Systems and methods for unified directions

• US 9,057,612 B1
• Filed: 05/15/2013
• Issued: 06/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Savvopoulos, Christos
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung, Calvin
• Application Number:
  US13/894,487
• Publication Number:
  US 20150176996A1
• Time in Patent Office: 762 Days
• Field of Search: 701/527
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 21/3626 Details of the output of route guidance instructions traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3676 Overview of the route on the road map

Abstract

Methods and systems for unified directions are described herein. The method includes receiving a list of one or more routes from an origin to a destination for each of two or more different modes of transportation, each route having an associated duration. The durations of routes from each list that are subsequent to a first route from the respective list are penalized. One or more routes from each list are combined to generate a combined list of routes for each of the two or more different modes of transportation. The combined list of routes is sorted to generate a sorted list of routes based, at least in part, on the durations and penalized durations of the routes.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating unified directions, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by one or more computing devices, a list of one or more routes from an origin to a destination for each of two or more different modes of transportation, each route having an associated duration;

penalizing, by the one or more computing devices, the durations of routes from each list that are subsequent to a first route from the respective list,

wherein penalizing the durations of the routes comprises increasing the durations of the routes,

wherein the durations of the routes of each list that are subsequent to a first route of the respective list are penalized by at least 10%;

combining, by the one or more computing devices, one or more routes from each list to generate a combined list of routes for each of the two or more different modes of transportation; and

sorting, by the one or more computing devices, the combined list of routes to generate a sorted list of routes based, at least in part, on the durations and penalized durations of routes.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising calculating, by the one or more computing devices, a distance between the origin and destination to determine the two or more modes of transportation for which the lists of routes are received.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein based on the calculated distance, walking and biking are the modes of transportation for which routes are received.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein based on the calculated distance, driving and flying are the modes of transportation for which routes are received.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising sorting, by the one or more computing devices, the combined list of routes based on a received order of the one or more routes of each list, wherein the received order is preserved such that the first rout of each list remains prior to the subsequent routes of such list in the sorted list of routes.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising evaluating, by the one or more computing devices, one or more of the origin, the destination, and a region therebetween to determine the two or more modes of transportation for which the lists of routes are received.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein evaluating comprises determining transit coverage.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein evaluating comprises determining cycling paths.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the durations of routes of a list for one mode of transportation are greater penalized than the durations of routes of a list for another mode of transportation.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the mode of transportation for the greater penalized durations of routes is driving.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the durations of routes of each list that are subsequent to a first rout of the respective list are penalized by at least 20%.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the durations of routes of each list that are subsequent to a first route of the respective list are increasingly penalized.

13. A system comprising:

one or more processors and a network interface;

the one or more processors configured to;

receive a list of one or more routes from an origin to a destination for each of two or more different modes of transportation, each route having an associated duration;

penalize the durations of routes from each list that are subsequent to a first route from the respective list,

wherein the durations of the penalized routes are increased,

wherein the durations of the routes of each list that are subsequent to a first route of the respective list are penalized by at least 10%;

combine one or more routes from each list to generate a combined list of routes for each of the two or more different modes of transportation; and

sort the combined list of routes to generate a sorted list of routes based, at least in part, on the durations and penalized durations of the routes.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to provide, via the network interface, one or more routes of the sorted list of routes.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to provide, via the network interface, three or more routes of the sorted list of routes.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the durations of routes of each list that are subsequent to a first route of the respective list are increasingly penalized.

17. One or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-readable instructions when executed by one or more processors performs a method, the method comprising:

receiving a list of one or more routes from an origin to a destination for each of two or more different modes of transportation, each route having an associated duration;

penalizing the durations of routes from each list that are subsequent to a first route from the respective list,

wherein penalizing the durations of the routes comprises increasing the durations of the routes,

wherein the durations of the routes of each list that are subsequent to a first route of the respective list are penalized by at least 10%;

combining one or more routes from each list to generate a combined list of routes for each of the two or more different modes of transportation; and

sorting the combined list of routes to generate a sorted list of routed based, at least in part, on the durations and penalized durations of the routes.

18. The one or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, the one or more processors further performs sorting the combined list of routes based on a received order of the one or more routes of each list, wherein the received order is preserved such that the first route of each list remains prior to the subsequent routes of such list in the sorted list of routes.