CTFR 18/556,367 CTFR 88417 DETAILED ACTION Claim Objections 07-29-01 AIA Claim 7 objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 7 is amended to recite “a transmitter”, The claim is referring back to the network transmitter; therefore, it should be “the transmitter” instead of a transmitter. Claim 14 recites “a reconfigurable infrastructure device”. Examiner believe it’s the same as “a reconfigurable infrastructure unit” mentioned in claim 1; therefore, it should be changed to “the reconfigurable infrastructure unit”. Claim 15 recites “a drone” and newly added claim 21 also recites “a drone”. Claims 14 and 15 recite similar claim limitations as claimed in claim 21. Examiner suggest cancelling claims 14 and 15 . Appropriate correction is required. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status. 07-20-aia AIA The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action: A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 1-4, 6-11 and 14-17, and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramasamy (US 20170276492 A1) in view of El Idrissi (US 20190322367 A1) . In regard to claim 1, Ramasamy teaches a traffic management apparatus comprising: a processor configured to: place traffic objects in a collaboration group for coordinating movements in a road segment in response to a received indication that an emergency vehicle has a planned route that includes the road segment ( Ramasamy, Para. 38, emergency vehicles, such as police or fire vehicles or ambulances, may travel on a road while responding to a distress call. An example lane assignment system 480 may receive information from such an emergency vehicle indicating a priority level of the emergency vehicle , a type of emergency vehicle, a destination, a route, and a lane of travel on a road. Such information may be employed to assign the emergency vehicle to a lane of travel, and to assign other vehicles to other lanes on the road instead of assigning the emergency vehicle to varying lanes as it travels through traffic ); and determine a movement plan for the collaboration group based on received measurements about the road segment and the planned route of the emergency vehicle ( Ramasamy, Para. 44-46, the lane assignment server 482 may receive information indicating an accident or increased traffic and may access road or lane information to update such information to determine updated lane assignments for vehicles travelling along the affected portion of the road; Para. 48, the lane assignment server 482 determines that based on the received vehicle information in the request, that based on the priority of the vehicle, the priority of nearby vehicles , the portion of the road 400 travelled by the vehicle , its direction of travel (northbound), and its driving mode (autonomous), and the lane information indicating that lane 410 is dedicated to vehicles travelling in an autonomous driving mode at the vehicle's position, the vehicle's reported driving mode matches the information of lane 410, and so the lane assignment server determines that the vehicle should be assigned to lane 410); and control a network transmitter to emit an electromagnetic signal to send the movement plan to at least one traffic object in the collaboration group ( Ramasamy, Para. 37, the lane assignment server 482 may transmit a request for all vehicles within 1 mile of a specified location, such as to enable a smooth transition from a portion of the road having three lanes to a second portion of the road having only two lanes, such as due to changing road widths, accidents, lane closures, construction, etc). Ramasamy does not teach wherein the received measurements comprise augmented traffic information acquired by coordinating prior movements of a reconfigurable infrastructure unit to a physical location based on the road segment; wherein the movement plan is configured to control operation of the reconfigurable infrastructure unit. El Idrissi teaches wherein the received measurements comprise augmented traffic information acquired by coordinating prior movements of a reconfigurable infrastructure unit to a physical location based on the road segment (El Idrissi, Fig. 1, Drone coverage zone 50/road segment; Para. 33, The coordinates may represent a target location at which the drone 40 may hover or may remain sufficiently close to so that the drone coverage zone 50 may cover a sufficient or predetermined amount of the uncovered zone. For instance, the target location may be a location at which the drone 40 may provide a drone coverage zone 50 that may border or overlap at least one adjacent coverage zone 30; Para. 41, the drone 40 may be equipped with a camera 70 and may provide video information showing the traffic conditions below the drone 40. As such, the drone 40 may provide pictures or a video feed to the control center 22 to provide traffic information in the uncovered zone); wherein the movement plan is configured to control operation of the reconfigurable infrastructure unit (El Idrissi, Para. 40, the dispatcher may issue a redeployment command to dispatch a drone 40 to another uncovered zone or a new uncovered zone to obtain additional information. The redeployment command may dispatch the drone 40 to a predetermined location in the uncovered zone. Moreover, it is contemplated that the control center 22 may remotely control the flight path of the drone 40 to follow or track the traffic congestion to its source when the source of the congestion is not readily detectable at the predetermined location. In this manner, the control center 22 may alter the flight path of the drone 40 to track congestion to its source; Para. 45, If the drone 40 is scheduled to leave its current location and unexpected congestion or an accident is still detected in the uncovered zone in which the drone 40 is currently occupied, then the method may override the dispatch schedule and keep the drone 40 at its current location until the congestion has sufficiently diminished or the accident has been cleared). Ramasamy and El Idrissi are analogous art because they both pertain to traffic condition monitoring and notification providing system. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use aerial drone for monitoring traffic condition (as taught by El Idrissi) in order to monitor traffic conditions in the uncovered zones that are outside of the coverage zones of the network of land-based road side units. In regard to claim 2, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a receiver configured to receive the received measurements and the received indication ( Ramasamy, Fig. 4, Para. 21-22, lane assignment system 480 in communication with a plurality of vehicles 440, 442a-c, 444 via a network 470 in communication with a wireless communication node 450; computing devices disposed within vehicles 440, 442a-c, 444 are in communication with the lane assignment system 480 via the wireless communication node 450, which may be a cellular antenna, wireless AP, or other wireless transceiver device). In regard to claim 3, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 2, wherein the receiver configured to receive the received indication comprises the receiver configured to receive message with the received indication from the emergency vehicle ( Ramasamy, Para. 38, lane assignment system 480 may receive information from such an emergency vehicle indicating a priority level of the emergency vehicle, a type of emergency vehicle, a destination, a route, and a lane of travel on a road). In regard to claim 4, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 2, wherein the receiver configured to receive the received indication comprises the receiver configured to receive a message about the planned route of the emergency vehicle relayed from another traffic object in communication with the emergency vehicle ( Ramasamy, Fig. 4, Para. 21-22, lane assignment system 480 in communication with a plurality of vehicles 440, 442a-c, 444 via a network 470 in communication with a wireless communication node 450; computing devices disposed within vehicles 440, 442a-c, 444 are in communication with the lane assignment system 480 via the wireless communication node 450, which may be a cellular antenna, wireless AP, or other wireless transceiver device ). In regard to claim 6, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the movement plan comprises at least one of a lane change, a velocity change, an acceleration change, and/or a route change for the at least one traffic object in the collaboration group ( Ramasamy, Para. 54, the lane assignment system 480 transmits a message to all non-emergency vehicles on the highway between the police vehicle and the accident setting a “no priority” for each vehicle for the left-most lane. Vehicles receiving such a message may automatically assign themselves to a new lane or may transmit a message to the lane assignment system 480 requesting a new lane assignment, at which time, the lane assignment system 480 executes an example method according to this disclosure to assign the requesting vehicles to new lanes of travel ). In regard to claim 7, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 1, wherein a transmitter is further configured to transmit the movement plan to an additional traffic object operating at an additional road segment that is along the planned route of the emergency vehicle, wherein the additional road segment is different from the road segment ( Ramasamy, Para. 23, lane assignment system 480 for a metropolitan area may comprise a large number of servers capable of managing a large number of roads and vehicles. Further, different lane assignment systems 480 may manage different types of roads, e.g., highways, city streets, residential neighborhoods, etc., or may have overlapping geographic responsibility. In some such examples, suitable lane assignment systems, such as the example shown in FIG. 4, may be configured to handoff vehicles that transition from a road or area managed by one system to a road or area managed by another system. Thus, the lane assignment system 480 may be integrated into a network of lane management systems in some examples. Further, one or more lane assignment systems may be part of a lane management system, which may provide lane management functionality in addition to lane assignment functionality). In regard to claim 8, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the traffic object comprises at least one of a vehicle, a traffic control unit, a roadside unit, and/or the emergency vehicle ( Ramasamy, Para. 14, Several vehicles 140, 142a-c, and 144 are operating on the road in the various lanes. In this example, each of the vehicles 140, 142a-c, 144 has been assigned to a lane 110, 120, 130 based on information about the respective vehicle. For example, vehicle 140 has been assigned to lane 110 because the vehicle 140 is a police car that is responding to an emergency). In regard to claim 9, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the road segment comprises at least one of a road, a portion of a road, an intersection, a portion of an intersection, and/or a plurality