Advance notification system and method utilizing vehicle signaling

• US 20020070882A1
• Filed: 11/06/2001
• Published: 06/13/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/1993
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Shipping & Transit, LLC
• Original Assignee: Arrivalstar SA
• Inventors: Jones, Martin Kelly
• Granted Patent: US 6,700,507 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/988
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/13 the indicator being in the form of a map

Abstract

An advance notification system and method notifies passengers of the impending arrival of a transportation vehicle, for example, a school bus, at a particular vehicle stop. The system generally includes an on-board vehicle control unit for each vehicle and a base station control unit for making telephone calls to passengers in order to inform the passengers when the vehicle is a certain predefined time period and/or distance away from the vehicle stop. The VCU compares elapsed time and/or traveled distance to the programmed scheduled time and/or traveled distance to determine if the vehicle is on schedule. If the vehicle is behind or ahead of schedule, the VCU calls the BSCU, which then adjusts its calling schedule accordingly.

Claims

1. A vehicle control unit disposed on a vehicle, said vehicle control unit configured to track said vehicle'"'"'s status on a scheduled route, said vehicle control unit configured to communicate with a base station control unit to inform said base station control unit of the vehicle'"'"'s status.

2. A base station control unit configured to communicate with a vehicle control unit, said base station control unit further configured to communicate with a user telephone interface to inform a user that a vehicle is approaching a particular vehicle stop.