A variety of approaches to developing driverless vehicles focus predominately on automating conventional vehicles (e.g., manually-driven automotive vehicles) with an aim toward producing driverless vehicles for consumer purchase. For example, a number of automotive companies and affiliates are modifying conventional automobiles and control mechanisms, such as steering, to provide consumers with an ability to own a vehicle that may operate without a driver. In some approaches, a conventional driverless vehicle performs safety-critical driving functions in some conditions, but requires a driver to assume control (e.g., steering, etc.) should the vehicle controller fail to resolve certain issues that might jeopardize the safety of the occupants.
Although functional, conventional driverless vehicles typically have a number of drawbacks. For example, a large number of driverless cars under development have evolved from vehicles requiring manual (i.e., human-controlled) steering and other like automotive functions. Therefore, a majority of driverless cars are based on a paradigm that a vehicle is to be designed to accommodate a licensed driver, for which a specific seat or location is reserved within the vehicle. As such, driverless vehicles are designed sub-optimally and generally forego opportunities to simplify vehicle design and conserve resources (e.g., reducing costs of producing a driverless vehicle). Other drawbacks are also present in conventional driverless vehicles.
Other drawbacks are also present in conventional transportation services, which are not well-suited for managing, for example, inventory of vehicles effectively due to the common approaches of providing conventional transportation and ride-sharing services. In one conventional approach, passengers are required to access a mobile application to request transportation services via a centralized service that assigns a human driver and vehicle (e.g., under private ownership) to a passenger. With the use of differently-owned vehicles, maintenance of private vehicles and safety systems generally go unchecked. In another conventional approach, some entities enable ride-sharing for a group of vehicles by allowing drivers, who enroll as members, access to vehicles that are shared among the members. This approach is not well-suited to provide for convenient transportation services as drivers need to pick up and drop off shared vehicles at specific locations, which typically are rare and sparse in city environments, and require access to relatively expensive real estate (i.e., parking lots) at which to park ride-shared vehicles. In the above-described conventional approaches, the traditional vehicles used to provide transportation services are generally under-utilized, from an inventory perspective, as the vehicles are rendered immobile once a driver departs. Further, ride-sharing approaches (as well as individually-owned vehicle transportation services) generally are not well-suited to rebalance inventory to match demand of transportation services to accommodate usage and typical travel patterns. Note, too, that some conventionally-described vehicles having limited self-driving automation capabilities also are not well-suited to rebalance inventories as a human driver generally may be required. Examples of vehicles having limited self-driving automation capabilities are vehicles designated as Level 3 (“L3”) vehicles, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”).
As another drawback, typical approaches to driverless vehicles are generally not well-suited to detect and navigate vehicles relative to interactions (e.g., social interactions) between a vehicle-in-travel and other drivers of vehicles or individuals. For example, some conventional approaches are not sufficiently able to identify pedestrians, cyclists, etc., and associated interactions, such as eye contact, gesturing, and the like, for purposes of addressing safety risks to occupants of a driverless vehicles, as well as drivers of other vehicles, pedestrians, etc.
Thus, what is needed is a solution for implementing autonomous vehicles, without the limitations of conventional techniques.