DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
This Office action is in response to the application filed on 08/01/2025. Claims 1-20 are currently pending and are presented for examination.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, which was filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Specification
The use of the terms ”Wi-Fi” and “Bluetooth,” which are trade names or marks used in commerce, has been noted in this application. The terms should each be accompanied by the generic terminology; furthermore, the terms should each be capitalized (i.e., every letter of the terms should be capitalized) wherever they appear or, where appropriate, include a proper symbol indicating use in commerce such as ™, SM, or ® following the terms.
Although the use of trade names and marks used in commerce (i.e., trademarks, service marks, certification marks, and collective marks) are permissible in patent applications, the proprietary nature of the marks should be respected and every effort made to prevent their use in any manner which might adversely affect their validity as commercial marks.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4, 6-8, 11-13, 15-18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Donovan et al. (US 2019/0035269 A1), hereinafter referred to as Donovan.
Regarding claim 1:
Donovan discloses the following limitations:
“A method of navigating vehicles along a roadway, comprising: controlling a set of autonomous vehicles navigating along a section of the roadway by providing a set of moving position-targets for the set of autonomous vehicles, wherein the set of autonomous vehicles includes a first vehicle following a first moving position-target of the set of moving position-targets.” (Donovan ¶ 23: “Platooning refers to a mode of operation of a group of vehicles which can travel in a line very close to each other, and they can autonomously steer, accelerate and brake in a coordinated manner, as controlled by means of a lead vehicle of the platoon. Such a platoon can generally be formed in any part of a road or highway where there are enough vehicles to motivate the use of the platooning mode. Autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles can be operated in the platooning mode as long as they are equipped with communication technology needed for receiving commands and sending vehicle information related to position and movement, and also with software needed for platooning formation.”)
“determining that the first moving position-target interferes with a priority path for a second vehicle.” (Donovan ¶ 25: “It is assumed that the vehicles 104 are somehow potentially blocking the way for the emergency vehicle 102 so that they must move aside to let the emergency vehicle 102 pass.”)
“determining a revised moving position-target for the first vehicle, the revised moving position-target configured to cause the first vehicle to avoid the priority path; and transmitting, to the first vehicle, route information corresponding to the revised moving position-target, thereby causing the first vehicle to follow the revised moving position-target and avoid the priority path.” (Donovan ¶ 26: “when it is detected that the emergency vehicle 102 is approaching the group of vehicles 104 e.g. from behind or from any other direction, the traffic control entity 100 issues a command 106 instructing the vehicles 104 in the group to adjust their lateral positions relative the lanes to create a passage which allows the emergency vehicle 102 to move through the passage and pass the group of vehicles 104. … The vehicles' adjustment of lateral position in response to the command 106 is thus wholly automatic and could be performed using already developed technique for autonomous driving.”)
Regarding claim 2:
Donovan discloses “The method of claim 1,” and further discloses the method “further comprising: detecting that the second vehicle has passed the first vehicle; and in response to detecting that the second vehicle has passed the first vehicle, transmitting, to the first vehicle, route information corresponding to the first moving position-target, thereby causing the first vehicle to return to the first moving position-target of the set of moving position-targets.” (Donovan ¶ 43: “before issuing the command 106 the traffic control entity 100 may instruct the vehicles in the group 104 to enter emergency mode where said vehicles are configured to act according to the command autonomously without requiring a driver. Once the emergency vehicle has passed the group and all vehicles have returned to their normal positions in the lanes, the group of vehicles 104 may exit the emergency mode and keep on driving as before.”)
Regarding claim 3:
Donovan discloses “The method of claim 1,” and Donovan further discloses “wherein: the set of moving position-targets comprises a first set of moving position-targets and a second set of moving position-targets; the first moving position-target is one of the first set of moving position-targets; and the revised moving position-target is one of the second set of moving position-targets.” (Donovan ¶ 23: “Autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles can be operated in the platooning mode as long as they are equipped with communication technology needed for receiving commands and sending vehicle information related to position and movement, and also with software needed for platooning formation.” Also, Donovan ¶ 26: “when it is detected that the emergency vehicle 102 is approaching the group of vehicles 104 e.g. from behind or from any other direction, the traffic control entity 100 issues a command 106 instructing the vehicles 104 in the group to adjust their lateral positions relative the lanes to create a passage which allows the emergency vehicle 102 to move through the passage and pass the group of vehicles 104.” This disclosure teaches the claim limitation since a group of multiple vehicles is controlled, where each of the vehicles has initial movement control before detection of the emergency vehicle and revised movement control after detection of the emergency vehicle.)
