Waymo patents using cars to fix your phone's GPS for pickups
This filing describes a system where an autonomous vehicle helps pinpoint a rider's exact location when their phone's GPS is inaccurate. The car sends a signal to the phone, measures the distance between them, and uses that data to calculate a precise pickup spot. This allows the vehicle to navigate to the correct curb even in areas with poor satellite reception.
In the filing’s own words
The technology provides enhanced localization approaches using vehicle-obtained information in place of or to enhance global positioning information to localize a user’s position. Such information can be shared with the user’s client device in real-time prior to pickup or meeting at a selected location. This can supplement or replace inaccurate localization information available at the client device, and can be done as needed when the user is within a threshold range of one or more autonomous vehicles. A client device of a user can compute its position using the vehicle positioning information. The vehicle positioning approach may be performed when the user is within a certain range of one or more vehicles. Vehicle localization information may also be used to correct the client device’s localization information. Here, using hyper-accurate vehicle positioning, one or more vehicles can compute pseudorange errors for each “visible” satellite in a global positioning service.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method, comprising: based on an indication that a vehicle detects a first signal from a mobile device of a user, issuing, by one or more processors to the mobile device, a request to transmit a second signal, wherein the second signal is a type of signal different from the first signal; obtaining, by the one or more processors using the second signal transmitted by the mobile device, a distance between the vehicle and the mobile device at a point in time; determining, by the one or more processors, a position of the mobile device based on a location of the vehicle at the point in time and the distance between the vehicle and the mobile device; obtaining, by the one or more processors based on the position of the mobile device, a pickup location for the user; and causing the vehicle to drive towards the pickup location in an autonomous driving mode.
Facts
- Company
- Google (WAYMO LLC)
- Official title
- Vehicle Collaboration and Sensor Enhancement
- Publication number
- US20260296497A1
- Application number
- 19696636
- Filed
- Jun 3, 2026
- Published
- Oct 1, 2026
- Inventors
- 3
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
B60W 60/00253 Operations & transportG01C 21/30 Physics & computingG01S 19/40 Physics & computingB60W 60/00256 Operations & transportB60W 2420/408 Operations & transportB60W 2556/40 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.