DETAILED ACTION
This communication is a Final Office Action rejection on the merits. Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been addressed below.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement (IDS)
The information disclosure statement(s) filed on 11/20/2024 and 03/25/2026 comply with the provisions 37 CFR 1.97, 1.98, and MPEP 609 and is considered by the Examiner.
Patent Subject Matter Eligibility
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are not rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention includes an additional element that integrates the judicial exception into a practical application.
Claims 1, 14, and 20 are eligible. The additional element of a processor is used to receive a plurality of job requests and execute a match (Paragraph 0125). The additional element of an autonomous vehicle is used to begin executing a selected job from the set of job requests (Paragraphs 0014, 0025, and 0125). As explained in the specification, the controls of the autonomous vehicle allow the vehicle to autonomously execute the selected job from the set of job requests (Paragraphs 0014, 0025, and 0125). Therefore, the additional element of “autonomously executing a selected job using an autonomous vehicle” adds a meaningful limitation that integrates the judicial exception into a practical application. The claim is eligible.
Dependent claims 2-13 and 15-19 are eligible because their dependency on independent claims 1 and 14.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 03/23/2026 (related to the 112 Rejection) have been fully considered and are persuasive. In this case, Applicant removed the relative term “suitable” from claims 1, 14, and 20. Therefore, 112 Rejection has been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments filed on 03/23/2026 (related to the 101 Rejection) have been fully considered and are persuasive. The additional element of a processor is used to receive a plurality of job requests and execute a match (Paragraph 0125). The additional element of an autonomous vehicle is used to begin executing a selected job from the set of job requests (Paragraphs 0014, 0025, and 0125). As explained in the specification, the controls of the autonomous vehicle allow the vehicle to autonomously execute the selected job from the set of job requests (Paragraphs 0014, 0025, and 0125). Therefore, the additional element of “autonomously executing a selected job using an autonomous vehicle” adds a meaningful limitation that integrates the judicial exception into a practical application. The claim is eligible.
Applicant's arguments filed on 03/23/2026 (related to the 103 Rejection) have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant states, on pages 11-13, that none of the cited references teach or suggest matching a single autonomous vehicle to more than one job request. The Office suggests that Van Ryzin discloses matching multiple job requests to a single AV when Van Ryzin selects transportation requestors from a queue. See Office Action at pp. 11, 12. In Van Ryzin, however, transportation requestors are selected from a queue before matching occurs. For example, Van Ryzin discloses that transportation requestors can be placed in queues 310(1), 310(2), 3 lO(n). See Van Ryzin at ¶ 35. Van Ryzin discloses various ways that transportation requestors are selected from the queue, but Van Ryzin is clear that matching between a transportation requestor and a transportation provider occurs after the transportation requestor is selected from the queue. For example, Van Ryzin discloses that the transportation requestor enters the queue "to wait for transportation matching instead of requesting to be matched with an available transportation provider when the transportation requestor submits the transportation request." See Van Ryzin at ¶ 36. Further, VanRyzin specifically discloses that transportation requestors are selected from a queue 310(1), 310(2), 310(n) in order that the selected transportation requestors can be matched to transportation providers.
Examiner respectfully disagrees with the Applicant. Van Ryzin et al. discloses executing a matching cycle to match respective job requests of the plurality of job requests to at least one respective vehicle of a plurality of vehicles (Paragraph 0022, The present disclosure is generally directed to matching transportation requests (e.g., to a dynamic transportation matching system) to transportation providers using a matching system), the plurality of vehicles comprising the autonomous vehicle). In this case, Examiner notes that claim 1 is merely claiming the matching cycle, which is disclosed by Van Ryzin et al. However, claim 1 does not state wherein the plurality of job requests and the plurality of vehicles have to be matched before entering a queue. Therefore, arguments are not persuasive.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-4, 10, 14-17, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van Ryzin et al. (US 2020/0005206 A1), in view of Buttolo et al. (US 2020/0058092 A1).
Regarding claim 1 (Currently Amended), Van Ryzin et al. discloses a system for operating an autonomous vehicle, comprising: at least one processor programmed to perform operations comprising (Paragraph 0026, Furthermore, for the reasons mentioned above and to be discussed in greater detail below, the systems and methods described herein may provide advantages to field of dynamic transportation management and/or the field of transportation. In addition, these systems and methods may provide advantages to vehicles (whether piloted by a human driver or autonomous) that operate as a part of a dynamic transportation network. For example, the vehicles may complete transportation tasks more quickly, more efficiently (e.g., in terms of fuel, vehicle wear, etc.), and/or more safely (e.g., by driving, on average, shorter distances to complete the same transportation objective)):
receiving a plurality of job requests comprising a first job request from a first user and a second job request from a second user (Paragraph 0028, FIG. 1a is a flowchart of an example method of requesting a transportation service in a dynamic transportation network. As shown in FIG. 1, a method 100 may include, at step 102, a transportation requestor 109 requiring a transportation service; Paragraph 0035, FIG. 3 is an illustration of an example method of queueing transportation requests in a dynamic transportation network. As shown in FIG. 3, a dynamic transportation network 300 may include multiple transportation request queues 310(1)-(n) and corresponding sets of transportation providers 350(1)-(n));
executing a matching cycle to match respective job requests of the plurality of job requests to at least one respective vehicle of a plurality of vehicles, the executing of the matching cycle comprising matching the first job request to an autonomous vehicle of the plurality of vehicles and matching the second job request to the autonomous vehicle (see at least Figure 3 and related text in Paragraph 0022, The present disclosure is generally directed to matching transportation requests (e.g., to a dynamic transportation matching system) to transportation providers using a matching system), the plurality of vehicles comprising the autonomous vehicle; Paragraph 0036, The dynamic transportation matching system may determine which transportation requestors to select from the queue for transportation matching based on any of a variety of methods and parameters. For example, as well be explained in greater detail below, the dynamic transportation matching system may select transportation requestors from the queue based on time spent in the queue (e.g., on a first-in first-out (FIFO) basis), based on maximizing the matching efficiency of the dynamic transportation matching network, based on maximizing the efficiency of matching shared riders, based on priority assignments, based on the estimated time of arrival of a transportation provider to a transportation requestor, based on the distance from a transportation provider to a transportation requestor, based on the transportation fare, based on the type of transportation requestor, based on the level of availability of transportation providers, and/or any combination of the foregoing);
sending job request data describing the first job request and the second job request to an autonomous vehicle computing device associated with the autonomous vehicle (Paragraph 0035, Each of the sets of transportation request queues 310(1)-(n) may represent transportation requestors in a corresponding geographic area; Paragraph 0036, The dynamic transportation matching system may determine which transportation requestors to select from the queue for transportation matching based on any of a variety of methods and parameters; Paragraph 0076, A transportation matching system may arrange rides on an on-demand and/or ad-hoc basis by, e.g., matching one or more ride requestors with one or more ride providers. For example, a transportation matching system may provide one or more transportation matching services for a ridesharing service, a ridesourcing service, a taxicab service, a car-booking service, an autonomous vehicle service, or some combination and/or derivative thereof. The transportation matching system may include and/or interface with any of a variety of subsystems that may implement, support, and/or improve a transportation matching service. For example, the transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers; Paragraph 0079, Ride services module 1208 may use the location data to identify providers who are geographically close to the requestor (e.g., within a certain threshold distance or travel time) and/or who are otherwise a good match with the requestor. Ride services module 1208 may implement matching algorithms that score providers based on, e.g., preferences of providers and requestors; vehicle features, amenities, condition, and/or status; providers' preferred general travel direction and/or route, range of travel, and/or availability; requestors' origination and destination locations, time constraints, and/or vehicle feature needs; and any other pertinent information for matching requestors with providers; Examiner notes that the matching may be implemented in a computer system installed in a vehicle such as an autonomous vehicle);
receiving verification data from the autonomous vehicle computing device, the verification data indicating that the autonomous vehicle can execute a first job indicated by the first job request and a second job indicated by the second job request (Paragraph 0042, In some examples, matching a transportation requestor with a transportation provider from the queue may be based on the level of availability of transportation providers. The dynamic transportation network may maintain a specified level of availability of transportation providers (e.g., a minimum threshold level) in order have transportation providers available to provide transportation service to transportation requestors that choose to be matched with a transportation provider when the request is made instead of having the transportation request entered into the transportation request queue. In some examples, the level of availability of transportation providers may be different between each of the sets of transportation providers 350(1)-(n). The level of availability of transportation providers may be based on a variety of parameters including, without limitation, predicted future demand for transportation services (e.g., based on current and/or historical data), the density of transportation providers within a geographic area, transportation fare levels, and ETA to transportation requestors. The level of availability of transportation providers may be targeted to maximize transportation provider utilization and/or total dynamic transportation system throughput; Paragraph 0076, the transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers; Paragraph 0079, Ride services module 1208 may use the location data to identify providers who are geographically close to the requestor (e.g., within a certain threshold distance or travel time) and/or who are otherwise a good match with the requestor. Ride services module 1208 may implement matching algorithms that score providers based on, e.g., preferences of providers and requestors; vehicle features, amenities, condition, and/or status; providers' preferred general travel direction and/or route, range of travel, and/or availability; requestors' origination and destination locations, time constraints, and/or vehicle feature needs; and any other pertinent information for matching requestors with providers; Paragraph 0084, Data collection devices 1304 may include, but are not limited to, user devices (including provider and requestor computing devices, such as those discussed above), provider communication devices, laptop or desktop computers, vehicle data (e.g., from sensors integrated into or otherwise connected to vehicles), ground-based or satellite-based sources (e.g., location data, traffic data, weather data, etc.), or other sensor data (e.g., roadway embedded sensors, traffic sensors, etc.); As stated in Paragraph 0020 of Applicant’s specification, the verification may include determining whether the AV is capable of performing the jobs described by the set of job requests within certain parameters such as, for example, with an acceptable Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) when the AV will arrive at the job start location. Therefore, based on broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification, Van Ryzin et al. discloses “verification data indicating that the autonomous vehicle can execute the set of job requests” since the computing system can determine whether the AV is capable of performing the job based on a level of availability such as an acceptable ETA, threshold distance, and/or travel time);
sending, to a first user computing device associated with the first user, … for the autonomous vehicle to execute the first job; receiving, from the first user computing device, … (Paragraph 0036, The dynamic transportation matching system may determine which transportation requestors to select from the queue for transportation matching based on any of a variety of methods and parameters; Paragraph 0076, The transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers);
and causing the autonomous vehicle to begin autonomously executing a selected job from a set of jobs comprising the first job and the second job using at least one vehicle control of the autonomous vehicle, an identity of the selected job being based at least in part on the … (Paragraph 0076, the transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers).
