Data mining in a digital map database to identify decreasing radius of curvature along roads and enabling precautionary actions in a vehicle
First Claim
1. A database stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, wherein the database includes data that represents a road network in a geographic region, wherein the database comprises:
- data records that represent road segments that make up the road network; and
data that indicates precautionary action locations, wherein a precautionary action location is associated with a location at which a combination of conditions exists, wherein the data that indicates precautionary action locations was formed by a process wherein data records that represent road segments, and which include data indicative of characteristics thereof, are selected from the database to determine those road segments whose characteristics satisfy the combination of conditions; and
wherein the characteristics comprise incline of the road segment and whether the road segment intersects with another road segment, wherein selection is based on the combination of an intersection being located at the bottom of a hill.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed is a feature for a vehicle that enables taking precautionary actions in response to conditions on the road network around or ahead of the vehicle, in particular, a curved portion of a road where the curvature increases between adjacent curved sections. A database that represents the road network is used to determine locations where curvature between adjacent curved sections increases. Then, precautionary action data is added to the database to indicate a location at which a precautionary action is to be taken about the location where curvature increases. A precautionary action system installed in a vehicle uses this database, or a database derived therefrom, in combination with a positioning system to determine when the vehicle is at a location that corresponds to the location of a precautionary action. When the vehicle is at such a location, a precautionary action is taken by a vehicle system as the vehicle is approaching a location where the curvature increases.
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Citations
8 Claims
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1. A database stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, wherein the database includes data that represents a road network in a geographic region, wherein the database comprises:
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data records that represent road segments that make up the road network; and data that indicates precautionary action locations, wherein a precautionary action location is associated with a location at which a combination of conditions exists, wherein the data that indicates precautionary action locations was formed by a process wherein data records that represent road segments, and which include data indicative of characteristics thereof, are selected from the database to determine those road segments whose characteristics satisfy the combination of conditions; and wherein the characteristics comprise incline of the road segment and whether the road segment intersects with another road segment, wherein selection is based on the combination of an intersection being located at the bottom of a hill. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for providing a precautionary action to an operator of a vehicle when the vehicle approaches a potentially hazardous location along a road of a road network, wherein the component comprises an augmented version of a database that represents the road network in a geographic region, the method comprising:
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determining a type of hazardous condition to identify which may impair control of the vehicle, and, based thereon, identify a first condition and a second condition, the satisfaction thereof at a same location is indicative of the hazardous condition, wherein the first condition comprises existence of a first feature at a location represented in the database, that an attribute of the first feature exceeds a threshold or a combination thereof, and the second condition comprises existence of a second feature at or around the location, that an attribute of the second feature exceeds a threshold, or a combination thereof; evaluating, prior to operation of the vehicle along a road of a road network, data contained in a first version of the database to identify locations along roads of the road network where the determined hazardous condition might exist, wherein the hazardous condition comprises a combination of the first condition and the second condition which are satisfied together at a same location along a road of the road network, wherein the step of evaluating further comprises; evaluating a first type of data that represents geographic features of an identified location along the road of the road network to determine if the first condition is satisfied thereby, and upon determining that the first type of data that represent geographic features satisfies the first condition, evaluating a second type of data that represents geographic features which are geographically located around the identified location along the road of the road network at which the first condition is satisfied to determine if the second condition is satisfied at or around the identified location at which the first condition was satisfied; and upon determining satisfaction of the second condition at or around the identified location at which the first condition was satisfied, adding precautionary action data to the first version of the database in association with the identified location to form the augmented version of database to indicate that a precautionary action is to be taken by the vehicle system when the vehicle is approaching the identified location along the road of the road network; and wherein, upon determining that data representations of a part of the road of the road network stored in the augmented database includes precautionary action data, providing a precautionary action to the vehicle operator upon approach to the location associated therewith. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
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Specification