Snapshot
Problem
People are accustomed to their vehicles waiting for them in their garage or in a parking lot. As a result, people have little patience waiting for an autonomous vehicle to arrive.
If people have to wait long for rides, they may decide that using autonomous vehicles is not worth giving up the convenience of having their own vehicle waiting for them.
Solution
The solution is for autonomous vehicles to accurately anticipate when and where people will need a ride (to reduce or eliminate wait times).
Intellectual Property
U.S. Patent 9,646,356
U.S. Patent 9,915,949
U.S. Patent 10,240,938
U.S. Patent Application 16/205,013
U.S. Patent Application 16/358,901
Additional patents pending
Partners
Drivent would like to integrate these helpful features into your autonomous vehicle systems.
A vehicle waiting for you, not you waiting for a vehicle.
Which is more convenient?
Wasting time waiting for a vehicle to pick you up outside a store.
Carrying bags across a parking lot to your own vehicle.
Want a vehicle to be ready when you leave a store?
People run countless errands every day. They park, traverse across the parking lot, shop, exit the store with bags, and then traverse back across the parking lot to their vehicle. This status quo may be more convenient than having to wait for an autonomous vehicle after shopping, but is far below the convenience possible with our technology.
With our technology, the autonomous vehicle drops the person off right at the entrance to the store (so the person doesn’t have to traverse a busy parking lot). Then, the vehicle pulls up just in time, right in front of the store when the person leaves the store (so the person doesn’t have to traverse the busy parking lot a second time).
Analyzing in-store behaviors enables the system to know when a vehicle is needed. For example, checking out at the store notifies the autonomous vehicle to pick up the person.
Want a vehicle to be ready when you leave work?
People need a ride home from work on most days. Autonomous vehicles can be smart enough to accurately predict when people are going to leave work. A vehicle circling needlessly near a building’s exit could be bothersome. A vehicle arriving exactly when it’s needed delights customers.
Analyzing work-related behaviors enables the system to know when a vehicle is needed. For example, logging out of a work computer at the end of the day notifies the autonomous vehicle to pick up the person.
Adapting the pick-up location to best serve the customer.
A person can select a pick-up location with every intention of walking to that pick-up location to rendezvous with an autonomous vehicle. For example, a person might select to be picked up on the north side of a high-rise building, but might walk to the east side of the building either due to being confused about which side of the building faces north or simply because the person decided the east side of the building was preferable. A person at a shopping complex might originally schedule a pick-up at a first location, but later the system might determine that another location is preferable.
The key is that the pick-up location is adaptable to best serve the customer.
- The system can suggest an updated pick-up location in response to analyzing behavior of the person.
- If a different pick-up location is more convenient, the system can update the pick-up location.
- If the person is standing at a location other than the originally scheduled pick-up location, the autonomous vehicle can drive to the location where the person is standing rather than wait at the originally scheduled pick-up location.
