Waymo patents smoother speed changes for self-driving cars
This patent describes a method for self-driving vehicles to plan their speed by using 'permeable' constraints instead of rigid rules. It allows the car to pass through certain safety boundaries if its speed relative to nearby objects meets specific criteria, preventing sudden stops caused by minor sensor errors.
In the filing’s own words
The technology relates to planning trajectories for self-driving vehicles in order to transport passengers or cargo from a pickup location to a destination. Trajectory planning includes generating a speed plan for an upcoming portion of the trip in view of one or more constraints. The constraints may be due to proximity to an adjacent vehicle or other road user, and can include projected overlaps between the vehicle and other objects in the vehicle's nearby environment. Certain constraints may be binary or otherwise discontinuous in nature, in which a condition either exists at a given point in time or it does not. Noise in sensor data or prediction models may trigger such binary conditions, which in turn may cause the vehicle to alter the speed plan. Aspects of the technology employ permeable speed constraints that enable the vehicle to avoid problems associated with discontinuous constraints.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method of maneuvering a vehicle in an autonomous driving mode, the method comprising: generating, by one or more processors based on a projected trajectory for an object in an external environment around the vehicle and a projected vehicle trajectory, a set of constraints associated with the object, wherein the set of constraints is defined in a distance versus time space; selecting, by the one or more processors, a speed plan based on the set of constraints, in which the vehicle is able to pass through a given permeable one of the constraints when a speed of the vehicle relative to a speed of the given permeable constraint satisfies one or more criteria; and maneuvering, by the one or more processors, the vehicle in the autonomous driving mode according to the speed plan.
Facts
- Company
- Google (Waymo LLC)
- Official title
- Permeable speed constraints
- Patent number
- US12735076B2
- Application number
- 18828295
- Filed
- Sep 9, 2024
- Granted
- Sep 15, 2026
- Inventors
- 3
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
B60W 60/00276 Operations & transportB60W 60/00272 Operations & transportB60W 2554/4041 Operations & transportB60W 2554/4042 Operations & transportB60W 2554/4043 Operations & transportB60W 2554/801 Operations & transportMore from Google in Cars & transport
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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.