of roads and/or intersections ( Ramasamy, Para. 23, a lane assignment system 480 for a metropolitan area may comprise a large number of servers capable of managing a large number of roads and vehicles. Further, different lane assignment systems 480 may manage different types of roads, e.g., highways, city streets, residential neighborhoods, etc., or may have overlapping geographic responsibility). In regard to claim 10, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to generate a route recommendation for the emergency vehicle, wherein the route recommendation comprises a path through the road segment based on the received measurements and the movement plan ( Ramasamy, Para. 54, As the police vehicle enters the highway, it is several miles from the accident, and the lane assignment system 480, based on vehicle information received from the police vehicle, including its destination, and the lane information for the highway, which indicates four traffic lanes, assigns the police vehicle to a high priority for all lanes of traffic, but assigns the police vehicle to the left-most lane of traffic). In regard to claim 11, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to place an approaching traffic object in the collaboration group based on a geographic distance of the approaching traffic object from the road segment ( Ramasamy, Para. 37, the lane assignment server 482 may transmit a request for all vehicles within 1 mile of a specified location, such as to enable a smooth transition from a portion of the road having three lanes to a second portion of the road having only two lanes, such as due to changing road widths, accidents, lane closures, construction, etc). In regard to claim 14, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the received measurements about the road segment comprise sensor readings received from a reconfigurable infrastructure device (El Idrissi, Para. 41, the drone 40 may be equipped with a camera 70 and may provide video information showing the traffic conditions below the drone 40. As such, the drone 40 may provide pictures or a video feed to the control center 22 to provide traffic information in the uncovered zone). In regard to claim 15, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 14, wherein the reconfigurable infrastructure device comprises a drone that has been instructed to provide the received measurements about the road segment (El Idrissi, Fig. 1, Drone coverage zone 50/road segment; Para. 41, the drone 40 may be equipped with a camera 70 and may provide video information showing the traffic conditions below the drone 40. As such, the drone 40 may provide pictures or a video feed to the control center 22 to provide traffic information in the uncovered zone) . In regard to claim 16, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the received indication comprises a plurality of received indications for a plurality of emergency vehicles, wherein the movement plan is based on a priority associated with each emergency vehicle of the plurality of emergency vehicles ( Ramasamy, Para. 54, emergency vehicles may also be managed by a suitable lane assignment system; As the police vehicle enters the highway, it is several miles from the accident, and the lane assignment system 480, based on vehicle information received from the police vehicle, including its destination, and the lane information for the highway, which indicates four traffic lanes, assigns the police vehicle to a high priority for all lanes of traffic, but assigns the police vehicle to the left-most lane of traffic) In regard to claim 17, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the movement plan is further based on additional received measurements about an additional road segment along the planned route of the emergency vehicle, wherein the additional road segment is different from the road segment (Ramasamy, Para. 23, a lane assignment system 480 may comprise a plurality of lane assignment servers, such as lane assignment server 482, or data stores, such as data store 484. For example, a lane assignment system 480 for a metropolitan area may comprise a large number of servers capable of managing a large number of roads and vehicles. Further, different lane assignment systems 480 may manage different types of roads, e.g., highways, city streets, residential neighborhoods, etc., or may have overlapping geographic responsibility). In regard to claim 21, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the reconfigurable infrastructure unit is a drone or a robot comprising a camera or imaging sensor (El Idrissi, Fig. 1, Drone coverage zone 50/road segment; Para. 41, the drone 40 may be equipped with a camera 70 and may provide video information showing the traffic conditions below the drone 40. As such, the drone 40 may provide pictures or a video feed to the control center 22 to provide traffic information in the uncovered zone) . