It seems like Xiaomi autonomous self-driving cars will be a reality soon. Xiaomi is testing out its self-driving cars and keeps updating them with new patented technologies. Although Xiaomi has mentioned that it won’t introduce or refute progress on its upcoming self-driving cars but hey, it is under development and will be introduced in early 2024 as per the timeline available.
One of the latest patents filed by Xiaomi Auto Technology Co., Ltd. takes it a step further as the tech tries to fix one of the issues that self-driving cars face – violating traffic signals.
Titled “Traffic Light Status Recognition Method, Device, Vehicle, and Storage Medium”, the patent talks about how the tech will recognize current traffic light status and take actions accordingly when in an autonomous state.
Xiaomi files patent for traffic light state recognition
Patent documents don’t carry many precise details about tech but rather offer entry-level or even vague descriptions of what companies want to patent. However, Xiaomi’s latest patent is a bit easy to decipher.
The patent docs which relate to the field of self-driving cars, discuss the identification method in use. The tech works by collecting frames of traffic status images in a prespecified time using an image acquisition device which is likely some sort of camera tech.
Further, it fetches the current state timing information, driving state information of the vehicle driving ahead, and the target traffic light image at the moment to find out the current target traffic light state. In simple words, the tech recognized the traffic light state and applies actions to avoid violation of signals that could incur hefty fines and not to forget the expansive damage it can do to others on the road in case an autonomous car bumps or crashes into them. It will further strengthen the safe driving performance of unmanned vehicles which is a win-win situation for all.
Xiaomi chairman Lei Jun mentioned that the tech juggernaut has spent 3.3 billion yuan in the research and development of autonomous cars tech as a part of the first phase with more than 500 people working towards developing the technologies required. The first set of 140 test vehicles from Xiaomi is already under testing phase across the country which should help Xiaomi get crucial data points about real-life driving conditions.
The Chinese giant has already showcased videos of autonomous valet parking and reserved parking spaces among others during the press conference. the said autonomous car from Xiaomi is slated to arrive in early 2024 although we don’t have any other fact date at least at this moment.