Van Ryzin et al. discloses a transportation management system for: executing a matching cycle to match respective job requests of the plurality of job requests to at least one respective vehicle of a plurality of vehicles (Paragraph 0079, based on multiple parameters such as distance, ETA, etc.); and arranging communication with the requestor and the provider (see at least Figure 12 and related text in Paragraph 0076). Although Van Ryzin et al. discloses a communication system for arranging communication with the requestor and the provider (see at least Figure 12, Network), Van Ryzin et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the communication system provides a first offer message describing a first offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., acceptance of the first offer).
However, Buttolo et al. discloses sending, to a first user computing device associated with the first user, a first offer message describing a first offer for the autonomous vehicle to execute the first job; receiving, from the first user computing device, a first reply message responsive to the first offer (Paragraph 0015, Disclosed herein are example queueing apparatus and methods for matching transportation requests by passengers 110a-110n (e.g., people desired transport, etc.) and transportation providers 120a-120n (e.g., taxis, shuttles, buses, including autonomous vehicles and non-autonomous vehicles, etc.); Paragraph 0034, In some examples, discussed below in relation to the queueing methods of FIGS. 3 and 4A-4B, the communicator 280 and the transceiver 220 broadcast to the passenger mobile devices 221a-221n information relating to matching transportation providers. This broadcast information may include offers for service, which may be accepted or rejected by the passengers 110a-110n. In some examples, the broadcast information for the matching transportation providers includes characteristics of the transportation (e.g., number of available seats, handicapped accessibility information, cargo capacity, operating range of services provided, make and model of vehicle, level of cleanliness, information on driver (if any), etc.) or a proposed pick-up or service location. In some examples, the information for the matching transportation provider includes terms for an offer of transportation service (e.g., pricing for transportation services, etc.) by the transportation provider that the passenger may accept or reject);
and causing the autonomous vehicle to begin autonomously executing a selected job from a set of jobs comprising the first job and the second job using at least one vehicle control of the autonomous vehicle, an identity of the selected job being based at least in part on the first reply message (Paragraph 0015, Disclosed herein are example queueing apparatus and methods for matching transportation requests by passengers 110a-110n (e.g., people desired transport, etc.) and transportation providers 120a-120n (e.g., taxis, shuttles, buses, including autonomous vehicles and non-autonomous vehicles, etc.); Paragraph 0036, Where broadcast information for a matching transportation provider does include terms for an offer of transportation service by the transportation provider (e.g., 120a) that the passenger (e.g., 110a) accepts, the passenger's mobile device (e.g., 221a) broadcasts to the communicator 280 via the transceiver 220 the acceptance of the transportation provider offer terms. The communicator 280 broadcasts to the transportation provider (e.g., 120a) mobile device (e.g., 222a), via the transceiver 220, a service location (e.g., a designated pick-up area)).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein the system is capable of arranging communication with the selected requestor and the provider of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. to further specify wherein the communication includes a first offer message describing a first offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., acceptance or rejection of the first offer) of the invention of Buttolo et al. because doing so would allow the system to broadcast information of the passenger acceptance of the transportation provider offer terms (see Buttolo et al., Paragraph 0036). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 14 (Currently Amended), Van Ryzin et al. discloses a method for operating an autonomous vehicle, the method comprising (Paragraph 0026, Furthermore, for the reasons mentioned above and to be discussed in greater detail below, the systems and methods described herein may provide advantages to field of dynamic transportation management and/or the field of transportation. In addition, these systems and methods may provide advantages to vehicles (whether piloted by a human driver or autonomous) that operate as a part of a dynamic transportation network. For example, the vehicles may complete transportation tasks more quickly, more efficiently (e.g., in terms of fuel, vehicle wear, etc.), and/or more safely (e.g., by driving, on average, shorter distances to complete the same transportation objective)):
receiving a plurality of job requests comprising a first job request from a first user and a second job request from a second user (Paragraph 0028, FIG. 1a is a flowchart of an example method of requesting a transportation service in a dynamic transportation network. As shown in FIG. 1, a method 100 may include, at step 102, a transportation requestor 109 requiring a transportation service; Paragraph 0035, FIG. 3 is an illustration of an example method of queueing transportation requests in a dynamic transportation network. As shown in FIG. 3, a dynamic transportation network 300 may include multiple transportation request queues 310(1)-(n) and corresponding sets of transportation providers 350(1)-(n));
executing a matching cycle to match respective job requests of the plurality of job requests to at least one respective vehicle of a plurality of vehicles, the executing of the matching cycle comprising matching the first job request to an autonomous vehicle of the plurality of vehicles and matching the second job request to the autonomous vehicle (see at least Figure 3 and related text in Paragraph 0022, The present disclosure is generally directed to matching transportation requests (e.g., to a dynamic transportation matching system) to transportation providers using a matching system), the plurality of vehicles comprising the autonomous vehicle; Paragraph 0036, The dynamic transportation matching system may determine which transportation requestors to select from the queue for transportation matching based on any of a variety of methods and parameters. For example, as well be explained in greater detail below, the dynamic transportation matching system may select transportation requestors from the queue based on time spent in the queue (e.g., on a first-in first-out (FIFO) basis), based on maximizing the matching efficiency of the dynamic transportation matching network, based on maximizing the efficiency of matching shared riders, based on priority assignments, based on the estimated time of arrival of a transportation provider to a transportation requestor, based on the distance from a transportation provider to a transportation requestor, based on the transportation fare, based on the type of transportation requestor, based on the level of availability of transportation providers, and/or any combination of the foregoing);
sending job request data describing the first job request and the second job request to an autonomous vehicle computing device associated with the autonomous vehicle (Paragraph 0035, Each of the sets of transportation request queues 310(1)-(n) may represent transportation requestors in a corresponding geographic area; Paragraph 0036, The dynamic transportation matching system may determine which transportation requestors to select from the queue for transportation matching based on any of a variety of methods and parameters; Paragraph 0076, A transportation matching system may arrange rides on an on-demand and/or ad-hoc basis by, e.g., matching one or more ride requestors with one or more ride providers. For example, a transportation matching system may provide one or more transportation matching services for a ridesharing service, a ridesourcing service, a taxicab service, a car-booking service, an autonomous vehicle service, or some combination and/or derivative thereof. The transportation matching system may include and/or interface with any of a variety of subsystems that may implement, support, and/or improve a transportation matching service. For example, the transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers; Paragraph 0079, Ride services module 1208 may use the location data to identify providers who are geographically close to the requestor (e.g., within a certain threshold distance or travel time) and/or who are otherwise a good match with the requestor. Ride services module 1208 may implement matching algorithms that score providers based on, e.g., preferences of providers and requestors; vehicle features, amenities, condition, and/or status; providers' preferred general travel direction and/or route, range of travel, and/or availability; requestors' origination and destination locations, time constraints, and/or vehicle feature needs; and any other pertinent information for matching requestors with providers; Examiner notes that the matching may be implemented in a computer system installed in a vehicle such as an autonomous vehicle);
receiving verification data from the autonomous vehicle computing device, the verification data indicating that the autonomous vehicle can execute a first job indicated by the first job request and a second job indicated by the second job request (Paragraph 0042, In some examples, matching a transportation requestor with a transportation provider from the queue may be based on the level of availability of transportation providers. The dynamic transportation network may maintain a specified level of availability of transportation providers (e.g., a minimum threshold level) in order have transportation providers available to provide transportation service to transportation requestors that choose to be matched with a transportation provider when the request is made instead of having the transportation request entered into the transportation request queue. In some examples, the level of availability of transportation providers may be different between each of the sets of transportation providers 350(1)-(n). The level of availability of transportation providers may be based on a variety of parameters including, without limitation, predicted future demand for transportation services (e.g., based on current and/or historical data), the density of transportation providers within a geographic area, transportation fare levels, and ETA to transportation requestors. The level of availability of transportation providers may be targeted to maximize transportation provider utilization and/or total dynamic transportation system throughput; Paragraph 0076, the transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers; Paragraph 0079, Ride services module 1208 may use the location data to identify providers who are geographically close to the requestor (e.g., within a certain threshold distance or travel time) and/or who are otherwise a good match with the requestor. Ride services module 1208 may implement matching algorithms that score providers based on, e.g., preferences of providers and requestors; vehicle features, amenities, condition, and/or status; providers' preferred general travel direction and/or route, range of travel, and/or availability; requestors' origination and destination locations, time constraints, and/or vehicle feature needs; and any other pertinent information for matching requestors with providers; Paragraph 0084, Data collection devices 1304 may include, but are not limited to, user devices (including provider and requestor computing devices, such as those discussed above), provider communication devices, laptop or desktop computers, vehicle data (e.g., from sensors integrated into or otherwise connected to vehicles), ground-based or satellite-based sources (e.g., location data, traffic data, weather data, etc.), or other sensor data (e.g., roadway embedded sensors, traffic sensors, etc.); As stated in Paragraph 0020 of Applicant’s specification, the verification may include determining whether the AV is capable of performing the jobs described by the set of job requests within certain parameters such as, for example, with an acceptable Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) when the AV will arrive at the job start location. Therefore, based on broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification, Van Ryzin et al. discloses “verification data indicating that the autonomous vehicle can execute the set of job requests” since the computing system can determine whether the AV is capable of performing the job based on a level of availability such as an acceptable ETA, threshold distance, and/or travel time);
sending, to a first user computing device associated with the first user, … for the autonomous vehicle to execute the first job; receiving, from the first user computing device, … (Paragraph 0036, The dynamic transportation matching system may determine which transportation requestors to select from the queue for transportation matching based on any of a variety of methods and parameters; Paragraph 0076, The transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers);
and causing the autonomous vehicle to begin autonomously executing a selected job from a set of jobs comprising the first job and the second job using at least one vehicle control of the autonomous vehicle, an identity of the selected job being based at least in part on the … (Paragraph 0076, the transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers).
