Roadside service estimates based on wireless vehicle data

• US 10,423,971 B2
• Filed: 05/19/2016
• Issued: 09/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2016
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Bansal, Gaurav, Lu, Hongsheng, Kenney, John, Nakanishi, Toru
• Primary Examiner(s): Yesildag, Mehmet
• Application Number:
  US15/159,391
• Publication Number:
  US 20170337571A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,223 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• 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

The disclosure includes implementations for providing a recommendation to a driver of a second DSRC-equipped vehicle. The recommendation may describe an estimate of how long it would take the second DSRC-equipped vehicle to receive a roadside service from a drive-through business. A method according to some implementations may include receiving, by the second DSRC-equipped vehicle, a Dedicated Short Range Communication message (“DSRC message”) that includes path history data. The path history data may describe a path of a first DSRC-equipped vehicle over a plurality of different times while the first DSRC-equipped vehicle is located in a queue of the drive-through business. The method may include determining delay time data for the second DSRC-equipped vehicle based on the path history data for the first DSRC-equipped vehicle. The delay time data may describe the estimate. The method may include providing the recommendation to the driver. The recommendation may include the estimate.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

building, by a first Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC)-equipped vehicle, path history data, wherein the path history data includes global positioning system (GPS) data that is provided by a DSRC-compliant GPS unit, and the GPS data describes the first DSRC-equipped vehicle in a queue of a drive-through business that provides a roadside service based on the GPS data describing a location of the first DSRC-equipped vehicle;

receiving, by a second DSRC-equipped vehicle, a DSRC message that includes the path history data;

determining, by the second DSRC-equipped vehicle, delay time data based on the path history data included in the DSRC message, wherein the delay time data describes an estimate of how long it would take the second DSRC-equipped vehicle to receive the roadside service from the drive-through business;

providing, by the second DSRC-equipped vehicle, a user interface that describes a set of drive-through businesses, the set of drive-through businesses including the drive-through business and a recommendation that describes the estimate of how long it would take the second DSRC-equipped vehicle to receive the roadside service from each business in the set of drive-through businesses;

receiving a selection of the roadside service from the drive-through business; and

responsive to receiving the selection of the roadside service, updating the user interface to provide navigation instructions to the roadside service for the drive-through business.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the DSRC message is a basic safety message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the DSRC-compliant GPS unit is part of a sensor set included in the first DSRC-equipped vehicle that generates sensor data that describes a plurality of locations of the first DSRC-equipped vehicle at a plurality of different times.

4. A method comprising:

receiving, by a second Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC)-equipped vehicle, a DSRC message that includes path history data, wherein the path history data includes global positioning system (GPS) data that is provided by a DSRC-compliant GPS unit and the GPS data describes a first DSRC-equipped vehicle in a queue of a drive-through business that provides a roadside service based on the GPS data describing a location of the first DSRC-equipped vehicle;

determining, by the second DSRC-equipped vehicle, delay time data based on the path history data included in the DSRC message, wherein the delay time data describes an estimate of how long it would take the second DSRC-equipped vehicle to receive the roadside service from the drive-through business;

providing, by the second DSRC-equipped vehicle, a user interface that describes a set of drive-through businesses, the set of drive-through businesses including the drive-through business and a recommendation that describes the estimate of how long it would take the second DSRC-equipped vehicle to receive the roadside service from each business in the set of drive-through businesses;

receiving a selection of the roadside service from the drive-through business; and

responsive to receiving the selection of the roadside service, updating the user interface to provide navigation instructions to the roadside service for the drive-through business.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the DSRC message is a basic safety message.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

modifying, by the second DSRC-equipped vehicle, based on the delay time data, an operation of a navigation system; and

responsive to receiving a selection of the roadside service, providing navigation instructions to the roadside service and an update to the estimate of how long it would take the second DSRC-equipped vehicle to receive the roadside service from the drive-through business.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the location of the first DSRC-equipped vehicle has an accuracy of within plus or minus 1.5 meters.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the DSRC message is transmitted by the first DSRC-equipped vehicle.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the DSRC message is transmitted by a stationary DSRC-enabled communication device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the stationary DSRC-enabled communication device is installed within 1,000 meters of the location of the first DSRC-equipped vehicle while the first DSRC-equipped vehicle is present in the queue; and

