METHOD OF PROCESSING VEHICLE CRASH DATA

• US 20120146766A1
• Filed: 12/10/2010
• Published: 06/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company), GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company), GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Geisler, Scott P., Tengler, Steven C., Deering, Richard K., McCormick, Catherine L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,749,350 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/8.1
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A method of processing vehicle crash data includes the steps of receiving vehicle data obtained at a vehicle during a vehicle crash, determining the identity of the vehicle, estimating the severity of the vehicle crash using the determined vehicle identity and the received vehicle data, and providing the estimated severity to an emergency responder.

Claims

1. A method of processing vehicle crash data, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving vehicle data obtained at a vehicle during a vehicle crash;

(b) determining the identity of the vehicle;

(c) estimating the severity of the vehicle crash using the determined vehicle identity and the received vehicle data;

(d) providing the estimated severity to an emergency responder.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle data further comprises any one or more of:

a primary direction of force, a change in vehicle velocity, an occurrence of a vehicle rollover, a detection of multiple impacts, an activation of a vehicle airbag, or a presence of an unbelted occupant.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step (b) further comprises determining the phone number associated with the vehicle and obtaining the identity of a vehicle manufacturer, the identity of a vehicle model, and the identity of a vehicle model year based on the phone number.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identity of the vehicle further comprises a unique identification number.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of calculating a severity rating of the vehicle crash.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) further comprises graphically-depicting the severity of the vehicle crash.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the graphic depiction further comprises one or more colored sections, each of which indicate an amount of damage to the vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein step (d) further comprises communicating the estimated severity to the emergency responder via a packet-switched communication network.

9. A method of processing vehicle crash data, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving data from a vehicle telematics unit indicating that a vehicle has been involved in a collision;

(b) identifying the vehicle based on the received data;

(c) accessing previously-stored vehicle crash data based on the identified vehicle;

(d) comparing the accessed vehicle crash data with the received data;

(e) determining a severity rating of the collision based on the comparison; and

(f) providing the severity rating to an emergency responder.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the received data in step (a) further comprises any one or more of:

a primary direction of force, a change in vehicle velocity, an occurrence of a vehicle rollover, a detection of multiple impacts, an activation of a vehicle airbag, or a presence of an unbelted occupant.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the step (b) further comprises determining the phone number of the vehicle and obtaining the identity of a vehicle manufacturer, the identity of a vehicle model, or the identity of a vehicle model year based on the vehicle phone number.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein step (b) further comprises receiving a unique identification number.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

determining the location of a vehicle occupant in the vehicle;

generating a graphical depiction of the determined location with respect to the vehicle; and

providing the generated graphical depiction to the emergency responder.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein step (f) further comprises the step of providing a graphical depiction of the severity rating to the emergency responder.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein step (f) further comprises communicating the severity rating to the emergency responder via a packet-switched communication network.

16. A method of processing vehicle crash data, comprising the steps of:

(a) detecting a vehicle crash in a vehicle;

(b) sending vehicle data obtained during the vehicle crash to a call center;

(c) determining the identity of the vehicle;

(d) estimating the severity of the vehicle crash using the vehicle identity and the sent vehicle data;

(d) identifying supplemental vehicle information based on the vehicle identity or the severity of the vehicle crash; and

(e) sending the estimate and the supplemental vehicle information to an emergency responder.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

determining the location of the vehicle; and

sending the location of the vehicle to the emergency responder.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the location of the vehicle is provided to the emergency responder in a graphical form.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the supplemental vehicle information further comprises a type of vehicle propulsion system or a location of unique vehicle systems.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of providing the supplemental vehicle information to the emergency responder in a graphical form that identifies the location of the supplemental vehicle information on an image of a vehicle.