Van Ryzin et al. discloses a transportation management system for: executing a matching cycle to match respective job requests of the plurality of job requests to at least one respective vehicle of a plurality of vehicles (Paragraph 0079, based on multiple parameters such as distance, ETA, etc.); and arranging communication with the requestor and the provider (see at least Figure 12 and related text in Paragraph 0076). Although Van Ryzin et al. discloses a communication system for arranging communication with the requestor and the provider (see at least Figure 12, Network), Van Ryzin et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the communication system provides a first offer message describing a first offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., acceptance of the first offer).
However, Buttolo et al. discloses sending, to a first user computing device associated with the first user, a first offer message describing a first offer for the autonomous vehicle to execute the first job; receiving, from the first user computing device, a first reply message responsive to the first offer (Paragraph 0015, Disclosed herein are example queueing apparatus and methods for matching transportation requests by passengers 110a-110n (e.g., people desired transport, etc.) and transportation providers 120a-120n (e.g., taxis, shuttles, buses, including autonomous vehicles and non-autonomous vehicles, etc.); Paragraph 0034, In some examples, discussed below in relation to the queueing methods of FIGS. 3 and 4A-4B, the communicator 280 and the transceiver 220 broadcast to the passenger mobile devices 221a-221n information relating to matching transportation providers. This broadcast information may include offers for service, which may be accepted or rejected by the passengers 110a-110n. In some examples, the broadcast information for the matching transportation providers includes characteristics of the transportation (e.g., number of available seats, handicapped accessibility information, cargo capacity, operating range of services provided, make and model of vehicle, level of cleanliness, information on driver (if any), etc.) or a proposed pick-up or service location. In some examples, the information for the matching transportation provider includes terms for an offer of transportation service (e.g., pricing for transportation services, etc.) by the transportation provider that the passenger may accept or reject);
and causing the autonomous vehicle to begin autonomously executing a selected job from a set of jobs comprising the first job and the second job using at least one vehicle control of the autonomous vehicle, an identity of the selected job being based at least in part on the first reply message (Paragraph 0015, Disclosed herein are example queueing apparatus and methods for matching transportation requests by passengers 110a-110n (e.g., people desired transport, etc.) and transportation providers 120a-120n (e.g., taxis, shuttles, buses, including autonomous vehicles and non-autonomous vehicles, etc.); Paragraph 0036, Where broadcast information for a matching transportation provider does include terms for an offer of transportation service by the transportation provider (e.g., 120a) that the passenger (e.g., 110a) accepts, the passenger's mobile device (e.g., 221a) broadcasts to the communicator 280 via the transceiver 220 the acceptance of the transportation provider offer terms. The communicator 280 broadcasts to the transportation provider (e.g., 120a) mobile device (e.g., 222a), via the transceiver 220, a service location (e.g., a designated pick-up area)).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein the system is capable of arranging communication with the selected requestor and the provider of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. to further specify wherein the communication includes a first offer message describing a first offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., acceptance or rejection of the first offer) of the invention of Buttolo et al. because doing so would allow the system to broadcast information of the passenger acceptance of the transportation provider offer terms (see Buttolo et al., Paragraph 0036). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 20 (Currently Amended), Van Ryzin et al. discloses a non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, because the at least one processor to perform operations comprising (Paragraph 0026, Furthermore, for the reasons mentioned above and to be discussed in greater detail below, the systems and methods described herein may provide advantages to field of dynamic transportation management and/or the field of transportation. In addition, these systems and methods may provide advantages to vehicles (whether piloted by a human driver or autonomous) that operate as a part of a dynamic transportation network. For example, the vehicles may complete transportation tasks more quickly, more efficiently (e.g., in terms of fuel, vehicle wear, etc.), and/or more safely (e.g., by driving, on average, shorter distances to complete the same transportation objective); Paragraph 0089, In some examples, the term “memory device” generally refers to any type or form of volatile or non-volatile storage device or medium capable of storing data and/or computer-readable instructions. In one example, a memory device may store, load, and/or maintain one or more of the modules described herein; Paragraph 0090, In some examples, the term “physical processor” generally refers to any type or form of hardware-implemented processing unit capable of interpreting and/or executing computer-readable instructions; Paragraph 0093, In some embodiments, the term “computer-readable medium” generally refers to any form of device, carrier, or medium capable of storing or carrying computer-readable instructions. Examples of computer-readable media include, without limitation, non-transitory-type media):
receiving a plurality of job requests comprising a first job request from a first user and a second job request from a second user (Paragraph 0028, FIG. 1a is a flowchart of an example method of requesting a transportation service in a dynamic transportation network. As shown in FIG. 1, a method 100 may include, at step 102, a transportation requestor 109 requiring a transportation service; Paragraph 0035, FIG. 3 is an illustration of an example method of queueing transportation requests in a dynamic transportation network. As shown in FIG. 3, a dynamic transportation network 300 may include multiple transportation request queues 310(1)-(n) and corresponding sets of transportation providers 350(1)-(n));
executing a matching cycle to match respective job requests of the plurality of job requests to at least one respective vehicle of a plurality of vehicles, the executing of the matching cycle comprising matching the first job request to an autonomous vehicle of the plurality of vehicles and matching the second job request to the autonomous vehicle (see at least Figure 3 and related text in Paragraph 0022, The present disclosure is generally directed to matching transportation requests (e.g., to a dynamic transportation matching system) to transportation providers using a matching system), the plurality of vehicles comprising the autonomous vehicle; Paragraph 0036, The dynamic transportation matching system may determine which transportation requestors to select from the queue for transportation matching based on any of a variety of methods and parameters. For example, as well be explained in greater detail below, the dynamic transportation matching system may select transportation requestors from the queue based on time spent in the queue (e.g., on a first-in first-out (FIFO) basis), based on maximizing the matching efficiency of the dynamic transportation matching network, based on maximizing the efficiency of matching shared riders, based on priority assignments, based on the estimated time of arrival of a transportation provider to a transportation requestor, based on the distance from a transportation provider to a transportation requestor, based on the transportation fare, based on the type of transportation requestor, based on the level of availability of transportation providers, and/or any combination of the foregoing);
sending job request data describing the first job request and the second job request to an autonomous vehicle computing device associated with the autonomous vehicle (Paragraph 0035, Each of the sets of transportation request queues 310(1)-(n) may represent transportation requestors in a corresponding geographic area; Paragraph 0036, The dynamic transportation matching system may determine which transportation requestors to select from the queue for transportation matching based on any of a variety of methods and parameters; Paragraph 0076, A transportation matching system may arrange rides on an on-demand and/or ad-hoc basis by, e.g., matching one or more ride requestors with one or more ride providers. For example, a transportation matching system may provide one or more transportation matching services for a ridesharing service, a ridesourcing service, a taxicab service, a car-booking service, an autonomous vehicle service, or some combination and/or derivative thereof. The transportation matching system may include and/or interface with any of a variety of subsystems that may implement, support, and/or improve a transportation matching service. For example, the transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers; Paragraph 0079, Ride services module 1208 may use the location data to identify providers who are geographically close to the requestor (e.g., within a certain threshold distance or travel time) and/or who are otherwise a good match with the requestor. Ride services module 1208 may implement matching algorithms that score providers based on, e.g., preferences of providers and requestors; vehicle features, amenities, condition, and/or status; providers' preferred general travel direction and/or route, range of travel, and/or availability; requestors' origination and destination locations, time constraints, and/or vehicle feature needs; and any other pertinent information for matching requestors with providers; Examiner notes that the matching may be implemented in a computer system installed in a vehicle such as an autonomous vehicle);
