METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING TRAFFIC SAFETY EVENTS USING VEHICULAR PARTICIPATIVE SENSING SYSTEMS

• US 20160133130A1
• Filed: 11/12/2014
• Published: 05/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: EBRAHIMIAN, ROZALINA, GRIMM, DONALD K., BAI, FAN
• Granted Patent: US 9,430,944 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/091 Traffic information broadcasting broadcasting communication H04H
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096725 where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• 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: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/566 Grouping or aggregating service requests, e.g. for unified processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Methods and systems are disclosed for participative sensing of events and conditions by road vehicles, collection of this data from a large number of road vehicles by a central server, processing the data to identify events and conditions which may be of interest to other vehicles in a particular location, and sending notifications of the events and conditions to vehicles. A large number of vehicles use participative sensing systems to identify a safety-related event or condition which should be reported to the central server—such as a large pothole, an obstacle in the roadway, an icy road surface, a traffic accident, etc. The central server stores and aggregates the data, filters it and ages it. Vehicles requesting advisories from the central server will receive notices of safety-related events and conditions based on their location and heading. Driver warnings can be issued, and vehicle systems may respond to the notices.

Claims

1. A method for identifying hazardous driving conditions using vehicular participative sensing systems, said method comprising:

providing data about traffic safety events by a plurality of participative sensing system vehicles;

collecting, on a server computer including a processor and memory, the data about the traffic safety events from the participative sensing system vehicles;

analyzing the data about the traffic safety events, by the server computer, to identify hazardous conditions, including aggregating the data, filtering the data, applying a time-decay to the data and purging the data;

issuing advisories about the hazardous conditions from the server computer to advisory-receiving vehicles and other entities, where the advisories include a type of the hazardous condition and a location of the hazardous condition; and

notifying drivers of the advisory-receiving vehicles of the hazardous conditions described in the advisories.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein providing data about traffic safety events includes monitoring data from vehicle sensors and systems, identifying a trigger event, computing a safety metric about the traffic safety event, and communicating the safety metric and a vehicle location to the server computer.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein monitoring data from vehicle sensors and systems includes monitoring data from vehicle dynamics sensors and object detection sensors, data from vehicle systems available on a vehicle data bus, and data about other vehicles from a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication system.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the traffic safety events include another vehicle being driven dangerously, a disabled vehicle, a traffic accident, an obstacle on a road, a pothole or other structural problem with the road, low visibility, snow or ice on the road, and abnormal vehicle braking.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing the data about the traffic safety events to identify hazardous conditions includes segregating the hazardous conditions into those that relate to behavior of specific other vehicles and their drivers, those that relate to chronic conditions that repeatedly occur at a particular fixed location on a roadway, and those that relate to transient conditions at various locations on the roadway.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing the data about the traffic safety events to identify hazardous conditions includes assigning more weight to hazardous conditions which are identified in data received from multiple vehicles over an extended period of time.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein issuing advisories about the hazardous conditions from the central server to advisory-receiving vehicles includes designating the advisories as watch-level advisories related to moderately hazardous conditions or warning-level advisories related to severely hazardous conditions.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein issuing advisories about the hazardous conditions from the central server to other entities includes issuing advisories to a road commission which has responsibility for a road on which the hazardous condition exists.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the advisories to the road commission include advisories of conditions needing immediate attention including road repair, snow plowing and road salt, and electronic sign message content, and advisories of chronic conditions needing long-term attention including road design changes and permanent road sign changes.

5. (canceled)

11. A method for identifying hazardous driving conditions using vehicular participative sensing systems, said method comprising:

providing data about traffic safety events by a plurality of participative sensing system vehicles, including monitoring data from vehicle sensors and systems, identifying a trigger event, computing a safety metric about the traffic safety event, and wirelessly communicating the safety metric and a vehicle location to a server computer;

collecting, on the server computer including a processor and memory, the data about the traffic safety events from the participative sensing system vehicles;

analyzing the data about the traffic safety events, by the server computer, to identify hazardous conditions, including segregating the hazardous conditions into those that relate to behavior of specific other vehicles and their drivers, those that relate to chronic conditions that repeatedly occur at a particular fixed location on a roadway, and those that relate to transient conditions at various locations on the roadway;

issuing advisories about the hazardous conditions from the server computer to advisory-receiving vehicles, where the advisories include a type of the hazardous condition and a location of the hazardous condition;

notifying drivers of the advisory-receiving vehicles of the hazardous conditions described in the advisories; and

issuing advisories about the hazardous conditions from the server computer to a road commission which has responsibility for a road on which the hazardous condition exists, where the advisories include advisories of conditions needing immediate attention including road repair, snow plowing and road salt, and electronic sign message content, and advisories of chronic conditions needing long-term attention including road design changes and permanent road sign changes.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the traffic safety events include another vehicle being driven dangerously, a disabled vehicle, a traffic accident, an obstacle on a road, a pothole or other structural problem with the road, low visibility, snow or ice on the road, and abnormal vehicle braking.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein analyzing the data about the traffic safety events to identify hazardous conditions includes assigning more weight to hazardous conditions which are identified in data received from multiple vehicles over an extended period of time.