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramasamy (US 20170276492 A1) in view of El Idrissi (US 20190322367 A1) and further in view of Rosenberg (US 20070159354 A1) . In regard to claim 12, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi do not specifically teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to remove the at least one of the traffic object from the collaboration group based on an acknowledgement indicating that the emergency vehicle is not in the road segment or that the road segment is not along the planned route. However, Rosenberg teaches wherein the processor is further configured to remove at least one of the traffic objects from the collaboration group based on an acknowledgement indicating that the emergency vehicle is not in the road segment or that the road segment is not along the planned route ( Para. 9, whether a ground vehicle is on the same road as the REV, is traveling in the same direction as the REV, is located ahead of the REV in the direction of travel of the REV, and is within a certain proximity of the REV. If all of these conditions are met, the driver of the ground vehicle is alerted by a system of the present invention to take evasive action. For example, the driver of the ground vehicle may be informed by a user interface to slow and pull to the right and thereby allow the REV to pass. On the other hand, if a ground vehicle is on the same road as the REV and within certain proximity of the REV but is traveling in the opposite direction of travel as the REV, the ground vehicle may not be alerted to take evasive action if the road of travel is determined to be of a large enough size and/or of sufficient lane configuration to enable passage of the REV without opposing traffic being halted. Similarly, if a ground vehicle is within close proximity of the REV but on a different road of travel that does not intersect the REV's road of travel, the ground vehicle may not be alerted to take evasive action). Ramasamy, El Idrissi, and Rosenberg are analogous art because they all pertain vehicle alert system. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to detect if the ground vehicles are/are not in the path of the emergency vehicles (as taught by Rosenberg) in order to indicate if action is required to clear a path for an approaching emergency vehicle . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramasamy (US 20170276492 A1) in view of El Idrissi (US 20190322367 A1) and further in view of Cahan et al. (US 20180005523 A1) . In regard to claim 13, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi do not specifically teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 4, wherein the movement plan comprises an infrastructure command configured to indicate at least one of a traffic light color, a traffic light duration, a pedestrian crossing signal type, and/or a pedestrian crossing duration, and wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit the infrastructure command to an infrastructure element in the road segment. However, Cahan teaches wherein the movement plan comprises an infrastructure command configured to indicate at least one of a traffic light color, a traffic light duration, a pedestrian crossing signal type, and/or a pedestrian crossing duration, and wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit the infrastructure command to an infrastructure element in the road segment ( Cahan, Para. 53, the emergency vehicle is continuously broadcasting its location, direction and speed. This information can be received and analyzed by applications installed on vehicles, mobile devices and cloud services to display this information on maps and navigation aids and interpret the implication for that specific user. Centralized traffic control systems can reprogram traffic lights to decongest road segments through which the emergency vehicle has to pass and allow the emergency vehicle to go smoothly to its destination. Once the emergency vehicle has passed, measures can be taken to compensate for any congestion caused by the passing of the emergency vehicle). Ramasamy, El Idrissi, and Cahan are analogous art because they all pertain to vehicle route guidance. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to control traffic lights (as taught by Cahan) in order to decongest road segments through which the emergency vehicle has to pass and allow the emergency vehicle to go smoothly to its destination . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramasamy (US 20170276492 A1) in view of El Idrissi (US 20190322367 A1) and further in view of Yu (US 20190130738 A1) . In regard to claim 18, Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi do not teach the traffic management apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to subdivide a subset of traffic objects of a coordination group into a first subgroup and a second subgroup based on a transit time for the first subgroup to transit the road segment, wherein the phase timing associated with a traffic control device is based on the transit time. However, Yu teaches wherein the processor is further configured to subdivide a subset of traffic objects of a coordination group into a first subgroup and a second subgroup based on a transit time for the first subgroup to transit the road segment, wherein the phase timing associated with a traffic control device is based on the transit time (Yu, Fig. 8, traffic controller 33 of each intersection 700 would be in different subgroups; Para. 53-54, when the distance between the position of the emergency vehicle 800 and the one of the intersections 700 is smaller than a predetermined threshold or when the estimated time of arrival is shorter than a predetermined threshold, the processing unit 44 transmits the direction signal to the corresponding one of the controllers 33 disposed at the one of the intersections 700 the emergency vehicle 800 is approaching; In response, the controller 33 controls the corresponding first traffic light apparatus 31 to display the one of the direction patterns 330 , and controls each of the corresponding second traffic light apparatuses 32 to display a correspondingly oriented version of the one of the direction patterns 333) . Ramasamy, El Idrissi, and Yu are analogous art because they all pertain to notifying vehicles about traffic conditions. