<story><title>Google Awarded Driverless Vehicle Patent</title><url>http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&amp;Sect2=HITOFF&amp;d=PALL&amp;p=1&amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&amp;r=1&amp;f=G&amp;l=50&amp;s1=8,078,349.PN.&amp;OS=PN/8,078,349&amp;RS=PN/8,078,349</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Wilya</author><text>The patent is about reading a symbol on the ground that triggers the reading of a QR-code to get precise GPS location. Roughly.&lt;p&gt;Actually, the QR-code (or equivalent) is used to fetch &quot;instructions for performing the autonomous vehicle instruction&quot; (which could be anything).&lt;p&gt;And the QR-code can be replaced by a lot of things (radio signal, etc).</text></comment>
<story><title>Google Awarded Driverless Vehicle Patent</title><url>http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&amp;Sect2=HITOFF&amp;d=PALL&amp;p=1&amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&amp;r=1&amp;f=G&amp;l=50&amp;s1=8,078,349.PN.&amp;OS=PN/8,078,349&amp;RS=PN/8,078,349</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>peterknego</author><text>The abstract says:&lt;p&gt;&quot;Disclosed are methods and devices for transitioning a mixed-mode autonomous vehicle from a human driven mode to an autonomously driven mode. Transitioning may include stopping a vehicle on a predefined landing strip and detecting a reference indicator. Based on the reference indicator, the vehicle may be able to know its exact position. Additionally, the vehicle may use the reference indictor to obtain an autonomous vehicle instruction via a URL. After the vehicle knows its precise location and has an autonomous vehicle instruction, it can operate in autonomous mode.&quot;&lt;p&gt;So it does not patent &quot;driverless vehicle&quot;, but a particular method of transition from mixed-mode to driverless mode.</text></comment>