Google Car Patents Show the Wild Future of Autonomy

We know a few definitive things about the Google Car. It looks a bit like a golf cart with a koala's face. There's no steering wheel. And the egg-ish autonomous cars are racking up serious mileage in on-road testing in several West Coast cities.

But outside of those factoids, the Google Car has been such a secretive project that most of what we think we know about it has been gleaned from things like patent filings. And like many things that are patented, not all of them will likely make it from simplified patent drawing to actual real-world tech.

Some of them undoubtedly will, though. Let's look at what vehicle patents Google has filed so far, and what they tell us about the unusual little self-driving car.                                    

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Google Car Patents Show the Wild Future of Autonomy

We know a few definitive things about the Google Car. It looks a bit like a golf cart with a koala's face. There's no steering wheel. And the egg-ish autonomous cars are racking up serious mileage in on-road testing in several West Coast cities.

But outside of those factoids, the Google Car has been such a secretive project that most of what we think we know about it has been gleaned from things like patent filings. And like many things that are patented, not all of them will likely make it from simplified patent drawing to actual real-world tech.

Some of them undoubtedly will, though. Let's look at what vehicle patents Google has filed so far, and what they tell us about the unusual little self-driving car. 

Pedestrian-Impact Glue

It may look like a crash test dummy lounging on a police car during a snowstorm, but this drawing actually shows something far more bizarre. Google has patented a pedestrian-impact adhesive system, and the dummy in this drawing is glued to the hood of a generic Google Car. 

That sounds silly until you examine why Google is interested in doing this. For one, it prevents the pedestrian from being thrown off the car and striking another object, causing secondary impact injuries. It also prevents the pedestrian from slipping off of the car and being run over. 

The glue covers the front of the vehicle and is covered by a thin, protective coating. The force of a pedestrian hitting the coating would break it, releasing the adhesive and hopefully ensnaring the pedestrian to prevent further harm. It's an unusual but compelling idea. Will it make it to the Google Car? It'll depend on the system's cost and efficacy, but it's certainly not impossible.

or a long time, the sole purpose of a car was to take us from point A to point B as fast as traffic conditions would allow us to. However, rapid advancements in technology has led to a surge in demand from many of us – we wanna have more comfort, entertainment, functionalities, and so on in our cars than ever before. In that vein, we have come up with a wishlist of the things we would like to see (from a geek’s perspective) in cars of the future.

(Image Source: French Concept Cars)

Just like how phones have evolved into smartphones, perhaps cars should also take a similar route and evolve into ‘smart’ cars equipped with futuristic and (more importantly) practical features. In fact, some car manufacturers have already implemented a few of these things that we’re about to mention, but it’ll be nice to see them become standard features in all cars of the future.

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1. Enhanced Gesture Control

Building on the familiar existing technology of knob and voice controls, Audi, in 2011, introduced a new feature that would provide unprecendented ease in controlling a car’s functions. The new feature is called MMI touch, and is actually an enhancement for their already exisiting Audi Multi Media Interface (MMI) system.

The best thing about MMI touch is that it enables drivers to input characters just by using a finger to "write" on the designated touchpad. This has a wide range of applications such as keying in addresses for navigation purposes, entering phone numbers or simply selecting songs to play. MMI touch also has support for a range of languages besides English.

(Image Source: Mercedes Benz)

Of course, the usual knob and voice controls are still available as well – MMI touch just makes it a whole lot easier for you to access your car’s functions while you’re driving. And more recently, Mercedes-Benz has also introduced their own take on this enhanced gesture control concept.

2. Augmented Reality Head-Up Display

Having augmented reality display on a car windscreen would add a lot of functionality to the car. We would be able to see information like speed, navigation details and even the name of an incoming call with minimalistic designs on our windscreens.

(Image Source: bimmerfile)

By using an app called HUDWAY, you can place your iPhone on the dashboard of your car and navigation information (from your iPhone) will be reflected and displayed on your windscreen. It looks very cool but obviously doesn’t work under certain conditions, e.g. when the surrounding is too bright for the information to be clearly visibile on your windscreen.

