DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-15 are pending in this application.
Claims 1-3 and 8-9 are presented as currently amended claims.
Claims 4-7 and 10-15 are presented as previously amended claims.
No claims are newly presented.
No claims are cancelled.
Continued Examination
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on Dec. 11, 2025 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Konala et al. (US 11493353 B1) in view of Curlander (US 20170148316 A1) (the combination of which will be referenced as "combination Konala" supra). As regards the individual claims:
Regarding claim 1, Konala teaches a method for:
parallel use of a(Konala: ¶ 046, Col 12, Lns. 34-38; vehicle allocation system 210 can select an autonomous vehicle (e.g., the autonomous vehicle 1 506) that will be able to access and use the reserved zone for the pickup) reserved for scheduled vehicles (Konala: ¶ 031, Col 8, Lns. 29-32; plurality of reserved zones within proximity of the requested pullover location for the ride) (Konala: ¶ 047, Col 12, Lns. 43-45; reserved zone can be a public transportation lane (e.g., a bus lane)) by a plurality of unscheduled autonomous vehicles in a transportation network (Konala: ¶ 044, Col 11, Lns. 57-59; vehicle allocation system 210 to select an autonomous vehicle from a fleet of autonomous vehicles 504) and a plurality of scheduled vehicles,(Konala: Clm. 1; a plurality of public transportation vehicles) the method comprising: determining for at least one of the plurality of the unscheduled autonomous vehicles (Konala: ¶ 046, Col 12, Lns. 34-38; vehicle allocation system 210 can select an autonomous vehicle (e.g., the autonomous vehicle 1 506) that will be able to access and use the reserved zone for the pickup)) a route from an origin to a destination in the transportation network, wherein at least a portion of said route comprises said reserved road space; (Konala: ¶ 045, Col 12, Lns. 23-24; a route to the reserved zone can be planned (e.g., by the autonomous vehicle) (Konala: ¶ 047, Col 12, Lns. 43-45; reserved zone can be a public transportation lane (e.g., a bus lane).)predicting, using the, conflicts for ones of the plurality of scheduled vehicles with ones of the unscheduled autonomous vehicles . . . and generating, using the predicted conflicts, conflict avoidance instructions for ones of the plurality of unscheduled autonomous vehicles for avoidance of the predicted conflicts. (Konala: ¶ 045, Col 12, Lns. 26-29; the autonomous vehicle 1 506 can delay arriving at the reserved zone until the time period during which the reserved zone is available e.g., the autonomous vehicle 1 506 can take a longer route, drive slower, pause, etc.).
To the extent Konala is silent about or does not teach: in the reserved road space; Curlander teaches:
in the reserved road space (Curlander: ¶ 023; system 115 can instruct the vehicles 105a, 105b, 105c to move to lane 107 and rely upon the autonomous navigation features associated with the vehicles 105 entering the lane 107 and the vehicles 105 already in the lane 107 to safely merge with one another) (Curlander: ¶ 052; requests are transmitted to a roadway management system 115 that manages a particular roadway on the route )
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Curlander with the teachings of Konala because doing so would result in the predicable benefit of “maximize a speed of vehicles moving through the roadway” (Curlander: ¶ 012).
