Patent 10569721 was granted and assigned to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America on February, 2020 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A roof apparatus for an autonomous hardtop vehicle is described. The apparatus includes a vehicle roof having an opening for a sunroof and a roof cover that encloses sensor devices. The roof apparatus is mounted from the underside of the vehicle roof at the position for mounting a sunroof. The sensors include an array of cameras having a field of view of the full width of the vehicle in at least the front of the vehicle. The height of the roof cover above the vehicle roof is a minimal height to accommodate the height of the cameras.