METHODS TO MITIGATE COMMUNICATION DELAYS BETWEEN SYSTEMS IN CONNECTION WITH A TRANSPORT SERVICE

• US 20160337294A1
• Filed: 05/15/2015
• Published: 11/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Garg, Sunil Kumar, Vardhan, Abhay
• Granted Patent: US 10,009,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0284 Time or distance, e.g. usage of parking meters or taximeters
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 13/00 Taximeters measuring distance travelled G01C; measuring time G04
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• 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

Abstract

A system operating on a computing device can determine a set of location data points of the computing device during progress of a transport service, and can transmit the set of location data points to a network service. The system can transmit, to the network service, a message indicating that the transport service has been completed. The system determines whether a predetermined duration of time has elapsed since transmitting the message indicating that the transport service has been completed, during which a predefined message has not been received by the application from the network service. The predefined message is associated with a confirmation that the transport service has been processed by the network service. If the predetermined duration of time has elapsed during which the predefined message has not been received, the system displays first content as opposed to second content on the computing device.

Claims

1. A method of displaying information in connection with a transport service, the method being performed by a computing device and comprising:

running an application on the computing device using computing resources and memory resources of the computing device, the application being in communication with a network service over one or more networks;

during progress of the transport service, (i) determining a set of location data points using a global positioning system (GPS) receiver of the computing device, each of the set of location data points corresponding to a current location of the computing device at an instance in time, and (ii) transmitting, to the network service, the set of location data points;

transmitting, to the network service, a message indicating that the transport service has been completed;

making a determination (i) that a predetermined duration of time has elapsed since transmitting the message indicating that the transport service has been completed, and (ii) that during the predetermined duration of time, a predefined message has not been received by the application from the network service, the predefined message being associated with a confirmation that the transport service has been processed by the network service; and

based on the determination, displaying, on a display of the computing device, a first content as part of a user interface of the application.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting, to the network service, a message indicating that the transport service has begun in response to receiving a first user input on the application running on the computing device; and

wherein transmitting the message indicating that the transport service has been completed is performed in response to receiving a second user input on the application running on the computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

during progress of the transport service, periodically (i) pinging the network service for fare information, (ii) receiving information about a fare amount from the network service, and (iii) storing the information about the fare amount in the memory resources.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

based on the determination, retrieving, from the memory resources, information about the fare amount that is most recently received from the network service; and

wherein the first content is generated using, at least, the information about the most recently received fare amount.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the network service, an invitation message to provide a transport service for a requesting user;

displaying, on the display, an invitation user interface based on the invitation message;

transmitting, to the network service, an acceptance message in response to receiving a first user input on the application running on the computing device;

receiving, from the network service, a set of instructions to enable the computing device to perform a fare determination operation for the transport service, the set of instructions including price information for the transport service.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

based on the determination, performing, at the computing system, the fare determination operation using the set of instructions and at least some of the set of location data points in order to determine a fare amount for the transport service; and

wherein the first content is generated using, at least, information about the determined fare amount.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the set of instructions are received in response to transmitting the acceptance message.

8. A method of providing information in connection with a transport service to a computing device, the method being performed by a computing system and comprising:

arranging a transport service to be provided by a driver operating the computing device;

during progress of the transport service, receiving a set of location data points from the computing device over one or more networks, the set of location data points being determined using a global positioning system (GPS) receiver of the computing device, wherein each of the set of location data points corresponds to a current location of the computing device at an instance in time;

receiving, from the computing device, a message indicating that the transport service has been completed;

in response to receiving the message, concurrently (i) initiating a fare determination operation using at least some of the set of location data points, and (ii) initiating a processing operation for the completed transport service;

making a determination that completing the processing operation for the completed transport service has taken longer than a predetermined duration of time; and

based on the determination, transmitting, to the computing device, information corresponding to a fare amount of the transport service determined from completion of the fare determination operation.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the processing operation includes a fare calculation operation using at least some of the set of location data points and time information associated with the transport service, and wherein the processing operation further includes one or more of (i) a data storage operation corresponding to aggregating the set of location data points and other data associated with the transport service and storing the aggregated data in a persistent memory resource, or (ii) a fraud detection operation corresponding to analyzing the transport service to determine a fraud score.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the fare calculation operation uses more location data points of the set of location data points than the fare determination operation uses.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein initiating the processing operation includes adding information about the transport service in a queue.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein arranging the transport service to be provided by the driver operating the computing device includes receiving a request for transport from a user, and selecting the driver to provide the transport service, and further comprising:

determining, from the request for transport, a payment profile corresponding to a payment method that the user has specified to pay for the transport service.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein concurrently initiating the fare determination operation and initiating the processing operation is performed based on the payment profile specified by the user.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

run an application on the computing device, the application being in communication with a network service over one or more networks;

during progress of the transport service, (i) determine a set of location data points using a global positioning system (GPS) receiver of the computing device, each of the set of location data points corresponding to a current location of the computing device at an instance in time, and (ii) transmit, to the network service, the set of location data points;

transmit, to the network service, a message indicating that the transport service has been completed;

determine whether a predetermined duration of time has elapsed since transmitting the message indicating that the transport service has been completed, during which a predefined message has not been received by the application from the network service, the predefined message being associated with a confirmation that the transport service has been processed by the network service;

if the predetermined duration of time has elapsed since transmitting the message indicating that the transport service has been completed, during which the predefined message has not been received by the application, displaying, on a display of the computing device, a first content as part of a user interface of the application; and

if the predefined message is received by the application before the predetermined duration of time has elapsed since transmitting the message indicating that the transport service has been completed, displaying, on the display, a second content as part of the user interface of the application, the second content being based on information from the predefined message.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

transmit, to the network service, a message indicating that the transport service has begun in response to receiving a first user input on the application running on the computing device; and

wherein the instructions cause the computing device to transmit the message indicating that the transport service has been completed is performed in response to receiving a second user input on the application running on the computing device.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

during progress of the transport service, periodically (i) ping the network service for fare information, (ii) receive information about a fare amount from the network service, and (iii) store the information about the fare amount in the non-transitory computer-readable medium or another memory resource accessible by the one or more processors.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

based on the determination, retrieve information about the fare amount that is most recently received from the network service; and

wherein the first content is generated using, at least, the information about the most recently received fare amount.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

receive, from the network service, an invitation message to provide a transport service for a requesting user;

display, on the display, an invitation user interface based on the invitation message;

transmit, to the network service, an acceptance message in response to receiving a first user input on the application running on the computing device;

receive, from the network service, a set of fare instructions to enable the computing device to perform a fare determination operation for the transport service, the set of fare instructions including price information for the transport service.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

based on the determination, perform the fare determination operation using the set of instructions and at least some of the set of location data points in order to determine a fare amount for the transport service; and

wherein the first content is generated using, at least, information about the determined fare amount.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the set of fare instructions are received in response to transmitting the acceptance message.