receiving verification data from the autonomous vehicle computing device, the verification data indicating that the autonomous vehicle can execute a first job indicated by the first job request and a second job indicated by the second job request (Paragraph 0042, In some examples, matching a transportation requestor with a transportation provider from the queue may be based on the level of availability of transportation providers. The dynamic transportation network may maintain a specified level of availability of transportation providers (e.g., a minimum threshold level) in order have transportation providers available to provide transportation service to transportation requestors that choose to be matched with a transportation provider when the request is made instead of having the transportation request entered into the transportation request queue. In some examples, the level of availability of transportation providers may be different between each of the sets of transportation providers 350(1)-(n). The level of availability of transportation providers may be based on a variety of parameters including, without limitation, predicted future demand for transportation services (e.g., based on current and/or historical data), the density of transportation providers within a geographic area, transportation fare levels, and ETA to transportation requestors. The level of availability of transportation providers may be targeted to maximize transportation provider utilization and/or total dynamic transportation system throughput; Paragraph 0076, the transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers; Paragraph 0079, Ride services module 1208 may use the location data to identify providers who are geographically close to the requestor (e.g., within a certain threshold distance or travel time) and/or who are otherwise a good match with the requestor. Ride services module 1208 may implement matching algorithms that score providers based on, e.g., preferences of providers and requestors; vehicle features, amenities, condition, and/or status; providers' preferred general travel direction and/or route, range of travel, and/or availability; requestors' origination and destination locations, time constraints, and/or vehicle feature needs; and any other pertinent information for matching requestors with providers; Paragraph 0084, Data collection devices 1304 may include, but are not limited to, user devices (including provider and requestor computing devices, such as those discussed above), provider communication devices, laptop or desktop computers, vehicle data (e.g., from sensors integrated into or otherwise connected to vehicles), ground-based or satellite-based sources (e.g., location data, traffic data, weather data, etc.), or other sensor data (e.g., roadway embedded sensors, traffic sensors, etc.); As stated in Paragraph 0020 of Applicant’s specification, the verification may include determining whether the AV is capable of performing the jobs described by the set of job requests within certain parameters such as, for example, with an acceptable Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) when the AV will arrive at the job start location. Therefore, based on broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification, Van Ryzin et al. discloses “verification data indicating that the autonomous vehicle can execute the set of job requests” since the computing system can determine whether the AV is capable of performing the job based on a level of availability such as an acceptable ETA, threshold distance, and/or travel time);
sending, to a first user computing device associated with the first user, … for the autonomous vehicle to execute the first job; receiving, from the first user computing device, … (Paragraph 0036, The dynamic transportation matching system may determine which transportation requestors to select from the queue for transportation matching based on any of a variety of methods and parameters; Paragraph 0076, The transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers);
and causing the autonomous vehicle to begin autonomously executing a selected job from a set of jobs comprising the first job and the second job using at least one vehicle control of the autonomous vehicle, an identity of the selected job being based at least in part on the … (Paragraph 0076, the transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers).
Van Ryzin et al. discloses a transportation management system for: executing a matching cycle to match respective job requests of the plurality of job requests to at least one respective vehicle of a plurality of vehicles (Paragraph 0079, based on multiple parameters such as distance, ETA, etc.); and arranging communication with the requestor and the provider (see at least Figure 12 and related text in Paragraph 0076). Although Van Ryzin et al. discloses a communication system for arranging communication with the requestor and the provider (see at least Figure 12, Network), Van Ryzin et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the communication system provides a first offer message describing a first offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., acceptance of the first offer).
However, Buttolo et al. discloses sending, to a first user computing device associated with the first user, a first offer message describing a first offer for the autonomous vehicle to execute the first job; receiving, from the first user computing device, a first reply message responsive to the first offer (Paragraph 0015, Disclosed herein are example queueing apparatus and methods for matching transportation requests by passengers 110a-110n (e.g., people desired transport, etc.) and transportation providers 120a-120n (e.g., taxis, shuttles, buses, including autonomous vehicles and non-autonomous vehicles, etc.); Paragraph 0034, In some examples, discussed below in relation to the queueing methods of FIGS. 3 and 4A-4B, the communicator 280 and the transceiver 220 broadcast to the passenger mobile devices 221a-221n information relating to matching transportation providers. This broadcast information may include offers for service, which may be accepted or rejected by the passengers 110a-110n. In some examples, the broadcast information for the matching transportation providers includes characteristics of the transportation (e.g., number of available seats, handicapped accessibility information, cargo capacity, operating range of services provided, make and model of vehicle, level of cleanliness, information on driver (if any), etc.) or a proposed pick-up or service location. In some examples, the information for the matching transportation provider includes terms for an offer of transportation service (e.g., pricing for transportation services, etc.) by the transportation provider that the passenger may accept or reject);
and causing the autonomous vehicle to begin autonomously executing a selected job from a set of jobs comprising the first job and the second job using at least one vehicle control of the autonomous vehicle, an identity of the selected job being based at least in part on the first reply message (Paragraph 0015, Disclosed herein are example queueing apparatus and methods for matching transportation requests by passengers 110a-110n (e.g., people desired transport, etc.) and transportation providers 120a-120n (e.g., taxis, shuttles, buses, including autonomous vehicles and non-autonomous vehicles, etc.); Paragraph 0036, Where broadcast information for a matching transportation provider does include terms for an offer of transportation service by the transportation provider (e.g., 120a) that the passenger (e.g., 110a) accepts, the passenger's mobile device (e.g., 221a) broadcasts to the communicator 280 via the transceiver 220 the acceptance of the transportation provider offer terms. The communicator 280 broadcasts to the transportation provider (e.g., 120a) mobile device (e.g., 222a), via the transceiver 220, a service location (e.g., a designated pick-up area)).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein the system is capable of arranging communication with the selected requestor and the provider of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. to further specify wherein the communication includes a first offer message describing a first offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., acceptance or rejection of the first offer) of the invention of Buttolo et al. because doing so would allow the system to broadcast information of the passenger acceptance of the transportation provider offer terms (see Buttolo et al., Paragraph 0036). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claims 2 and 15 (Currently Amended), which are dependent of claims 1 and 14, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. discloses all the limitations in claims 1 and 14. Van Ryzin et al. discloses selecting a first user from the queue (e.g., a first passenger based on the distance from a transportation provider to a transportation requestor); and a platform capable of arranging communication with the requestor and the provider (see at least Figure 12, item 1210, Network). Although Van Ryzin et al. discloses a communication system (e.g., network), Van Ryzin et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the communication system provides a first offer message describing a first offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., rejection of the first offer).
