Real-time driver observation and scoring for driver'S education

• US 10,446,047 B1
• Filed: 09/02/2016
• Issued: 10/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Fields, Brian Mark, He, Jibo, Nepomuceno, John Adrian, Roberson, Steve, Plummer, Bryan Allen, Houdek, Kurtis C., Jain, Neeraj
• Primary Examiner(s): Utama, Robert J
• Application Number:
  US15/255,538
• Time in Patent Office: 1,138 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/18 for vehicle drivers or machine operators
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0064 using a remote, e.g. cordless, transmitter or receiver unit, e.g. remote keypad or mobile phone
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0075 Automatic parameter input, automatic initialising or calibrating means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/10 Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3676 Overview of the route on the road map
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/14 Traffic procedures, e.g. traffic regulations
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/16 Control of vehicles or other craft simulators G09B9/02
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/167 Control of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/125 the stations being mobile
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/02 for teaching control of vehicles or other craft
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/04 for teaching control of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/042 providing simulation in a real vehicle G09B9/052, G09B9/058 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/052 characterised by provision for recording or measuring trainee's performance devices for psychotechnics, e.g. for vehicle drivers A61B5/16, A61B5/18

Abstract

A method includes, for each of two or more driving sessions in which a student driver operates a vehicle, gathering driving skill data indicative of at least one of behavior of the student driver, acceleration of the vehicle, braking of the vehicle, or steering of the vehicle, and generating a driving session report. The method further includes causing the driving session reports corresponding to the two or more driving sessions to be displayed to a driving instructor, and receiving comments from the driving instructor about the two or more driving sessions of the student driver. Still further, the method includes storing the driving session reports corresponding to the two or more driving sessions along with the received comments from the driving instructor.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

for each of two or more driving sessions in which a student driver operates a vehicle;

gathering, at an on-board computer from one or more sensors installed within the vehicle, driving skill data indicative of vehicle operation by the student driver, wherein the one or more sensors include at least one of the following;

an accelerometer array, a geopositioning device, or an image capture device;

communicating, from the on-board computer to a computing device communicatively connected thereto, the driving skill data;

calculating, by the computing device, at least one score based on one or more values of the driving skill data indicative of acceleration, braking, steering, gaze location, scanning frequency, lane deviation, lane centering, or time to collision; and

generating, by the computing device, a driving session report corresponding to the respective one of the two or more driving sessions, wherein the driving session report includes the at least one score based on the one or more values of the driving skill data;

causing, by the computing device, the driving session reports corresponding to the two or more driving sessions to be displayed to a driving instructor on a display device;

in response to displaying the driving session reports corresponding to the two or more driving sessions, receiving one or more comments from the driving instructor about at least one of the two or more driving sessions of the student driver; and

storing, in a non-transitory computer-readable medium communicatively connected to the computing device, the driving session reports corresponding to the two or more driving sessions along with the received one or more comments from the driving instructor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a mobile computing device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the display device is a display of the mobile computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is communicatively connected to the on-board computer via another computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more comments gathered from the driving instructor are associated with one or more locations of vehicle operation during at least one of the two or more driving sessions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein gathering the driving skill data includes gathering a plurality of gaze location logs, each of the plurality of gaze location logs indicating a duration of a gaze of the student driver in a particular direction.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the at least one score corresponding to the respective one of the two or more driving sessions includes:

calculating a plurality of scores, each of the plurality of scores corresponding to a respective one of gaze location, scanning frequency, lane deviation, lane centering, time to collision, braking, acceleration, or steering of the student driver during the respective one of the two or more driving sessions, and

combining the plurality of scores to generate a composite score representative of a performance of the student driver during the respective one of the two or more driving sessions,

wherein the driving session report includes the composite score.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising, for each of two or more driving sessions, detecting, by the computing device, one or more events occurring during the respective one of the two or more driving sessions based on the driving skill data.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein generating the driving session report corresponding to the respective one of the two or more driving sessions includes generating indications of the one or more events occurring during the respective one of the two or more driving sessions, wherein the driving session report includes the indications of the one or more events as visual markers on a map.

10. A system comprising:

an on-board computer having one or more processors;

a computing device having one or more processors and a user interface;

one or more sensors installed within the vehicle and communicatively connected to the on-board computer, the one or more sensors configured to generate driving skill data indicative of vehicle operation by a student driver, including at least one of the following;

an accelerometer array, a geopositioning device, or an image capture device;

a first non-transitory memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors of the on-board computer, cause the on-board computer to;

for each of two or more driving sessions in which a student driver operates a vehicle;

gather the driving skill data from the one or more sensors; and

communicate the driving skill data from the on-board computer to the computing device;

a second non-transitory memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors of the computing device, cause the computing device to;

receive the driving skill data for each of the two or more driving sessions;

calculate at least one score based on one or more values of the driving skill data indicative of acceleration, braking, steering, gaze location, scanning frequency, lane deviation, lane centering, or time to collision;

generate a driving session report corresponding to each of the two or more driving sessions, wherein the driving session report includes the at least one score based on the one or more values of the driving skill data;

cause the driving session reports corresponding to the two or more driving sessions to be displayed to a driving instructor via the user interface;

in response to displaying the driving session reports corresponding to the two or more driving sessions, receive one or more comments from the driving instructor about at least one of the two or more driving sessions of the student driver via the user interface; and

store the driving session reports corresponding to the two or more driving sessions along with the received one or more comments from the driving instructor in the second non-transitory memory.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the computing device is a mobile computing device.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the computing device is communicatively connected to the on-board computer via another computing device.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to:

for each of two or more driving sessions in which a student driver operates a vehicle;

gather, at an on-board computer from one or more sensors installed within the vehicle, driving skill data indicative of vehicle operation by the student driver, wherein the one or more sensors include at least one of the following;

an accelerometer array, a geopositioning device, or an image capture device;

communicate, from the on-board computer to a computing device communicatively connected thereto, the driving skill data;

calculate, by the computing device, at least one score based on one or more values of the driving skill data indicative of acceleration, braking, steering, gaze location, scanning frequency, lane deviation, lane centering, or time to collision; and

generate, by the computing device, a driving session report corresponding to the respective one of the two or more driving sessions, wherein the driving session report includes the at least one score based on the one or more values of the driving skill data;

cause the driving session reports corresponding to the two or more driving sessions to be displayed to a driving instructor on a display device;

in response to displaying the driving session reports corresponding to the two or more driving sessions, receiving one or more comments from the driving instructor about at least one of the two or more driving sessions of the student driver; and

store the driving session reports corresponding to the two or more driving sessions along with the received one or more comments from the driving instructor.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the computing device is a mobile computing device.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the computing device is communicatively connected to the on-board computer via another computing device.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more comments gathered from the driving instructor are associated with one or more locations of vehicle operation during at least one of the two or more driving sessions.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein calculating the at least one score corresponding to the respective one of the two or more driving sessions includes:

calculating a plurality of scores, each of the plurality of scores corresponding to a respective one of gaze location, scanning frequency, lane deviation, lane centering, time to collision, braking, acceleration, or steering of the student driver during the respective one of the two or more driving sessions, and

combining the plurality of scores to generate a composite score representative of a performance of the student driver during the respective one of the two or more driving sessions,

wherein the driving session report includes the composite score.