manages messages for transmission to pedestrians via autonomous vehicles having directional speakers. The cloud computing system identifies pedestrians and identifies messages for the pedestrians. Pedestrians may be known and authenticated to the cloud computing system or may be unknown. The cloud computing system maintains profiles for known pedestrians and transmits messages to vehicles based on the profiles. The cloud computing system keeps track of the location of vehicles and causes the vehicles to use directional speakers to transmit messages to the pedestrians based on the relative positions of the vehicles and the pedestrians.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2016
    Publication date: February 8, 2018
    Applicant: NIO USA, Inc.
    Inventor: Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180012196
    Abstract: A method and system are provided for managing maintenance services performed on a vehicle. A service provider system receives a request from an on-board vehicle diagnostic system for charging or replacement of a battery of a rechargeable electric vehicle. Based on a set of rules from one or more databases, the service provider selects a charging facility to perform the battery charging or replacement. The service provider system, based on dynamic pricing parameters, determines a value for the battery charging or replacement and provides to the vehicle the selected charging facility location and value for the battery charging or replacement.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2016
    Publication date: January 11, 2018
    Inventors: Christopher P. Ricci, Austin L. Newman
  • Publication number: 20180012197
    Abstract: A method and system are provided that manage an exchange of a vehicle power source. The system maintains a set of user or vehicle records for each of one or more users or vehicles and a set of equipment records for each of a plurality of pieces of equipment. The system receives a request to exchange a power source of the vehicle, identifies a service level of a plurality of service levels for the requested service based at least in part on the set of user or vehicle records and selects an available power source for the exchange based on the identified at least one service level and the set of equipment records.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2016
    Publication date: January 11, 2018
    Inventors: Christopher P. Ricci, Austin L. Newman