Smart vehicle

Abstract

Systems and method are disclosed to control a vehicle by creating a 3D model of a vehicle environment and the vehicle; obtaining path information that provides an estimated location of a travel path; and estimating a neighbor path for at least one neighboring vehicle.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method to control a vehicle, comprising:
 creating a 3D model of a vehicle environment and the vehicle;   obtaining path information that provides an estimated location of a travel path;   estimating a neighbor path for at least one neighboring vehicle; and   when the path information has become unavailable or unreliable, maintaining a relative position until the path information becomes available again.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the path information is based on at least one of a lane marking on the road, a geographic location of the vehicle, and a predetermined map of the road. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising using radio triangulation, laser ranging or camera estimation to monitor the neighboring vehicle. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising communicating with neighboring vehicles to determine a relative position of the vehicle to neighboring vehicles. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 identifying vehicles traveling to a common destination for a predetermined period;   organizing the vehicles into a flock.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , comprising applying a separation rule to avoid crowding vehicular neighbors, an alignment rule to steer towards average heading of vehicular neighbors, and a cohesion rule to steer towards average position of vehicular neighbors 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising flocking the vehicles over a plurality of lanes. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising determining a common destination based on a segment of a vehicle's final destination. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein vehicles that share same driving segments broadcast expressions indicating their path(s), comprising detecting vehicles in the same segment as part of the proximity services for capturing and sharing crowd-sourced navigation data. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising capturing crowdsourced information relating to: closing of a path; predicting an avoidance maneuver; predicting a congestion with respect to a segment of the route of the at least one vehicle; and predicting traffic patterns. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising determining an obstacle in the path and changing the vehicle's path to avoid the obstacle, wherein the obstacle comprises rock, hidden object, submerged object, a path closure, inoperative vehicle, or vehicle in an accident. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the vehicle comprises a drone, a car, a plane, a ship, a motorcycle, or a bicycle.