DETECTING VEHICLE COLLISIONS BASED ON MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICE DATA

• US 20180218549A1
• Filed: 02/22/2018
• Published: 08/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Wahba, Karim, Tyagi, Dhruv, Beinstein, Andrew, Prasad, Amritha, Lawrence, Audrey, Alvarez, Jose, Pennington, Steve, Trachtman, Corin
• Granted Patent: US 10,540,832 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/0027 Post collision measures, e.g. notifying emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/00 Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks safety belts or body harnesses in vehicles B60R22/00; devices, apparatus or methods for life-saving in general A62B; safety devices for propulsion unit control specially adapted for, or arranged in, vehicles B60K28/00; seats constructed to protect the occupant from the effect of abnormal g-forces, e.g. crash or safety seats, B60N2/42; energy-absorbing arrangements for hand wheels for steering vehicles B62D1/11; energy-absorbing arrangements for vehicle steering columns B62D1/19; harnessing in aircraft B64D25/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005

Abstract

A network computing system receives local device data from a mobile computing device of a person within a vehicle. The local device data may include sensor data from one or more sensors of the mobile computing device, and location data determined from a position-determination resource of the mobile computing device. The network computing system may detect a vehicle collision event based on the local device data. Additionally, the network computing system may determine a classification of the vehicle collision event based on the local device data.

Claims

1. A network computer system comprising:

a memory to store a set of instructions;

one or more processors to access the set of instructions to;

arrange a transport to be provided in which multiple occupants of a transport vehicle are users of a network service;

while a transport is in progress, receive local device data transmitted from a mobile computing device of at least one of multiple occupants of a transport vehicle;

detect that a vehicle collision event has occurred based on at least a portion of the local device data;

subsequent to detecting that the vehicle collision event has occurred, determine a classification of the vehicle collision event by comparing a feature set associated with the vehicle collision event to a collection of models that correlate to collision severity;

determine a plurality of actions to perform based on the classification of the vehicle collision event, the plurality of actions includes a first action and at least a second action that is different than the first action; and

automatically initiate performance of the plurality of actions.

2. The network computer system of claim 1, wherein determining the plurality of actions includes determining an action for each of the multiple occupants of the transport vehicle.

3. The network computer system of claim 1, wherein the second action includes:

obtaining emergency contact information for each of the multiple occupants of the transport vehicle; and

providing a notification of the vehicle collision event, using the emergency contact information.

4. The network computer system of claim 1, wherein the first action includes communicating information to an emergency service.

5. The network computer system of claim 1, wherein determining plurality of actions includes:

determining one or more service providers that are traveling towards a location of the vehicle collision event based on (i) a route determined for each of one or more service providers and (ii) location data from a position-determination resource of the mobile computing device that indicates the location of the vehicle collision event;

determining an alternative route for each of the one or more service providers that are on route to the location of the vehicle collision event or pass through the location of the vehicle collision event; and

transmitting a rerouting instruction to each of the one or more service providers that are on route to the location of the vehicle collision event or pass through the location of the vehicle collision event.

6. The network computer system of claim 5, wherein determining plurality of actions includes:

assigning each of the one or more service providers to a service request that includes a set of service-related parameters, the set of service-related parameters including one or more service locations.

7. The network computer system of claim 6, wherein the rerouting instruction are based, at least in part, on the one or more service locations.

8. The network computer system of claim 1, wherein determining plurality of actions:

determining an area of congestion based, at least in part, on (i) location data from a position-determination resource of the mobile computing device that indicates a location of the vehicle collision event, and (ii) traffic information;

determining one or more service providers that are traveling towards the area of congestion based, at least in part, on (i) the area of congestion, (ii) a route determined for each of a plurality of service providers, and (ii) location data from a position-determination resource of a mobile computing device of each of the plurality of service providers; and

transmitting a rerouting instruction to the mobile computing device of each of the one or more service providers that are on route to the area of congestion.

9. The network computer system of claim 1, wherein the local device data includes (i) sensor data from one or more sensors of the mobile computing device, and (ii) location data determined from a position-determination resource of the mobile computing device.

10. The network computer system of claim 9, wherein the sensor data includes movement data obtained from at least one of an accelerometer or gyroscope of the mobile computing device.

11. The network computer system of claim 9, wherein the sensor data includes environmental sensor data obtained from at least one of a barometer, thermometer or microphone of the mobile computing device.

12. The network computer system of claim 11, wherein at least one of detecting the vehicle collision event or determining a classification of the vehicle collision event includes processing the environmental sensor data to detect one or more of (i) an airbag deployment, (ii) a glass within the transport vehicle breaking, and/or (iii) an utterance for assistance from a human.

13. The network computer system of claim 1, wherein the classification includes at least one of (i) a first level in which a likelihood of injury is below a first threshold probability, and (ii) a second level in which a likelihood of injury is above a second threshold probability.

14. The network computer system of claim 1, wherein the memory further stores profile information for each of a plurality of users, the profile information associated with each user with an account identifier of the network service.

15. The network computer system of claim 14, wherein the set of instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

retrieve profile information that is specific to each of the multiple occupants of the transport vehicle based on the account identifier associated with that occupant, wherein determining the plurality of actions to perform is further based on the retrieved profile information that is specific to that occupant.

16. The network computer system of claim 1, wherein the set of instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

in response to detecting the vehicle collision event, initiate one or more operations to corroborate the vehicle collision event.

17. The network computer system of claim 16, wherein the one or more operations to corroborate the vehicle collision event includes:

obtaining additional local device data from the mobile computing device.

18. The network computer system of claim 17, wherein the one or more operations to corroborate the vehicle collision event includes:

identifying one or more proximate vehicles of service providers within a proximity distance threshold from a location of the vehicle collision event, based on (i) location data from a position-determination resource of the mobile computing device that indicates the location of the vehicle collision event and (ii) location data from a positioning-determination resource of a mobile computing device of each of the one or more proximate vehicles of service providers; and

obtaining additional local device data from the mobile computing device of each of the one or more proximate vehicles of service providers.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium that stores instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of a network computing system, cause the network computing system to:

arrange a transport to be provided in which multiple occupants of a transport vehicle are users of a network service;

while a transport is in progress, receive local device data transmitted from a mobile computing device of at least one of multiple occupants of a transport vehicle;

detect that a vehicle collision event has occurred based on at least a portion of the local device data;

subsequent to detecting that the vehicle collision event has occurred, determine a classification of the vehicle collision event by comparing a feature set associated with the vehicle collision event to a collection of models that correlate to collision severity;

determine a plurality of actions to perform based on the classification of the vehicle collision event, the plurality of actions includes a first action and at least a second action that is different than the first action; and

automatically initiate performance of the plurality of actions.

20. A method for remotely evaluating collision events of vehicles, the method being implemented by one or more processors of a network computing system and comprising:

arranging a transport to be provided in which multiple occupants of a transport vehicle are users of a network service;

while a transport is in progress, obtaining local device data transmitted from a mobile computing device of at least one of multiple occupants of a transport vehicle;

detecting that a vehicle collision event has occurred based on at least a portion of the local device data;

subsequent to detecting that the vehicle collision event has occurred, determining a classification of the vehicle collision event by comparing a feature set associated with the vehicle collision event to a collection of models that correlate to collision severity;

determining a plurality of actions to perform based on the classification of the vehicle collision event, the plurality of actions includes a first action and at least a second action that is different than the first action; and

automatically initiating performance of the plurality of actions.