
Google Awarded Driverless Vehicle Patent - meadhikari
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,078,349.PN.&OS=PN/8,078,349&RS=PN/8,078,349
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Wilya
The patent is about reading a symbol on the ground that triggers the reading
of a QR-code to get precise GPS location. Roughly.

Actually, the QR-code (or equivalent) is used to fetch "instructions for
performing the autonomous vehicle instruction" (which could be anything).

And the QR-code can be replaced by a lot of things (radio signal, etc).

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roc
Yeah, it'd be nice if more people read patent claims before passing judgement.

I took the obvious practical implementation of this to be a method to guide
autonomous vehicles into a parking lot/structure. The car rolls up to the
landing strip, the driver gets out, the car switches to autonomous mode, gets
the connection information to the parking management server, asks for and
receives a spot assignment and instructions on getting there, etc.

GPS and map data are simply insufficient to handle autonomous parking. There
are precious few universals in parking laws, customs, lot-flow, etc. And
automatic parking is one of the unavoidable expectations of self-driving cars.

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cabalamat
> it'd be nice if more people read patent claims before passing judgement.

It'd also be nice if patents were written in a language that made them readily
understandable. Then more people might read them. I'm sure I'm not the only
person who finds them obscure bordering on incomprehensible.

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anigbrowl
'Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.'

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po
Make things as vague as possible while still patentable, and no clearer.

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anigbrowl
I find them easy to read. It's a style imposed by the need to be exhaustively
specific. Just keep at it, you get used to it.

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peterknego
The abstract says:

"Disclosed are methods and devices for transitioning a mixed-mode autonomous
vehicle from a human driven mode to an autonomously driven mode. Transitioning
may include stopping a vehicle on a predefined landing strip and detecting a
reference indicator. Based on the reference indicator, the vehicle may be able
to know its exact position. Additionally, the vehicle may use the reference
indictor to obtain an autonomous vehicle instruction via a URL. After the
vehicle knows its precise location and has an autonomous vehicle instruction,
it can operate in autonomous mode."

So it does not patent "driverless vehicle", but a particular method of
transition from mixed-mode to driverless mode.

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jessriedel
"Driverless Vechicle" is a compound adjective modifying patent. It's not a
patent _for_ (all) driverless vechicles, it's a patent _regarding_ driverless
vehicles.

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reader5000
Excellent. I was hoping technological progress in this area would be
oppressed. The USPTO did not disappoint!

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derefr
Car models aren't like software—people aren't constantly producing new,
accidentally-infringing works. I'm pretty sure this is one of those patents
that will get _licensed_ by all the other big companies, rather than sued
over.

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einhverfr
Well, there are clear prior art examples for driverless cars, but that's
beside the point. The real issue here is that a driverless car manufacturer is
going to absorb all liability for all accidents while with a driver, the
driver absorbs that liability.

I seriously doubt Google will monetize this patent before it expires.

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nt_mark
1\. Google is NEVER going into the auto business, but they'll licence or even
donate their software to run on any auto manufacturers car.

2\. The auto manufacturers will only tepidly roll this out very with tons of
regulatory and legal tiptoeing.

3\. The end user will have to sign away any legal rights to recourse and/or
the government(s) will have to amend statutory rights accordingly before the
first cars hit the road.

4\. It will happen, eventually. It will save hundreds of thousands of
lives/year.

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ScottBurson
_they'll licence or even donate their software to run on any auto
manufacturers car_

Of course, as you're riding down the road in your Google-powered driverless
car, there will be ads on the dashboard monitor, paid for by the businesses
you pass by on your route.

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mmcconnell1618
This may indicate the Google has found 100% autonomous operation is not
practical yet and so they spent time working on how to easily transition
in/out of that mode. I could see a situation where you have a toll-both type
area before entering highways that would trigger your vehicle's autonomous
mode and another one to switch back to manual as you exit.

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jws
Practical or not, I think the first jurisdictions to permit robot drivers will
limit where they are permitted[1]. This would work well for that, though
realistically, I think an online map of allowed regions and a GPS will be the
real solution unless regular drivers want to be informed that others are robot
driven, then it will be road side signs.

EOM

[1] I drove south through Nevada at 70+mph on a ruler straight road for 90
minutes without encountering another vehicle, human, or cow. Start there,
expand as experience with the systems is gained.

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gerggerg
While I am super excited for the future of auto-driving auto-motives, does
this patent really prove anything novel and non obvious? QR codes are already
used for orientation by many systems, and it seems quite obvious that an
autonomous car would need orientation sensors and a computer with at least one
line of code relating the operation of an autonomous vehicle. I think google
has made some real patent-worthy innovations with their driver-less vehicles
but this seems to be of the overly broad progress stifling type of patent.

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ChuckMcM
The most amazing thing about this patent is this:

Filed: May 11, 2011 Issued: December 13, 2011

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devindotcom
I noticed that too. I was actually patenting after I published my post on this
earlier today because I thought such a quick turnaround was impossible and the
patent was not in fact granted. But it was! Really mind-blowing considering
we've seen some take four or five years.

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geogra4
Google is one of the few companies that legitimately has me excited for the
future.

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nswanberg
Here is a concept video from Google that indirectly shows some context for how
the landing strip and QR codes might be used:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOWhu_aa9kM>

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rafamvc
When those cars make into our roads, I expect them to have way less accidents
than us, humans. Therefore, more and more the human driving insurance will
start to spike to levels that make it not cheap to drive your own car.

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TheFuture
Huh? I would expect insurance discounts for every mile you drive under
automation.

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plaes
What about prior art - DARPA grand challenge (2004-2007)?

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sjmulder
This patent is about switching between manual and automatic driving, not the
autonomous driving in itself.

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dreamdu5t
When the issue is music or software people pirate, patents are scorned and
declared the enemy of progress. When the issue is driverless cars, the
attitudes seem much more relaxed.

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saraid216
Music and software piracy are not patent violations. They are copyright
violations. It's a completely different issue.

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omouse
Fuck patents of all sorts. They do nothing but stifle innovation.

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dpcan
Agreed. The entire patent departments of all world governments should be
abolished. There is no reason the human race should be putting these
restrictions on ourselves. It's completely absurd.

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mrbgty
Keep in mind that they probably submitted this to the patent office 3 years
ago

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kamjam
Doesn't KITT from Knight Rider count as prior art? :)

(I didn't read the patent!)

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dkastner
Prior art: trains.

Seriously, though, this is a complete waste of time. Mass transit has been
solving the problem of getting people from point A to point B without them
having to do the piloting for a hundred years. What we really need to be
spending our money on is rebuilding the streetcar and intercity rail systems
that used to connect nearly every town in the country and electrifying them.
This will drastically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels (because oil is the
only portable energy source cheap and powerful enough for automobiles) and
reducing greenhouse gasses. Instead, we're talking about an overly complex
solution involving creation of an automated driving system on all our highways
and compelling thousands of users to upgrade to driverless cars, which may or
may not be electric.

In other words, Google's driverless car is to transportation as Dart is to DOM
scripting.

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thebooktocome
Do trains use QR codes to park? I can't find a good source.

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dkastner
Yes, I know that patent is actually more specific than "driverless car." I was
just being snarky.

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omouse
I don't understand why you would do that when patents are a legitimate concern
and are a problem.

