Apple's Project Titan receives new patent to help self-driving cars change lanes safely

According to foreign media reports, the US Patent and Trademark Office has announced a patent related to Apple's Titan project that can help self-driving cars change lanes safely.

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Apple noted that the patent describes a comprehensive decision-making and motion planning solution for a vehicle to automatically perform a lane change operation. The decision-making component included in the patent system can determine the behavior pattern to be followed by the autonomous vehicle, and the motion planning component can determine the actual lane change trajectory to perform the lane change operation.

These components can work together to effectively achieve safe lane changes, such as generating driving trajectories that will not cause collisions and combining vehicle dynamics with occupant comfort. The decision-making component can determine constraints or goals, which the motion planning module can use to focus the search for successful lane change trajectories. These processes allow the vehicle control system as a whole to consider a larger range or more types of potential lane change maneuvers.

Headway refers to the distance between two vehicles traveling in the same lane. It also indicates the time required for the following vehicle to travel the distance between the two vehicles at its current speed. The minimum headway limit specifies the minimum headway that should be maintained between vehicles. It may also be a function of vehicle speed. For example, the faster the vehicle is, the greater the headway should be.

The minimum headway limit may be determined by road regulations. Adding a minimum headway limit to the vehicle control system design can improve safety. The minimum headway maintained by the vehicle in front of the controlled vehicle may not be consistent with the minimum headway maintained by the vehicle behind it.

Apple's patent FIG. 5 below is an example flowchart for determining an exercise plan.

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Apple's patent figure FIG. 6 below is a block diagram of an example vehicle.

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The following Apple patent figure FIG. 8 is an example diagram of a vehicle lane change operation.

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