Regarding claim 4:
Donovan discloses “The method of claim 1,” and further discloses “wherein: the set of moving position-targets is a first set of moving position-targets; and the priority path is associated with a second moving position-target of a second set of moving position-targets associated with a right-of-way priority, wherein each of at least a subset of moving position-targets of the second set of moving position-targets traverses the section of the roadway at a greater speed than moving position-targets of the first set of moving position-targets.” (Donovan ¶ 21: “Throughout this disclosure the term ‘emergency vehicle’ is used in a broad sense to denote any vehicle in need of travelling fast on a road such that other vehicles on the road may need to make room for the emergency vehicle to pull ahead or otherwise pass the other vehicles. The emergency vehicle in this context may, without limitation, be an ambulance, fire brigade or police vehicle. It could also be any other vehicle that has been given permission to drive faster than what is required by normal speed regulations, for whatever reason.”)
Regarding claim 6:
Donovan discloses “The method of claim 1,” and also discloses “wherein determining that the first moving position-target interferes with the priority path for the second vehicle comprises determining that the first moving position-target overlaps an exclusion area associated with the second vehicle.” (Donovan ¶ 34 and FIGS. 3A-3D reproduced below: “a passage is created through which the emergency vehicle 300 can travel along the vehicles 104. In this example, the passage is created by an opening, or ‘bubble’, as indicated by a dashed field 302, which gradually propagates through the group of vehicles 104 until the emergency vehicle 300 has passed all vehicles as shown in FIG. 3D.” The “bubble” 302 corresponds to the recited “exclusion area.”)
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Regarding claim 7:
Donovan discloses “The method of claim 1,” and Donovan also discloses “wherein the second vehicle is associated with a second priority level greater than a first priority level for the set of autonomous vehicles.” (Donovan ¶ 21: “The emergency vehicle in this context may, without limitation, be an ambulance, fire brigade or police vehicle. It could also be any other vehicle that has been given permission to drive faster than what is required by normal speed regulations, for whatever reason.” The emergency vehicles being allowed to drive faster than the normal speed regulations teaches the emergency vehicles having a higher priority level than the autonomous vehicles that are subject to normal speed regulations.)
Regarding claim 8:
Donovan discloses “The method of claim 7,” and Donovan additionally discloses “wherein the second priority level of the second vehicle is associated with emergency response vehicles.” (Donovan ¶ 21: “The emergency vehicle in this context may, without limitation, be an ambulance, fire brigade or police vehicle.”)
Regarding claim 11:
Donovan discloses the following limitations:
“A method of navigating vehicles along a roadway, comprising: controlling a set of autonomous vehicles navigating along a section of the roadway by providing a set of moving position-targets for the set of autonomous vehicles, wherein the set of autonomous vehicles includes a first vehicle following a first moving position-target of the set of moving position-targets.” (Donovan ¶ 23: “Platooning refers to a mode of operation of a group of vehicles which can travel in a line very close to each other, and they can autonomously steer, accelerate and brake in a coordinated manner, as controlled by means of a lead vehicle of the platoon. Such a platoon can generally be formed in any part of a road or highway where there are enough vehicles to motivate the use of the platooning mode. Autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles can be operated in the platooning mode as long as they are equipped with communication technology needed for receiving commands and sending vehicle information related to position and movement, and also with software needed for platooning formation.”)
