Methods for passenger authentication and door operation for autonomous vehicles

• Main Authors: Yunpeng Xu, Junsung Kim, Scott Sweeny, Brett Sandler, Vasudeva Pai Melgangolli
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 26.01.2022
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE ORDIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; CONTROLLING; COUNTING; DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS OR METHODS, SPECIALLY ADAPTED FORADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORYOR FORECASTING PURPOSES; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; REGULATING; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TOTHE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT; SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE,COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORY OR FORECASTINGPURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL

Disclosed are computer systems and techniques for authenticating a passenger of an autonomous vehicle and operating doors of the autonomous vehicle. For passenger authentication, the computer system is configured to receive a ride request, generate a passcode, transmit the passcode to a user account and the autonomous vehicle, authenticate the user using the passcode, and enable departure of the autonomous vehicle. For door operation, the computer system is configured to detect environmental conditions surrounding an autonomous vehicle, determine based on a set of operational conditions whether one or more doors of the autonomous vehicle are desirable for use, and operate a door if the door is safe to operate and desirable for operation.