METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AUTONOMOUS FLEET HANDLING USING BROADCAST GUIDANCE

A server may determine that two-way communication to a plurality of autonomous vehicles has been lost, during conditions suitable for using the autonomous vehicles for evacuation. The server may also determine evacuation points and determine a geographic perimeter around each evacuation point, the perimeter projected to encompass sufficient vehicles to service the evacuation point based on determined evacuation needs of a given evacuation point. Further, the server may formulate an evacuation instruction for each evacuation point, each instruction having one or more parameters, including at least the geographic perimeter corresponding to a given evacuation point, wherein a given evacuation instruction instructs vehicles executing the instruction to travel to the corresponding evacuation point. The server additionally may instruct broadcast of one or more of the evacuation instructions from an ATSC transmitter known to cover a geographic region including at least a portion of the geographic perimeter of each evacuation instruction transmitted.