Patent ID: 11897513
Assignee: YAMAHA HATSUDOKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 0:
1. An autonomous vehicle comprising:
a vehicle body having a cabin space formed therein, the cabin space being so formed as to inhibit each passenger of the autonomous vehicle from standing upright;
a wheel supported by the vehicle body;
a steering mechanism supported by the vehicle body, and configured to change a direction of travel of the autonomous vehicle;
a driving/braking force generating device supported by the vehicle body, and configured to generate a driving force to drive the autonomous vehicle and a braking force to decelerate the autonomous vehicle;
a plurality of seats supported by the vehicle body, and each configured to be sat on by a passenger; and
an autonomous driving controller including
a processor, and
a non-transitory storage medium containing program instructions,

execution of the program instructions by the processor causing the autonomous driving controller to control the steering mechanism and the driving/braking force generating device to autonomously drive the autonomous vehicle without any driver's manipulation, wherein
the execution of the program instructions by the processor causes the autonomous driving controller to control the driving/braking force generating device to change the autonomous vehicle from a stopped state to a run state, based on
(1) a number of passengers, and a number of ready-state-expressing passengers,
(2) a maximum capacity, and the number of ready-state-expressing passengers, and
(3) a scheduled number of passengers, and the number of ready-state-expressing passengers, wherein
said number of passengers is a total number of passengers in the autonomous vehicle,
said maximum capacity is a total number of the seats in the autonomous vehicle,
said scheduled number of passengers is a total number of passengers who are scheduled to be in the autonomous vehicle, and
said number of ready-state-expressing passengers is a total number of passengers who are each both
seated on one of the plurality of seats, and
making a sign of being ready for a change of the autonomous vehicle from the stopped state to the run state.