Head-up displays are definitely something of the future that we should look forward to. It’ll help us keep our eyes on the road by giving us all the relevant information without having to look at a center console display or our smartphones.

3. Apps & Firmware Updates

Imagine driving a car capable of running apps that are no less powerful than what you have on your smartphone right now. For starters, there can bespecialized apps for certain countries or cities that could provide local information on restaurants, malls or other places of interest for travelers.

(Image Source: Toyota)

Toyota has already introduced a concept car called Fun Vii Concept Car that can do all of the above and more. "Vii" is an acronym for Vehicle, Interactive, Internet – this concept car basically allows the driver to be constantly connected with everyone including your friends and even other automobiles. What’s more, its exterior design can even be customized as shown in this short promotional clip.

While it will probably take some time before cars like Fun Vii get to production, cars with the ability to have firmware updates have already been made available on the market. These firmware updates could improve certain features of the car including the radio, tire pressure, Wi-Fi connectivity, and charging capacity.Tesla Model S, a 100% electric car, is one car that has such firmware updates.

4. Sheet Thin Batteries

As batteries used in existing electric cars are bulky and heavy, manufacturers have to find a suitable place to put the large amount of batteries, and at the same time, ensure that the car is well balanced throughout. What will be really cool is to have batteries hidden in plain sight by replacing the cosmetic parts of a car.

(Image Source: AutoblogGreen)

These parts could be the panels throughout the car on both the interior and exterior. Manufacturers won’t have to compromise on the appearance of the car as the batteries would be thin and bendable. Although technology has yet to catch up with this vision, it’s definitely something worth looking forward to.

5. Communication Between Vehicles

Communication between vehicles doesn’t mean you can call up the car in front of you and ask it to move out of your way. It’s more like machines communicating with each other so that there’ll be smoother traffic and less congested roads.

Another cool feature to have in a ‘smart’ car is to have it give you fuel efficiency tips or notifications while you’re driving. For example, it can notify you about a nearby gas station that has cheap gas prices; so even if you still have half a tank of fuel left, it’ll suggest that you refill now to avoid paying more at another gas station when you eventually run out of fuel.

(Image Source: digitaltrends)

7. Perfect Integration With Smartphones

Something that is obviously lacking in contemporary cars is integration with smartphones. We’re not talking about being able to play music off your smartphone but more of being able to control your smartphone’s functionality through voice commands or even buttons on the steering wheel.

Honda is taking a pioneering step by integrating Apple’s Siri Eyes Free into their upcoming car models. That would basically allow you to use iOS from the dashboard of your car, letting you easily and safely make phone calls, access music, send and receive messages, and get directions using built-in Apple apps.

iOS Car integration

Meanwhile, there isn’t that much going on as far as integrating Android into cars is concerned. Although Android users can get lots of functionality (Google Now, Maps) just by mounting their Android smartphones onto their car windscreens, it’ll definitely be nice to have an integrated system with the car dashboard that allows the use of buttons on the steering wheel.

8. Long Term Evolution (LTE)

As some of you may know, built-in GPS devices (in cars) work without needing Internet access. But wouldn’t it be great if we can get live traffic updates on top of the usual GPS navigation? To do that, however, an Internet connection would be required – something that many cars still don’t have support for.

(Image Source: Alcatel Lucent)

Here’s the good news: some car manufacturers like Audi have already made plans to implement Long Term Evolution (LTE) in their future car models. LTE would allow for better quality internet radio, searching for a location using pictures and faster loading of live maps. Having a dedicated LTE connection in a car can also turn the car into a Wi-Fi hotspot for people on laptops who are constantly on the go.

9. Self-Healing Paint

Self-healing paint has been around for some time now, but somehow hasn’t been implemented in consumer cars yet. Whatever the case may be, this is one cool technology – surface scratches will magically disappear after just a few minutes and your car will look like how it once was.

