Patent ID: 11904902
Assignee: WAYMO LLC
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 15:
16. A vehicle configured to operate in an autonomous driving mode, the vehicle comprising:
a perception system including one or more sensors, the one or more sensors being configured to receive sensor data associated with objects in an external environment of the vehicle;
a driving system including a steering subsystem, an acceleration subsystem and a deceleration subsystem to control driving of the vehicle;
a positioning system configured to determine a current position of the vehicle; and
a control system including one or more processors, the control system operatively coupled to the driving system, the perception system and the positioning system, the control system being configured to:
receive perception information from the perception system regarding a set of objects in the external environment of the vehicle;
determine that the set of objects in the external environment includes a plurality of pedestrian objects, each pedestrian object corresponding to a person;
obtain a likelihood that each pedestrian object is a customer, wherein the control system is configured to obtain the likelihood by being configured to:
apply first information from a client device of the customer to a localization model; and
apply second information from a sensor source type other than the client device of the customer to the localization model;

evaluate the likelihood that each pedestrian object is the customer; and
upon determining that the likelihood for a given one of the pedestrian objects indicates that the given pedestrian object is the customer, perform at least one of: (i) send a notification to the client device of the customer regarding a pickup location to meet the vehicle, (ii) adjust the pickup location, (iii) cause modification to a driving operation to be performed by the driving system in the autonomous driving mode, or (iv) transmit information about the given pedestrian object to a remote management system.