Google Patents Self-Driving Car Tech to Identify Emergency Vehicles
Google has had some interesting patents when it comes to self-driving technology. Remember the human flypaper? A patent filed back in 2014 and confirmed earlier this month is a little more realistic. The new technology allows the vehicles to distinguish and interact with emergency vehicles based on their unique flashing lights.
“In one aspect, one or more computing devices may identify a set of light sources from an image based at least in part on one or more templates, and may filter the set of light sources in order to identify one or more light sources corresponding to a potential emergency vehicle,” the patent states. “Moreover, the one or more computing devices are configured to determine whether any of the one or more light sources is flashing, and determine whether any of the one or more light sources is associated with a particular type of the potential emergency vehicle. Based on the determination, the one or more computing devices are configured to maneuver a vehicle to yield in response to at least one of the one or more flashing light sources and the particular type of the emergency vehicle,“
So the technology can tell the difference between a speeding ambulance and a police car pulling you over. Because interacting with emergency vehicles is so situational, time will tell what kind of changes this system needs.
Just because Google has the patent doesn’t mean they are going to use it. This patent does show that the company is preparing autonomous vehicles for many different kinds of real world situations.
