Tracking hit and run perpetrators using V2X communication

• US 10,089,869 B1
• Filed: 05/25/2017
• Issued: 10/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Makled, Daniel A., McQuillen, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Lau, Hoi
• Application Number:
  US15/605,551
• Time in Patent Office: 495 Days
• Field of Search: 34053913, 340436, 340989, 340935, 340905, 348148, 705305, 705 1466, 701 1, 701 334, 701 36
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/091 Traffic information broadcasting broadcasting communication H04H
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Method and apparatus are disclosed for tracking hit and run perpetrators using V2X communication. An example host vehicle includes a first hardware module and a second hardware module. The first hardware module detects a collision with a target vehicle, and determines whether the collision is a hit-and-run event. The second hardware module collects identifying information of the target vehicle, and when the collision is the hit-and-run event, broadcasts a message including the identifying information and a cascade duration.

Claims

1. A host vehicle comprising:

a first hardware module to;

detect a collision with a target vehicle; and

determine whether the collision is a hit-and-run event; and

a second hardware module to;

collect identifying information of the target vehicle; and

when the collision is the hit-and-run event, broadcast to other vehicles within range a message including the identifying information and a cascade duration specifying a number of times the message is to be rebroadcast.

2. The host vehicle of claim 1, wherein to determine whether the collision is the hit-and-run event, the first hardware module is to:

in response to detecting the collision, set a timer to track an amount of time;

monitor a location of the target vehicle; and

when the target vehicle is a threshold distance away from the host vehicle before the amount of time reaches a threshold amount of time, determine that the collision is the hit-and-run event.

3. The host vehicle of claim 2, wherein to monitor the location of the target vehicle, the first hardware module is to determine the location of the target vehicle based on messages broadcast by the target vehicle.

4. The host vehicle of claim 2, wherein to monitor the location of the target vehicle, the first hardware module is to determine the location of the target vehicle based measurements of sensors of the host vehicle.

5. The host vehicle of claim 1, wherein to collect the identifying information of the target vehicle, the second hardware module is to collect the identifying information based on messages broadcast by the target vehicle.

6. The host vehicle of claim 1, wherein to collect the identifying information of the target vehicle, the second hardware module is to determine a license plate number of the target vehicle based on license plate recognition.

7. The host vehicle of claim 1, wherein to collect the identifying information of the target vehicle, the second hardware module is to determine a make, model and color of the target vehicle based on image recognition.

8. A method comprising:

detecting, at a first vehicle, a hit-and-run event involving the first vehicle and a target vehicle;

broadcasting, at the first vehicle, a message including identifying information of the target vehicle and a cascade duration;

in response to receiving the message, determining, at a second vehicle, whether the target vehicle is in a vicinity of the second vehicle;

when the target vehicle is in the vicinity of the second vehicle, collect, at the second vehicle, tracking information of the target vehicle.

9. The method of claim 8, including detecting, at the first vehicle, a collision with the target vehicle.

10. The method of claim 9, including:

in response to detecting the collision, setting a timer;

monitoring a location of the target vehicle; and

when the target vehicle is a threshold distance away from the first vehicle before a threshold amount of time, determining that the collision is the hit-and-run event.

11. The method of claim 8, including, when the target vehicle is in the vicinity of the second vehicle, at the second vehicle:

determining whether the cascade duration is greater than a threshold; and

when the cascade duration is greater than the threshold, decrementing the cascade duration, and broadcasting the message.

12. The method of claim 8, including, when the target vehicle is in the vicinity of the second vehicle, at the second vehicle:

increasing the cascade duration;

appending the tracking information and a location of the second vehicle to the message; and

broadcasting the message.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the tracking information includes at least one of an image of the target vehicle, coordinates of the target vehicle obtained from a safety message broadcast by the target vehicle, and a trajectory of the target vehicle.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein determining whether the target vehicle is in the vicinity of the second vehicle includes comparing a first license plate number in the identifying information of the message to a second license plate number obtained by a camera of the second vehicle.