US 12,134,407 B2
Predicting a parking or pullover spot vacancy for an autonomous vehicle pickup
Mishika Vora, Hayward, CA (US)
Assigned to Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Jun. 4, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/339,421.
Prior Publication US 2022/0388546 A1, Dec. 8, 2022
Int. Cl. B60W 60/00 (2020.01); G06V 20/58 (2022.01); G08G 1/01 (2006.01); G08G 1/14 (2006.01)
CPC B60W 60/00253 (2020.02) [G06V 20/584 (2022.01); G08G 1/0129 (2013.01); G08G 1/146 (2013.01)] 23 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method for a vehicle operating in an autonomous driving mode, the method comprising:
identifying, by one or more processors of the vehicle, one or more potential pullover locations adjacent to an area of interest that the vehicle is approaching;
detecting, using one or more sensors of a perception system of the vehicle, that a given one of the one or more potential pullover locations is occupied by another vehicle;
determining, by the one or more processors, a likelihood that the other vehicle will vacate the given potential pullover location within a selected amount of time subsequent to detecting that the given potential pullover location is occupied by the other vehicle, wherein determining the likelihood is based at least on contextual information including business type information for one or more businesses located within a selected distance from the given potential pullover location;
determining, by the one or more processors according to the likelihood, whether to wait or not to wait for the other vehicle to vacate the given potential pullover location; and
the one or more processors causing a driving system of the vehicle to either, responsive to determining to wait for the other vehicle to vacate the given potential pullover location, perform a first action to wait for the other vehicle to vacate the given potential pullover location or, responsive to determining not to wait for the other vehicle to vacate the given potential pullover location, perform a second action that is different from the first action.