Self-Healing Paint

(Image Source: Nissan)

Truth be told, deep scratches won’t be 100% gone and some may still be visible if you look hard enough, but from a distance the car will still look as good as new.

Final Thoughts

Technological advancements have certainly surpassed our expectations of what can be integrated into cars. However, some of these advanced features we have looked at may come with hefty price tags. Nonetheless, we can still hope for a time where technology becomes more efficient and cheaper, allowing for all these cool and futuristic features to be implemented in cars of every price range.

(Image Source: TopSpeed)

This technology will also increase road safety by reducing collisions between cars. For example, your car can warn you about a car that’s coming from your blind spot. If implemented correctly, this technology will significantly increase road safety, efficiency, and driving experience.

6. Smart Fuel Saving Tips

Another cool feature to have in a ‘smart’ car is to have it give you fuel efficiency tips or notifications while you’re driving. For example, it can notify you about a nearby gas station that has cheap gas prices; so even if you still have half a tank of fuel left, it’ll suggest that you refill now to avoid paying more at another gas station when you eventually run out of fuel.

(Image Source: digitaltrends)

7. Perfect Integration With Smartphones

Something that is obviously lacking in contemporary cars is integration with smartphones. We’re not talking about being able to play music off your smartphone but more of being able to control your smartphone’s functionality through voice commands or even buttons on the steering wheel.

Honda is taking a pioneering step by integrating Apple’s Siri Eyes Free into their upcoming car models. That would basically allow you to use iOS from the dashboard of your car, letting you easily and safely make phone calls, access music, send and receive messages, and get directions using built-in Apple apps.

Meanwhile, there isn’t that much going on as far as integrating Android into cars is concerned. Although Android users can get lots of functionality (Google Now, Maps) just by mounting their Android smartphones onto their car windscreens, it’ll definitely be nice to have an integrated system with the car dashboard that allows the use of buttons on the steering wheel.

8. Long Term Evolution (LTE)

As some of you may know, built-in GPS devices (in cars) work without needing Internet access. But wouldn’t it be great if we can get live traffic updates on top of the usual GPS navigation? To do that, however, an Internet connection would be required – something that many cars still don’t have support for.

(Image Source: Alcatel Lucent)

Here’s the good news: some car manufacturers like Audi have already made plans to implement Long Term Evolution (LTE) in their future car models. LTE would allow for better quality internet radio, searching for a location using pictures and faster loading of live maps. Having a dedicated LTE connection in a car can also turn the car into a Wi-Fi hotspot for people on laptops who are constantly on the go.

9. Self-Healing Paint

Self-healing paint has been around for some time now, but somehow hasn’t been implemented in consumer cars yet. Whatever the case may be, this is one cool technology – surface scratches will magically disappear after just a few minutes and your car will look like how it once was.

(Image Source: Nissan)

Truth be told, deep scratches won’t be 100% gone and some may still be visible if you look hard enough, but from a distance the car will still look as good as new.

Final Thoughts

Technological advancements have certainly surpassed our expectations of what can be integrated into cars. However, some of these advanced features we have looked at may come with hefty price tags. Nonetheless, we can still hope for a time where technology becomes more efficient and cheaper, allowing for all these cool and futuristic features to be implemented in cars of every price range.

Part of the information is of autoblog

Pedestrian-Impact Glue

It may look like a crash test dummy lounging on a police car during a snowstorm, but this drawing actually shows something far more bizarre. Google has patented a pedestrian-impact adhesive system, and the dummy in this drawing is glued to the hood of a generic Google Car. 

That sounds silly until you examine why Google is interested in doing this. For one, it prevents the pedestrian from being thrown off the car and striking another object, causing secondary impact injuries. It also prevents the pedestrian from slipping off of the car and being run over. 

The glue covers the front of the vehicle and is covered by a thin, protective coating. The force of a pedestrian hitting the coating would break it, releasing the adhesive and hopefully ensnaring the pedestrian to prevent further harm. It's an unusual but compelling idea. Will it make it to the Google Car? It'll depend on the system's cost and efficacy, but it's certainly not impossible.

