AUTOMATED SOLUTION FOR LOADING USER-ENTERED NAVIGATIONAL DATA INTO THE NAVIGATION SYSTEM OF A RENTAL VEHICLE

• US 20080140459A1
• Filed: 12/07/2006
• Published: 06/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Moore, Victor S., Bou-Ghannam, Akram A.
• Application Number:
  US11/608,053
• Publication Number:
  US 20080140459A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events

Abstract

The present solution can include a method for automatically loading navigational information into a rental vehicle'"'"'s navigation system. A rental agency'"'"'s system can acquire navigational information from a user that is associated with a particular rental occurrence prior to a rental vehicle being assigned to that user'"'"'s rental request. The navigational information can then be stored in a data store that can be accessed by rental agency'"'"'s system. At some time after the collection of the navigational information for the rental occurrence, the rental agency can assign a rental vehicle to the user'"'"'s rental occurrence. Once a rental vehicle is assigned, the navigational information can be loaded into the in-vehicle navigation system of the assigned rental vehicle.

Claims

1. A method for placing navigational information into rental vehicle navigation systems comprising:

before assigning a rental vehicle to a user, acquiring navigational information from the user that is associated with a particular rental occurrence;

storing the navigational information in a rental vehicle agency accessible data store;

assigning a rental vehicle to the user for the rental occurrence; and

responsive to the assigning step, loading the navigational information into an in-vehicle navigation system of the assigned rental vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a Web site to users through which a user is able to enter navigational information; and

receiving the navigational information via the Web site.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the Web site is a site through which users are able to rent vehicles, said method further comprising:

receiving a vehicle reservation request for the rental occurrence along with the navigational information via the Web site.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the Web site is operated by a third party not directly controlled by a rental vehicle agency that provides the assigned rental vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining the navigational information in the data store after the rental occurrence is completed, wherein the navigational information is available for future rental occurrences.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

providing a Web site to users through which a user is able to enter navigational information;

the Web site including a pick-up location for the rental occurrence;

searching the data store for historically entered navigational information associated with the user proximate to the pick-up location; and

presenting a list of navigational points included in the historically entered navigational information resulting from the searching step, wherein the acquired navigational information includes user selected ones of the navigational points.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the loading step is automatically performed by an algorithm of a rental reservation application without intervention by a human agent of the rental vehicle agency.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a computer system of the rental vehicle agency is communicatively linked to the in-vehicle navigation system via a network;

said loading step further comprising;

the computer system loading the navigational information via the network as part of a vehicle preparation process.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said steps of claim 1 are performed by at least one machine in accordance with at least one computer program having a plurality of code sections that are executable by the at least one machine.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of claim 1 are performed by at least one of a service agent and a computing device manipulated by the service agents, the steps being performed in response to a service request.

11. A system for providing the automatic loading of user-entered navigational information into the navigation system of a rental vehicle comprising:

a rental vehicle agency'"'"'s reservation system configured to assign vehicles to customers for different rental occurrences;

a navigational information data store accessible by the reservation system that is configured to store navigational information for a plurality of rental occurrences, wherein said navigational information is stored in the data store before rental vehicles are assigned to the rental occurrences;

a network connecting the reservation system to a plurality of in-vehicle navigation systems; and

the plurality of in-vehicle navigation systems, each configured to be loaded with navigational information from the data store for specific rental occurrences via the network responsive to a command from the reservation system and subsequent to the reservation system assigning a vehicle for specific rental occurrences, wherein the assigned vehicle is a vehicle containing the in-vehicle navigation system that is loaded for a rental occurrence to which the vehicle is assigned.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the rental vehicle agency'"'"'s reservation system further comprises:

a Web site interface configured to accept navigational information from a user, wherein the navigational information entered through the Web site interface is stored within the navigational information data store.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the Web site interface presents a user with a list of previously stored navigational information entries for selection.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the Web site interface allows a user to create a reservation occurrence.

15. The of claim 12, wherein the web site interface is operated by a third party not directly controlled by a rental vehicle agency.

16. A Web site for specifying navigational information to be entered into yet-to-be-assigned rental vehicles comprising:

an interface in which a user specifies navigational information for an existing rental occurrence, wherein the navigational information is centered prior to the user being assigned a rental vehicle for the specified rental occurrence; and

an association control in which the user associates navigational information with the specified rental occurrence, wherein the associated navigational information is automatically transferred to an in-vehicle navigation system via a network after a rental vehicle is assigned to the specific rental occurrence.

17. The Web site of claim 16, wherein the interface and association control is an element of a rental vehicle'"'"'s reservation system.

18. The Web site of claim 16, wherein the interface prompts the user to save entered navigational information for future rental occurrences.

19. The Web site of claim 16, wherein the interface allows the user to import navigational information from a user-defined external source.

20. The Web site of claim 16, further comprising:

a sharing control that allows the user to share the entered navigational information with a predefined group of users.