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 1-5 of US Application No. 18/590,191 are currently pending and have been examined. Applicant amended claim 1.
Response to Arguments/Amendments
Applicant requests that the Examiner review and acknowledge receipt of Applicant’s claim for foreign priority. However, as indicated in the previous Detailed Action, a certified copy of JP2023-032574 has not been entered into the application file. The Examiner directs Applicant’s attention to the PRIORITY DOCUMENT EXCHANGE FAILURE STATUS REPORT dated 03 August 2024 and 28 August 2025. The Examiner is not able to review the priority document, as no priority documents have been entered in the application file. Applicants continue to bear the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that the priority document is filed during the pendency of the application and before the patent is issued. See MPEP 215.02(a). The Examiner suggests contacting the EBC Customer Support Center as indicated in the failure status reports.
Applicant’s arguments regarding the previous rejections of claims 1, 4, and 5 under 35 U.S.C. 102, see REMARKS, filed 08 October 2025, have been fully considered but are not persuasive. The previous rejections are maintained. Applicant argues that Tay does not teach all of the limitations of claim 1, and particularly does not teach “wherein the computer determines, based on set routes for each of the plurality of registered mobilities, whether one or more measurement mobilities is scheduled to travel the detail detection area or is traveling the detail detection area, and transmits, to the measurement mobility that is determined to be scheduled to travel the detail detection area or that is determined to be traveling the detail detection area, a speed change command that is the command relating to a speed change, such that the measurement mobility, which travels at a normal command speed by automated driving, travels the detail detection area at a specific speed lower than the normal command speed”. The Examiner respectfully disagrees for the reasons indicated below in the updated rejection under § 102.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in Japan on 03 March 2023. It is noted, however, that Applicant has not filed a certified copy of the JP2023-032574 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55. The Examiner notes the PRIORITY DOCUMENT EXCHANGE FAILURE STATUS REPORT dated 03 August 2024 and 28 August 2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 4, and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tay et al. (US 2019/0339709 A1, “Tay”).
Regarding claim 1, Tay discloses a method for updating a localization map for a fleet of autonomous vehicles and teaches:
a computer configured to manage operations of each of a plurality of registered mobilities by transmission of a command (at a computer, dispatching autonomous vehicles to scan road segments – see at least Fig. 1 and ¶ [0008]; computer system: fleet manager – see at least Fig. 2 and ¶ [0029]), each of the plurality of registered mobilities being capable of obtaining positional information thereof (at a computer, dispatching autonomous vehicles to scan road segments – see at least Fig. 1 and ¶ [0008]; computer system: fleet manager – see at least Fig. 2 and ¶ [0029]; LIDAR and video feeds compared to localization map to determine the autonomous vehicle’s position in real space – see at least ¶ [0022])),
wherein one or more of the plurality of registered mobilities are stored in the computer each as a measurement mobility (computer system tracks location of autonomous vehicles throughout the geographic region – see at least Fig. 3 and ¶ [0066]), each of the one or more of the registered mobilities being set in advance and including a surroundings monitoring device configured to detect information on a surrounding object (autonomous vehicle may include one or more 360 degree LIDAR sensors and cameras – see at least ¶ [0021]),
wherein the computer stores road surface information in association with a position in map data based on at least a detection result of the surroundings monitoring device and the positional information received from the measurement mobility (scan data recorded by the autonomous vehicle – see at least ¶ [0007]; during mapping period the vehicle can record new scan data representing a current state of select road segments and computer system can access the scan data to update a localization map – see at least ¶ [0013], [0053]; localization map may include lane markers and lane reflectors – see at least ¶ [0022]),
wherein the computer stores, as a detail detection area, i) a poor detection area in the map data in which detection of the road surface information by the measurement mobility is poor (low-resolution scan data – see at least ¶ [0039], [0043]), ii) a predetermined area in the map data (computer system can identify a group of road segments and elect a subset of the road segments for mapping – see at least ¶[ 0043]), or iii) the poor detection area and the predetermined area, and
wherein the computer
determines, based on set routes for each of the plurality of registered mobilities, whether one or more measurement mobilities is scheduled to travel the detail detection area or is traveling the detail detection area (computer system can predict a set of routes between pickup and drop-off locations for future ride requests within a geographic region associated with the vehicle, rank road segments withing the geographic region based on proximity to the set of routes for the predicted future ride requests, assign a subset of road segments to the vehicle based on the rankings, and dispatch the vehicle to scan the subset of road segments during its next mapping period – see at least ¶ [0037]),
and transmits, to the measurement mobility that is determined to be scheduled to travel the detail detection area or that is determined to be traveling the detail detection area, a speed change command that is the command relating to a speed change, such that the measurement mobility, which travels at a normal command speed by automated driving, travels the detail detection area at a specific speed lower than the normal command speed (computer system can assign road segments for additional scanning, such as at lower road speeds instead of posted vehicle speeds, during a next mapping period – see at least ¶ [0039]; during mapping, autonomous vehicle can navigate along the route at a reduced speed – see at least ¶ [0043]).
Regarding claim 4, Tay further teaches:
wherein the computer does not transmit the speed change command to a target mobility when an occupant is present in the target mobility, the target mobility being the measurement mobility to which the speed change command is to be transmitted (speed may be reduced during scheduled mapping periods – see at least ¶ [0043]; vehicle is dispatched to scan road segments during mapping period in S120 – see at least Fig. 2 and ¶ [0008]; S120 is executed when there is no ride request pending – see at least Fig. 2; autonomous vehicle transitions to a mapping period after passengers delivered to drop-off location – see at least ¶ [0015]).
Regarding claim 5, Tay further teaches:
wherein the surroundings monitoring device includes at least one of a camera, a light detection and ranging or laser imaging detection and ranging (LiDAR) device, and a radar (autonomous vehicle may include one or more 360 degree LIDAR sensors and cameras – see at least ¶ [0021]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 3 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AARON L TROOST whose telephone number is (571)270-5779. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 7:30am-4pm.
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, Anne Antonucci can be reached at 313-446-6519. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/AARON L TROOST/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3666