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to corelate transit time with phase timing of a traffic light (as taught by Yu) therefore traffic controller able to appropriately react before the emergency vehicle 800 arrives at the intersection 700 . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 19 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramasamy (US 20170276492 A1) in view of El Idrissi (US 20190322367 A1) and further in view of Cao et al. (US 20220007379 A1) . In regard to claim 19, An apparatus comprising: a receiver configured to: receive an indication that an emergency vehicle has a planned route that includes a road segment on which a vehicle is traveling ( Ramasamy, Para. 38, emergency vehicles, such as police or fire vehicles or ambulances, may travel on a road while responding to a distress call. An example lane assignment system 480 may receive information from such an emergency vehicle indicating a priority level of the emergency vehicle , a type of emergency vehicle, a destination, a route, and a lane of travel on a road. Such information may be employed to assign the emergency vehicle to a lane of travel, and to assign other vehicles to other lanes on the road instead of assigning the emergency vehicle to varying lanes as it travels through traffic ); the receiver is further configured to receive a movement plan of the collaboration group ( Ramasamy, Para. 44-46, the lane assignment server 482 may receive information indicating an accident or increased traffic and may access road or lane information to update such information to determine updated lane assignments for vehicles travelling along the affected portion of the road; Para. 48, the lane assignment server 482 determines that based on the received vehicle information in the request, that based on the priority of the vehicle, the priority of nearby vehicles , the portion of the road 400 travelled by the vehicle , its direction of travel (northbound), and its driving mode (autonomous), and the lane information indicating that lane 410 is dedicated to vehicles travelling in an autonomous driving mode at the vehicle's position, the vehicle's reported driving mode matches the information of lane 410, and so the lane assignment server determines that the vehicle should be assigned to lane 410) , wherein the movement plan comprises at least one of a lane change instruction, a deacceleration instruction, an acceleration instruction, a stopping instruction, and/or a traffic light phase changes instruction for the vehicle ( Ramasamy, Para. 54, the lane assignment system 480 transmits a message to all non-emergency vehicles on the highway between the police vehicle and the accident setting a “no priority” for each vehicle for the left-most lane. Vehicles receiving such a message may automatically assign themselves to a new lane or may transmit a message to the lane assignment system 480 requesting a new lane assignment, at which time, the lane assignment system 480 executes an example method according to this disclosure to assign the requesting vehicles to new lanes of travel ) , wherein the processor is further configured to control execution of the movement plan for the vehicle ( Ramasamy, Para. 37, the lane assignment server 482 may transmit a request for all vehicles within 1 mile of a specified location, such as to enable a smooth transition from a portion of the road having three lanes to a second portion of the road having only two lanes, such as due to changing road widths, accidents, lane closures, construction, etc) . Ramasamy does not teach wherein the indication comprise augmented traffic information acquired by coordinating prior movements of a reconfigurable infrastructure unit to a physical location based on the road segment; receive a request to join a collaboration group for coordinating movements in the road segment; a processor configured to determine, based on the request and the indication, an acknowledgement indicating either an acceptance of the request to join the collaboration group or a denial of the request to join the collaboration group; and a transmitter configured to transmit the acknowledgement, wherein if the acknowledgement is the denial, the receiver is further configured to receive a movement plan of the collaboration group. El Idrissi teaches wherein the indication comprise augmented traffic information acquired by coordinating prior movements of a reconfigurable infrastructure unit to a physical location based on the road segment (El Idrissi, Fig. 1, Drone coverage zone 50/road segment; Para. 33, The coordinates may represent a target location at which the drone 40 may hover or may remain sufficiently close to so that the drone coverage zone 50 may cover a sufficient or predetermined amount of the uncovered zone. For instance, the target location may be a location at which the drone 40 may provide a drone coverage zone 50 that may border or overlap at least one adjacent coverage zone 30; Para. 41, the drone 40 may be equipped with a camera 70 and may provide video information showing the traffic conditions below the drone 40. As such, the drone 40 may provide pictures or a video feed to the control center 22 to provide traffic information in the uncovered zone). Ramasamy and El Idrissi are analogous art because they both pertain to traffic condition monitoring and notification providing system. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use aerial drone for monitoring traffic condition (as taught by El Idrissi) in order to monitor traffic conditions in the uncovered zones that are outside of the coverage zones of the network of land-based road side units. Combination of Ramasamy and El Idrissi do not teach receive a request to join a collaboration group for coordinating movements in the road segment; a processor configured to determine, based on the request and the indication, an acknowledgement indicating either an acceptance of the request to join the collaboration group or a denial of the request to join the collaboration group; and a transmitter configured to transmit the acknowledgement, wherein if the acknowledgement is the denial, the receiver is further configured to receive a movement plan of the collaboration group. However Cao teaches receive a request to join a collaboration group for coordinating movements in the road segment; a processor configured to determine, based on the request and the indication, an acknowledgement indicating either an acceptance of the request to join the collaboration group or a denial of the request to join the collaboration group; and a transmitter configured to transmit the acknowledgement, wherein if the acknowledgement is the denial, the receiver is further configured to receive a movement plan of the collaboration group ( Cao, Para. 89, the platoon operating circuitry 642 may receive the join request from a vehicle requesting to join the platoon. The join request may be generated, for example, based on VPGI provided to the vehicle from the RSU and/or the V2X device 600 of the PL. The platoon operating circuitry 642 may then determine whether to allow the vehicle to join the platoon based on one or more factors, including, for example, the number of vehicles currently in the platoon, the maximum number of vehicles allowed in the platoon, the vehicle identifier of the vehicle, and other vehicle information of the vehicle. The platoon operating circuitry 642 may then operate together with the V2X communication and processing circuitry 641 to generate and transmit the join response including the confirmation message or the denial message to the vehicle requesting to join. The platoon operating circuitry 642 may further be configured to operate in coordination with platoon operating software 652). Ramasamy, El Idrissi and Cao are analogous art because they all pertain to communication between vehicles and external systems. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have request to join a group (as taught by Cao) resulting in predictable result of establishing communication between vehicles and external systems. In regard to claim 20, Combination of Ramasamy, El Idrissi, and Cao teach the apparatus of claim 19, wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit the indication and/or the movement plan to a traffic object that is a member of the collaboration group and/or is along the planned route of the emergency vehicle ( Ramasamy, Para. 54, the lane assignment system 480 transmits a message to all non-emergency vehicles on the highway between the police vehicle and the accident setting a “no priority” for each vehicle for the left-most lane. Vehicles receiving such a message may automatically assign themselves to a new lane or may transmit a message to the lane assignment system 480 requesting a new lane assignment, at which time, the lane assignment system 480 executes an example method according to this disclosure to assign the requesting vehicles to new lanes of travel . After the police vehicle passes other vehicles, those vehicles may return to their previous lane assignments, or may request a new lane assignment from the lane assignment system) . Response to Arguments Response to amended claims is considered above in claim Rejections. Conclusion 07-40 AIA Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL . See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a). A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHARMIN AKHTER whose telephone number is (571)272-9365. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Thursday 8:00am-5:00pm EST. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Davetta W Goins can be reached on (571) 272.2957. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. 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If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /SHARMIN AKHTER/ Examiner, Art Unit 2689 /DAVETTA W GOINS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 2 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 3 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 4 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 5 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 6 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 7 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 8 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 9 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 10 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 11 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 12 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 13 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 14 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 15 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 16 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 17 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 18 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 19 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/556,367 Page 20 Art Unit: 2689
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