14. A vehicular participative sensing system for identifying hazardous driving conditions, said system comprising:

a plurality of participative sensing system vehicles with sensors and a processor configured to provide data about traffic safety events, where the processor monitors data from vehicle dynamics sensors and object detection sensors, data from vehicle systems available on a vehicle data bus, and data about other vehicles from a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication system, said participative sensing system vehicles also including a wireless communications system for communicating the data about the traffic safety events;

a server computer including a processor and memory, said server computer being configured to receive the data about the traffic safety events from the participative sensing system vehicles, analyze the data about the traffic safety events to identify hazardous conditions, and issue advisories about the hazardous conditions, where the advisories include a type of the hazardous condition and a location of the hazardous condition, and where analyzing the data includes aggregating the data filtering the data, applying a time-decay to the data and purging the data; and

a plurality of advisory-receiving vehicles with a wireless communications system for receiving the advisories about the hazardous conditions, and a processor configured to notify drivers of the hazardous conditions described in the advisories.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the processor in the participative sensing system vehicles is configured to monitor the data from the vehicle dynamics sensors and the object detection sensors, the data on the vehicle data bus, and the data from the V2V communication system, identify a trigger event, compute a safety metric about the traffic safety event, and communicate the safety metric and a vehicle location to the server computer.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the traffic safety events include another vehicle being driven dangerously, a disabled vehicle, a traffic accident, an obstacle on a road, a pothole or other structural problem with the road, low visibility, snow or ice on the road, and abnormal vehicle braking.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the server computer is configured to segregate the hazardous conditions into those that relate to behavior of specific other vehicles and their drivers, those that relate to chronic conditions that repeatedly occur at a particular fixed location on a roadway, and those that relate to transient conditions at various locations on the roadway.

18. The system of claim 14 wherein the server computer is configured to assign more weight to hazardous conditions which are identified in data received from multiple vehicles over an extended period of time.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein the server computer is configured to issue advisories about the hazardous conditions to the advisory-receiving vehicles which are designated as watch-level advisories related to moderately hazardous conditions or warning-level advisories related to severely hazardous conditions.

20. The system of claim 14 wherein the server computer is configured to issue advisories about the hazardous conditions to a road commission which has responsibility for a road on which the hazardous condition exists, and where the advisories to the road commission include advisories of conditions needing immediate attention including road repair, snow plowing and road salt, and electronic sign message content, and advisories of chronic conditions needing long-term attention including road design changes and permanent road sign changes.

21. A vehicular participative sensing system for identifying hazardous driving conditions, said system comprising:

a plurality of participative sensing system vehicles with sensors and a processor configured to provide data about traffic safety events, where the processor monitors data from vehicle dynamics sensors and object detection sensors, data from vehicle systems available on a vehicle data bus, and data about other vehicles from a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication system, said participative sensing system vehicles also including a wireless communications system for communicating the data about the traffic safety events;

a server computer including a processor and memory, said server computer being configured to receive the data about the traffic safety events from the participative sensing system vehicles, analyze the data about the traffic safety events to identify hazardous conditions, and issue advisories about the hazardous conditions, where the advisories include a type of the hazardous condition and a location of the hazardous condition, where analyzing the data includes segregating the hazardous conditions into those that relate to behavior of specific other vehicles and their drivers, those that relate to chronic conditions that repeatedly occur at a particular fixed location on a roadway, and those that relate to transient conditions at various locations on the roadway; and

a plurality of advisory-receiving vehicles with a wireless communications system for receiving the advisories about the hazardous conditions, and a processor configured to notify drivers of the hazardous conditions described in the advisories.

22. A vehicular participative sensing system for identifying hazardous driving conditions, said system comprising:

a plurality of participative sensing system vehicles with sensors and a processor configured to provide data about traffic safety events, where the processor monitors data from vehicle dynamics sensors and object detection sensors, data from vehicle systems available on a vehicle data bus, and data about other vehicles from a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication system, said participative sensing system vehicles also including a wireless communications system for communicating the data about the traffic safety events;

a server computer including a processor and memory, said server computer being configured to receive the data about the traffic safety events from the participative sensing system vehicles, analyze the data about the traffic safety events to identify hazardous conditions, and issue advisories about the hazardous conditions, where the advisories include a type of the hazardous condition and a location of the hazardous condition, where the advisories are designated as watch-level advisories related to moderately hazardous conditions or warning-level advisories related to severely hazardous conditions; and

a plurality of advisory-receiving vehicles with a wireless communications system for receiving the advisories about the hazardous conditions, and a processor configured to notify drivers of the hazardous conditions described in the advisories.