System and method for operating a service to arrange transport amongst parties through use of mobile devices

• US 9,959,512 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2010
• Issued: 05/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Camp, Garrett, Salazar, Oscar, Kalanick, Travis
• Primary Examiner(s): Harrington, Michael P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Singh, Rupangini
• Application Number:
  US12/928,254
• Publication Number:
  US 20110301985A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,703 Days
• Field of Search: 705 5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0284 Time or distance, e.g. usage of parking meters or taximeters
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083

Abstract

A system and method are described for enabling transportation to be arranged for individuals carrying handsets or mobile devices. In some embodiments, a customer can transmit a request for transport from a given customer geographic location. A service may handle the request by selecting a driver for the customer.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for operating one or more servers to provide a service for arranging transport, the method comprising:

detecting a customer application executing on a mobile computing device of a customer, the customer application automatically communicating with the service over a network;

determining a current location of the mobile computing device of the customer, based on data determined by the customer application executing to interface with a Global Positioning System (GPS) resource of the mobile computing device;

determining a current location of a plurality of available vehicles, the current location of each available vehicle in the plurality of available vehicles being based on data determined by a corresponding driver application executing on a corresponding mobile computing device associated with that vehicle, wherein on each available vehicle in the plurality, the corresponding driver application executes to access a GPS resource of the corresponding mobile computing device in order to provide the data for determining the current location of that available vehicle to the service;

communicating with the customer application executing on the mobile computing device of the customer to receive a transport request;

wherein communicating with the customer application includes;

providing data to the customer application executing on the mobile computing device to generate a presentation on a display of the mobile computing device of the customer, the presentation including a map while concurrently providing a user interface feature from which the customer can trigger transmission of the transport request to initiate, by the one or more servers, a selection process to assign the transport request to one of the plurality of vehicles;

determining, from the plurality of available vehicles, one or more vehicles that satisfy criteria of (i) being within a designated proximity to the current location of the customer, and (ii) being of a vehicle class that is a preference of the customer;

providing data to the customer application executing on the mobile computing device to cause the presentation to depict (i) the current location of the mobile computing device of the customer on the map, (ii) the current location of a vehicle of the one or more vehicles that satisfy the criteria on the map, and (iii) a predicted response time for the one or more vehicles that satisfies the criteria to arrive at the current location of the mobile computing device of the customer;

receiving, from the mobile computing device of the customer, the transport request once the user customer interacts with the user interface feature, the transport request including geographic location information that specifies a pickup location;

in response to receiving the triggered transmission of the transport request from the user interface feature, initiating the selection process by programmatically selecting an available vehicle from the one or more vehicles to be assigned to transport the customer, and then determining information to communicate to the driver application executing on the mobile computing device associated with the selected vehicle, the determined information including the pickup location;

prior to the transport being provided to the customer, (i) receiving location information determined by the driver application executing on the mobile computing device associated with the selected vehicle in order to access the GPS resource of that mobile computing device as the selected vehicle moves to the pickup location, and (ii) providing progress information of the selected vehicle to the customer, the progress information including an indication showing a current geographic location of the selected vehicle in transit on the display of the mobile computing device of the customer;

upon the customer being picked up by the selected vehicle, tracking a route of the selected vehicle from the pickup location to a drop-off location, wherein tracking the route to the drop-off location includes using information determined by at least one of (i) execution of the customer application to obtain data from the GPS resource of the mobile computing device of the customer, or (ii) execution of the corresponding driver application in order to obtain data from the GPS resource of the mobile computing device associated with the selected vehicle; and

determining a fare for providing transport to the customer, wherein the fare is based at least in part on the pickup location and the tracked route to the drop-off location.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling the customer to provide a feedback using the customer application executing on the mobile computing device of the customer in order to affect a service reputation of a driver of the selected vehicle upon completing transport, wherein the feedback is a rating.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling a driver of the selected vehicle to provide a feedback of the customer using the corresponding driver application executing on the mobile computing device associated with the selected vehicle in order to affect a customer reputation.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the feedback is available to other customers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the progress information includes an estimated time of arrival that is provided on the display of the mobile computing device of the customer.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the driver of the selected vehicle that receives the feedback from the customer is a proprietor of a vehicle transport service.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the fare for the transport is performed after the drop-off location is determined.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining the fare is based at least in part on a duration for the customer to be transported from the pickup location to the drop-off location.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the fare is performed automatically in response to automatically determining the customer leaving the selected vehicle of a driver.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the fare is based at least in part on a time of day in which the customer is transported.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the customer leaving the selected vehicle includes tracking a geographic location of the mobile computing device of the customer relative to a geographic location of the mobile computing device associated with the selected vehicle as the customer is transported.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the fare is performed automatically in response to receiving an indication that the transport has been completed from the corresponding driver application executing on the mobile computing device associated with the selected vehicle.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining funds for the fare using an account of the customer;