“determining, based at least in part on location information for the first vehicle, that the first vehicle interferes with an exclusion area associated with a second vehicle having right-of-way priority along a priority path of the section of the roadway; in response to determining that the first vehicle interferes with the exclusion area, determining a revised moving position-target for the first vehicle, the revised moving position-target configured to remove the first vehicle from the exclusion area.” (Donovan ¶ 37: “the information about current position and movement of the vehicles may be received from the vehicles when detected by a positioning function in the respective vehicles, e.g. a GPS unit or the like.” Also, Donovan ¶ 34 and FIGS. 3A-3D: “a passage is created through which the emergency vehicle 300 can travel along the vehicles 104. In this example, the passage is created by an opening, or ‘bubble’, as indicated by a dashed field 302, which gradually propagates through the group of vehicles 104 until the emergency vehicle 300 has passed all vehicles as shown in FIG. 3D.” The bubble 302 corresponds to the recited “exclusion area.”)
“transmitting, to the first vehicle, first route information corresponding to the revised moving position-target, thereby causing the first vehicle to follow the revised moving position-target and avoid the exclusion area.” (Donovan ¶ 26: “when it is detected that the emergency vehicle 102 is approaching the group of vehicles 104 e.g. from behind or from any other direction, the traffic control entity 100 issues a command 106 instructing the vehicles 104 in the group to adjust their lateral positions relative the lanes to create a passage which allows the emergency vehicle 102 to move through the passage and pass the group of vehicles 104. … The vehicles' adjustment of lateral position in response to the command 106 is thus wholly automatic and could be performed using already developed technique for autonomous driving.”)
“detecting that the exclusion area of the second vehicle has passed the first vehicle; and transmitting, to the first vehicle, second route information corresponding to one of the set of moving position-targets, thereby causing the first vehicle to return to the first moving position-target or a second moving position-target of the set of moving position-targets.” (Donovan ¶ 43: “before issuing the command 106 the traffic control entity 100 may instruct the vehicles in the group 104 to enter emergency mode where said vehicles are configured to act according to the command autonomously without requiring a driver. Once the emergency vehicle has passed the group and all vehicles have returned to their normal positions in the lanes, the group of vehicles 104 may exit the emergency mode and keep on driving as before.”)
Regarding claims 12 and 17:
Claims 12 and 17 are each rejected using the same rationale applied to claim 3 above, mutatis mutandis.
Regarding claims 13 and 18:
Claims 13 and 18 are each rejected using the same rationale applied to claim 4 above, mutatis mutandis.
Regarding claim 15:
Donovan discloses the following limitations:
“A transportation system comprising: a set of autonomous vehicles that includes a first vehicle; and a vehicle controller configured to: control the set of autonomous vehicles navigating along a section of a roadway by providing a set of moving position-targets for the set of autonomous vehicles, wherein the first vehicle follows a first moving position-target of the set of moving position-targets.” (Donovan ¶ 8: “a traffic control entity is arranged to control a group of vehicles capable of autonomous driving without requiring a driver, to allow an emergency vehicle to pass the group of vehicles when the vehicles in the group are travelling concurrently in multiple lanes on a road.” Also, Donovan ¶ 23: “Platooning refers to a mode of operation of a group of vehicles which can travel in a line very close to each other, and they can autonomously steer, accelerate and brake in a coordinated manner, as controlled by means of a lead vehicle of the platoon. Such a platoon can generally be formed in any part of a road or highway where there are enough vehicles to motivate the use of the platooning mode. Autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles can be operated in the platooning mode as long as they are equipped with communication technology needed for receiving commands and sending vehicle information related to position and movement, and also with software needed for platooning formation.”)
“determine a priority path along the section of the roadway for a second vehicle having a right-of-way priority along the section of the roadway, the second vehicle associated with an exclusion area extending ahead of the second vehicle along the priority path; determine, based at least in part on location information for the first vehicle, that the first vehicle interferes with the exclusion area associated with the second vehicle; determine a revised moving position-target for the first vehicle, the revised moving position-target configured to remove the first vehicle from the exclusion area.” (Donovan ¶ 37: “information about current position and movement of the vehicles may be received from the vehicles when detected by a positioning function in the respective vehicles, e.g. a GPS unit or the like.” Also, Donovan ¶ 34 and FIGS. 3A-3D: “a passage is created through which the emergency vehicle 300 can travel along the vehicles 104. In this example, the passage is created by an opening, or ‘bubble’, as indicated by a dashed field 302, which gradually propagates through the group of vehicles 104 until the emergency vehicle 300 has passed all vehicles as shown in FIG. 3D.” The bubble 302 corresponds to the recited “exclusion area.”)
