US Patent 10114374 Emergency handling system for an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV)

Described is a system and method for providing an autonomous driving control mechanism in response to an emergency handling event using an emergency (or backup) control system. For example, in certain conditions such as a hardware or software failure, proper functioning of an autonomous driving control system may become compromised. Accordingly, the system may switch to an emergency decision system to continue to provide autonomous driving control functionality. In addition, the emergency decision system may switch to rules and/or a decision algorithm that prioritizes collision avoidance or safety concerns such as injury or fatality prevention in response to the emergency handling event.