Mechanism
The marker-track transport primitive admits parameterization across a plurality of operator classes and vehicle form factors. A single marker-track infrastructure serves all operator classes concurrently, with per-segment governance specifying the permitted vehicle classes and operational parameters for each segment. The architectural distinction between freight, passenger, personal, transit, delivery, ride-sharing, and emergency operator classes is a governance-policy configuration choice rather than a different underlying architecture.
The disclosed operator classes include, without limitation: autonomous freight pods operating under freight authority with commercial freight parameters including payload handling, freight-corridor permits, and commercial-operation compliance; autonomous passenger pods on marker-equipped transit corridors operating under transit authority with passenger-specific parameters including comfort envelope, accessibility requirements, boarding coordination, and fare settlement; self-driving personal vehicles equipped with marker-track readers operating under personal-agent-authorized governance with owner-defined routing preferences and operator-class-appropriate parameters; transit buses operating on marker-guided express lanes under transit authority with scheduled operation, passenger-stop coordination, and priority-signaling integration; ride-sharing and mobility-as-a-service vehicles operating under fleet-operator authority with per-ride matched-pair settlement; delivery vehicles operating under delivery-fleet authority with package-handoff coordination; emergency-response vehicles operating under emergency-authority credentials with priority routing and infrastructure-agent preemption; and specialized vehicles such as construction equipment, maintenance vehicles, and survey vehicles operating under specialized-operator authority with application-specific parameters.
The disclosure further admits mixed-mode vehicles operating under the currently-loaded governance policy and authority credential, producing operator-class transitions without physical modification. Because operator class is a governance-policy configuration, the same architectural mechanism handles each class; the parameters that apply on a given segment are determined by that segment's governance rather than by a per-class stack.
Per-segment authority evaluation verifies each segment's authority credential against the unit's operator class and authority credentials during route-manifest construction. A unit whose operator class is not permitted on a segment is not admitted to that segment, and admissibility is evaluated through the composite admissibility evaluator applied to candidate route manifests prior to departure.
Operating Parameters
Passenger-carrying classes extend the marker-track primitive with passenger-specific governance parameters. These include comfort envelopes specifying maximum longitudinal and lateral acceleration per passenger-carrying modality; accessibility requirements including compliance-aligned boarding access, wheelchair accommodation, and assistance-requested handling; route-privacy governance permitting unit routing without disclosing individual passenger destinations to third-party observers; fare settlement through matched-pair commerce; passenger personal-agent binding for trip lineage; emergency-evacuation procedures distinct from freight emergency handling; and passenger-in-distress detection with governance-coordinated response. Freight classes by contrast carry parameters such as payload handling, freight-corridor permits, and commercial-operation compliance.
Each segment's governance specifies the permitted vehicle classes and the operational parameters that apply on that segment. A unit operates within the segment's governed speed envelope, lane assignment, and regulatory overlay, and the parameters are read from the governance-credentialed marker sequence rather than from a per-class implementation.
Heterogeneous-unit composition is admitted within platoons, which may include mixed operator classes such as freight pods, passenger pods, personal vehicles, transit buses, and delivery vehicles, subject to governance-policy-defined mixed-class compatibility. This produces shared infrastructure utilization across operator classes while preserving per-class operational parameters.
Operator-class deployments carry per-deployment governance-policy parameterization varying the operator class, with the operational parameters themselves governance-policy-configurable. A unit may transition operator class through reload of governance policy and authority credential rather than through physical modification.
Alternative Embodiments
In one embodiment, specialized vehicles such as construction equipment, maintenance vehicles, and survey vehicles operate as their own operator class under specialized-operator authority with application-specific parameters. Such a class follows the same parameterization discipline as the other operator classes: it operates under governance policy and an authority credential, and its operational parameters are governance-policy-configurable rather than coded into a dedicated stack.
In another embodiment, a mixed-mode vehicle operates under the currently-loaded governance policy and authority credential, producing operator-class transitions without physical modification. The vehicle's operative class is whichever governance policy and credential it currently holds.
In a third embodiment, platoons admit heterogeneous-unit composition, including mixed operator classes such as freight pods, passenger pods, personal vehicles, transit buses, and delivery vehicles, subject to governance-policy-defined mixed-class compatibility. The platoon preserves per-class operational parameters while sharing the same infrastructure.
In a fourth embodiment, intermodal integration admits cross-mode handoffs through governance-credentialed intermodal-transfer markers, producing cargo, passenger, or container handoffs between road-marker-track units and rail, ship, or air freight modes. Cross-mode authority-taxonomy translation enables handoffs between governance authorities without requiring authorities to adopt one another's taxonomies.
In a fifth embodiment, operation remains continuous across mixed marker-track infrastructure through progressive-density operational control and governed fallback. On unmarked segments, the unit operates as a governance-credentialed autonomous unit per the applicable operator-class governance with sensor-primary navigation and governed-conservative parameters until marker coverage resumes.
Composition
A marker carries a plurality of attributes, including a marker identifier; an authority credential of the authorizing freight-track, transit, or transport authority; a governance-policy-defined topology payload; a marker-precision characterization indicating the position-reference precision the marker provides; a temporal-validity specification including issuance timestamp and governance-policy-defined expiration; a cryptographic integrity attestation supporting marker-read authenticity evaluation; a revision-version indicator supporting governance-chain-preserving marker updates; and a marker-lineage reference supporting provenance reconstruction of the marker's authorization. Linear-segment markers encode segment geometry including curvature, grade, speed envelope, lane assignment, and the permitted vehicle classes for the segment.
A route-manifest constructor produces an authorized-route manifest for a unit's origin-to-destination path through governance-policy-configurable composition across one or more authority-credentialed track segments. The constructor retrieves applicable track topology from the shared view, verifies each segment's authority credential against the unit's operator class and authority credentials, composes segments across multiple authorities subject to governance-policy-defined cross-authority compatibility, and applies the composite admissibility evaluator to candidate route manifests before emitting the manifest as a governance-credentialed observation.
The authority credential on each marker binds the authorizing authority to the topology payload, and marker-read admissibility verifies the marker's authority credential against the governance chain. A unit whose operator class is not among a segment's permitted vehicle classes is not admitted to that segment, and admissibility is evaluated prior to departure rather than only at audit.
Route manifests carry lineage linking the manifest to each contributing topology segment, each credentialing authority, and the governance-policy version applied to manifest construction. The route is admissible only when each segment is admissible under per-segment authority evaluation, and route-manifest consumption at downstream operation is governance-chain-preserving with each consumption event recorded in lineage.
Prior-Art Posture
Prior autonomous-vehicle services operate without regulator-reviewed per-segment approval, whereas the present primitive produces segment-by-segment governance-credentialed authorization admitting regulatory review prior to deployment. Operator class is expressed as governance configuration on each segment rather than as a property of a dedicated per-vehicle stack.
The present primitive integrates a shared infrastructure serving freight, passenger, transit, ride-sharing, delivery, and emergency-response operator classes through unified governance parameterization, and supports all operator classes through a single architectural mechanism. Prior architectures do not integrate these operator classes through one parameterized infrastructure in this manner.
Prior rail freight and passenger systems require dedicated right-of-way, dedicated track construction, and dedicated rolling stock, whereas the present primitive provides rail-analogous properties on existing public infrastructure. The architectural distinction between operator classes is a governance-policy configuration choice rather than a different underlying architecture.
Prior architectures do not support cross-authority route composition spanning multiple jurisdictional authorities, whereas the present primitive composes route segments credentialed by different authorities and verifies each segment's authority credential against the unit's operator class during route-manifest construction.
Disclosure Scope
This article describes subject matter disclosed in U.S. Provisional Application No. 64/049,409. The disclosure encompasses: the parameterization of the marker-track transport primitive across a plurality of operator classes and vehicle form factors; the enumeration of operator classes including freight, passenger, personal, transit, ride-sharing and mobility-as-a-service, delivery, emergency-response, and specialized vehicles; per-segment governance specifying permitted vehicle classes and operational parameters; passenger-specific governance parameters extending the primitive; mixed-mode operator-class transition through reload of governance policy and authority credential; heterogeneous-unit platoon composition across operator classes; and intermodal handoffs across modes. The architectural distinction between operator classes is a governance-policy configuration choice rather than a different underlying architecture, producing shared infrastructure utilization across operator classes while preserving per-class operational parameters. The specific claims that issue will be determined during prosecution.
