Personalized parking assistant

• US 9,076,336 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Audi AG (Volkswagen AG), Volkswagen AG
• Original Assignee: Audi AG (Volkswagen AG), Volkswagen AG
• Inventors: Tippelhofer, Mario, Camhi, Jaime
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Shirley
• Application Number:
  US13/987,304
• Publication Number:
  US 20140266805A1
• Time in Patent Office: 844 Days
• Field of Search: 340/932.2, 340/933, 340/937
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/14 indicating individual free spaces in parking areas
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/143 inside the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/148 Management of a network of parking areas

Abstract

An in-vehicle parking system and method for displaying and analyzing parking information.

Claims

1. An in-vehicle personalized parking system, comprising:

a processor in data communication with a graphical display device, a driver identifying device, a driver input device, a transceiver operative to communicate with at least one source of parking space information, a global positioning system (GPS) module, and a non-transitory data storage device on which is stored computer code which, when executed on the processor, implements;

a parking information database that stores information of at least one of an available parking space, and a parking space the vehicle has been parked in;

a weighting factor database that stores weighting factor information;

a driver preference database that stores driver preference information;

a parking preference analysis engine,

a parking recommendation engine;

an interface to an in-vehicle navigation system; and

instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the system to;

identify the driver,

obtain from the driver a destination where a parking space is needed;

request current information of available parking spaces proximate the destination from the at least one source of parking space information, and receive the requested information;

recommend by the parking recommendation engine at least one parking space based on the destination, the available parking spaces, and the driver preference information, and

present the recommended parking space(s) on the display; and

means for gathering information of the parking spaces in which respective identified drivers park, means for analyzing the drivers'"'"' selection of parking spaces parked in, and means for adapting the parking space recommendation based on the analyzing,

wherein the destination requested from the driver is used by the in-vehicle navigation system to provide driving directions to the destination, the in-vehicle navigation system provides the destination to the in-vehicle personalized parking system via the interface to the vehicle navigation system and the in-vehicle personalized parking system obtains information of available parking spots around the destination,

wherein the driver identifying device includes one of a key fob, a camera, and a driver selection control of the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the driver preference database includes information gathered by querying the driver.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the driver preference database includes information gathered automatically pertaining to the parking spaces in which respective ones of the drivers park.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the information of the parked-in spaces includes at least one of a characterization of the neighborhood parked in, a time of day, a duration, and a price for the parking, a street sweeping schedule, a tow-away rule, a distance from a final destination, a weather condition, a start time of an event associated with the driver'"'"'s parking, and a vehicle passenger identity, at least a portion of which is stored in the weighting factor database as weighting factor(s).

5. An in-vehicle personalized parking system, comprising:

a tangible processing unit in data communication with;

a graphical display device, a transceiver operative to communicate with at least one source of parking space information, a global positioning system (GPS) module, a driver identifying device, a driver input device, an environment detecting module, and a non-transitory data storage device on which is stored computer code which, when executed on the processor, implements;

a parking information database that stores information of at least one of a parking facility and a parking space the vehicle has been parked in;

a weighting factor database that stores weighting factor information;

a driver information database that stores drivers'"'"' identities and respective preference information;

a driver parking preference analysis engine that analyses respective drivers'"'"' parking preferences based on information of respective parking events;

a parking recommendation engine;

an interface to an in-vehicle navigation system that receives a specification of a destination from a driver; and

instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the vehicle to;

identify the driver driving the vehicle;

obtain information about a plurality of parking spaces parked in in relationship to a corresponding plurality of destinations specified by the driver;

analyze the obtained parking space information in relationship to the specified destinations; and

determine and store parking preferences of the driver based on the analysis,

wherein destinations specified by the driver are used by the in-vehicle navigation system to provide driving directions to those destinations, the in-vehicle navigation system provides the destinations to the in-vehicle personalized parking system via the interface to the vehicle navigation system and the in-vehicle personalized parking system obtains information of available parking spots around the destination based on the determined parking preferences,

wherein the driver identifying device includes one of a key fob, a camera, and a driver selection control of the vehicle.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the vehicle to:

obtain from the driver a destination where a parking space is needed;

request current information of available parking spaces proximate the destination from the at least one source of parking information, and receive the requested information;

recommend at least one parking space based on the destination, the available parking spaces, the driver identity, and the driver'"'"'s parking preferences; and

present the recommended parking space(s) on the display.

