US 11,912,292 B2
Redundant hardware system for autonomous vehicles
Emily Chi, Los Angeles, CA (US); Ryan Joseph Andrade, Morgan Hill, CA (US); Andreas Wendel, Mountain View, CA (US); Michael James, Northville, MI (US); Christian Lauterbach, Campbell, CA (US); Etai Bruhis, Palo Alto, CA (US); Christopher Kennedy Ludwick, Los Altos, CA (US); Alexander Zbrozek, Sunnyvale, CA (US); Pieter Kapsenberg, Santa Clara, CA (US); Zhuyuan Liu, Los Altos, CA (US); and Daniel Rosenband, San Jose, CA (US)
Assigned to Waymo LLC, Moutain View, CA (US)
Filed by Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Nov. 22, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/531,946.
Application 17/531,946 is a continuation of application No. 16/215,713, filed on Dec. 11, 2018, granted, now 11,208,111.
Prior Publication US 2022/0080990 A1, Mar. 17, 2022
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. B60W 50/029 (2012.01); B60W 10/04 (2006.01); B60W 10/20 (2006.01); B60W 50/02 (2012.01); G05D 1/00 (2006.01)
CPC B60W 50/029 (2013.01) [B60W 10/04 (2013.01); B60W 10/20 (2013.01); B60W 50/0205 (2013.01); G05D 1/0088 (2013.01); B60W 2050/0215 (2013.01); B60W 2420/42 (2013.01); B60W 2420/52 (2013.01); B60W 2420/54 (2013.01); B60W 2710/20 (2013.01); B60W 2720/106 (2013.01); G05D 2201/0213 (2013.01)] 27 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A vehicle configured to operate in an autonomous driving mode, the vehicle comprising:
a driving system configured to perform driving actions of the vehicle;
a perception system having a plurality of sensors configured to detect information about an environment around the vehicle; and
a control system operatively coupled to the driving system and the perception system, the control system including a first computing subsystem associated with a first operating domain and a second computing subsystem associated with a second operating domain different from the first operating domain, each of the first and second computing subsystems having one or more processors, wherein:
the first and second computing subsystems are configured to receive sensor data from the plurality of sensors, and, in response to the received sensor data, the control system is configured to control the driving system to perform the driving actions to drive the vehicle in the autonomous driving mode;
the control system is configured to identify an error condition of the vehicle;
upon identification of the error condition, the first computing subsystem is configured to process sensor data received from only a first set of sensors of the plurality of sensors according to the first operating domain and the second computing subsystem is configured to process sensor data received from only a second set of sensors of the plurality of sensors according to the second operating domain, the second set of sensors being different from the first set of sensors; and
only one of the first computing subsystem or the second computing subsystem is configured to control the driving system in a fallback driving mode based on the error condition.