Dynamic ride matching system
First Claim
1. A dynamic ride matching method comprisingstoring a plurality of trips in a trip module, wherein each trip further comprises a plurality of attributes including a source location, a destination location and a shortest path between the source location and the destination location;
- segmenting the shortest path between the source location and the destination location into a plurality of path segments;
defining a plurality of radial buffers, each of the plurality of radial buffers defined around one of each of the plurality of path segments and each of the plurality of radial buffers having a radius equal to a predetermined percentage of a length of the shortest path between the source location and the destination location;
associating each of the plurality of radial buffers with at least one attribute of the plurality of attributes for each trip in the trip module;
storing at least one scheduling parameter associated with each of the plurality of trips in a scheduling module; and
matching trips in the trip module having correlating trip attributes in at least one of the plurality of radial buffers and correlating scheduling parameters in the scheduling module.
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Abstract
A ride matching method is disclosed herein. The ride matching method addresses many of the limitations associated with traditional dynamic ride matching applications. The method is unique in its ability to accept trips with schedules that cannot be expressed in terms of a simple recurrence pattern (e.g. Monday thru Friday work schedule). It can handle one-time and occasional trips. It is also distinct in its use of spatial analysis techniques to locate matches. Specifically, the use of a shortest path solver enables the ride matching method to perform a search along the path of a user'"'"'s trip, in addition to the customary radial search around the endpoints. The shortest path solver is also used to calculate the driving distance between the user and a match. This provides a more accurate measurement than the straight-line distance used by other methods, especially in the presence of barriers.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A dynamic ride matching method comprising
storing a plurality of trips in a trip module, wherein each trip further comprises a plurality of attributes including a source location, a destination location and a shortest path between the source location and the destination location; -
segmenting the shortest path between the source location and the destination location into a plurality of path segments; defining a plurality of radial buffers, each of the plurality of radial buffers defined around one of each of the plurality of path segments and each of the plurality of radial buffers having a radius equal to a predetermined percentage of a length of the shortest path between the source location and the destination location; associating each of the plurality of radial buffers with at least one attribute of the plurality of attributes for each trip in the trip module; storing at least one scheduling parameter associated with each of the plurality of trips in a scheduling module; and matching trips in the trip module having correlating trip attributes in at least one of the plurality of radial buffers and correlating scheduling parameters in the scheduling module. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification