System to identify a vehicle

• US 10,467,906 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2015
• Issued: 11/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bosch Automotive Service Solutions LLC (SPX Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Bosch Automotive Service Solutions, Inc. (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Inventors: Fish, James, Chamberlain, Meghan E., Muller, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith, Isaac G
• Application Number:
  US14/979,871
• Publication Number:
  US 20170186324A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,408 Days
• Field of Search: 701 314, 701 319, 701 291
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/02 Registering or indicating driving, working, idle, or waiting time only apparatus forming part of taximeters G07B13/00
• 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: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

A system that provides a safety rating for a driver or a vehicle to a rider of the vehicle. Information including diagnostic information such as sensor information and location information is used to determine the safety rating. By having a high safety rating, the rider of the vehicle has some level of assurance that the vehicle will arrive at a designated location.

Claims

1. A processor-implemented method of rating a vehicle programmed in a non-transitory processor-readable medium executed on at least one processor of a remote computing device, the method comprising:

receiving vehicle diagnostic information collected from a vehicle with at least one processor of a remote computing device;

analyzing the vehicle diagnostic information with the at least one processor to determine a safety rating of the vehicle based on the vehicle diagnostic information, the vehicle diagnostic information comprising at least one or more set diagnostic trouble code (DTC);

storing the determined safety rating of the vehicle in a database of the remote computing device;

receiving over a network a request for a vehicle from a rider wireless device with the at the one processor; and

providing over the network a list of vehicles to the rider wireless device and a corresponding safety rating of the vehicles based on the vehicle diagnostic information for display on the rider wireless device.

2. The rating method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving over the network a selection of a vehicle from the list of vehicles at the at least one processor from the rider wireless device; and

sending rider information over the network to a driver wireless device of the vehicle.

3. The rating method of claim 1, wherein the safety rating of the vehicle is also based on other vehicle diagnostic information that is based on at least one of the following:

tire pressure, remaining fuel, or brake sensor.

4. The rating method of claim 1, further comprising providing the safety rating from the at least one processor over the network to the rider wireless device for display, wherein the safety rating displayed on the rider wireless device comprises at least one of the following:

an icon, a number, or a letter.

5. The rating method of claim 1, further comprising sending vehicle information from the at least one processor over the network to the rider wireless device for display,

wherein the vehicle information includes at least one of the following:

a license plate, a vehicle identification number (VIN), or a picture of the vehicle to the rider.

6. The rating method of claim 5, wherein the VIN number of the vehicle is verified by the rider wireless device communicating with the vehicle,

wherein the vehicle comprises a connected vehicle.

7. The rating method of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor comprises a diagnostic manager,

the method further comprising analyzing the vehicle diagnostic information with the diagnostic manager to diagnose a current diagnostic condition of the vehicle to generate the safety rating.

8. The rating method of claim 1, further comprising sending from the at least one processor over the network to the rider wireless device for display a location of each of the listed vehicles,

wherein the location is displayed on a map displayed on the rider wireless device;

and

wherein the safety rating of the vehicle is also based on other vehicle diagnostic information that is based on tire pressure data, remaining fuel data, or brake sensor data.

9. The rating method of claim 1 further comprising sending from the at least one processor over the network a driver'"'"'s information to the rider wireless device for display on the rider wireless device,

wherein the driver'"'"'s information comprises at least one of the following:

a picture of the driver and a name of the driver; and

wherein the safety rating of the vehicle is also based on other vehicle diagnostic information that is based on tire pressure data, remaining fuel data, or brake sensor data.

15. The rating method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the vehicle diagnostic information collected from the vehicle with at least one processor of a remote computing device further comprises receiving the vehicle diagnostic information from a diagnostic system of the vehicle.

16. The rating method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a ride application for download from an application store to the rider wireless device,

wherein the ride application executes on the rider wireless device, and

wherein the ride application provides at least a safety rating function, a payment function, a vehicle request function, and a location determination function.

