Patent ID: 8229618

Claim:
A method for controlling movement of a vehicle, the method comprising: identifying movement of an operator of the vehicle located at a side of the vehicle rather than in front of the vehicle with a plurality of sensors located at the side of the vehicle; moving the vehicle in a path that maintains the operator of the vehicle at the side of the vehicle rather than in the front of the vehicle while the operator of the vehicle is moving forward, wherein the moving step further comprises: identifying a first path for the operator of the vehicle; generating a second path for the vehicle, wherein the second path maintains the operator of the vehicle at the side of the vehicle; moving the vehicle along the second path; responsive to detecting an obstacle in the second path, generating an alert to the operator of the vehicle, and responsive to receiving a user input from the operator of the vehicle based on the alert, performing at least one of stopping the vehicle and moving the vehicle around the obstacle based on the user input from the operator of the vehicle; wherein the obstacle is detected in the second path if it is determined that the vehicle will encounter the object if the vehicle continues to move along the second path.