However, Buttolo et al. further discloses the first reply message indicating that the first user has rejected the first offer, the operations further comprising: after receiving the first reply message, sending, to a second user computing device associated with the second user, a second offer for the autonomous vehicle to execute the second job; and receiving, from the second user computing device, a reply message responsive to the second offer, the reply message responsive to the second offer indicating that the second user has accepted the second offer, and the selected job being the second job (see Figure 2 and related text in Paragraph 0029, If a match is found, the passenger 110a, as described in detail below, may arrange (i.e., book) the service of the matching transportation provider or, alternatively, refuse the proposed match and continue the search for another transportation provider. In any event, once the request of the passenger 110a (i.e., the highest priority passenger) has been processed in the above-described manner, the request of the next highest priority passenger (i.e., the passenger 110b) is processed in a similar manner. Namely, the service needs of the passenger 110b contained in the corresponding message stored in the passenger queue 260 are compared sequentially to the service capabilities of the transportation providers as stored in the corresponding messages in the transportation provider queue 250 in the order in which the messages are stored in the queue 250. Thus, the passenger messages in the passenger queue 260 are processed sequentially (i.e., from highest to lowest priority) and, when processed, each of the passenger messages is evaluated sequentially (i.e., from a highest to a lowest priority) for a potential match against the transportation provider messages in the transportation provider queue 250; Paragraph 0034, In some examples, discussed below in relation to the queueing methods of FIGS. 3 and 4A-4B, the communicator 280 and the transceiver 220 broadcast to the passenger mobile devices 221a-221n information relating to matching transportation providers. This broadcast information may include offers for service, which may be accepted or rejected by the passengers 110a-110n. In some examples, the broadcast information for the matching transportation providers includes characteristics of the transportation (e.g., number of available seats, handicapped accessibility information, cargo capacity, operating range of services provided, make and model of vehicle, level of cleanliness, information on driver (if any), etc.) or a proposed pick-up or service location. In some examples, the information for the matching transportation provider includes terms for an offer of transportation service (e.g., pricing for transportation services, etc.) by the transportation provider that the passenger may accept or reject; Paragraph 0035, In some examples, if the passenger rejects an offer by a transportation provider, the queueing manager 230 causes the comparator 270 to determine whether another transportation provider message in the transportation provider queue 250 (e.g., a next transportation provider in the transportation provider queue 250, etc.) matches the passenger request. In some examples, if the passenger rejects a proposed match with a transportation provider, the queueing manager 230 may reassign the passenger (i.e., the request message from the passenger) to a different position (priority) within the passenger queue 260. For example, the queueing manager 230 may lower a priority of the passenger within the passenger queue 260 by one or more positions relative to other passengers in the passenger queue 260; Examiner notes that Buttolo et al. matches the vehicle to the next passenger in the queue after a first passenger rejects the offer).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein the system is capable of arranging communication with the selected requestor and the provider of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. to further specify wherein the communication includes a first offer message describing a first offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., rejection of the first offer) of the invention of Buttolo et al. because doing so would allow the system to process the next passenger in a passenger queue sequentially (see Buttolo et al., Paragraph 0029 & 0035, from highest to lowest priority). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claims 3 and 16 (Original), which are dependent of claims 1 and 14, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. discloses all the limitations in claims 1 and 14. Van Ryzin et al. discloses selecting a first user from the queue (e.g., a first passenger based on the distance from a transportation provider to a transportation requestor); and a platform capable of arranging communication with the requestor and the provider (see at least Figure 12, item 1210, Network). Although Van Ryzin et al. discloses a communication system (e.g., network), Van Ryzin et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the communication system provides a first offer message describing a first offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., acceptance of the first offer).
However, Buttolo et al. discloses the first job being the selected job, the operations further comprising, after receiving the first reply message (Paragraph 0034, In some examples, discussed below in relation to the queueing methods of FIGS. 3 and 4A-4B, the communicator 280 and the transceiver 220 broadcast to the passenger mobile devices 221a-221n information relating to matching transportation providers. This broadcast information may include offers for service, which may be accepted or rejected by the passengers 110a-110n. In some examples, the broadcast information for the matching transportation providers includes characteristics of the transportation (e.g., number of available seats, handicapped accessibility information, cargo capacity, operating range of services provided, make and model of vehicle, level of cleanliness, information on driver (if any), etc.) or a proposed pick-up or service location. In some examples, the information for the matching transportation provider includes terms for an offer of transportation service (e.g., pricing for transportation services, etc.) by the transportation provider that the passenger may accept or reject), matching the second job request to a second vehicle different than the autonomous vehicle (see Figure 2 and related text in Paragraph 0029, If a match is found, the passenger 110a, as described in detail below, may arrange (i.e., book) the service of the matching transportation provider or, alternatively, refuse the proposed match and continue the search for another transportation provider. In any event, once the request of the passenger 110a (i.e., the highest priority passenger) has been processed in the above-described manner, the request of the next highest priority passenger (i.e., the passenger 110b) is processed in a similar manner. Namely, the service needs of the passenger 110b contained in the corresponding message stored in the passenger queue 260 are compared sequentially to the service capabilities of the transportation providers as stored in the corresponding messages in the transportation provider queue 250 in the order in which the messages are stored in the queue 250. Thus, the passenger messages in the passenger queue 260 are processed sequentially (i.e., from highest to lowest priority) and, when processed, each of the passenger messages is evaluated sequentially (i.e., from a highest to a lowest priority) for a potential match against the transportation provider messages in the transportation provider queue 250; Paragraph 0033, In some examples, the example queueing algorithm may vary or modify the order in which messages are stored in the queues 250 and 260 from a purely FIFO order (i.e., a temporal order in which messages are initially received); Paragraph 0043, In block 360, the queueing method 300 receives, from the passenger mobile device (e.g., 221a) corresponding to the matched one of the first broadcast messages, an acceptance of the offer for transportation service. The queueing method 300 then, in block 370, removes the matched first and second broadcast messages from the respective first and second queues (e.g., the passenger queue 260 and the transportation provider queue 250); Examiner notes that Buttolo et al. keeps matching job requests to vehicles based on the order in the queue).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein the system is capable of arranging communication with the selected requestor and the provider of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. to further specify wherein the communication includes a first offer message describing a first offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., acceptance of the first offer) of the invention of Buttolo et al. because doing so would allow the system to process the next passenger in a passenger queue sequentially (see Buttolo et al., Paragraph 0029 & 0035, from highest to lowest priority). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claims 4 and 17 (Currently Amended), which are dependent of claims 3 and 16, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. discloses all the limitations in claims 3 and 16. Van Ryzin et al. discloses selecting a first user from the queue (e.g., a first passenger based on the distance from a transportation provider to a transportation requestor); and a platform capable of arranging communication with the requestor and the provider (see at least Figure 12, item 1210, Network). Although Van Ryzin et al. discloses a communication system (e.g., network), Van Ryzin et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the communication system provides a first offer message describing a first offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., acceptance of the first offer).
However, Buttolo et al. discloses the first reply message indicating that the first user has accepted the first offer, the operations further comprising, after receiving the first reply message (Paragraph 0034, In some examples, discussed below in relation to the queueing methods of FIGS. 3 and 4A-4B, the communicator 280 and the transceiver 220 broadcast to the passenger mobile devices 221a-221n information relating to matching transportation providers. This broadcast information may include offers for service, which may be accepted or rejected by the passengers 110a-110n. In some examples, the broadcast information for the matching transportation providers includes characteristics of the transportation (e.g., number of available seats, handicapped accessibility information, cargo capacity, operating range of services provided, make and model of vehicle, level of cleanliness, information on driver (if any), etc.) or a proposed pick-up or service location. In some examples, the information for the matching transportation provider includes terms for an offer of transportation service (e.g., pricing for transportation services, etc.) by the transportation provider that the passenger may accept or reject), executing a second matching cycle to match the second job request to the second vehicle (see Figure 2 and related text in Paragraph 0029, If a match is found, the passenger 110a, as described in detail below, may arrange (i.e., book) the service of the matching transportation provider or, alternatively, refuse the proposed match and continue the search for another transportation provider. In any event, once the request of the passenger 110a (i.e., the highest priority passenger) has been processed in the above-described manner, the request of the next highest priority passenger (i.e., the passenger 110b) is processed in a similar manner. Namely, the service needs of the passenger 110b contained in the corresponding message stored in the passenger queue 260 are compared sequentially to the service capabilities of the transportation providers as stored in the corresponding messages in the transportation provider queue 250 in the order in which the messages are stored in the queue 250. Thus, the passenger messages in the passenger queue 260 are processed sequentially (i.e., from highest to lowest priority) and, when processed, each of the passenger messages is evaluated sequentially (i.e., from a highest to a lowest priority) for a potential match against the transportation provider messages in the transportation provider queue 250; Paragraph 0033, In some examples, the example queueing algorithm may vary or modify the order in which messages are stored in the queues 250 and 260 from a purely FIFO order (i.e., a temporal order in which messages are initially received); Paragraph 0043, In block 360, the queueing method 300 receives, from the passenger mobile device (e.g., 221a) corresponding to the matched one of the first broadcast messages, an acceptance of the offer for transportation service. The queueing method 300 then, in block 370, removes the matched first and second broadcast messages from the respective first and second queues (e.g., the passenger queue 260 and the transportation provider queue 250); Examiner notes that Buttolo et al. keeps matching job requests to vehicles based on the order in the queue).