17. The rating method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving driving behavior information collected from the vehicle with the at least one processor of the remote computing device; and

analyzing the driving behavior information with the at least one processor to further determine the safety rating,

wherein the driving behavior information comprises information comprising at least one of the following;

hard braking data, excessive acceleration data, excessive braking data, swerving data, evasive maneuver data, crash data, and excessive lane change data.

10. A computing device that provides a driver and a vehicle along with a safety rating in response to a request from a rider wireless device, the computing device comprising:

at least one processor configured to control functions of the computing device via software and applications;

a wireless interface configured to communicate with a rider wireless device; and

a memory in communication with the at least one processor and configured to store an operating system and computer implemented instructions comprising;

receiving vehicle diagnostic information collected from a vehicle with the at least one processor of the computing device;

analyzing the vehicle diagnostic information with the at least one processor to determine a safety rating of the vehicle based on the vehicle diagnostic information, the vehicle diagnostic information comprising at least one or more set diagnostic trouble code (DTC);

storing the determined safety rating of the vehicle in a database of the computing device;

receiving over a network a request for a vehicle from a rider wireless device with the at least one processor; and

providing over the network a list of vehicles to the rider wireless device and a corresponding safety rating of the vehicles based on the vehicle diagnostic information for display on the rider wireless device.

11. The computing device of claim 10 further comprising:

receiving over the network a selection of a vehicle from the list of vehicles at the at least one processor from the rider wireless device; and

sending rider information over the network to a driver wireless device of the vehicle.

12. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the safety rating of the vehicle is also based on other vehicle diagnostic information that is based on at least one of the following:

tire pressure, remaining fuel, or brake sensor.

13. The computing device of claim 10,

wherein the computing device is configured to provide the safety rating from the at least one processor over the network to the rider wireless device for display, and

wherein the safety rating displayed on the rider wireless device comprises at least one of the following:

an icon, a number, or a letter.

14. The computing device of claim 10,

wherein the computing device is further configured to send vehicle information from the at least one processor over the network to the rider wireless device for display, and

wherein the vehicle information includes at least one of the following:

a license plate, a vehicle identification number (VIN), or a picture of the vehicle to the rider.

18. The computing device of claim 10 wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive the vehicle diagnostic information from a diagnostic system of the vehicle.

19. The computing device of claim 10 wherein:

the at least one processor is configured to receive driving behavior information collected from the vehicle with at least one processor of the computing device; and

the at least one processor is configured to analyze the driving behavior information with the at least one processor to further determine the safety rating,

wherein the driving behavior information comprises information comprising at least one of the following;

hard braking data, excessive acceleration data, excessive braking data, swerving data, evasive maneuver data, crash data, and excessive lane change data.

20. A processor-implemented method of rating a vehicle programmed in a non-transitory processor-readable medium executed on at least one processor of a remote computing device, the method comprising:

receiving vehicle diagnostic information collected from a vehicle with at least one processor of a remote computing device;

analyzing the vehicle diagnostic information with the processor to determine a safety rating of the vehicle based on the vehicle diagnostic information, the vehicle diagnostic information comprising at least one or more set diagnostic trouble code (DTC);

storing the determined safety rating of the vehicle in a database of the remote computing device;

receiving over a network a request for a vehicle from a rider wireless device with the at the one processor;

providing over the network a list of vehicles to the rider wireless device and a corresponding safety rating of the vehicles based on the vehicle diagnostic information for display on the rider wireless device;

receiving over the network a selection of a vehicle from the list of vehicles at the at least one processor from the rider wireless device;

sending rider information over the network to a driver wireless device of the vehicle;

sending from the at least one processor over the network a driver'"'"'s information to the rider wireless device for display on the rider wireless device,

wherein the safety rating displayed on the rider wireless device comprises at least one of the following;

an icon, a number, or a letter;

wherein the analyzing the vehicle diagnostic information further comprises analyzing the vehicle diagnostic information with a diagnostic manager configured to diagnose a current diagnostic condition of the vehicle to generate the safety rating; and

wherein the driver'"'"'s information comprises at least one of the following;

a picture of the driver and a name of the driver.