Patent ID: 11899468
Assignee: WAYMO LLC
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  B  H | IPC B  G  H

Claim 0:
1. A system comprising:
an array of photodiode sensors positioned on an autonomous vehicle, each photodiode sensor in the array of photo diode sensors oriented in a different direction with respect to at least one other photodiode sensor and configured to generate electrical current signals in response to detecting a flashing light in a surrounding environment of the autonomous vehicle;
an image sensor configured to capture high-resolution and reduced-resolution images of the surrounding environment of the autonomous vehicle at a first frequency wherein the reduced-resolution images comprise lower resolution than the high-resolution images; and
a processor coupled to the array of the photodiode sensors, the processor configured to:
determine a general location of a source of the flashing light relative to the autonomous vehicle based on the electrical current signals from at least one photodiode sensor in the array of photodiode sensors;
determine a flash frequency of the flashing light;
send a reconfiguration command to cause the image sensor to capture the reduced-resolution images at a second frequency that is at least twice the flash frequency; and
determine a further localized location of the source of the flashing light relative to the autonomous vehicle based on the reduced-resolution images from the image sensor, or a combination of the reduced-resolution images from the image sensor and the electrical current signals from at least one photodiode sensor in the array of photodiode sensors; and
generate a command to maneuver the autonomous vehicle based on the further localized location of the source relative to the autonomous vehicle.