Personalize self-driving cars

Abstract

A method to personalize the operation of a self-driving automobile is disclosed that improves the applicability and user appreciation of a self-driving automobile by acquiring and applying the user preference data set and the user profile data set, incorporating individual user choice of preferred driving behaviors on different scenarios and user preferred driving styles, and/or the moral or ethics into the control of the automobile operation.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of personalizing a self-driving car comprising a robot of the car conducting steps of identifying a user; acquiring the user preference data set and/or the user profile data set; acquiring the preferred driving styles, and/or the moral or ethics traits of the user; and applying the user preference data set and/or the preferred driving style and/or the moral or ethics traits of the user in operating the car. 
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein acquiring the user preference data set comprising the robot identifying a user; presenting a collection of roadway and traffic conditions scenarios one by one, inviting the user inputting his or her choices on a preferred handling behavior, and inputting the scenario/choice pairs in an entry of the user preference data set through an interactive initialization process between the robot and the user at the time of purchasing or requesting the service of the car; or by receiving a previously acquired user preference data set of the user and confirming or updating the acquired data prior to or at the time of the self-driving being used in a public roadway. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein acquiring the user profile data set comprising the robot identifying a user; acquiring personal information provided by the user through an interactive interface between the robot and the user and/or by researching the public records through a wireless communication system or an electronic media device, or through receiving the user profile data set through a wireless communication system or an electronic media device. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein acquiring the preferred driving styles, and/or the moral or ethics traits of the user comprising extracting the preferred driving styles, and/or the moral or ethics traits of the user from the acquired user preference data set and/or the user profile data set or receiving the extracted preferred driving styles, and/or the moral or ethics traits of the user. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the collection of roadway and traffic conditions scenarios are categorized into segments comprising the blinking zone, the emergency zone and the cruise zone based on the estimated response time of the car to roadway or traffic scenarios. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein applying the user preference data set and/or the preferred driving style and/or the moral or ethics traits of the user in operating the self-driving car comprising restraining the operating to be lawful; finding a closest match between a current scenario and a scenario used in the collection for acquisition of the user preference data set, and applying the user preference data operating the car if a match being found close enough; generating a suggestion how to handle a scenario based on the user preferred driving style and/or the moral or ethics traits if a close enough match not found, and achieving an optimal solution by considering the suggestion together with other options generated by AI control subsystem. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user preference data set and/or the preferred driving style and/or the moral or ethics traits comprising the data sets of one of the users riding the car, or of a designated user not riding the car or the factory settings. 
     
     
         8 . (canceled) 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the user inputting his or her choice on a preferred handling behavior on a roadway and traffic conditions scenario comprising selecting an answer among multiple choices or answering to a yes or no question or entering a numeric value within a normalized range, indicating a percentage degree of a consent or discontent to a answer. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the personalizing continues during the driving, comprising the robot executing guidance from a user in operation of the car and updating the user preference data set by the roadway and traffic scenario/guidance data pairs, through interactions between the robot and the user over roadway and traffic scenarios. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the personalizing continues during the driving, comprising the robot automatically detecting and analyzing the facial and/or body languages of a user reflecting his or her sentiment to the behaviors of the car; tuning the operations of the car; extracting the user profile data and updating the user profile data set.