Skip to main content

Google patents bus detection system

Less than a month after one of its autonomous cars was in collision with a bus, Google has been awarded a patent for a bus detection system, Bus detection for an Autonomous Vehicle. The timing is coincidental, as Google is said to have applied for the patent in 2014. The patent, which focuses on school buses, describes the technology which should enable Google’s autonomous vehicles to recognise a large vehicle, compare it to known school bus sizes and colours and determine whether it is ‘representativ
March 18, 2016 Read time: 1 min
Less than a month after one of its autonomous cars was in collision with a bus, Google has been awarded a patent for a bus detection system, Bus detection for an Autonomous Vehicle.

The timing is coincidental, as Google is said to have applied for the patent in 2014.

The patent, which focuses on school buses, describes the technology which should enable Google’s autonomous vehicles to recognise a large vehicle, compare it to known school bus sizes and colours and determine whether it is ‘representative of a school bus’.

Related Content

  • January 30, 2012
    Bus service data, better journey planning, better information
    Chris Gibbard and Paul Drummond of Transport Direct on developments in Great Britain in the electronic transfer of bus service data. Great Britain has a dynamic bus market which permits a bus operator to initiate or alter commercial routes by giving a minimum of eight weeks' notice to a registrar (the Traffic Commissioner). A Local Transport Authority (LTA) neither specifies nor determines such services. In addition to commercial bus routes, an LTA will tender and contract for the operation of those additio
  • May 4, 2012
    Bus lane enforcement reduces costs, journey times
    The Southcote Lane site in the UK town of Reading is a notorious shortcut for motorists travelling into the town centre. The resultant congestion at the end of the bus lane, when motorists tried to re-enter the main traffic flow, caused congestion and disruption to bus timetables. Reading Borough Council wanted a cost-efficient, effective solution to accurately capture bus lane violations and improve bus travel times. Reading became the first local authority in the UK to deploy Siemens's LaneHawk fully auto
  • March 2, 2022
    Want intelligent transit? Then share data
    How will the US deploy intelligent transit networks that enable connected vehicles? Data sharing is crucial if urban mobility users are to benefit, explains Timothy Menard of Lyt
  • February 3, 2012
    Plate matching technology more accurate than conventional OCR
    EngiNe srl's patented Plate Matching technique is something of a paradox, in that it achieves formal vehicle identification without recognising, in the accepted sense, the characters on its number plate. Here, Angelo Dionisi of ENG Group explains how it works