Method and system for vehicular-related communications

• US 10,559,196 B2
• Filed: 10/22/2018
• Issued: 02/11/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Credit Karma LLC (Intuit, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Zendrive, Inc.
• Inventors: Matus, Jonathan A., Risbood, Pankaj
• Primary Examiner(s): To, Tuan C
• Application Number:
  US16/166,895
• Publication Number:
  US 20190122543A1
• Time in Patent Office: 477 Days
• Field of Search: 701117
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station

Abstract

A method for improving vehicular traffic-related communications between devices including: collecting a first movement dataset corresponding to a sensor of a device arranged within a vehicle; collecting a supplementary dataset from the device; transmitting the movement dataset and supplementary dataset from the device to a remote computing system; determining a traffic-related event based upon processing the movement dataset and supplementary dataset with a traffic event model; and transmitting a traffic-related communication from the remote computing system to a second device associated with a second user arranged in a second vehicle.

Claims

1. A method for improving vehicular traffic-related communications between devices comprising:

collecting a first movement dataset corresponding to at least one of a location sensor and a motion sensor of a first device arranged within a first vehicle, wherein the first movement dataset is associated with position, velocity, and acceleration (PVA) of the first vehicle;

collecting a supplementary dataset from the first device, wherein the first device is associated with a first user;

transmitting the movement dataset and supplementary dataset from the first device to a remote computing system;

determining, at the remote computing system, a traffic-related event based upon processing the movement dataset and supplementary dataset with a traffic event model;

dynamically determining, at the remote computing system, a mobile region of interest based on the supplementary data and the movement dataset, wherein the region of interest contains the first device; and

in response to determining the traffic-related event, transmitting a traffic-related communication from the remote computing system to a second device associated with a second user arranged in a second vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplementary dataset comprises traffic congestion data associated with a geographic location of the first vehicle.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising transmitting the first movement dataset to remote computing system in response to an acceleration of the first vehicle exceeding a threshold, wherein the threshold is dynamically computed in real-time at the first device based on a velocity of the first vehicle and the traffic data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting a second movement dataset corresponding to at least one of a second location sensor and a second motion sensor of the second device, wherein the second movement dataset is associated with PVA of the second vehicle, and generating a labeled observation associated with the traffic-related communication based on the second movement dataset.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising updating the traffic event model based on the labeled observation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote computing system comprises a network infrastructure component defining a fixed geographic location, wherein the network infrastructure component executes the traffic event model, and wherein the second device is located within a predetermined range of the fixed geographic location.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the traffic-related communication includes the region of interest.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising providing an alert to the second user at an output of the second device in response to determining, at the second device, that the second device is located within the region of interest.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising providing an alert to the second user at an output of the second device in response to determining, at the second device, that a planned route of the second vehicle intersects the region of interest.

10. A method for improving vehicular traffic-related communications between devices comprising:

collecting a first movement dataset corresponding to at least one of a first location sensor and a first motion sensor of a first device arranged within a first vehicle, wherein the movement dataset is associated with position, velocity, and acceleration (PVA) of the first vehicle;

collecting a supplementary dataset from the first device, wherein the first device is associated with a first user;

transmitting the movement dataset and supplementary dataset from the first device to an intermediate device;

determining, at the intermediate device, a traffic-related event based upon processing the movement dataset and supplementary dataset with a traffic event model;

dynamically determining, at the intermediate device, a mobile region of interest based on the traffic-related event, wherein the region of interest contains the first device;

transmitting a traffic-related communication to a set of secondary devices within the region of interest, wherein each of the set of secondary devices is associated with a corresponding user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the intermediate device comprises a second device associated with a second user arranged in a second vehicle located within a predetermined range of the first vehicle.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the intermediate device comprises a network infrastructure component defining a fixed geographic location within a predetermined range of the first vehicle, wherein the network infrastructure component executes the traffic event model.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving the traffic-related communication at a second device of the set of secondary devices within the region of interest, wherein the second device is arranged in a second vehicle;

in response to receiving the traffic-related communication, collecting a second movement dataset corresponding to at least one of a second location sensor and a second motion sensor of the second device, wherein the movement dataset is associated with PVA of the second vehicle; and

generating a control instruction associated with the second vehicle based on the second movement dataset.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising generating a labeled observation based on the control instruction and updating the traffic-event model based on the labeled observation.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing the control instruction to a driver of the second vehicle at a user interface of the second device.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising automatically controlling the second vehicle based on the control instruction.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the traffic-related communication is indicative of a hard-braking event associated with the first vehicle and wherein generating the control instruction comprises:

determining, at the second device, that the second vehicle is within a predetermined distance of a rear bumper of the first vehicle based on the movement dataset;

generating the control instruction comprising an instruction to slow the second vehicle.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the traffic-related communication is indicative of a high-risk driving event associated with the first vehicle and wherein generating the control instruction comprises:

determining, at the second device, that a planned route of the second vehicle is proximal an estimated route of the first vehicle based on the movement dataset; and

generating the control instruction comprising an instruction to modify the planned route of the second vehicle to increase the relative distance between the planned route and the estimated route.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving the traffic-related communication at a second device of the set of secondary devices within the region of interest, wherein the second device is arranged in a second vehicle;

collecting a second movement dataset corresponding to at least one of a second location sensor and a second motion sensor of the second device, wherein the second movement dataset is associated with PVA of the second vehicle;

generating a labeled observation indicative that the traffic-related communication is irrelevant to the second vehicle based on the second movement dataset; and

updating the traffic-event model based on the labeled observation.