Autonomous Driving

Long before the Google Car prototype revealed its marsupial-aping face, way back in 2011, Google patented a self-driving system. It was this patent that laid the groundwork for the prototypes we see today – and at the same time showed a path not taken. 

U.S. patent number 8,078,349 describes a vehicle that can switch from regular human-operated driving to autonomous mode at the push of a button. Sort of. First, the operator needs to direct the machine to a predefined "landing strip." There, a "reference indicator" (think of something like a QR code affixed to the road) would combine with GPS coordinates to allow the vehicle to know its exact location.

Of course, this system isn't the one that Google adopted. There aren't QR codes embedded in the road all over Silicon Valley. And the current Google Car doesn't have a steering wheel shaped like a lollipop. Even so, it's one of the more interesting and unusual Google Car patents around.

Bus Detection

Once again, the universe demonstrates to us that it has a good sense of humor. Google now has a patent on bus detection for autonomous vehicles. 

Google's patent technically outlines how to identify a school bus. The autonomous system would compare the relative sizes of vehicles on the road. Once it found something large enough, the software would check that against the known size of a school bus. The tech would also analyze the color, check for a stop sign, and search for the word "School" on the exterior.

Once the system positively identified the school bus, the software would tell the vehicle to operate more cautiously. It would also be ready for the vehicle's stop sign to deploy and expect a greater number of pedestrians. 

Bus Detection

Once again, the universe demonstrates to us that it has a good sense of humor. Google now has a patent on bus detection for autonomous vehicles. 

Google's patent technically outlines how to identify a school bus. The autonomous system would compare the relative sizes of vehicles on the road. Once it found something large enough, the software would check that against the known size of a school bus. The tech would also analyze the color, check for a stop sign, and search for the word "School" on the exterior.

Once the system positively identified the school bus, the software would tell the vehicle to operate more cautiously. It would also be ready for the vehicle's stop sign to deploy and expect a greater number of pedestrians. 

Gesture Controls

Just as touchscreens have infiltrated nearly every aspect of our lives over the past decade, gesture-based controls will do the same in the coming years.

Google has made no bones about its autonomous-vehicle aspirations and is expanding into wearable tech, has filed a patent to use gestures to control a vehicle. The system, if it ever arrives in the automobile, would use a depth camera mounted on the roof of the car and a laser scanner. So for example, swiping near a window would roll it down, while making a motion at the radio would adjust the volume.

It's not hard to imagine an army of motion-based controls, not unlike what we have on a multi-touch-enabled computer, where pinching would zoom in the navigation screen, and swiping at the vents would increase the temperature or fan speed.

Adding this sort of futuristic tech to an autonomous car would be an interesting and futuristic touch (no pun intended) indeed.

Car to Car Video

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication is considered one of the next major breakthroughs in motoring, and Google's patent aims to make driving safer. The tech giant's idea is to relay info about potential safety problems to other cars on the road well before drivers even know there's a problem. It also seems like this solution could have positive applications for the company's future autonomous fleet.

For the patent to work, a vehicle would need a front-mounted camera and a radar transmitter with at least an antenna at the rear. When a safety problem is spotted, like an obstruction in the road, the system would begin recording and tag the clip with metadata, like size, distance, and whether or not the object is moving. All of that information would then be broadcast to other cars nearby. With each vehicle transferring the data individually, as long as other drivers are close enough, everyone in the network gets the advisory.

Conceivably, this tech could make passing on a two-lane road safer, as well. In the patent, Google describes giving drivers the ability to look far ahead in front of traffic "thereby obtaining an 'x-ray like' vision capability of seeing beyond a blockade of leading vehicles."

Turn Signal Detection

This Google patent shows how to make autonomous vehicles detect other cars' turn signals and react to the information. 