Regarding claim 2, as detailed above, combination Konala teaches the invention as detailed with respect to claim 1. Konala further teaches:
predicting of the conflicts in the reserved road space using a scheduled traffic pattern model (Konala: ¶ 050; Col. 12 ln 67 – Col. 13 Ln. 5; a trip request for a ride in the autonomous vehicle can be received (e.g., by the autonomous vehicle, from a dispatch computing system). The trip request can specify a requested pullover location for the ride. At 604, public transportation data specifying an expected arrival time of a public transportation vehicle at a reserved zone can be received)
Regarding claim 3, as detailed above, combination Konala teaches the invention as detailed with respect to claim 1. Curlander further teaches:
transmitting of the conflict avoidance instructions to infrastructure elements in the transportation network. (Curlander: ¶ 023; system 115 can instruct the vehicles 105a, 105b, 105c to move to lane 107 and rely upon the autonomous navigation features associated with the vehicles 105 entering the lane 107 and the vehicles 105 already in the lane 107 to safely merge with one another) (Curlander: ¶ 052; requests are transmitted to a roadway management system 115 that manages a particular roadway on the route )
Regarding claim 4, as detailed above, combination Konala teaches the invention as detailed with respect to claim 1. Curlander further teaches:
notifying one or multiple ones of the unscheduled autonomous vehicles to avoid the conflicts using the transmitted conflict avoidance instructions . (Curlander: ¶ 018; system 115 can make such a determination by analyzing a state of the roadway and its various travel lanes and assigning a requesting vehicle entrance to the roadway at a particular lane at a particular time and at a particular velocity or velocity range.)
Regarding claim 5, as detailed above, combination Konala teaches the invention as detailed with respect to claim 1. Curlander further teaches:
adjusting speeds of ones of the plurality of unscheduled autonomous vehicles (Curlander: ¶ 018; system 115 can make such a determination by analyzing a state of the roadway and its various travel lanes and assigning a requesting vehicle entrance to the roadway at a particular lane at a particular time and at a particular velocity or velocity range.) to avoid the conflicts with ones of the plurality of scheduled vehicles travelling in the reserved road space (Curlander: ¶ 046; can communicate with an autonomous vehicle controller 160 of another vehicle 105 to facilitate navigation through a roadway and to eliminate vehicle collisions)
Regarding claim 6, as detailed above, combination Konala teaches the invention as detailed with respect to claim 1. Curlander further teaches:
adjusting the route for at least one of the unscheduled autonomous vehicles using the conflict avoidance instructions (Curlander: ¶ 018; system 115 can make such a determination by analyzing a state of the roadway and its various travel lanes and assigning a requesting vehicle entrance to the roadway at a particular lane at a particular time and at a particular velocity or velocity range.) (Curlander: ¶ 046; can communicate with an autonomous vehicle controller 160 of another vehicle 105 to facilitate navigation through a roadway and to eliminate vehicle collisions)
Regarding claim 7, as detailed above, combination Konala teaches the invention as detailed with respect to claim 1. Curlander further teaches:
continuously updating the scheduled traffic pattern model based on travel patterns of the scheduled vehicles using interaction data from at least one of a plurality of sensing elements. (Curlander: ¶ 022; roadway management system 115 can generate and transmit an update to the previous roadway assignment that assigned the vehicles 105a, 105b, 105c to lane 106. In this scenario, the roadway assignment can include an identification of the lane 107 as well as a time that the vehicles 105a, 105b, 105c should enter the lane)
Regarding claim 8, Konala teaches a system for:
operation of a transportation network (Konala: ¶ 046, Col 12, Lns. 34-38; vehicle allocation system 210 can select an autonomous vehicle (e.g., the autonomous vehicle 1 506) that will be able to access and use the reserved zone for the pickup) for a plurality of scheduled vehicles (Konala: Clm. 1; a plurality of public transportation vehicles)and a plurality of unscheduled autonomous vehicles, (Konala: ¶ 044, Col 11, Lns. 57-59; vehicle allocation system 210 to select an autonomous vehicle from a fleet of autonomous vehicles 504) the system comprising: a public transit communication unit for communicating with a public transit management center and receiving scheduled vehicle data relating to the locations of ones of the plurality of scheduled vehicles; (Konala: ¶ 050, Col 7, Lns. 7-10; public transportation data can be received from an external computing system, a dispatch computing system (e.g., the dispatch computing system can obtain the public transportation data from the external computing system)). . . and a control management processor for calculating conflict avoidance instructions for the unscheduled autonomous vehicles from the scheduled vehicle data and the unscheduled vehicle data. (Konala: ¶ 045, Col 12, Lns. 23-24; a route to the reserved zone can be planned (e.g., by the autonomous vehicle) (Konala: ¶ 047, Col 12, Lns. 43-45; reserved zone can be a public transportation lane (e.g., a bus lane).)
