US Patent 10146226 Autonomous vehicle sequential railcar loading and alignment

Method and apparatus are disclosed for autonomous vehicle sequential car loading and alignment. A vehicle comprising a wireless communication module and a processor. The processor determines whether the vehicle will fit inside a string of railcars based on capacity and dimension data received from the railcars. When the vehicle fits, the processor autonomously navigates the vehicle to a farthest available space on the string of railcars, and positions the vehicle within the space to satisfy spacing requirements.