Google's patent would use a forward-facing camera to scan traffic ahead. A short exposure would detect bright objects especially well, and the technology would then look for changes in color at the rear of surrounding cars. Based on how the light oscillates, the software could determine if the turn signal or hazard lights are flashing. Google's autonomous car would then have the programming to react accordingly.

Autonomous vehicles need this type of tech to survive in a world where they are still in the minority on the road. Turn signal identification would give the driverless system extra warning about what's happening in the environment and avoid a potential collision. As Google continues to expand its autonomous testing to more areas with different types of roads, the cars require more sophisticated software to deal with the challenges.

Pothole Detection Network

Potholes are incredibly annoying and can do serious damage to your vehicle's wheels and suspension. Unfortunately, unless you know an area well, there isn't a great way to predict their location until the divot is right in front of you.  Google is aiming to fix the problem with a patent on a surprisingly simple solution to create a roving fleet of pothole reporters.

The system combines a GPS-equipped infotainment system and a vertical movement sensor somewhere on the vehicle. When a driver hits a pothole, the navigation system notes the location and sends the info into the cloud. Based on the amount of vibration on a given street, Google's servers can create a continuously upgrading database of the average road quality and can divert drivers around particularly bad sections when deciding on a route.

While patenting an idea doesn't necessarily mean that it hits the road, this system seems massively beneficial to all drivers. Plus, the concept doesn't seem too hard to implement, either. Google's use for this tech appears obvious, too. Given the company's fleet of autonomous vehicles, being able to route passengers around rough streets could be an especially welcome feature. The tech could go part of the way towards keeping folks in driverless cars from getting motion sickness.

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Autonomous Driving

Long before the Google Car prototype revealed its marsupial-aping face, way back in 2011, Google patented a self-driving system. It was this patent that laid the groundwork for the prototypes we see today – and at the same time showed a path not taken. 

U.S. patent number 8,078,349 describes a vehicle that can switch from regular human-operated driving to autonomous mode at the push of a button. Sort of. First, the operator needs to direct the machine to a predefined "landing strip." There, a "reference indicator" (think of something like a QR code affixed to the road) would combine with GPS coordinates to allow the vehicle to know its exact location.

Of course, this system isn't the one that Google adopted. There aren't QR codes embedded in the road all over Silicon Valley. And the current Google Car doesn't have a steering wheel shaped like a lollipop. Even so, it's one of the more interesting and unusual Google

 Car patents around.

Gesture Controls

Just as touchscreens have infiltrated nearly every aspect of our lives over the past decade, gesture-based controls will do the same in

Google has made no bones about its autonomous-vehicle aspirations and is expanding into wearable tech, has filed a patent to use gestures to control a vehicle. The system, if it ever arrives in the automobile, would use a depth camera mounted on the roof of the car and a laser scanner. So for example, swiping near a window would roll it down, while making a motion at the radio would adjust the volume.

It's not hard to imagine an army of motion-based controls, not unlike what we have on a multi-touch-enabled computer, where pinching would zoom in the navigation screen, and swiping at the vents would increase the temperature or fan speed.

Adding this sort of futuristic tech to an autonomous car would be an interesting and futuristic touch (no pun intended) indeed.

Car to Car Video

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication is considered one of the next major breakthroughs in motoring, and Google's patent aims to make driving safer. The tech giant's idea is to relay info about potential safety problems to other cars on the road well before drivers even know there's a problem. It also seems like this solution could have positive applications for the company's future autonomous fleet.

For the patent to work, a vehicle would need a front-mounted camera and a radar transmitter with at least an antenna at the rear. When a safety problem is spotted, like an obstruction in the road, the system would begin recording and tag the clip with metadata, like size, distance, and whether or not the object is moving. All of that information would then be broadcast to other cars nearby. With each vehicle transferring the data individually, as long as other drivers are close enough, everyone in the network gets the advisory.

Conceivably, this tech could make passing on a two-lane road safer, as well. In the patent, Google describes giving drivers the ability to look far ahead in front of traffic "thereby obtaining an 'x-ray like' vision capability of seeing beyond a blockade of leading vehicles."

