Patent ID: 6394231
Filing Date: 2002-05-28
Classification: B66B

Abstract:
A method for communication with a transport system having vehicles of high autonomy relative to serving users and in which at least one man/machine interface is provided for input by a user of travel destinations and information of the user, comprising the steps of:a. providing a terminal at a boarding floor and inputting to the terminal at least a desired travel destination of a user; b. generating from the terminal a request representing the desired travel destination and the boarding floor, and receiving the request by at least two high autonomy vehicles serving the boarding floor and the travel destination; c. causing each of the vehicles receiving the request to examine the request for feasibility of service on the basis of an individual travel costs comparison; d. generating from each of the vehicles to the terminal an offer to serve the request from a predetemined boarding location at the boarding floor; each of the offers also including results of the examination and remaining starting positions/destination positions to be served associated with the corresponding vehicle; e. causing the terminal to select one of the offers; and f. communicating to the user at the terminal an identification of the predetermined boarding location and the selected vehicle associated with the selected offer.