System and method for providing dynamic supply positioning for on-demand services

• US 9,066,206 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Lin, Hungyu Henry, Wang, Emily, Kalanick, Travis Cordell
• Primary Examiner(s): Elhag, Magdi
• Application Number:
  US13/836,993
• Publication Number:
  US 20140011522A1
• Time in Patent Office: 830 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.2, 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.3, 455/456.5, 455/456.6, 455/457, 705/7.34, 705/13, 705/14.53, 705/14.54, 705/14.58
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A method for providing on-demand service information is provided. One or more processors determine, for a given geographic region, position information for each of a plurality of requesters for an on-demand service and position information for each of a plurality of service providers that can provide the on-demand service. A plurality of sub-regions is identified for the given geographic region. Based, at least in part, on the position information of the requesters and the service providers, one or more sub-regions are determined as being under-supplied by the plurality of service providers as compared to one or more other sub-regions. Information identifying the under-supplied sub-regions are provided to one or more service provider devices.

Claims

1. A method for providing information for an on-demand service, the method being performed by a computing system and comprising:

receiving, by the computing system, user data from mobile computing devices that are operated by individuals, the user data being generated by a service application on a respective mobile computing device of each individual, wherein receiving user data includes receiving position information from the respective mobile computing device of each individual;

receiving, by the computing system, provider data from mobile computing devices that are operated by a group of service providers, the provider data being generated by a service application on a respective mobile computing device of each service provider in the group, wherein receiving provider data includes receiving position information from the respective mobile computing device of each service provider;

determining, based, at least in part, on the user data, (i) a user state of the mobile computing device of each individual, the user state indicating whether each individual is currently receiving the on-demand service, and (ii) a set of individuals who launched the service application within a designated duration of time that is deemed to be indicative of interest for requesting service within a given geographic region;

determining, based, at least in part on the provider data, a provider state of each service provider in the group that is within the given geographic region; and

determining a supply level of the given geographic region based at least in part on (i) individuals other than those having the user state that indicates that the on-demand service is being received, (ii) the set of individuals, and (iii) the provider state of each service provider within the given geographic region.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, from the computing system to a set of mobile computing devices operated by a respective set of service providers in the group, information about the supply level of the given geographic region.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the information about the supply level of the given geographic region can be used by the service application of each mobile computing device of the respective set of mobile computing devices to display content about the supply level of the given geographic region to the respective set of service providers.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the provider state indicates whether each service provider is available to provide the on-demand service, and wherein determining the supply level of the given geographic region includes (i) determining a ratio of (a) a number of individuals in the set of individuals that do not have the user state that indicates that the on-demand service is being received, to (b) a number of service providers having the provider state that indicates availability to provide the on-demand service, and (ii) comparing the ratio to a threshold ratio.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the information about the supply level of the given geographic region can be used by the service application of each mobile computing device of the respective set of mobile computing devices to display a visualization on or as part of a map user interface that includes the given geographic region.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein providing the information about the supply level of the given geographic region includes mapping the supply level to a corresponding visualization characteristic using a mapping table.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the visualization characteristic corresponds to a color so that different supply levels are mapped to different colors.

8. A computing system comprising:

one or more network interfaces;

one or more processors;

one or more memory resources coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more memory resources storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to;

receive user data from mobile computing devices that are operated by individuals, the user data being generated by a service application on a respective mobile computing device of each individual, wherein receiving user data includes receiving position information from the respective mobile computing device of each individual;

receive provider data from mobile computing devices that are operated by a group of service providers, the provider data being generated by a service application on a respective mobile computing device of each service provider in the group, wherein receiving provider data includes receiving position information from the respective mobile computing device of each service provider in the group;

determine, based, at least in part, on the user data, (i) a user state of the mobile computing device of each individual, the user state indicating whether each individual is currently receiving an on-demand service, and (ii) a set of individuals who launched the service application within a designated duration of time that is deemed to be indicative of interest for requesting service from the on-demand service within a given geographic region;

determine, based at least in part on the provider data, a provider state of each service provider in the group that is within the given geographic region; and

determine a supply level of the given geographic region based, at least in part on (i) individuals other than those having the user state that indicates that the on-demand service is being received, (ii) the set of individuals, and (iii) the provider state of each service provider within the given geographic region.

9. The computing system of claim 8, wherein the instructions cause the computing system to:

provide, from the computing system to a set of mobile computing devices operated by a respective set of service providers of the group, information about the supply level of the given geographic region.

10. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the information about the supply level of the given geographic region can be used by service applications on the mobile computing devices of the respective set of service providers to display content about the supply level of the given geographic region to the respective set of service providers.

11. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the provider state indicates whether each service provider is available to provide the on-demand service, and wherein the instructions cause the computing system to determine the supply level of the given geographic region by (i) determining a ratio of (a) a number of individuals in the set of individuals that do not have the user state that indicates that the on-demand service is being received, to (b) a number of service providers having the provider state that indicates availability to provide the on-demand service, and (ii) comparing the ratio to a threshold ratio.

12. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the information about the supply level of the given geographic region can be used by service applications on the mobile computing devices of the respective set of service providers to display a visualization on or as part of a map user interface that includes the given geographic region.

13. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the instructions cause the computing system to provide the information about the supply level of the given geographic region by mapping the supply level to a corresponding visualization characteristic using a mapping table.

14. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the visualization characteristic corresponds to a color so that different supply levels are mapped to different colors.

15. A method for providing information for an on-demand service, the method being performed by a computing system and comprising:

receiving user data from mobile computing devices that are operated by individuals in a given geographic region, the user data being generated by a service application on a respective mobile computing device of each individual, wherein receiving user data includes receiving position information from the respective mobile computing device of each individual;

receiving provider data from mobile computing devices that are operated by a group of service providers in the given geographic region, the provider data being generated by a service application on a respective mobile computing device of each service provider in the group, wherein receiving provider data includes receiving position information from the respective mobile computing device of each service provider;

identifying a plurality of sub-regions for the given geographic region;

for each sub-region;

determining, based, at least in part, on the user data, (i) a user state of the mobile computing device of each individual in that sub-region, the user state indicating whether each individual is currently receiving the on-demand service, and (ii) a set of individuals who launched the service application within a designated duration of time that is deemed to be indicative of interest for requesting service within that sub-region;

determining, based, at least in part, on the provider data, a provider state of each service provider in the group that is within that sub-region; and

determining a supply level of that sub-region based, at least in part, on (i) individuals other than those having the user state that indicates that the on-demand service is being received, (ii) the set of individuals, and (iii) the provider state of each service provider within that sub-region.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein each of the plurality of sub-regions is identified using three or more location data points that define a boundary of that sub-region.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

providing, from the computing system to a set of mobile computing devices operated by a respective set of service providers, information about the supply level of each of the sub-regions.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising providing the information about the supply level of each of the sub-regions to one or more of the mobile computing devices of the respective set of service providers for use in displaying a visualization on or as part of a map user interface that includes the given geographic region.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein displaying the visualization includes displaying each of the sub-regions on the map user interface, and wherein providing the information about the supply level of each of the sub-regions includes mapping the supply level of each of the sub-regions to a corresponding visualization characteristic using a mapping table.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the corresponding visualization characteristic of the supply level of each sub-region corresponds to a color, so that the supply level of two or more sub-regions that are different are mapped to different colors.