US 11,900,819 B2
Determining VTOL departure time in an aviation transport network for efficient resource management
Nikhil Goel, San Francisco, CA (US); Jon David Petersen, Walnut Creek, CA (US); John Conway Badalamenti, San Francisco, CA (US); and Mark Moore, San Francisco, CA (US)
Assigned to JOBY AERO, INC., Santa Cruz, CA (US)
Filed by Joby Aero, Inc., Santa Cruz, CA (US)
Filed on Feb. 16, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/673,383.
Application 17/673,383 is a continuation of application No. 16/367,874, filed on Mar. 28, 2019, granted, now 11,295,622.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/662,189, filed on Apr. 24, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2022/0246044 A1, Aug. 4, 2022
Int. Cl. G08G 5/00 (2006.01); B64C 29/00 (2006.01); G06Q 10/0631 (2023.01); G05D 1/00 (2006.01); G06Q 50/30 (2012.01); G08G 5/02 (2006.01); B64C 17/08 (2006.01)
CPC G08G 5/0043 (2013.01) [B64C 17/08 (2013.01); B64C 29/00 (2013.01); G05D 1/102 (2013.01); G05D 1/104 (2013.01); G06Q 10/06315 (2013.01); G06Q 50/30 (2013.01); G08G 5/0013 (2013.01); G08G 5/0065 (2013.01); G08G 5/025 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
accessing, over one or more networks, data defining a plurality of requests for transportation services for respective riders, origins, and destinations;
computing assignments of selected ones of the plurality of requests to trip itineraries that include transportation, at least in part, by a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, each of the selected requests being associated with data indicative of a threshold time to arrive at the corresponding destination;
based at least partly on there being unassigned capacity on the VTOL aircraft, accessing demand data associated with the transportation services and the threshold times;
based at least in part on the demand data and the threshold times, computing a VTOL-hold value predictive of whether another request will be received for an additional rider and the additional rider will board the VTOL aircraft within a time period such that each of the riders of selected requests will arrive at their respective destinations prior to the respective threshold times;
computing that, the VTOL aircraft should wait based on the VTOL-hold value exceeding a likelihood threshold; and
after the VTOL aircraft waits in response to the VTOL-hold value, controlling the VIOL aircraft to take-off.