the stationary DSRC-enabled communication device wirelessly receives the path history data from the first DSRC-equipped vehicle via DSRC communication between the stationary DSRC-enabled communication device and the first DSRC-equipped vehicle.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the delay time data based on the path history data included in the DSRC message further comprises:

determining how long the first DSRC-equipped vehicle has been waiting in the queue;

determining how far the first DSRC-equipped vehicle has traveled while waiting in the queue;

estimating how many vehicles are ahead of the first DSRC-equipped vehicle in the queue;

estimating how many vehicles are behind the first DSRC-equipped vehicle in the queue; and

determining how long it would take the second DSRC-equipped vehicle to receive the roadside service from the drive-through business based on one or more of (1) how long the first DSRC-equipped vehicle has been waiting in the queue, (2) how far the first DSRC-equipped vehicle has traveled while waiting in the queue, (3) how many vehicles are ahead of the first DSRC-equipped vehicle in the queue and (4) how many vehicles are behind the first DSRC-equipped vehicle in the queue.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein the path history data further describes (1) how long the first DSRC-equipped vehicle has been waiting in the queue, (2) how far the first DSRC-equipped vehicle has traveled while waiting in the queue, (3) a first estimate of how many vehicles are ahead of the first DSRC-equipped vehicle in the queue and (4) a second estimate of how many vehicles are behind the first DSRC-equipped vehicle in the queue.

13. The method of claim 4, wherein the path history data in the DSRC message is aggregated to include the path of the first DSRC-equipped vehicle and paths associated with other DSRC-equipped vehicles.

14. The method of claim 4, wherein the estimate of how long it would take the second DSRC-equipped vehicle to receive the roadside service from the drive-through business is based on:

receiving one or more external images captured by one or more cameras on the second DSRC-equipped vehicle; and

determining how many other vehicles are ahead of the second DSRC-equipped vehicle and how many other vehicles are behind the second DSRC-equipped vehicle based on the one or more external images.

15. The method of claim 4, wherein providing the recommendation includes causing a speaker to generate audio that audibly describes the recommendation.

16. A system comprising:

a Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) receiver of a second DSRC-equipped vehicle that is operable to receive a DSRC message that includes path history data, wherein the path history data includes global positioning system (GPS) data that is provided by a DSRC-compliant GPS unit and the GPS data describes a first DSRC-equipped vehicle in a queue of a drive-through business that provides a roadside service based on the GPS data describing a location of the first DSRC-equipped vehicle; and

an onboard vehicle computer system of the second DSRC-equipped vehicle that is communicatively coupled to the DSRC receiver to receive the path history data from the DSRC receiver, the onboard vehicle computer system including a non-transitory memory storing computer code which, when executed by the onboard vehicle computer system causes the onboard vehicle computer system to;

determine delay time data based on the path history data, wherein the delay time data describes an estimate of how long it would take the second DSRC-equipped vehicle to receive the roadside service from the drive-through business;

provide a user interface that describes a set of drive-through businesses, the set of drive-through businesses including the drive-through business and a recommendation that describes the estimate of how long it would take the second DSRC-equipped vehicle to receive the roadside service from each business in the set of drive-through businesses;

receive a selection of the roadside service from the drive-through business; and

responsive to receiving the selection of the roadside service, update the user interface to provide navigation instructions to the roadside service for the drive-through business.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the DSRC message is a basic safety message.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the system is further operable to:

an update to the estimate of how long it would take the second DSRC-equipped vehicle to receive the roadside service from the drive-through business.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the location of the first DSRC-equipped vehicle has an accuracy of within plus or minus 1.5 meters.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the DSRC message is transmitted by the first DSRC-equipped vehicle.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the DSRC message is transmitted by a stationary DSRC-enabled communication device.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein:

the stationary DSRC-enabled communication device is installed within 1,000 meters of the location of the first DSRC-equipped vehicle while the first DSRC-equipped vehicle is present in the queue; and

the stationary DSRC-enabled communication device wirelessly receives the path history data from the first DSRC-equipped vehicle via DSRC communication between the stationary DSRC-enabled communication device and the first DSRC-equipped vehicle.