Waymo patents truck parking aid using warehouse sensors
This patent describes a method for helping large self-driving trucks park at destinations like warehouses. The truck combines its own cameras and sensors with data from sensors installed at the parking facility to adjust its driving path in real-time.
In the filing’s own words
The technology relates to assisting large self-driving vehicles, such as cargo vehicles, as they maneuver towards and/or park at a destination facility. This may include a given vehicle transitioning between different autonomous driving modes. Such a vehicles may be permitted to drive in a fully autonomous mode on certain roadways for the majority of a trip, but may need to change to a partially autonomous mode on other roadways or when entering or leaving a destination facility such as a warehouse, depot or service center. Large vehicles such as cargo truck may have limited room to maneuver in and park at the destination, which may also prevent operation in a fully autonomous mode. Here, information from the destination facility and/or a remote assistance service can be employed to aid in real-time semi-autonomous maneuvering.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. An autonomous vehicle, comprising: a perception system including one or more sensors disposed along corresponding exterior surfaces of the autonomous vehicle; and one or more computing devices including a memory configured to store map information usable to navigate the autonomous vehicle, the one or more computing devices being configured to: generate a first trajectory to a parking location of a parking facility using the map information and sensor information obtained from the one or more sensors of the perception system; modify the first trajectory to obtain a modified trajectory to the parking location of the parking facility, based on sensor data obtained from one or more sensors of the parking facility; and control, using the modified trajectory, a driving system of the autonomous vehicle to drive to the parking location in an autonomous driving mode.
Facts
- Company
- Google (Waymo LLC)
- Official title
- Method for performing a vehicle assist operation
- Patent number
- US12728839B2
- Application number
- 18964856
- Filed
- Dec 2, 2024
- Granted
- Sep 8, 2026
- Inventors
- 2
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
B60W 30/06 Operations & transportB62D 15/0285 Operations & transportG05D 1/0231 Physics & computingG05D 1/249 Physics & computingG06V 20/584 Physics & computingG08G 1/096725 Physics & computingMore from Google in Cars & transport
- Waymo patents system to detect cyclists losing control before they fall Sep 8, 2026
- Waymo patents self-driving cars that hear sirens and pull over Sep 8, 2026
- Waymo patents AI that moves self-driving cars out of traffic jams Sep 29, 2026
- Waymo patents AI that predicts driving scenes from sensor data Oct 1, 2026
- Waymo patents method for self-driving cars to predict when they can see hidden hazards Sep 8, 2026
Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.