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein the system is capable of arranging communication with the selected requestor and the provider of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. to further specify wherein the communication includes a first offer message describing a first offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., acceptance of the first offer) of the invention of Buttolo et al. because doing so would allow the system to process the next passenger in a passenger queue sequentially (see Buttolo et al., Paragraph 0029 & 0035, from highest to lowest priority). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 10 (Currently Amended), which is dependent of claim 1, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 1. Van Ryzin et al. further discloses executing of the matching cycle further comprising matching a third job request from a third user to a second autonomous vehicle and matching the second job request to the second autonomous vehicle, the operations further comprising: sending job request data describing the second job request and the third job request to a second autonomous vehicle computing device associated with the second autonomous vehicle (Paragraph 0022, The present disclosure is generally directed to matching transportation requests (e.g., to a dynamic transportation matching system) to transportation providers using a matching system), the plurality of vehicles comprising the autonomous vehicle; Paragraph 0036, The dynamic transportation matching system may determine which transportation requestors to select from the queue for transportation matching based on any of a variety of methods and parameters. For example, as well be explained in greater detail below, the dynamic transportation matching system may select transportation requestors from the queue based on time spent in the queue (e.g., on a first-in first-out (FIFO) basis), based on maximizing the matching efficiency of the dynamic transportation matching network, based on maximizing the efficiency of matching shared riders, based on priority assignments, based on the estimated time of arrival of a transportation provider to a transportation requestor, based on the distance from a transportation provider to a transportation requestor, based on the transportation fare, based on the type of transportation requestor, based on the level of availability of transportation providers, and/or any combination of the foregoing);
receiving second verification data from the second autonomous vehicle computing device, the second verification data indicating that the second autonomous vehicle can execute the second job and a third job indicated by the third job request (Paragraph 0042, In some examples, matching a transportation requestor with a transportation provider from the queue may be based on the level of availability of transportation providers. The dynamic transportation network may maintain a specified level of availability of transportation providers (e.g., a minimum threshold level) in order have transportation providers available to provide transportation service to transportation requestors that choose to be matched with a transportation provider when the request is made instead of having the transportation request entered into the transportation request queue. In some examples, the level of availability of transportation providers may be different between each of the sets of transportation providers 350(1)-(n). The level of availability of transportation providers may be based on a variety of parameters including, without limitation, predicted future demand for transportation services (e.g., based on current and/or historical data), the density of transportation providers within a geographic area, transportation fare levels, and ETA to transportation requestors. The level of availability of transportation providers may be targeted to maximize transportation provider utilization and/or total dynamic transportation system throughput; Paragraph 0076, the transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers; As stated in Paragraph 0020 of Applicant’s specification, the verification may include determining whether the AV is capable of performing the jobs described by the set of job requests within certain parameters such as, for example, with an acceptable Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) when the AV will arrive at the job start location. Therefore, based on broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification, Van Ryzin et al. discloses “verification data indicating that the autonomous vehicle is suitable for the set of job requests” since the system can determine whether the AV is capable of performing the job based on a level of availability such as an acceptable ETA);
sending … to a third user device associated with the third user, … for the second autonomous vehicle to execute the third job; receiving, from the third user device, a reply … for the second autonomous vehicle to execute the third job (Paragraph 0036, The dynamic transportation matching system may determine which transportation requestors to select from the queue for transportation matching based on any of a variety of methods and parameters; Paragraph 0076, The transportation matching system may include a matching system (e.g., that matches requestors to ride opportunities and/or that arranges for requestors and/or providers to meet), a mapping system, a navigation system (e.g., to help a provider reach a requestor, to help a requestor reach a provider, and/or to help a provider reach a destination), a reputation system (e.g., to rate and/or gauge the trustworthiness of a requestor and/or a provider), a payment system, and/or an autonomous or semi-autonomous driving system. The transportation matching system may be implemented on various platforms, including a requestor-owned mobile device, a computing system installed in a vehicle, a requestor-owned mobile device, a server computer system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing transportation matching services to one or more requestors and/or providers); …
Van Ryzin et al. discloses selecting a third user from the queue (e.g., a third passenger from a second set of job requests based on the distance from a transportation provider to a transportation requestor); and a platform capable of arranging communication with the requestor and the provider (see Figure 2 and Paragraph 0036). Although Van Ryzin et al. discloses a communication system (e.g., network), Van Ryzin et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the communication system provides an offer message describing an offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., acceptance or rejection of the offer).
However, Buttolo et al. further discloses sending an offer message to a third user device associated with the third user, the offer message describing an offer for the second autonomous vehicle to execute the third job; receiving, from the third user device, a reply message declining the offer for the second autonomous vehicle to execute the third job (Paragraph 0034, In some examples, discussed below in relation to the queueing methods of FIGS. 3 and 4A-4B, the communicator 280 and the transceiver 220 broadcast to the passenger mobile devices 221a-221n information relating to matching transportation providers. This broadcast information may include offers for service, which may be accepted or rejected by the passengers 110a-110n. In some examples, the broadcast information for the matching transportation providers includes characteristics of the transportation (e.g., number of available seats, handicapped accessibility information, cargo capacity, operating range of services provided, make and model of vehicle, level of cleanliness, information on driver (if any), etc.) or a proposed pick-up or service location. In some examples, the information for the matching transportation provider includes terms for an offer of transportation service (e.g., pricing for transportation services, etc.) by the transportation provider that the passenger may accept or reject);
and after receiving the reply message from the third user device, sending, to a second user computing device associated with the second user, an offer message describing an offer for the second autonomous vehicle to execute a second job indicated by the second job request (see Figure 2 and related text in Paragraph 0029, If a match is found, the passenger 110a, as described in detail below, may arrange (i.e., book) the service of the matching transportation provider or, alternatively, refuse the proposed match and continue the search for another transportation provider. In any event, once the request of the passenger 110a (i.e., the highest priority passenger) has been processed in the above-described manner, the request of the next highest priority passenger (i.e., the passenger 110b) is processed in a similar manner. Namely, the service needs of the passenger 110b contained in the corresponding message stored in the passenger queue 260 are compared sequentially to the service capabilities of the transportation providers as stored in the corresponding messages in the transportation provider queue 250 in the order in which the messages are stored in the queue 250. Thus, the passenger messages in the passenger queue 260 are processed sequentially (i.e., from highest to lowest priority) and, when processed, each of the passenger messages is evaluated sequentially (i.e., from a highest to a lowest priority) for a potential match against the transportation provider messages in the transportation provider queue 250; Paragraph 0015, Disclosed herein are example queueing apparatus and methods for matching transportation requests by passengers 110a-110n (e.g., people desired transport, etc.) and transportation providers 120a-120n (e.g., taxis, shuttles, buses, including autonomous vehicles and non-autonomous vehicles, etc.); Paragraph 0035, In some examples, if the passenger rejects an offer by a transportation provider, the queueing manager 230 causes the comparator 270 to determine whether another transportation provider message in the transportation provider queue 250 (e.g., a next transportation provider in the transportation provider queue 250, etc.) matches the passenger request. In some examples, if the passenger rejects a proposed match with a transportation provider, the queueing manager 230 may reassign the passenger (i.e., the request message from the passenger) to a different position (priority) within the passenger queue 260. For example, the queueing manager 230 may lower a priority of the passenger within the passenger queue 260 by one or more positions relative to other passengers in the passenger queue 260; Examiner notes that Buttolo et al. matches the vehicle to the next passenger in the queue after a first passenger rejects the offer).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein the system is capable of arranging communication with the selected requestor and the provider of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. to further specify wherein the communication includes a first offer message describing a first offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., rejection of the first offer) of the invention of Buttolo et al. because doing so would allow the system to process the next passenger in a passenger queue sequentially (see Buttolo et al., Paragraph 0029 & 0035, from highest to lowest priority). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Claims 5, 7-8, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van Ryzin et al. (US 2020/0005206 A1), in view of Buttolo et al. (US 2020/0058092 A1), in further view of Luo et al. (US 2018/0315148 A1).
