Uber Technologies, Inc.
Hybrid trip planning for autonomous vehicles

Abstract:

A hybrid trip planning system can receive transport requests from requesting users, determine pick-up and/or drop off locations from the transport request, and select available autonomous vehicles (AV) to service the transport requests. For each transport request, the planning system can identify a plurality of entry points from the pick-up location to an autonomy grid on which the AVs operate, and a plurality of exit points from the autonomy grid to the drop-off location. The planning system may determine optimal entry and/or exit points and transmit transport data to the selected AV. The transport data can provide optimal routing for a human safety driver to drive the selected AV in manual segments that are off grid, and switch the AV into an autonomous driving mode within the autonomy grid.