Vehicle data system and method

• US 9,154,909 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2011
• Issued: 10/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TomTom Traffic B.V. (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: TomTom Development Germany GmbH (TomTom NV)
• Inventors: Fulger, Daniel, Mieth, Peter, Wiesner, Steffen Gunther
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hung T
• Application Number:
  US13/884,042
• Publication Number:
  US 20140002277A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,428 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.11, 340/539.13, 340/905, 340/995.1, 340/995.13, 340/995.17, 340/995.19, 340/995.23, 340/988, 340/989, 340/601, 340/602, 455/456, 455/456.1, 701/202, 701/209, 701/207, 701/208, 702/2, 702/3, 702/188
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3415 Dynamic re-routing, e.g. recalculating the route when the user deviates from calculated route or after detecting real-time traffic data or accidents
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3453 Special cost functions, i.e. other than distance or default speed limit of road segments
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3492 employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3691 Retrieval, searching and output of information related to real-time traffic, weather, or environmental conditions arrangements for giving variable traffic instructions G08G1/09
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0967 Systems involving transmission of highway information, e.g. weather, speed limits transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A server system configured to communicate with a device that is installable in a vehicle, such as a portable or in-built navigation device, comprises a communications resource for receiving vehicle data indicative of a parameter of the vehicle; and a processing resource operable to obtain weather data and to process the weather data and the vehicle data to determine at least one weather-related condition in dependence on both the weather data and the vehicle data.

Claims

1. A server system configured to communicate with a device that is installable in a vehicle, comprising:

a communications resource for receiving vehicle data indicative of a parameter of the vehicle; and

a processing resource operable to;

obtain weather data and to process the weather data and the vehicle data to determine at least one weather-related condition in dependence on both the weather data and the vehicle data, and

transmit a weather-related warning based on the determination to one or more devices,

wherein the determination based on vehicle data comprises a determination of an occurrence of the presence or absence of one or more slip events, wherein when the presence of one or more slip events exist, the one or more slip events are filtered to remove slip events not indicative of weather-related conditions.

2. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the processing of the weather data and the vehicle data to determine at least one weather-related condition comprises amending or verifying the weather data.

3. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the weather-related condition comprises at least one of a weather condition and a condition of a road at least one location.

4. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle data is representative of a property of at least one of the behaviour of the vehicle and a weather-related condition at the vehicle.

5. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the processing resource is configured to apply a statistical model to determine the weather-related condition based on the weather data and the vehicle data, the statistical model representative of relationships between historical vehicle data, historical weather data and historical occurrence of the at least one weather-related condition.

6. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the processing of the weather data and the vehicle data to determine at least one weather-related condition comprises generating, amending or verifying warning data representative of a weather-related warning.

7. The server system according to claim 6, wherein the processing resource is configured to generate, amend or verify the warning data in dependence on variation of at least one of the weather data and the vehicle data over a period of time.

8. The server system according to claim 6, wherein the processing resource is configured to generate, amend or verify the warning data by applying a statistical model representative of relationships between historical variations of vehicle data over a period of time, historical variations of weather data over a period of time and historical occurrence of the at least one weather-related condition.

9. The server system according to claim 6, wherein the warning data comprises time data representative of the start, end or duration of the weather-related warning, and the processing resource is configured to monitor the vehicle data and to generate, verify or modify the time data in dependence on the vehicle data.

10. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the weather-related data is representative of a boundary of an area of weather, and the processing resource is configured to verify or modify the location of the boundary in dependence on the vehicle data.

11. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the communications resource is configured to receive location data representative of the location of at least one of the device and vehicle and to associate the vehicle data with the location.

12. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle data is representative of the driving behaviour of the vehicle.

13. The server system according to claim 12, wherein the processing resource is configured to determine whether the driving behaviour of the vehicle is consistent with the weather-related data.

14. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle data comprises data obtained from at least one of the following:

a rain sensor, a temperature sensor, an acceleration sensor, an angular momentum sensor, a brake sensor, a speed sensor, an ultrasound sensor, a radar sensor, and a sensor or monitoring unit for sensing or monitoring operation of one or more of the following;

windscreen wipers, headlamps, sidelights, fog lamps, anti-lock braking system (ABS), air conditioning system, brakes, heating system.

15. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the processing resource is configured to receive the vehicle data from a plurality of devices installed in a plurality of vehicles.

16. The server system according to claim 15, wherein the processing resource is configured to modify the weather data for an area in dependence on at least one of the number of vehicles and the proportion of vehicles in the area for which the vehicle data is inconsistent with the weather data.

17. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the processing resource is configured to generate or modify a weather-related warning for an area in dependence on vehicle data received from devices installed in at least one vehicle in the area, and to selectively transmit the weather-related warning to further devices in dependence on the location of the further devices.

18. The server system according to claim 1, wherein:

the vehicle data comprises first vehicle data obtained from a first vehicle system and second vehicle data obtained from a second vehicle system, the second vehicle system being different from the first vehicle system; and

a processing resource is configured to determine from the first and second vehicle data whether an event has occurred.

19. The server system according to claim 18, wherein:

the event is a slip event;

the first vehicle system comprises a dedicated vehicle slip detection system; and

the second vehicle system comprises at least one of an acceleration sensor, an angular momentum sensor, a force sensor, a steering sensor, and a braking sensor.

20. The server system according to claim 1, wherein the device that is installable in a vehicle comprises a portable navigation device or a built-in vehicle navigation device.

21. A method of communicating with a device that is installable in a vehicle implemented by a server, comprising:

receiving vehicle data indicative of a parameter of the vehicle at a server

obtaining weather data at the server;

processing, by the server, the weather data and the vehicle data to determine at least one weather-related condition in dependence on both the weather data and the vehicle data; and

transmitting, by the server, a weather-related warning based on the determination,

wherein the determination based on vehicle data comprises a determination of an occurrence of the presence or absence of one or more slip events, wherein when the presence of one or more slip events exist, the one or more slip events are filtered to remove slip events not indicative of weather-related conditions.

22. A non-transitory computer program product comprising computer readable instructions that are executable by a computer to perform a method according to claim 21.