US 11,851,077 B2
Secondary disengage alert for autonomous vehicles
Philip Nemec, San Jose, CA (US); Keith Hutchings, San Jose, CA (US); Julien Mercay, Redwood City, CA (US); Annissa Al-Alusi, San Mateo, CA (US); Saswat Panigrahi, Mountain View, CA (US); Cristi Landy, Sunnyvale, CA (US); and Matthew Schwall, Sunnyvale, CA (US)
Assigned to Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Dec. 1, 2022, as Appl. No. 18/073,201.
Application 18/073,201 is a continuation of application No. 17/360,974, filed on Jun. 28, 2021, granted, now 11,554,787.
Application 17/360,974 is a continuation of application No. 16/599,693, filed on Oct. 11, 2019, granted, now 11,077,863, issued on Aug. 3, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/886,475, filed on Aug. 14, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2023/0090823 A1, Mar. 23, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. B60W 50/10 (2012.01); B60W 50/14 (2020.01); B60W 40/105 (2012.01); G05D 1/00 (2006.01); B60W 50/00 (2006.01)
CPC B60W 50/10 (2013.01) [B60W 40/105 (2013.01); B60W 50/14 (2013.01); G05D 1/0061 (2013.01); G05D 1/0088 (2013.01); B60W 2050/0073 (2013.01); B60W 2050/146 (2013.01); G05D 2201/0213 (2013.01)] 22 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of alerting a user of an autonomous vehicle of unintentional driving mode transitions, the method comprising:
storing in memory, by one or more processors, a predetermined period of time;
detecting, by the one or more processors, a force applied by the user to an input device to cause the autonomous vehicle to transition between different driving modes;
determining, by the one or more processors, whether there has been an additional user input within the predetermined period of time from when the force was applied by the user to the input device or when the transition occurred; and
providing, by the one or more processors, an audible disengage alert based on the determining.