To the extent Konala is silent about or does not teach: . . . .an infrastructure communications unit for communicating with a plurality of infrastructure elements and ones of the plurality of unscheduled autonomous vehicles and receiving unscheduled vehicle data relating to the locations of ones of the plurality of unscheduled autonomous vehicles; . . . Curlander teaches:
. . . .an infrastructure communications unit for communicating with a plurality of infrastructure elements (Curlander: ¶ 030; roadway status monitor 124 can obtain data from various roadway sensors) and ones of the plurality of unscheduled autonomous vehicles and receiving unscheduled vehicle data relating to the locations of ones of the plurality of unscheduled autonomous vehicles; . . . (Curlander: ¶ 023; system 115 can instruct the vehicles 105a, 105b, 105c to move to lane 107 and rely upon the autonomous navigation features associated with the vehicles 105 entering the lane 107 and the vehicles 105 already in the lane 107 to safely merge with one another) (Curlander: ¶ 052; requests are transmitted to a roadway management system 115 that manages a particular roadway on the route )
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Curlander with the teachings of Konala because doing so would result in the predicable benefit of “maximize a speed of vehicles moving through the roadway” (Curlander: ¶ 012).
Regarding claim 9, as detailed above, combination Konala teaches the invention as detailed with respect to claim 8. Konala further teaches:
the transportation network comprises a plurality of roads with at least one reserved road space for sharing between the plurality of scheduled vehicles and the plurality of unscheduled autonomous vehicles(Konala: ¶ 046, Col 12, Lns. 34-38; vehicle allocation system 210 can select an autonomous vehicle (e.g., the autonomous vehicle 1 506) that will be able to access and use the reserved zone for the pickup))
Regarding claim 10, as detailed above, combination Konala teaches the invention as detailed with respect to claim 8. Curlander further teaches:
the system further comprises a control center memory for storing (Curlander: ¶ 033; data stored in the transportation network data store 112 includes, for example, roadway data 130 and potentially other data. The roadway data 130 includes data about one or more roadways or portions of roadways that the roadway management system 115 manages and/or monitors)of at least one of a structure model and the scheduled traffic pattern model (Curlander: ¶ 032; Based upon the data obtained from the roadway status monitor 124 as well as requests from vehicles 105 to use a portion of the roadway, the roadway management system 115 can generate roadway assignments for vehicles 105 and lane configurations for lanes within a roadway 104.)
Regarding claim 11, as detailed above, combination Konala teaches the invention as detailed with respect to claim 10. To the extent Konala is silent or does not explicitly teach:
the scheduled traffic pattern model stores at least one of a scheduled arrival time, a scheduled departure time, a scheduled dwell time for at least one of the plurality of the stations disposed in the transportation network; Konala does teach:
A system that alters arrival time of the unscheduled vehicle based on the expected departure time of the scheduled vehicle to prevent a conflict between the scheduled and unscheduled vehicles at a given station in the transportation network. (Konala: ¶ 038, Col 10, Lns. 6-19; memory 140 can further include a notification system 318. The notification system 318 can be configured to transmit a notification specifying the actual pullover location for the ride in the autonomous vehicle 102. According to an example, the notification system 318 can transmit the notification to the dispatch computing system 202, and the dispatch computing system 202 can further transmit the notification specifying the actual pullover location for the ride in the autonomous vehicle 102 to the user device 204. For instance, the notification sent by the notification system 318 can indicate that the autonomous vehicle 102 will be picking up the passenger utilizing the user device 204 at a particular reserved zone (e.g., the reserved zone 116 of FIG. 1) nearby a requested pickup location) ;
therefore, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention a person of ordinary skill in the art would be taught or suggested: the scheduled traffic pattern model stores at least one of a scheduled arrival time, a scheduled departure time, a scheduled dwell time for at least one of the plurality of the stations disposed in the transportation network; because altering the arrival time of the unscheduled vehicle based on the expected departure time of the scheduled vehicle requires knowing and storing of a scheduled departure time for at least one of the plurality of the stations disposed in the transportation network.