“and transmit, to the first vehicle, route information corresponding to the revised moving position-target, thereby causing the first vehicle to follow the revised moving position-target and avoid the exclusion area.” (Donovan ¶ 26: “when it is detected that the emergency vehicle 102 is approaching the group of vehicles 104 e.g. from behind or from any other direction, the traffic control entity 100 issues a command 106 instructing the vehicles 104 in the group to adjust their lateral positions relative the lanes to create a passage which allows the emergency vehicle 102 to move through the passage and pass the group of vehicles 104. … The vehicles' adjustment of lateral position in response to the command 106 is thus wholly automatic and could be performed using already developed technique for autonomous driving.”)
Regarding claim 16:
Donovan discloses “The transportation system of claim 15,” and Donovan also discloses “wherein the vehicle controller is further configured to: detect that the exclusion area of the second vehicle has passed the first vehicle; and in response to detecting that the exclusion area of the second vehicle has passed the first vehicle transmit, to the first vehicle, route information corresponding to the first moving position-target, thereby causing the first vehicle to return to the first moving position-target of the set of moving position-targets.” (Donovan ¶ 43: “before issuing the command 106 the traffic control entity 100 may instruct the vehicles in the group 104 to enter emergency mode where said vehicles are configured to act according to the command autonomously without requiring a driver. Once the emergency vehicle has passed the group and all vehicles have returned to their normal positions in the lanes, the group of vehicles 104 may exit the emergency mode and keep on driving as before.”)
Regarding claim 20:
Donovan discloses “The transportation system of claim 15,” and Donovan also discloses “wherein the exclusion area extends a first distance ahead of the second vehicle in the direction of travel and a second distance behind the second vehicle.” (Donovan ¶ 34: “the passage is created by an opening, or ‘bubble’, as indicated by a dashed field 302, which gradually propagates through the group of vehicles 104 until the emergency vehicle 300 has passed all vehicles.” Donovan FIG. 3C reproduced below illustrates the bubble 302 extending a first distance ahead of and a second distance behind emergency vehicle 300.)
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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.
Claims 5, 9-10, 14, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Donovan as applied to claims 1, 7, 11, and 15 above, and further in view of Chase et al. (US 2023/0305576 A1), hereinafter referred to as Chase.
Regarding claim 5:
Donovan discloses “The method of claim 1,” but Donovan does not specifically disclose “wherein transmitting the route information corresponding to the revised moving position-target comprises transmitting route information that causes the first vehicle to perform at least one of exiting the roadway or proceeding to a stationary position target.” However, Chase does teach this limitation. (Chase ¶ 42: “With the present BBIS invention, each vehicle used as a school bus and containing BBIS equipment would transmit one of several available command messages, each synchronized to whatever mode the bus was operating in at that time. There would be no action ambiguity whatsoever on the part of any other BBIS-equipped vehicle 110 in that all the complex sensory and logic requirements would be superseded by the mere receipt of a simple identification message such as ‘school bus actively loading/unloading - passing NOT allowed’, as well as a high-priority ‘stop’ command if a school bus were stopped with its flashing lights on. This command would override any normal AV movement protocols, which would effectively halt all traffic around the subject school bus, ensuring safe loading and unloading of the school bus at a stop.” This at least teaches transmitting route information that causes the first vehicle to proceed to a stationary position target as claimed. Additionally, Chase ¶ 69: “highway weigh/inspection stations equipped with BBIS beacons 120 could automatically query approaching vehicles 110 to determine their ‘commercial’ status, vehicular type, weight, ‘Haz-Mat’ or other criteria, and automatically direct the vehicles 110 to leave the roadway.” Directing the vehicles to leave the roadway teaches transmitting route information that causes the first vehicle to exit the roadway as claimed.)