Regarding claims 5 and 18 (Currently Amended), which are dependent of claims 1 and 17, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. discloses all the limitations in claims 1 and 17. Van Ryzin et al. discloses the operations further comprising: determining a portion of the plurality of job requests that were matched to the autonomous vehicle by the matching cycle (Paragraph 0036, The dynamic transportation matching system may determine which transportation requestors to select from the queue for transportation matching based on any of a variety of methods and parameters. For example, as well be explained in greater detail below, the dynamic transportation matching system may select transportation requestors from the queue based on time spent in the queue (e.g., on a first-in first-out (FIFO) basis), based on maximizing the matching efficiency of the dynamic transportation matching network, based on maximizing the efficiency of matching shared riders, based on priority assignments, based on the estimated time of arrival of a transportation provider to a transportation requestor, based on the distance from a transportation provider to a transportation requestor, based on the transportation fare, based on the type of transportation requestor, based on the level of availability of transportation providers, and/or any combination of the foregoing);
accessing vehicle match score data for each of the portion of the plurality of job requests (Paragraph 0079, In some embodiments, transportation management system 1202 may provide ride services 1208, which may include ride matching and/or management services to connect a requestor to a provider. For example, after identity management services module 1204 has authenticated the identity a ride requestor, ride services module 1208 may attempt to match the requestor with one or more ride providers. In some embodiments, ride services module 1208 may identify an appropriate provider using location data obtained from location services module 1206. Ride services module 1208 may use the location data to identify providers who are geographically close to the requestor (e.g., within a certain threshold distance or travel time) and/or who are otherwise a good match with the requestor. Ride services module 1208 may implement matching algorithms that score providers based on, e.g., preferences of providers and requestors; vehicle features, amenities, condition, and/or status; providers' preferred general travel direction and/or route, range of travel, and/or availability; requestors' origination and destination locations, time constraints, and/or vehicle feature needs; and any other pertinent information for matching requestors with providers. In some embodiments, ride services module 1208 may use rule-based algorithms and/or machine-learning models for matching requestors and providers);
based on the vehicle match score data, selecting at least the first job request and the second job request (Paragraph 0036, The dynamic transportation matching system may determine which transportation requestors to select from the queue for transportation matching based on any of a variety of methods and parameters. For example, as well be explained in greater detail below, the dynamic transportation matching system may select transportation requestors from the queue based on time spent in the queue (e.g., on a first-in first-out (FIFO) basis), based on maximizing the matching efficiency of the dynamic transportation matching network, based on maximizing the efficiency of matching shared riders, based on priority assignments, based on the estimated time of arrival of a transportation provider to a transportation requestor, based on the distance from a transportation provider to a transportation requestor, based on the transportation fare, based on the type of transportation requestor, based on the level of availability of transportation providers, and/or any combination of the foregoing); Paragraph 0079, Ride services module 1208 may use the location data to identify providers who are geographically close to the requestor (e.g., within a certain threshold distance or travel time) and/or who are otherwise a good match with the requestor. Ride services module 1208 may implement matching algorithms that score providers based on, e.g., preferences of providers and requestors; vehicle features, amenities, condition, and/or status; providers' preferred general travel direction and/or route, range of travel, and/or availability; requestors' origination and destination locations, time constraints, and/or vehicle feature needs; and any other pertinent information for matching requestors with providers. In some embodiments, ride services module 1208 may use rule-based algorithms and/or machine-learning models for matching requestors and providers; Paragraph 0076, A transportation matching system may arrange rides on an on-demand and/or ad-hoc basis by, e.g., matching one or more ride requestors with one or more ride providers. For example, a transportation matching system may provide one or more transportation matching services for a ridesharing service, a ridesourcing service, a taxicab service, a car-booking service, an autonomous vehicle service, or some combination and/or derivative thereof); …
Van Ryzin et al. discloses selecting a first user from the queue (e.g., a first passenger based on the distance from a transportation provider to a transportation requestor); and a platform capable of arranging communication with the requestor and the provider (see at least Figure 12, item 1210, Network). Although Van Ryzin et al. discloses a communication system (e.g., network), Van Ryzin et al. does not specifically disclose omitting the first job request and the second job request from a subsequent matching cycle (see Paragraph 0132 of Applicant’s specification, omitting the request when there’s a more favorable match score).
However, Luo et al. discloses and omitting the first job request and the second job request from a subsequent matching cycle (Paragraph 0048, In step 512, a determination is made regarding acceptable ETA modifications as a result of an assignment and/or reassignment of a request and/or provider. For example, in an embodiment, if a requestor has already been assigned a provider for her request, and as a result of the request matching time period the request is being evaluated for reassignment, then various constraints may be evaluated. For example, the request may not be eligible for reassignment (e.g., may be removed from the “pool” of requests, either during the request matching time period or at its completion, such as when matching occurs in one embodiment) because no available provider for the reassignment is determined to have an ETA to the requestor within a threshold amount of time, as discussed earlier. In an embodiment, a provider may not be eligible for reassignment to a request because the provider has already been reassigned a threshold number of times, or because an ETA for a reassigned request is greater than a threshold amount over the provider's current ETA to their current request).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein the system is capable of arranging communication with the selected requestor and the provider of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. to further specify omitting the requests from a subsequent period (e.g., when other matches are better) of the invention of Luo et al. because doing so would allow the system to remove the request from the pool of requests when no available provider for the reassignment is determined to have an ETA to the requestor within a threshold amount of time (see Luo et al., Paragraph 0048). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 7 (Currently Amended), which is dependent of claim 5, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 5. Although the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. further discloses matching a set of job requests to at least one respective vehicle of the invention, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. does not specifically disclose determining that more than a threshold amount of time has elapsed since receiving a third job request of the plurality of job requests.
However, Luo et al. discloses determining that more than a threshold amount of time has elapsed since receiving a third job request of the plurality of job requests; and considering the third job request in the subsequent matching cycle (Paragraph 0031, In the example 240 of FIG. 2C, the request matching time period has concluded and a matching process is initiated. In this example, the initial provider 204A previously matched to the initial request 202 has been reassigned to the new request 222, with a new route 244 having an ETA, and the subsequent provider 204B has been assigned to the initial request 202 along a generated route 242 having an ETA. According to an embodiment, prior to including either the initial request 202 or the new request 222 in the pool of requests defined at least in part by the request matching time period, an association between the two geohashes 208, 210 is determined; Paragraph 0043, While the request matching time period in one embodiment receives and pools some or all transport requests that are received by the dynamic transportation matching system during the request matching time period, there may be transport requests received prior to the request matching time period that are dynamically reassigned at the end of the request matching time period. For example, as discussed earlier with regard to constraints that are placed on transport requests that can be reassigned. In an embodiment, the request matching time period is used to dynamically assign and/or reassign all transport requests that are eligible for assignment (e.g., the “pool” of requests) at the end of the request matching time period. In an embodiment, a newly-received transport request may be evaluated for assignment at the end of one request matching time period and evaluated for reassignment in numerous subsequent request matching time periods, until the request reaches a point where it is no longer eligible to be included in the “pool” of requests (e.g., the provider is within x seconds of arriving for the request, etc.)).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein the system receives a plurality of job requests of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. to further specify wherein the third job request is considered in the subsequent matching cycle after a threshold amount of time has elapsed of the invention of Luo et al. because doing so would allow the system to evaluate reassignments in numerous subsequent request matching time periods (see Luo et al., Paragraph 0043). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 8 (Currently Amended), which is dependent of claim 5, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 5. Although the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. further discloses matching a set of job requests to at least one respective vehicle of the invention, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the set of job requests comprises a predetermined number of job requests that were matched to the autonomous vehicle.
However, Luo et al. discloses omitting from the subsequent matching cycle a predetermined number of job requests that were matched to the autonomous vehicle in the matching cycle (Paragraph 0023, According to various embodiments, constraints may be implemented as part of a determination of a particular provider to be assigned to a particular request. For example, a provider that has been assigned to a request and which has an ETA less than a threshold amount of time may not be indicated as eligible for being assigned to a request in the pool of requests (e.g., is excluded from the pool). As another example, a provider who has been reassigned more than a threshold amount of times within a period of time is excluded from the pool, as may be a requestor associated with the request to which the provider is currently assigned to. As another example, a provider whose associated request has been reassigned to another provider will receive a subsequent request with an ETA no greater than the previous ETA plus a threshold duration).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein the system is capable of arranging communication with the selected requestor and the provider of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. to further specify omitting from the subsequent matching cycle a predetermined number of job requests of the invention of Luo et al. because doing so would allow the system to exclude from the pool a provider who has been reassigned more than a threshold amount of times within a period of time (see Luo et al., Paragraph 0023). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Claims 6 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van Ryzin et al. (US 2020/0005206 A1), in view of Buttolo et al. (US 2020/0058092 A1), in further view of Li (CN 110692080 B).
Regarding claim 6 (Currently Amended), which is dependent of claim 5, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 5. Although the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. further discloses matching a set of job requests to at least one respective vehicle of the invention, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. does not specifically disclose determining that a third job request of the portion of the plurality of job requests has been considered by more than a threshold number of matching cycles.
However, Li discloses determining that a third job request of the portion of the plurality of job requests has been considered by more than a threshold number of matching cycles; and considering the third job request in the subsequent matching cycle (Page 9, If there is sufficient service provider to provide service for all requests, then all requests are matched. If not, the system recirculates the unmatched request for X times by sending a request in a subsequent batch; Page 13, if there is sufficient service provider (service provider) satisfy the number of user requests, then the processor may match all the users with the service provider according to the priority level assigned by the processor. However, if the service provider is too little, then when the matching process is finished, the presence of one or more user request 51d. In this case, in some embodiments, these requests are fed back to the buffer memory 237 as part of the next batch of requests. The feedback of each unmatched request only performs a predetermined number of times, so that the unmatched request does not block the system. The unmatched user request 51d may include a data field indicating the number of times that the request is not matched, so that the number of feedback attempts can be monitored, or other monitoring methods will be apparent to those skilled in the art. In the case where matching is not performed within a predetermined number of attempts, the message is sent to the user's computing device 110).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein job requests are matched to at least one respective vehicle of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. to further incorporate considering the job in a subsequent matching cycle after determining that a job request of the portion of the plurality of job requests has been considered by more than a threshold number of matching cycles of the invention of Li because doing so would allow the system to perform matching only a predetermined number of times, so that the unmatched request does not block the system (see Li, Page 8, Paragraph 12). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 9 (Currently Amended), which is dependent of claim 5, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 5. Although the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. further discloses matching a set of job requests to at least one respective vehicle of the invention (Paragraph 0079, match score), the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. does not specifically disclose determining that a third job request of the portion of the plurality of job requests has a match score for a second vehicle of the plurality of vehicles that is more favorable than a match score between the third job request and the autonomous vehicle.
