ROUTE SEARCHING DEVICE

• US 20010047242A1
• Filed: 04/27/1999
• Published: 11/29/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Clarion Co., Ltd. (Faurecia SA)
• Original Assignee: Xanavi Informatics Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: OHTA, KAZUTAKA
• Granted Patent: US 6,438,490 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/210
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3691 Retrieval, searching and output of information related to real-time traffic, weather, or environmental conditions arrangements for giving variable traffic instructions G08G1/09

Abstract

A processor calculates an estimated travel time required to travel from a current point to a destination or a passing point on a route on the basis of a travel time represented by traffic-jam information for a traffic-jam place which is represented by the traffic-jam information received by a traffic information receiver, and on the basis of a traffic-jam time calculated on the basis of map data for the other places; accordingly, the travel time required can be calculated in consideration of traffic-jam conditions.

Claims

1. A route searching apparatus for searching a recommendable route to a destination comprising:

means for storing map data representing road maps;

means for receiving traffic jam information representing traffic jam places and a travel time needed to pass through a section in which each traffic jam place is located by communication; and

travel time calculating means for setting the travel time represented by the traffic jam information as an effective travel time for each traffic jam section represented by the traffic jam information thus received while setting a travel time calculated on the basis of the map data as an effective travel time for the other sections, calculating the sum of effective travel times for respective sections located between the current position on the searched recommendable route and a destination or a point on the recommendable route for which an estimated travel time is calculated, and displaying the sum of the effective travel times thus calculated as the travel time needed to travel from the current position to the destination or the point on the recommendable road for which the estimated travel time is calculated.

2. The route searching apparatus as claimed in

claim 1

, wherein said travel time calculating means calculates the rate of the sum of the travel times for said traffic jam sections represented by the traffic-jam information to the sum of the effective travel times and displays the rate thus calculated.

3. A required travel time calculating method for calculating a travel time required to travel from a current position to an end point on a given route or a point on the route, comprising the steps of:

storing map data representing road maps in advance;

receiving traffic-jam places and a travel time required to pass through a section in which each of the traffic-jam places is located by communication;

setting the travel time represented by the traffic jam information as an effective travel time for each traffic jam section represented by the traffic jam information thus received while setting a travel time calculated on the basis of the map data as an effective travel time for the other sections; and

calculating the sum of effective travel times for respective sections located between the current position on the searched road and the end point or the point on the route for which an estimated travel time is calculated, as the travel time needed to travel from the current position to a destination or a point on a recommendable road for which the estimated travel time is calculated.

4. A storage medium for storing programs which are read out and executed by a computer, characterized in that said program makes said computer execute a step of receiving traffic-jam places and a travel time required to pass through a section in which each of the traffic-jam places is located;

a step of setting the travel time represented by the traffic jam information as an effective travel time for each traffic jam section represented by the traffic jam information thus received while setting a travel time calculated on the basis of the map data, previously stored by the computer, as an effective travel time for the other sections; and

calculating the sum of effective travel times for respective sections located between the current position on the searched road and the end point or the point on the route for which an estimated travel time is calculated, as the travel time needed to travel from the current position to a destination or a point on a recommendable road for which the estimated travel time is calculated.