Turn Signal Detection

This Google patent shows how to make autonomous vehicles detect other cars' turn signals and react to the information. 

Google's patent would use a forward-facing camera to scan traffic ahead. A short exposure would detect bright objects especially well, and the technology would then look for changes in color at the rear of surrounding cars. Based on how the light oscillates, the software could determine if the turn signal or hazard lights are flashing. Google's autonomous car would then have the programming to react accordingly.

Autonomous vehicles need this type of tech to survive in a world where they are still in the minority on the road. Turn signal identification would give the driverless system extra warning about what's happening in the environment and avoid a potential collision. As Google continues to expand its autonomous testing to more areas with different types of roads, the cars require more sophisticated software to deal with the challenges.

Pothole Detection Network

Potholes are incredibly annoying and can do serious damage to your vehicle's wheels and suspension. Unfortunately, unless you know an area well, there isn't a great way to predict their location until the divot is right in front of you.  Google is aiming to fix the problem with a patent on a surprisingly simple solution to create a roving fleet of pothole reporters.

The system combines a GPS-equipped infotainment system and a vertical movement sensor somewhere on the vehicle. When a driver hits a pothole, the navigation system notes the location and sends the info into the cloud. Based on the amount of vibration on a given street, Google's servers can create a continuously upgrading database of the average road quality and can divert drivers around particularly bad sections when deciding on a route.

While patenting an idea doesn't necessarily mean that it hits the road, this system seems massively beneficial to all drivers. Plus, the concept doesn't seem too hard to implement, either. Google's use for this tech appears obvious, too. Given the company's fleet of autonomous vehicles, being able to route passengers around rough streets could be an especially welcome feature. The tech could go part of the way towards keeping folks in driverless cars from getting motion sickness.

Google Car Patents Show the Wild Future of Autonomy

We know a few definitive things about the Google Car. It looks a bit like a golf cart with a koala's face. There's no steering wheel. And the egg-ish autonomous cars are racking up serious mileage in on-road testing in several West Coast cities.

But outside of those factoids, the Google Car has been such a secretive project that most of what we think we know about it has been gleaned from things like patent filings. And like many things that are patented, not all of them will likely make it from simplified patent drawing to actual real-world tech.

Some of them undoubtedly will, though. Let's look at what vehicle patents Google has filed so far, and what they tell us about the unusual little self-driving car. 

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Bus Detection

Once again, the universe demonstrates to us that it has a good sense of humor. Google now has a patent on bus detection for autonomous vehicles. 

Google's patent technically outlines how to identify a school bus. The autonomous system would compare the relative sizes of vehicles on the road. Once it found something large enough, the software would check that against the known size of a school bus. The tech would also analyze the color, check for a stop sign, and search for the word "School" on the exterior.

Once the system positively identified the school bus, the software would tell the vehicle to operate more cautiously. It would also be ready for the vehicle's stop sign to deploy and expect a greater number of pedestrians. 

Pothole Detection Network

Potholes are incredibly annoying and can do serious damage to your vehicle's wheels and suspension. Unfortunately, unless you know an area well, there isn't a great way to predict their location until the divot is right in front of you.  Google is aiming to fix the problem with a patent on a surprisingly simple solution to create a roving fleet of pothole reporters.

The system combines a GPS-equipped infotainment system and a vertical movement sensor somewhere on the vehicle. When a driver hits a pothole, the navigation system notes the location and sends the info into the cloud. Based on the amount of vibration on a given street, Google's servers can create a continuously upgrading database of the average road quality and can divert drivers around particularly bad sections when deciding on a route.

While patenting an idea doesn't necessarily mean that it hits the road, this system seems massively beneficial to all drivers. Plus, the concept doesn't seem too hard to implement, either. Google's use for this tech appears obvious, too. Given the company's fleet of autonomous vehicles, being able to route passengers around rough streets could be an especially welcome feature. The tech could go part of the way towards keeping folks in driverless cars from getting motion sickness.

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