Systems and methods for monitoring and reporting road quality

• US 10,102,694 B2
• Filed: 08/17/2015
• Issued: 10/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Jackson, Dean K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rivera Vargas, Manuel A
• Application Number:
  US14/828,096
• Publication Number:
  US 20150356796A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,156 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/06 Road conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/04 Monitoring the functioning of the control system
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0816 Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A server communicates with vehicles traveling along a route. The server obtains sensor data indicative of road quality from the vehicles. The server determines that a certain proportion of the vehicles traveling along the route experience better road quality than the remaining vehicles traveling along the route. The server than determines that a first lane in the route has significantly better road quality than a second lane in the route.

Claims

1. A server comprising:

a system interface to communicate with vehicles traveling along a route; and

a processing hardware configured to;

obtain, from the vehicles via the system interface, sensor data indicative of road quality,

determine, using the obtained sensor data, that a certain proportion of the vehicles traveling along the route experience different road quality than the remaining vehicles traveling along the route, for a certain geographic location,

determine that a first lane in the route has different road quality from a second lane in the route, to generate road quality information; and

generate an updated navigation route using the generated road quality information; and

provide, via a network to a vehicle at the geographic location, the updated navigation route.

2. The server of claim 1, wherein the processing hardware is further configured to:

obtain make and model information for the vehicles traveling in the first lane of the route and the vehicles traveling in the second lane of the route; and

calibrate the sensor data using the make and model information.

3. The server of claim 1, wherein the processing hardware is further configured to:

determine a geographic location of the vehicles traveling in the first lane of the route and the vehicles traveling in the second lane of the route, wherein the geographic location is determined using a positioning technique.

4. The server of claim 1, wherein to determine the sensor data, the processing hardware is further configured to apply a calibration factor for the geographic location.

5. The server of claim 1, wherein the processing hardware obtains sensor data generated by at least one of a suspension sensor, strut sensor, shock sensor, a horizontal displacement sensor, and a vertical displacement sensor.

6. The server of claim 1, wherein the processing hardware is further configured to provide the updated navigation route to the vehicle in response to a query.

7. The server of claim 1, wherein to obtain the sensor data, the processing hardware assigns first weights to vehicles corresponding to trusted sources and second weights to vehicles corresponding to non-trusted sources.

8. A method for monitoring lane-specific road quality information, the method comprising:

obtaining, by one or more processors, sensor data indicative of road quality from vehicles traveling in a first lane of a route;

obtaining, by one or more processors, sensor data indicative of road quality from vehicles traveling in a second lane of the route for a certain geographic location;

determining, by one or more processors using the sensor data, respective road quality for a first lane and a second lane using the sensor data, to generate road quality information;

generating an updated map using the generated road quality information; and

providing, via a network to a vehicle at the geographic location, the updated map.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

obtaining, by one or more processors, make and model information for the vehicles traveling in the first lane of the route and the vehicles traveling in the second lane of the route; and

calibrating, by one or more processors, the sensor data using the make and model information.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

obtaining a geographic location of the vehicles traveling in the first lane of the route and the vehicles traveling in the second lane of the route using a positioning technique.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the respective road quality includes applying, by one or more processors, a calibration factor for the geographic location.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the respective road quality includes determining that a certain proportion of vehicles traveling along the route experience different road quality than the remaining vehicles traveling along the route.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

obtaining the sensor data indicative of road quality includes obtaining sensor data generated by at least one of a suspension sensor, strut sensor, shock sensor, a horizontal displacement sensor, and a vertical displacement sensor.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising providing the updated map to the vehicle in response to a query.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein obtaining the sensor data includes receiving the sensor data at a server via a communication network.

16. A method in a server for monitoring lane-specific road quality information, the method comprising:

obtaining, by one or more processors, a geographic location of vehicles traveling along a route;

obtaining, from the vehicles by one or more processors, sensor data indicative of road quality for a certain geographic location;

determining, by one or more processors using the sensor data, that a certain proportion of the vehicles traveling along the route experience different road quality than the remaining vehicles traveling along the route;

determining, by one or more processors, that a first lane in the route has different road quality than a second lane in the route, to generate road quality information;

generating a calibration factor for a vehicle at the geographic location using the generated road quality information; and

providing, via a network to an onboard computer of the vehicle, the generated calibration factor for generating future road quality indications.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

obtaining make and model information for the vehicles; and

calibrating the sensor data using the make and model information.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the sensor data is generated by at least one of a suspension sensor, strut sensor, shock sensor, a horizontal displacement sensor, and a vertical displacement sensor.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising providing, by one or more processors, the generated calibration factor to the vehicle in response to a query.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein obtaining the sensor data includes assigning first weights to vehicles corresponding to trusted sources and second weights to vehicles corresponding to non-trusted sources.