Methods and systems for destination congestion avoidance

• US 9,443,425 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2014
• Issued: 09/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Livio, Inc. (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Myine Electronics, Inc. (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Smereka, Scott, Grover, Joey Ray
• Primary Examiner(s): BUTLER, RODNEY ALLEN
• Application Number:
  US14/534,785
• Publication Number:
  US 20160133127A1
• Time in Patent Office: 677 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• 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: G08G 1/0125 Traffic data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096833 where different aspects are considered when computing the route

Abstract

A remote server having at least one processor in communication with one or more databases is configured to predict a congestion of a destination based on traffic information and/or an estimated amount of people at the destination. The one or more databases may include map information and attendance information. The processor is configured to receive a current location and destination input. The processor may be further configured to query the map information for one or more coordinates for the destination within a predefined distance to the current location. The processor may be further configured to query the attendance information to estimate the number of people at the destination based on the one or more coordinates and compare the estimated number of people to one or more predefined congestion values for the destination. The processor may be further configured to output a congestion prediction for the destination based on the comparison.

Claims

1. A remote server comprising:

at least one processor in communication with one or more databases having map information and attendance information, the processor configured to;

receive a current location and destination input;

query the map information for one or more coordinates for the destination within a predefined distance to the current location;

query the attendance information to estimate a number of people at the destination based on the one or more coordinates within a predefined window of time;

compare the estimated number of people to one or more predefined congestion values for the destination; and

output a congestion prediction for the destination based on the comparison.

2. The remote server of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to transmit the congestion prediction to a vehicle computing system.

3. The remote server of claim 1, wherein the one or more databases include data that comprises at least one of historical data for the one or more coordinates, social media data, and traffic data.

4. The remote server of claim 3, wherein the historical data of the destination at the database is at least one of parking availability, average amount of people, and traffic volume.

5. The remote server of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to rank the one or more coordinates based on the congestion prediction and output the ranked one or more coordinates for the destination to a device.

6. The remote server of claim 1, wherein the one or more coordinates are at least one location for the destination based on the predefined distance to the current location.

7. The remote server of claim 1, wherein the destination input is at least one of a name of a business, point of interest, address, and street name.

8. The remote server of claim 1, wherein the current location is at least one of a default location, a location of a nomadic device, and a location specified by a user.

9. A method comprising:

querying map information of a database, by a processor of a remote server, for a location based on received destination input,

querying by the processor, attendance information of the database to estimate a number of people at the location within a predefined window of time, and

outputting a congestion prediction for the location based on comparing the number of people at the location to a predefined congestion value.