SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC PASSENGER SHARING AMONG VEHICLES

• US 20180275648A1
• Filed: 03/21/2017
• Published: 09/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ramalingam, Prabakaran
• Granted Patent: US 10,415,983 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3423 Multimodal routing, i.e. combining two or more modes of transportation, where the modes can be any of, e.g. driving, walking, cycling, public transport
• 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: G01S 19/42 Determining position
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0027 involving a plurality of vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling fleet control of land vehicles from a control room G05D1/0297; traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00; for marine craft G08G3/00; for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0285 using signals transmitted via a public communication network, e.g. GSM network
• 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

Abstract

A system and method for sharing passengers among vehicles includes one or more circuits, in an electronic control unit (ECU) of a first vehicle in a plurality of vehicles, configured to communicate a vehicle sharing request including first seat mapping information and first route information associated with the first vehicle to at least one remaining vehicle of the plurality of vehicles. A second vehicle is identified among the at least one remaining vehicle for sharing passengers based on a comparison of the first route information and the first seat mapping information with second route information and second seat mapping information received from the at least one remaining vehicle. A target vehicle is selected from the second vehicle or the first vehicle to allow one or more first passengers of the first vehicle and one or more second passengers of the second vehicle to share travel in the target vehicle.

Claims

1. A system that handles transportation of passengers among a plurality of vehicles, the system comprising:

one or more circuits in an electronic control unit (ECU) for a first vehicle of said plurality of vehicles, said one or more circuits are configured to;

communicate a vehicle sharing request including at least first seat mapping information and first route information associated with said first vehicle to at least one remaining vehicle of said plurality of vehicles;

identify a second vehicle among said at least one remaining vehicle of said plurality of vehicles for sharing passengers based on a comparison of said first route information and said first seat mapping information with second route information and second seat mapping information received from said at least one remaining vehicle of said plurality of vehicles; and

select a target vehicle from said identified second vehicle or said first vehicle to allow one or more first passengers of said first vehicle and one or more second passengers of said identified second vehicle to share travel in said selected target vehicle.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle sharing request is communicated from said first vehicle to said at least one remaining vehicle of said plurality of vehicles through a vehicle-to-X (V2X) communication, wherein said V2X communication comprises a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, a vehicle-to-cloud (V2C) communication, a vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, and/or vehicle-to-device (V2D) communication.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein said communicated vehicle sharing request further includes first vehicle information of said first vehicle.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein said vehicle information of said first vehicle corresponds to at least a vehicle identification number, a vehicle type of said first vehicle, and details of window seats in said first vehicle.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein said one or more circuits are further configured to determine said first seat mapping information of said first vehicle based on one or more images captured by one or more imaging devices provided in said first vehicle.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein said first seat mapping information of said first vehicle corresponds to a count of vacant seats, a count of occupied seats, a count of said one or more first passengers, seat booking details, and demographic details of said one or more first passengers in said first vehicle.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein said first route information of said first vehicle corresponds to a first travel route of said first vehicle, wherein said first travel route comprises a source location, a destination location, and one or more intermediate transit locations.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein a destination location of said identified second vehicle is same as that of said destination location of said first vehicle.

9. The system according to claim 7, wherein a second travel route of said identified second vehicle corresponds to at least a portion of said first travel route of said first vehicle.

10. The system according to claim 7, wherein said first travel route of said first vehicle corresponds to at least a portion of a second travel route of said identified second vehicle.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein said first seat mapping information is compared with said second seat mapping information received from said at least one remaining vehicle of said plurality of vehicles in accordance with one or more seat mapping rules.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein said first route information is compared with said second route information received from said at least one remaining vehicle of said plurality of vehicles in accordance with one or more route matching rules.

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein said selection of said target vehicle is based on one or more selection parameters, wherein said one or more selection parameters comprises at least a travel route parameter.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein said one or more circuits are further configured to communicate a halt instruction in an in-vehicle network to stop said first vehicle at a next intermediate transit location that is common to said first vehicle and said identified second vehicle to transfer said one or more first passengers into said identified second vehicle to share travel, based on said selection of said identified second vehicle as said target vehicle.

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein said one or more circuits are further configured to communicate a halt instruction in an in-vehicle network to stop said first vehicle at a next intermediate transit location that is common to said first vehicle and said identified second vehicle to transfer said one or more second passengers into said first vehicle to share travel, based on said selection of said first vehicle as said target vehicle.

16. The system according to claim 1, wherein said one or more circuits are further configured to generate new seat mapping information to include said one or more first passengers of said first vehicle and said one or more second passengers of said identified second vehicle into a common vehicle to share travel, wherein said common vehicle corresponds to said selected target vehicle.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein said generation of said new seat mapping information is further based on a feedback received from said one or more first passengers and said one or more second passengers.

18. The system according to claim 16, wherein said one or more first passengers and said one or more second passengers are seated in said selected target vehicle in accordance with said new seat mapping information.

19. The system according to claim 1, wherein said one or more circuits are further configured to present said generated new seat mapping information to said one or more first passengers and said one or more second passengers through a user interface rendered on a first display device in said first vehicle and a second display device in said identified second vehicle, respectively.

20. The system according to claim 1, wherein said one or more circuits are further configured to receive an acceptance notification for said communicated vehicle sharing request from said identified second vehicle.

21. The system according to claim 1, wherein said one or more circuits are further configured to communicate with said identified second vehicle by using vehicle-to-cloud (V2C) communication based on an association of said first vehicle and said identified second vehicle with a common travel group.

22. A system that handles transportation of passengers among a plurality of vehicles, the system comprising:

one or more circuits in an electronic control unit (ECU) for a first vehicle of said plurality of vehicles, said one or more circuits are configured to;

receive a vehicle sharing request including at least first seat mapping information and first route information associated with a second vehicle of said plurality of vehicles from said second vehicle;

transmit an acceptance notification for said received vehicle sharing request to said second vehicle based on at least a comparison of said first route information and said first seat mapping information of said second vehicle with second route information and second seat mapping information of said first vehicle; and

communicate a halt instruction in an in-vehicle network to stop said first vehicle at a specified common transit point of said first vehicle and said second vehicle to include one or more first passengers of said first vehicle and one or more second passengers of said second vehicle to share travel in a target vehicle, wherein said target vehicle is selected from said first vehicle or said second vehicle.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein said vehicle sharing request is received by said first vehicle from said second vehicle through a vehicle-to-X (V2X) communication, wherein said V2X communication comprises a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, a vehicle-to-cloud (V2C) communication, a vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, and/or a vehicle-to-device (V2D) communication.

24. The system according to claim 22, wherein said vehicle sharing request further includes vehicle information of said second vehicle.

25. The system according to claim 22, wherein said specified common transit point of said first vehicle and said second vehicle corresponds to a next intermediate transit location that is common between a first travel route of said first vehicle and a second travel route of said second vehicle.

26. A method for handling transportation of passengers among a plurality of vehicles, the method comprising:

communicating, by an electronic control unit (ECU) of a first vehicle of said plurality of vehicles, a vehicle sharing request including at least first seat mapping information and first route information associated with said first vehicle to at least one remaining vehicle of said plurality of vehicles;

identifying a second vehicle among at least one remaining vehicle of said plurality of vehicles for sharing passengers based on at least a comparison of said first route information and said first seat mapping information with second route information and second seat mapping information received from at least one remaining vehicle of said plurality of vehicles; and

selecting a target vehicle from said identified second vehicle or said first vehicle to allow one or more first passengers of said first vehicle and one or more second passengers of said identified second vehicle to share travel in said selected target vehicle.