However, Li discloses the operations further comprising: determining that a third job request of the portion of the plurality of job requests has a match score for a second vehicle of the plurality of vehicles that is more favorable than a match score between the third job request and the autonomous vehicle; and sending job request data describing the third job request to a computing device associated with the second vehicle (Page 5, Paragraphs 0011-0013, Although such a method has generally been able to match a request to a service provider, it is recognized in the present disclosure that such a method often encounter problems including low efficiency and/or non-optimal matching. For example, although this method provides immediately or quickly to match the available service provider with the request after receiving the request, which may be the best for the request (and/or service provider), but has already recognized, from one or more other views (e.g., when considering one or more other request, when considering one or more other service provider, when considering the larger geographic area, time and/or system level of optimization, etc.), such matching may not be the best matching (or optimum or better matching). FIG. 1 A shows an example scenario where a service request SR1 to be received at time t is immediately matched to a nearest available service provider SP1 (where SR1 is matched with a line drawn between SP1 and SP1, and wherein, The service provider SP1 is closer to the service request SR1 than the available service provider SP2, and FIG. 1 B shows an example scenario in which the service SR2 received at the later time (t + x) is immediately matched to the most recent available service provider SP2 (wherein the service provider SP2 is the service provider SP2). The line drawn between SR2 and SP2 describes the match, and wherein the service provider SP1 has matched with the service request SR1). As can be seen in Figures 1 A and 1 B, although the match between SR1 and SP1 may be the best for that particular request for time t and the match between SR2 and SP2 may be the best for that particular request for time (t + x), but FIG. 1 C shows the better matching realized by the example embodiment, the time period (e.g., t + x) receiving a plurality of service request, the time period (such as t + x or t + y, wherein y and x different) identifying the available service provider (and/or the service provider will become available). and performing batch-based matching of such service requests and service providers. As shown in FIG. 1 C, by matching the SR1 to SP2 and matching SR2 to SP1 can realize better matching, and the optimum can be based on (as described in the present disclosure) one or more criteria, such as distance, travel to the estimated time of each request, traffic and so on; Page 13, The output of the matching engine is a matching of the available service provider and the service request. The processor 150 then at least substantially simultaneously sends a message to each service provider computer device 120 of the matched service provider).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein the job requests are matched to at least one respective vehicle of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. to further incorporate wherein a match score for a second vehicle of the plurality of vehicles that is more favorable than a match score between the third job request and the autonomous vehicle of the invention of Li because doing so would allow the system to find better matching between service request and service provider for a particular time period (see Li, Page 5, Paragraphs 0011-0013). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Claims 11-12, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van Ryzin et al. (US 2020/0005206 A1), in view of Buttolo et al. (US 2020/0058092 A1), in further view of Dryjanski et al. (US 2018/0238695 A1).
Regarding claims 11 and 19 (Original), which are dependent of claims 1 and 14, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. discloses all the limitations in claims 1 and 14. Although the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. discloses providing an offer message describing an offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., rejecting/declining the offer, wherein the offer message is only provided to the user with the highest matching score), the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the offer message is provided to multiple users (see Applicant’s specification, Paragraph 0023, parallel offer arrangement).
However, Dryjanski et al. discloses the operations further comprising, before receiving the first reply message, sending to a second user computing device associated with the second user, a second offer for the autonomous vehicle to execute a second job indicated by the second job request, the selected job being the first job (Paragraph 0017, In some embodiments, the system receives an indication that a driver is to begin the associated typical route in order to determine availability for a casual ride request. The system determines a ranked list based at least in part on the compatibility and provides a ride offer to a driver based on the ranked list (e.g., the system chooses the driver associated with the most compatible typical route). In some embodiments, multiple drivers get a request at the same time—for example, N drivers from the ranked list are provided with the request at the same time (e.g., the top N of the list). In various embodiments, a mechanism for selecting drivers comprises using one or more of the following: a driver's history of rides with the passenger, a driver's history of accepting ride requests, a driver's history of completing rides, a driver's ratings, or using any other appropriate information. In some embodiments, driver requests come in as push notification or short message service (SMS), so that the driver does not need to check for requests manually or enter into a specific mode in an app. In some embodiments, the system provides the driver with the extra distance and extra time estimates for performing the ride request, so the driver can decide whether to perform the request. In the event the driver declines the request, the next driver on the ranked list is chosen and provided with the ride offer. In the event the driver accepts the ride request, the acceptance is provided to the rider. In some embodiments, the rider is provided with the total estimated ride time and distance and given the option to accept or decline the ride).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein the system is capable of arranging communication with the selected requestor and the provider of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. to further specify wherein the arrangement includes a parallel offer arrangement of the invention of Dryjanski et al. because doing so would allow the system to provide multiple offers at the same time (see Dryjanski et al., Paragraph 0017). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 12 (Original), which is dependent of claim 11, the combination of Van Ryzin et al., Buttolo et al., and Dryjanski et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 11. Although the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. discloses providing an offer message describing an offer and a first reply message responsive the first offer (e.g., rejecting/declining the offer, wherein the offer message is only provided to the user with the highest matching score), the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. does not specifically disclose wherein the offer message is provided to multiple users (see Applicant’s specification, Paragraph 0023, parallel offer arrangement).
However, Dryjanski et al. discloses the operations further comprising receiving, from the second user computing device, a second reply message responsive to the second offer, the first reply message being received before the second reply message (Paragraph 0017, In some embodiments, the system receives an indication that a driver is to begin the associated typical route in order to determine availability for a casual ride request. The system determines a ranked list based at least in part on the compatibility and provides a ride offer to a driver based on the ranked list (e.g., the system chooses the driver associated with the most compatible typical route). In some embodiments, multiple drivers get a request at the same time—for example, N drivers from the ranked list are provided with the request at the same time (e.g., the top N of the list). In various embodiments, a mechanism for selecting drivers comprises using one or more of the following: a driver's history of rides with the passenger, a driver's history of accepting ride requests, a driver's history of completing rides, a driver's ratings, or using any other appropriate information. In some embodiments, driver requests come in as push notification or short message service (SMS), so that the driver does not need to check for requests manually or enter into a specific mode in an app. In some embodiments, the system provides the driver with the extra distance and extra time estimates for performing the ride request, so the driver can decide whether to perform the request. In the event the driver declines the request, the next driver on the ranked list is chosen and provided with the ride offer. In the event the driver accepts the ride request, the acceptance is provided to the rider. In some embodiments, the rider is provided with the total estimated ride time and distance and given the option to accept or decline the ride).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein the system is capable of arranging communication with the selected requestor and the provider of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. to further specify wherein the arrangement includes a parallel offer arrangement of the invention of Dryjanski et al. because doing so would allow the system to provide multiple offers at the same time (see Dryjanski et al., Paragraph 0017). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van Ryzin et al. (US 2020/0005206 A1), in view of Buttolo et al. (US 2020/0058092 A1), in further view of Chen et al. (US 11532060 B2).
Regarding claim 13 (Currently Amended), which is dependent of claim 1, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. discloses all the limitations in claim 1. Although the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. further discloses matching a set of job requests to at least one respective vehicle of the invention, the combination of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. does not specifically disclose AV opt-in data from the first user.
However, Chen et al. discloses the operations further comprising after executing the matching cycle, determining that durable AV opt-in data has been received from the first user, the selected job being the first job (Column 17, lines 55-64, In response to the transportation request, the transportation management system may provide the transportation requestor with options for providing the transportation service. For example, an option for transportation using an autonomous transportation provider vehicle may be displayed in icon 1008, an option for transportation using shared transportation (e.g., shared with other transportation requestors) may be displayed in icon 1010, and/or an option for transportation using a human operated transportation provider vehicle may be displayed in icon 1012).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system for operating an autonomous vehicle, wherein job requests are matched to at least one respective vehicle of the invention of Van Ryzin et al. and Buttolo et al. to further incorporate AV opt-in data from the first user of the invention of Chen et al. because doing so would allow the system to provide the transportation requestor with options for providing the transportation service (see Chen et al., Column 17, lines 55-64). Further, the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in combination each element would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
Goh et al. (US 2024/0078488 A1) – discloses an assignment of vehicles to transport tasks is performed by a matching solver on the basis of (output) features of vehicles and transport tasks derived by a graph neural network from a vehicle graph (having a node for each vehicle with associated input features) and a transport task graph (having a node for each transport task with associated input features) (see at least Paragraph 0085).
Cao (WO 2018/208232 A1) – discloses processor device that performs dynamic matching of transport-related service requests to service providers. Ensures ease in managing transport-related service requests using a computing device via a website or application. Matches and allocates a service provider to each high priority user, and matches and allocates a user request to each high priority service provider (see at least Abstract and Advantage).
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.
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/M.P./ Examiner, Art Unit 3624 /PATRICIA H MUNSON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3624
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