US Patent 9855890 Autonomous vehicle interaction with external environment

Arrangements relate to the interaction between an autonomous vehicle and an external environment of the autonomous vehicle. Such interaction can occur in various ways. For example, a non-verbal human gesture in the external environment can be detected. The non-verbal human gesture can be identified. A future driving maneuver can be determined based on the identified non-verbal human gesture. The autonomous vehicle can be caused to implement the determined future driving maneuver. As another example, the external environment of the autonomous vehicle can be detected to identify a person (e.g. a human pedestrian, a human bicyclist, a human driver or occupant of another vehicle, etc.) therein. The identified person can be located. It can be determined whether the person is potentially related to a future driving maneuver of the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle can be caused to send a directional message to the person.