transferring funds corresponding to a portion of the funds received from the customer to an account associated with a driver of the selected vehicle; and

distributing at least a portion of the funds received from the customer to a car service associated with a driver of the selected vehicle as compensation for providing transport to the customer.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising enabling the customer to specify, through the service, a tip in addition to the funds, and then compensating, from the service, the driver of the selected vehicle for the tip.

15. A system for arranging transport, the system comprising:

one or more network interfaces to communicate with a mobile computing device of a customer and with a mobile computing device associated with each vehicle in a group of vehicles; and

one or more processors coupled to the one or more network interfaces, the one or more processors to;

detect a customer application executing on a mobile computing device, the customer application automatically communicating with a network service of a system over a network;

determine a current location of the mobile computing device of the customer, based on data determined by the customer application executing to interface with a Global Positioning System (GPS) resource of the mobile computing device;

determine a current location of a plurality of available vehicles in the group of vehicles, the current location of each available vehicle in the plurality of available vehicles being based on data determined by a corresponding driver application executing on a corresponding mobile computing device associated with that vehicle, wherein on each available vehicle in the plurality, the corresponding driver application executes to access a GPS resource of the corresponding mobile computing device in order to provide the data for determining the current location of that available vehicle to the network service of the system;

communicate with the customer application executing on the mobile computing device of the customer to receive a transport request;

wherein the one or more processors communicate with the customer application by;

providing data to the customer application executing on the mobile computing device to generate a presentation, on a display of the mobile computing device of the customer, the presentation including a map while concurrently providing a user interface feature from which the customer can trigger transmission of the transport to initiate, by the one or more processors, a selection process to assign the transport request to one of the plurality of vehicles;

determining, from the plurality of available vehicles, one or more vehicles that satisfy criteria of (i) being within a designated proximity to the current location of the customer, and (ii) being of a vehicle class that is a preference of the customer;

providing data to the customer application executing on the mobile computing device to cause the presentation to depict (i) the current location of the mobile computing device of the customer on the map, and (ii) the current location of a vehicle of the one or more vehicles that satisfy the criteria on the map, and (iii) a predicted response time for the one or more vehicles that satisfies the criteria to arrive at the current location of the mobile computing device of the customer;

receive, from the mobile computing device of the customer, the transport request once the user interacts with the user interface feature, the transport request including geographic location information that specifies a pickup location;

in response to receiving the triggered transmission of the transport request from the user interface feature, initiate the selection process by programmatically selecting an available vehicle from the one or more vehicles to be assigned to transport the customer, and then determine information to communicate to the driver application executing on the mobile computing device associated with the selected vehicle, the determined information including the pickup location;

prior to the transport being provided to the customer, (i) receive location information determined by the driver application executing on the mobile computing device associated with the selected vehicle in order to access the GPS resource of that mobile computing device as the selected vehicle moves to the pickup location, and (ii) provide progress information of the selected vehicle to the customer, the progress information including an indication showing a current geographic location of the selected vehicle in transit on the display of the mobile computing device of the customer;

upon the customer being picked up by the selected vehicle, track a route of the selected vehicle from the pickup location to a drop-off location, wherein the one or more processors track the route to the drop-off location using information determined by at least one of (i) execution of the customer application to obtain data from the GPS resource of the mobile computing device of the customer, or (ii) execution of the corresponding driver application in order to obtain data from the GPS resource of the mobile computing device associated with the selected vehicle; and

determine a fare for providing transport to the customer, wherein the fare is based at least in part on the pickup location, and the tracked route to drop-off location.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the progress information includes an estimated time of arrival that is provided on the display of the mobile computing device of the customer.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors determine the fare for the transport automatically in response to determining the customer leaving the selected vehicle.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more processors determine the customer leaving the selected vehicle by tracking a geographic location of the mobile computing device of the customer relative to a geographic location of the mobile computing device associated with the selected vehicle as the customer is transported.