"Using intention signals to guide an autonomous vehicle near the destination" is a newly disclosed Apple patent application involving the use of autonomous driving in "Apple cars" This patent is related to the user interface, how the driver or passenger controls the driving route of the car without any steering wheel or brake.
Apple said in the patent application that since there are usually many choices of vehicle trajectory in the real world environment, the input or guidance of passengers in selecting vehicle trajectory (without traditional steering, braking, acceleration, etc.) may be very valuable for the motion control components of such vehicles. However, providing an intuitive and easy-to-use interface for such guidance, especially in environments where there may be no detailed or accurate map data, such as parking lots, can be a significant challenge.
Apple repeatedly referred to "authorizer" (not necessarily driver) and "intention signal" in the patent application. The intention signal is not a turn indicator used to tell other drivers the intention of turning. It is any method to convey the user's intention to the car. For example, if a user says near a large retail store that he wants to buy some plants for the garden, the navigation may determine that the vehicle is best parked near the entrance marked "gardening" or "gardening supplies".
In this case, the car not only determines the best parking location, it first explains the user's statement and decides to drive the car to a nearby "large retail store". In addition, the patent application shows that the user interface related to the patent can have a drop-down menu. The user can first say, "let's go to a large retail store". Then there can be a follow-up level menu for the user to choose from options such as parking near the main entrance and parking near the gardening entrance. Alternatively, the car can simply talk to the user directly.
Apple said in the patent application that when the system detects that it has arrived near the destination, the navigation manager can be similar to the voice of "we are approaching the store, should I park my car near the front door?" to attract the user's attention, use the voice to command or select through the user interface and touch screen.