ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,441,187, issued on Oct. 14, was assigned to Rivian IP Holdings LLC (Plymouth, Mich.).
"Vehicle spotter drone" was invented by Charles Sanderson (Newport Beach, Calif.), Vivek Vaid (Mountain View, Calif.) and Quentin Spottiswoode (Horsham, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A visual guidance system may include a drone having a sensor. The drone may be configured to autonomously position the sensor outside a vehicle with a line of sight to a current path of the vehicle to collect path data. The visual guidance system may also include a controller in communication with the sensor and configured to provide visual guidance to a vehi...