US 12,472,987 B1
Pick-up and drop-off signals for managing double parking obstruction
Daniella Gutlansky, San Francisco, CA (US); Mishika Vora, Hayward, CA (US); Xu Dong, Mountain View, CA (US); Trang Uyen Thien Tran, Arlington, TX (US); Yu Zheng, Milpitas, CA (US); and Amir Takhmar, Toronto (CA)
Assigned to Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Dec. 6, 2022, as Appl. No. 18/075,620.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/294,422, filed on Dec. 29, 2021.
Int. Cl. B60W 60/00 (2020.01); B60W 30/06 (2006.01)
CPC B60W 60/00253 (2020.02) [B60W 30/06 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for operating a vehicle in an autonomous driving mode, the method comprising:
controlling, by one or more processors of the vehicle, a driving system of the vehicle to maneuver the vehicle to a stopping location for a pick-up or a drop-off;
upon the vehicle arriving at the stopping location, determining, by the one or more processors, to double park the vehicle adjacent to one or more parked vehicles;
evaluating, by the one or more processors based on sensor information identifying a position of each of the one or more parked vehicles, an inconvenience to a human driver that double parking by the vehicle would cause according to a cost function, wherein the evaluating is based at least in part on how the double parking by the vehicle would affect an ability of each of the one or more parked vehicles to pull out from each respective identified position;
selecting, by the one or more processors based on the evaluating, a specific position to double park the vehicle at the stopping location; and
controlling, by the one or more processors, the driving system of the vehicle to double park the vehicle at the specific position.