Regarding claim 12, as detailed above, combination Konala teaches the invention as detailed with respect to claim 8. Konala further teaches:
the reserved road space comprises at least one of a bus-lane, a HOV lane, a fire-lane, an emergency-lane, or other types of a restricted-access-lanes on a road within the transportation network. (Konala: ¶ 047, Col 12, Lns. 43-45; reserved zone can be a public transportation lane (e.g., a bus lane))
Regarding claim 13, as detailed above, combination Konala teaches the invention as detailed with respect to claim 8. Konala further teaches:
the reserved road space comprises at least one of a one-lane reserved road space, a multi-lane reserved road space a road space with all lanes travelling in one direction, a road space with lanes travelling in opposite directions, or a road space with lanes being used in both directions. (Konala: ¶ 047, Col 12, Lns. 43-45; reserved zone can be a public transportation lane (e.g., a bus lane))
Regarding claim 14, as detailed above, combination Konala teaches the invention as detailed with respect to claim 8. Konala further teaches:
the scheduled vehicles comprise at least one of a bus, a cable-car, a tram, a streetcar, or other types of public transit vehicles operating on the reserved road space on a road within the transportation network (Konala: ¶ 047, Col 12, Lns. 43-45; reserved zone can be a public transportation lane (e.g., a bus lane))
Regarding claim 15, as detailed above, combination Konala teaches the invention as detailed with respect to claim 8. Curlander further teaches:
the unscheduled autonomous vehicles comprise at least one of autonomously driving vehicle comprising at least one of a vehicle processor, a vehicle memory, . . . (Curlander: ¶ 042; vehicle 105 can include an autonomous vehicle controller 160, a drive system 163, a communications interface 166, a vehicle data store 173, camera 175, location detection system 178, a radar detector 181, and/or other vehicle related components. The autonomous vehicle controller 160 may be embodied as analog, digital, or mixed analog and digital processing circuitry and memory that direct the operation of the vehicle)
Curlander does not explicitly teach: and a vehicle antenna; however, Curlander does teach:
Using wireless communications systems that a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize use an antenna (Curlander: ¶ 046; communications interface 166 may include one or more wired or wireless (e.g., cellular, satellite, WiFi®, Bluetooth®, etc.) communications interfaces.).
Therefore before the effective filling date of the claimed invention a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that Curlander teaches or suggests: and a vehicle antenna because operation of wireless (e.g., cellular, satellite, WiFi®, Bluetooth®, etc.) communications interfaces requires an antenna.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-15 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. Applicant argues that:
the Ran et al. system and method control autonomous scheduled vehicles to avoid conflicts with non-autonomous unscheduled vehicles. Ran et al. does not disclose or suggest selecting a route for an unscheduled autonomous vehicle where the route includes a road space reserved for scheduled vehicles (i.e., public transit vehicles), predicting conflicts between that unscheduled autonomous vehicles and scheduling vehicles, or generating conflict avoidance instructions for the unscheduled autonomous vehicles so they can use the road space reserved for schedule vehicles and avoid conflicts with the scheduled vehicles. (Applicant’s Arguments filed June 23, 2025, pg. 7).
Prior art Ran et al. has not been applied in the current office action. Newly applied art Konala et al. (US 11493353 B1) has been applied to the claims in lieu of Ran. Konala teaches a system in which unscheduled autonomous vehicles can access reserved bus lanes to drop off passengers based on them being free to access due to a gap in scheduled bus service.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure Smith, “Transit Signal Priority (TSP): A Planning and Implementation Handbook" which discloses a method of controlling scheduled vehicle services and traffic infrastructure to maintain schedule timetables more efficiently.
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/C.P./ Examiner, Art Unit 3663
/ANGELA Y ORTIZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3663