US 12,466,440 B2
Autonomous vehicle hailing and pickup location refinement through use of an identifier
David Kaufman, San Francisco, CA (US); and Keyur Patel, Livermore, CA (US)
Assigned to GM Cruise Holdings LLC, San Francisco, CA (US)
Filed by GM Cruise Holdings LLC, San Francisco, CA (US)
Filed on Sep. 29, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/478,987.
Application 18/478,987 is a continuation of application No. 17/555,432, filed on Dec. 18, 2021, granted, now 11,809,197.
Application 17/555,432 is a continuation of application No. 16/368,780, filed on Mar. 28, 2019, granted, now 11,269,353, issued on Mar. 8, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2024/0028047 A1, Jan. 25, 2024
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. B60W 60/00 (2020.01); G05D 1/00 (2024.01); G05D 1/229 (2024.01); G05D 1/247 (2024.01); G06K 7/14 (2006.01); G06Q 10/02 (2012.01); G06V 20/52 (2022.01); G06V 20/56 (2022.01); G06V 20/58 (2022.01)
CPC B60W 60/00253 (2020.02) [B60W 60/00256 (2020.02); G05D 1/0088 (2013.01); G05D 1/0212 (2013.01); G05D 1/0231 (2013.01); G05D 1/0276 (2013.01); G05D 1/2297 (2024.01); G05D 1/247 (2024.01); G06V 20/53 (2022.01); G06V 20/56 (2022.01); G06V 20/58 (2022.01); G06K 7/1417 (2013.01); G06Q 10/02 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An autonomous vehicle, comprising:
a sensor;
a processor; and
memory that stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising:
receiving a sensor signal from the sensor;
determining, based on the sensor signal, that a visual passenger identifier is being presented by a mobile computing device of a person in a field of view of the sensor, wherein the mobile computing device comprises the visual passenger identifier, wherein the visual passenger identifier is presented by the person to hail the autonomous vehicle while a battery of the mobile computing device is discharged such that the battery is completely depleted;
determining identifying information based on the visual passenger identifier;
subsequent to determining the identifying information, transmitting the identifying information to a server computing system in network communication with the autonomous vehicle, wherein the server computing system searches over passenger accounts in a data store for a passenger account associated with the identifying information;
receiving an indication from the server computing system as to whether the identifying information is associated with the passenger account; and
responsive to determining the identifying information, causing the autonomous vehicle to navigate towards a location of the visual passenger identifier to pick up the person when the indication from the server computing system specifies that the identifying information is not associated with the passenger account.