End of journey street parking guidance

• US 10,140,864 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2017
• Issued: 11/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Chowanic, Andrea Bowes
• Primary Examiner(s): King, Curtis
• Application Number:
  US15/499,250
• Publication Number:
  US 20180315311A1
• Time in Patent Office: 579 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/30 Map- or contour-matching
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096866 where the complete route is shown to the driver
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/143 inside the vehicles

Abstract

A parking server is queried for parking data descriptive of locations of available on-street parking spots. On a map indicating a current location of a vehicle and an upcoming intersection to be traversed by the vehicle, a depiction of parking availability is overlaid, indicating, for each leg of the intersection, a number of on-street parking spots available down the respective leg according to the parking data.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a memory storing parking data; and

a processor of a vehicle programmed to

display, to a screen, a map including a current location of the vehicle and an upcoming intersection to be traversed by the vehicle, and

responsive to the vehicle being within a predefined number of intersections to a navigation destination of a route displayed to the map, initiate overlay, on the map, of a depiction of parking availability indicating, for each leg of the intersection, a number of on-street parking spots available down the respective leg according to the parking data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the depiction of the parking availability includes a first arrow pointing down a first leg of the intersection including a numeral specifying a number of on-street parking spots available down the first leg, and a second arrow pointing down a second leg of the intersection including a numeral specifying a number of on-street parking spots available down the second leg.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the depiction of the parking availability includes a third arrow pointing down a third leg of the intersection including a numeral specifying a number of on-street parking spots available down the third leg.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the depiction of the parking availability indicates a no symbol overlaid on the number of parking spots available down the respective leg when the leg is a wrong way direction for the vehicle.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the number of on-street parking spots indicates a number of spots available down the respective leg until a next intersection.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the number of on-street parking spots indicates a number of spots available down the respective leg within a predefined maximum distance threshold.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to:

query a parking server for updated parking data; and

overlay, on the map, an indication of when the updated parking data was received from the parking server.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to initiate display of the depiction of parking availability responsive to determining that the vehicle is within a predefined distance to a navigation destination of a route displayed to the map.

9. A method comprising:

overlaying, responsive to a vehicle being within a predefined number of intersections to a route destination, on a map indicating a current location of the vehicle and an upcoming intersection to be traversed by the vehicle, a depiction of parking availability indicating, for each leg of the intersection, a number of on-street parking spots available down the respective leg according to server-queried parking data descriptive of locations of available on-street parking.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the number of on-street parking spots indicates a number of spots available down the respective leg until a next intersection.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the number of on-street parking spots indicates a number of spots available down the respective leg within a predefined maximum distance threshold.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

querying a parking server for updated parking data; and

overlaying, on the map, an indication of when the updated parking data was received from the parking server.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising initiating display of the depiction of parking availability responsive to determining that the vehicle is within a predefined distance to a navigation destination of a route displayed to the map.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions of a navigation application that, when executed by a processor of a vehicle computing system, cause the processor to responsive to a vehicle being within a predefined number of intersections to a route destination, overlay, on a map indicating a current location of a vehicle and an upcoming intersection to be traversed by the vehicle, a depiction of parking availability indicating, for each leg of the intersection, an availability on-street parking spots available down the respective leg according to the parking data.

15. The medium of claim 14, wherein the availability indicates a number of on-street parking spots available down the respective leg according to the parking data.

16. The medium of claim 14, wherein the availability indicates a first representation when at least a predefined number of parking spots are available down the respective leg according to the parking data, and a second representation otherwise.