METHOD FOR DETERMINING AND OUTPUTTING TRAVEL INSTRUCTIONS FOR MOST FUEL-EFFICIENT ROUTE
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving user input of a destination to which a route is desired to travel to the destination via a vehicle; and
determining a travel route to the destination, wherein said determining takes into consideration factors related to fuel consumption by the vehicle when traveling to the destination along various available paths, such that the travel route generated is a most-fuel efficient travel route among multiple available travel routes.
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Abstract
A method provides a sequence of travel instructions that reports fuel-efficient routes calculated with regard to vehicle specifications, geography of terrain, and complexity of travel route. An operator selects the desired starting and ending location via a client interface of a software application. When the user selects “most fuel efficient route,” the fuel-efficient route (FER) utility of the application prompts for entry of the make, model, and year of the operator'"'"'s vehicle. If the FER utility is embedded in an in-car navigation system, the information about the vehicle characteristics is preprogrammed during installation (e.g., at the factory). The FER utility uses a number of metrics and the vehicle'"'"'s characteristics, to generate an optimal route for efficient fuel consumption. The invention provides means for an operator of a route planning application to optimize the driving directions for optimally predicted fuel usage.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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receiving user input of a destination to which a route is desired to travel to the destination via a vehicle; and determining a travel route to the destination, wherein said determining takes into consideration factors related to fuel consumption by the vehicle when traveling to the destination along various available paths, such that the travel route generated is a most-fuel efficient travel route among multiple available travel routes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15)
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10. A computer program product comprising:
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a computer readable medium; and program code on the computer readable medium that when executed by a processor on a computer device provides the functions of; receiving user input of a destination to which a route is desired to travel to the destination via a vehicle; and determining a travel route to the destination, wherein said determining takes into consideration factors related to fuel consumption by the vehicle when traveling to the destination along various available paths, such that the travel route generated is a most-fuel efficient travel route among multiple available travel routes. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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16. A navigation system comprising:
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a processor component; a user interface that enables entry by a user of a user request for destination routing information and which displays a generated travel route; and a utility executing on the processor component and which comprises codes that enable completion of the following functions; receiving user input of a destination to which a route is desired to travel to the destination via a vehicle; retrieving each of the available travel routes to the specified destination, wherein when information about the available travel routes is not locally maintained, the code for retrieving further comprises code for; accessing a remote database of route information; and retrieving required data from the remote database; performing an evaluation of the fuel consumption based on characteristics of each of the retrieved travel routes, said characteristics comprising;
number of stop lights, amount of traffic, time of travel, grade of roadway surfaces, speed limit of roadways, slope/grade of terrain, average speed, estimated travel time, and total distance; anddetermining a travel route to the destination, wherein said determining takes into consideration factors related to fuel consumption by the vehicle when traveling to the destination along various available paths, such that the travel route generated is a most-fuel efficient travel route among multiple available travel routes. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification