Notification system and method that informs a party of vehicle delay
DCFirst Claim
1. A method, comprising the steps of:
- monitoring travel data associated with the vehicle;
comparing planned timing of the vehicle along a route to updated vehicle status information;
contacting a user communications device before the vehicle reaches a vehicle stop along the route; and
informing the user of the vehicle delay with respect to the vehicle stop and of updated impending arrival of the vehicle at the vehicle stop, based upon the updated vehicle status information and the planned timing.
6 Assignments
Litigations
0 Petitions
Reexaminations
Accused Products
Abstract
An advance notification system and method notifies passengers of the impending arrival of a transportation vehicle, for example, a school bus, at a particular vehicle stop. The system generally includes an on-board vehicle control unit for each vehicle and a base station control unit for making telephone calls to passengers in order to inform the passengers when the vehicle is a certain predefined time period and/or distance away from the vehicle stop. The VCU compares elapsed time and/or traveled distance to the programmed scheduled time and/or traveled distance to determine if the vehicle is on schedule. If the vehicle is behind or ahead of schedule, the VCU calls the BSCU, which then adjusts its calling schedule accordingly.
-
Citations
14 Claims
-
1. A method, comprising the steps of:
-
monitoring travel data associated with the vehicle;
comparing planned timing of the vehicle along a route to updated vehicle status information;
contacting a user communications device before the vehicle reaches a vehicle stop along the route; and
informing the user of the vehicle delay with respect to the vehicle stop and of updated impending arrival of the vehicle at the vehicle stop, based upon the updated vehicle status information and the planned timing. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
-
-
2. A system, comprising:
-
means for monitoring travel data associated with a vehicle;
means for comparing planned timing of the vehicle along a route to updated vehicle status information;
means for contacting a user communications device before the vehicle reaches a vehicle stop along the route; and
means for informing the user of the vehicle delay with respect to the vehicle stop and of updated impending arrival of the vehicle at the vehicle stop, based upon the updated vehicle status information and the planned timing. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
Specification