7. The system of claim 5, further comprising instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the vehicle to:

prompt the driver for parking preference information and receive the driver'"'"'s responses; and

store the responses as driver preference information.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the information of the parked-in spaces includes at least one of a characterization of the neighborhood, a time of day, a duration, a price for parking, a street sweeping schedule, a tow-away rule, a distance from a final destination, a weather condition, a start time of an event associated with the driver'"'"'s parking, and a vehicle passenger identity, as weighting factor(s).

9. A vehicle that includes the system of claim 5.

10. A method of recommending a parking space, the method comprising:

obtaining an identity of a driver driving a vehicle via a driver identifying device wherein the driver identifying device includes one of a key fob, a camera, and a driver selection control of the vehicle;

storing the identity in a driver information database on a tangible storage device in data communication with a tangible processor, the tangible processor being in data communication with a graphical display device, the driver identifying device, a driver input device, a transceiver operative to communicate with at least one source of parking space information, a global positioning system (GPS) module, and a non-transitory data storage device on which is stored computer code which, when executed on the processor, implements a parking information database that stores information of at least one of an available parking space, and a parking space the vehicle has been parked in, a weighting factor database that stores weighting factor information, a driver preference database that stores driver preference information, a parking preference analysis engine, a parking recommendation engine, and an interface to an in-vehicle navigation system;

determining a destination specified by the driver;

detecting a parking event in which the vehicle being driven by the driver has been parked, and obtaining and storing information of the parking event in relation to the specified destination in the parking information database;

analyzing the stored parking event information and specified destination to determine parking preferences of the driver; and

storing the parking preferences in association with the driver'"'"'s identity in the driver preference database,

wherein the obtaining, detecting, analyzing, and storing are repeated for a plurality of driving occurrences,

wherein destinations specified by the driver during driving occurrences are used by the in-vehicle navigation system to provide driving directions to those destinations, the in-vehicle navigation system provides the destinations via the interface to the vehicle navigation system,

wherein the method further comprises obtaining information of available parking spots around the destination specified by the driver during a driving occurrence based on the stored parking preferences.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

obtaining from the driver a destination where a parking space is needed;

requesting current information of available parking spaces proximate the destination from the at least one source of parking information, and receiving the requested information;

recommending at least one parking space based on the destination, the available parking spaces, the driver identity, and the driver'"'"'s parking preferences;

presenting the recommended parking space(s) on a display;

detecting when the vehicle has been parked as a parking event; and

determining whether the space parked in is a recommended parking space and, in the case it is not, obtaining and storing information of the parking event and repeating the analyzing and storing.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

obtaining a selection of one of the recommended parking spaces; and

obtaining and storing information of the selected parking space as a parking event and repeating the analyzing and storing.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

prompting the driver for parking preference information and receiving the driver'"'"'s responses; and

storing the responses as driver preference information.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the information of the parking event includes at least one of a characterization of the neighborhood, a time of day, a duration, a price for parking, a street sweeping schedule, a tow-away rule, a distance from a final destination, a weather condition, a start time of an event associated with the driver'"'"'s parking, and a vehicle passenger identity, as weighting factor(s).

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

storing weighting factor information; and

using the stored weighting factor information in the analyzing the stored parking event information to determine parking preferences of the driver.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the weighting factor information includes at least one of a characterization of a neighborhood, a time of day, a duration, a price for parking, a street sweeping schedule, a tow-away rule, a distance from a final destination, a weather condition, a start time of an event associated with the driver'"'"'s parking, and a vehicle passenger identity.