Lyft Patents applications betray greater emphasis

Every now and then we set out on a hunt for juicy patent, ones that would hopefully make the most out of Reality Technologies. Browsing the endless patent applications, we stumbled upon a few particularly interesting inventions from Lyft. Namely, Lyft patents look on to implement VR into real-time user experience. The car company is apparently serious about its AR/VR ventures.

VR application in car industry is no news. But where some manufacturers see opportunity to improve on manufacturing itself, Lyft sees ways to enhance driver experience. Various different VR-related patent applications have come out and shed light on a future Lyft Virtual Reality system. If the recent acquisition of Blue Vision Labs signify an idea, these patents mark out the map.

The most practical of these Lyft patents was filled in July last year. The patent graphs depict an Augmented Reality system that is designed to aid the driver master the roads. The overlay images are based on historical data and advanced calculations to present the best driving solution. An example shows AR data related to pick-up and drop-off routines, in both cases AR running the show in advising the best possible respective locations. The calculation include such variables as traffic and weather conditions, prior actions, or any transportation restrictions in the area.

Likewise, one of the more eye-catching Lyft patents bears the name of Virtual Reality Transportation Experience. Behind the lucrative name lies a fairly simple idea – a system that tracks a vehicle's historical driving data and predicts the future patterns. The vehicle would then play out those virtual patterns.

‘The Virtual Reality Transportation System', the patent description goes, ‘accesses the historical information for each maneuver along the route and identifies previous inertial forces that transportation vehicles have experienced in the past for the same turns, merges, stops, etc.'. The description later explains that the gathered data helps ‘predict' the future ‘inertial forces'. This is where Virtual Reality comes into play – the ability to play out these predictions. Meant strictly for entertainment, these can range from comparably mild scenarios and all the way up to collision simulations.

Pulling the strings of both Lyft patents is the idea of sharing. As noted numerous times, Lyft puts high emphasis on collaborative Virtual and Augmented Reality. The aforementioned acquisition of Blue Vision Labs was precisely to boost the self-driving, collaborative VR efforts. One could imagine how the idea of sharing ties into both patents described above.

There are a few more Lyft patents that if not deserving much attention, vouchsafe at least a brief mention. We have settled on a virtual game sporting flying saucers. It goes to show that Lyft is concerned about on-ride entertainment as well as enhancing the ride itself. but back to the the duo of more genuine VR/AR attempts – though these Lyft patents would not in any way revolutionize driving as such, they would serve a welcome addition.