US Patent 10576994 Autonomous system operator cognitive state detection and alerting

Autonomous systems, such as vehicles being operated in a self-driving mode, may allow for human occupants to be inattentive to the operation of the system. However, events may occur that require a human user to perform an action. Systems and method are provided that enable an autonomous system to determine whether the system requires, or will require, a user action and whether the user is or is not attentive. If an action is required and the human is not attentive, an alerting protocol is executed to cause the system to perform actions that enable the user to be alerted, such as to enable the, now attentive, user to be able to perform the action.