Amazon Car Might Be Coming If Vehicular Guidance Patent Is Any Indication

It seems every major company wants a piece of the autonomous car action these days, with the latest to join the bandwagon being Amazon. The online retail giant recently got granted a patent related to guidance systems pertaining to shifting lanes. A lot of people are already taking this as a hint that an Amazon car might be on the way, or at least, a car that will rely on autonomous driving technology developed by Amazon.

The patent that was granted to Amazon by the US Patent and Trademark Office involves a system that will provide autonomous vehicles with information related to roads with reversible lanes, CNET reports. It would basically involve a central system that will manage information over roads in order to help autonomous vehicles decide on which lanes are best for them long before the car ever comes into visual range.

This type of technology could have a considerable impact on the field of autonomous driving as a whole since it could significantly boost the capability of every single driverless car in development if the technologies are compatible. Numerous companies have actually expressed interest in this kind of vehicle-to-infrastructure communication and Amazon seems to understand its importance all too clearly.

On that note, this is all just conjecture at this point since the patent details contain no information on what the technology will be used for, Forbes reports. Amazon hasn’t said anything to confirm or deny that it is planning on entering the driverless car market as well.

With regards to driverless vehicles already on the road, highways are considered less of a problem compared to areas with denser traffic and with considerably more obstacles. Even so, the matter of reversible lanes is an issue worth looking at, which Amazon’s patent filing might actually address if it leads anywhere.