Note that under the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI) of claim 5, consistent with the instant specification, “transmitting route information that causes the first vehicle to perform at least one of exiting the roadway or proceeding to a stationary position target” is treated as an alternative limitation. Applicant has elected to use the phrase “at least one” in the claim language, and as such, the BRI covers the scenario in which only one of the limitations applies. Accordingly, while both the options of “exiting the roadway” and “proceeding to a stationary position target” have been addressed here, only one of the two options is required by the claim.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the method of Donovan by allowing the revised route information to either cause the vehicle to exit the roadway or proceed to a stationary stop position as taught by Chase with a reasonable expectation of success. A person having ordinary skill in the art could have been motivated to do this because Chase ¶ 42 teaches that allowing a vehicle to proceed to a stop position when it is close to a higher priority vehicle like a school bus can help with “ensuring safe loading and unloading of the school bus at a stop,” and Chase ¶ 69 teaches that allowing a vehicle to exit the roadway can help with scenarios that require vehicles to be sorted based on certain criteria.
Regarding claim 9:
Donovan discloses “The method of claim 7,” but does not specifically disclose “wherein the second priority level of the second vehicle is associated with a mass-transit vehicle.” However, Chase does teach this limitation. (Chase ¶ 42: “With the present BBIS invention, each vehicle used as a school bus and containing BBIS equipment would transmit one of several available command messages, each synchronized to whatever mode the bus was operating in at that time.”)
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the method of Donovan by allowing the second vehicle to be a mass-transit vehicle as taught by Chase, because this is a simple substitution of one known element (i.e., the mass-transit vehicle) for another (i.e., the emergency vehicle of Donovan) to obtain predictable results (see MPEP 2143(I)(B)). A person having ordinary skill in the art could have replaced the emergency vehicle of Donovan with the mass-transit vehicle of Chase to achieve the predictable result of providing a safe, high-priority driving path for mass-transit vehicles.
Regarding claim 10:
Donovan discloses “The method of claim 7,” but does not specifically disclose “wherein the second vehicle is a human operated vehicle.” However, Chase does teach this limitation. (Chase ¶ 68: “A conventional V2I beacon merely informs autonomous vehicles 110 to the existence of a bike lane, but a BBIS implementation in accordance with the present invention would automatically instruct an autonomous vehicle 110 to bias its normal vehicle-to-curb distances by three feet, and further require additional separation biasing and/or speed reduction, if needed, due to a cyclist encroaching on a vehicular lane. If there is no marked ‘bike lane’ and there is cycling activity, if a cyclist happens to be carrying a portable BBIS beacon that indicates cycle existence, an autonomous vehicle 110 could respond in a similar ‘bike lane’ reactive manner.”)
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the method of Donovan by allowing the second vehicle to be a human-operated vehicle as taught by Chase, because this is a simple substitution of one known element (i.e., the human-operated vehicle) for another (i.e., the emergency vehicle of Donovan) to obtain predictable results (see MPEP 2143(I)(B)). A person having ordinary skill in the art could have replaced the emergency vehicle of Donovan with the human-operated vehicle of Chase in order to achieve the predictable result of providing a safe, high-priority driving path for human-operated vehicles such as bicycles.
Regarding claims 14 and 19:
Claims 14 and 19 are each rejected using the same rationale applied to claim 5 above, mutatis mutandis.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Ucar et al. (US 2024/0420573 A1) ¶ 68 discloses a cooperative driving management strategy in which a “command module 230 may generate, if the first vehicle set is not empty, the cooperative response action to coordinate a cooperative set of driving maneuvers between two or more vehicles of the first vehicle set to improve the safety of the at least one vehicle of the first vehicle set. For example, a cooperative response action may be a set of driving maneuvers for a vehicle such as to reduce speed, increase speed, maintain lane, change lanes, follow a trajectory, form a platoon, and so on, where such instructions if implemented by two or more vehicles would result in at least one coordinated movement between the two or more vehicles. Such an cooperative response action may be generated on the basis of increasing the safety of one or more cooperating vehicles (e.g., by increasing their distance from a vehicular threat, by reducing threat scores associated with the vehicle); removing cooperating vehicles out of an area (e.g., the risk area) as quickly as possible, carrying out a protective function (e.g., excluding the vehicular threat from entering between the cooperating vehicles), and so on.”
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Madison R Inserra whose telephone number is (571)272-7205. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday: 9:30 AM - 6:30 PM EST.
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/Madison R. Inserra/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3662
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