VEHICLE-DISPATCHING METHOD, VEHICLE-DISPATCHING SYSTEM AND NAVIGATING DEVICE USED IN THE SAME

• US 20100241349A1
• Filed: 01/05/2010
• Published: 09/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harbor Intelligent Limited
• Original Assignee: Taiwan Mobile Communication
• Inventors: Wu, Jason
• Granted Patent: US 8,483,939 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3438 Rendez-vous, i.e. searching a destination where several users can meet, and the routes to this destination for these users; Ride sharing, i.e. searching a route such that at least two users can share a vehicle for at least part of the route
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/362 received from an external device or application, e.g. PDA, mobile phone or calendar application
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08355 Routing methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083

Abstract

A vehicle-dispatching system includes a service center and a plurality of hosts disposed in respective vehicles, and one of the vehicles is selected for dispatching when the service center receives a vehicle request from a passenger. For facilitating drivers to decide whether to accept the task, a message including location information of the passenger is sent to dispatching units of the hosts by the service center to trigger navigating units of the hosts to reveal respective route information for the drivers'"'"' reference. Once one or more drivers decide to accept the task, they may trigger the dispatching units to issue respective task-accepting signals to the service center. The service driver then selects one of the vehicles for dispatching by sending a dispatching signal to the dispatching unit of the selected vehicle. The dispatching signal then triggers the navigating unit of the selected vehicle to automatically reveal navigating information.

Claims

1. A vehicle-dispatching method for use with a service center and at least one vehicle, comprising steps of:

issuing a message including a location information of a passenger to a host of the vehicle by the service center;

revealing a route information associated with the location information and a current position of the vehicle by the host of the vehicle in response to the message;

optionally issuing a task-accepting signal to the service center by the host to respond to the message;

sending a dispatching signal to the host of the vehicle by the service center if the vehicle issues the task-accepting signal and is selected for dispatching by the service center; and

triggering the host to automatically reveal a navigating information associated with the location information by the dispatching signal.

2. The vehicle-dispatching method according to claim 1 wherein the location information is acquired from the passenger via an information channel and transmitted to the host by a wireless data transmission mechanism, and includes information of a pick-up location and/or a drop-off destination.

3. The vehicle-dispatching method according to claim 1 wherein the information channel is an internet system or a telephone network, and the location information includes a literal address and/or a longitude and latitude coordinate corresponding to the address.

4. The vehicle-dispatching method according to claim 1 wherein the route information is triggered to be automatically revealed by the message, and includes a route map marked with the current position of the vehicle, a pick-up location and a recommended route provided by the host or the service center.

5. The vehicle-dispatching method according to claim 4, further comprising a step of automatically zooming the route map with a specific zoom ratio to show the current position of the vehicle and the pick-up location simultaneously.

6. The vehicle-dispatching method according to claim 1 wherein the route information includes an estimated distance and/or estimated time required to reach a pick-up location.

7. The vehicle-dispatching method according to claim 1 wherein the dispatching signal includes a navigating startup signal for triggering the host to automatically reveal the navigating information, and the navigating information includes navigation from the current position of the vehicle to a pick-up location and optional navigation from the pick-up location to a drop-off destination.

8. The vehicle-dispatching method according to claim 1 wherein the navigating information is revealed in an audible and/or visible form.

9. A vehicle-dispatching system, comprising:

a service center issuing a message including a location information of a passenger when receiving a vehicle request from the passenger; and

a plurality of hosts disposed in respective vehicles in communication with the service center, and revealing route information associated with the location information and current positions of the vehicles in response to the message, each of the hosts being optionally and manually triggered to send a task-accepting signal to the service center and selectively receive a dispatching signal from the service center to automatically reveal a navigating information associated with the location information.

10. The vehicle-dispatching system according to claim 9 wherein the vehicle request is a vehicle-request phone call transmitted from a passenger to the service center through a telephone network or a vehicle online request transmitted from a passenger to the service center through the Internet, and the location information includes information of a pick-up location and/or a drop-off destination.

11. The vehicle-dispatching system according to claim 9 wherein each of the hosts comprises:

a dispatching unit decoding the location information included in the message, sending the task-accepting signal to the service center in response to the triggering by a driver of the vehicle, and receiving the dispatching signal from the service center if the vehicle corresponding to the host is selected by the service center; and

a navigating unit in communication with the dispatching unit, receiving the location information from the dispatching unit and revealing the route information in response to the message, and revealing the navigating information in response to the dispatching signal.

12. The vehicle-dispatching system according claim 11 wherein the navigating unit includes an electronic map and a display for showing a route map marked with the current position of the vehicle, a pick-up location and a recommended route provided by the host or the service center.

13. The vehicle dispatching system according to claim 12 wherein a zoom ration of the route map is automatically adjusted to show the current position of the vehicle and the pick-up location simultaneously on the display.

14. The vehicle-dispatching system according to claim 11 wherein the navigating unit includes an electronic map for calculating an estimated distance and/or estimated time required to reach a pick-up location from the current position of the vehicle, and a speaker for announcing the estimated distance and/or estimated time.

15. The vehicle-dispatching system according to claim 9 wherein the dispatching signal includes a navigating startup signal for triggering the host of the selected vehicle to automatically reveal the navigating information.

16. The vehicle-dispatching system according to claim 9 wherein the location information is acquired from the passenger via an internet system or a telephone network and transmitted to the hosts by a wireless data transmission mechanism, and includes information of a pick-up location as a literal address and/or a longitude and latitude coordinate corresponding to the address.

17. A navigating device for use in a vehicle to communicate with a service center, comprising:

a dispatching unit decoding a location information of a passenger included in a message issued by the service center when the passenger sends a vehicle request to the service center, sending a task-accepting signal to the service center in response to the triggering by a driver of the vehicle, and receiving a dispatching signal from the service center when the vehicle is selected for dispatching by the service center; and

a navigating unit in communication with the dispatching unit, receiving the location information from the dispatching unit and automatically revealing a route information associated with the location information and a current position of the vehicle in response to the message, and automatically revealing a navigating information including navigation from the current position of the vehicle to a pick-up location in response to the dispatching signal.

18. The navigating device according to claim 17 wherein the navigating unit includes an electronic map for calculating an estimated distance and/or estimated time required to reach the pick-up location from the current position of the vehicle, and a display for showing a route map marked with the current position of the vehicle, the pick-up location and a recommended route.

19. The navigating device according to claim 17 wherein the navigating unit includes an electronic map for calculating an estimated distance and/or estimated time required to reach the pick-up location from the current position of the vehicle, and a speaker for announcing the estimated distance and/or estimated time.

20. The navigating device according to claim 17 wherein the navigating unit is integrated with the dispatching unit in the same casing or disposed in a separate casing from the dispatching unit.