ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 7 -- United States Patent no. 12,596,013, issued on April 7, was assigned to ROBERT BOSCH GMBH (Stuttgart, Germany).

"Method and device for creating a digital map and for operating an automated vehicle" was invented by Andre Wagner (Hannover, Germany), Erik Einhorn (Sarstedt, Germany), Julian Lindner (Hannover, Germany), Matthias Roland (Hildesheim, Germany), Maurice Seer (Elze, Germany), Nicolas Fischer (Hannover, Germany), Pierre Lothe (Hildesheim, Germany) and Tobias Ritter (Hildesheim, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method and first device for creating a digital map. The digital map represents at least one region along a traffic route. A method and second ...