IDENTIFICATION ASSESSMENT AND RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS WHILE IN AN AUTOMOBILE

• US 20110084824A1
• Filed: 10/09/2009
• Published: 04/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations Incorporated (Motors Liquidation Co. GUC Trust)
• Inventors: Tewari, Asim, Sachdev, Anil K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,350,722 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/438
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00771 the input being a vehicle position or surrounding, e.g. GPS-based position or tunnel
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0232 for measuring vehicle parameters and indicating critical, abnormal or dangerous conditions

Abstract

A method is disclosed for estimating the exposure of vehicle occupants to environmental conditions capable of inducing a least discomfort. The occupants are alerted to their proximity to a zone where environmentally-challenging conditions exist and, in a first embodiment, the details of the environmental condition and the estimated duration of any exposure is communicated to the occupants; in a second embodiment a suggested course of action by which the occupants may mitigate the effect of the environmental occurrence is communicated; and in a third embodiment the proposed course of action is automatically executed subject to override by the occupants.

Claims

1. A method of alerting occupants of a motor vehicle of their proximity to a region with known boundaries, the region within the boundaries being characterized by an environmental condition whose nature and severity are known, the environmental condition being capable of inducing at least discomfort in at least one occupant of the vehicle, the method comprising:

identifying the current location of the vehicle;

comparing the current vehicle location with known locations of regions with known environmental conditions;

determining whether the current location of the vehicle lies within a pre-selected distance of the bounds of the environmental condition; and

alerting the occupants of their proximity to environmental condition.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the alert is an audible alert.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

estimating, based on knowledge of current vehicle speed and route, and knowledge of the bounds of the environmental condition, the duration of exposure to the environmental condition.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

providing a visual display to the occupants of the nature and severity of the environmental condition and an estimate of the expected exposure time.

5. A method of communicating predetermined remedial actions to the occupants of a motor when the vehicle is determined to be within a preselected distance of the known boundaries of a region;

the region within the boundaries being characterized by an environmental condition whose nature and severity are known;

the environmental condition being capable of inducing at least discomfort in at least one occupant of the vehicle, the method comprising;

identifying the current location of the vehicle;

comparing the current vehicle location with the known location of regions with known environmental conditions;

determining whether the current location of the vehicle lies within the pre-selected distance of the bounds of the environmental condition;

estimating, based on knowledge of current vehicle speed and route, and knowledge of the bounds of the environmental condition, the duration of exposure to the environmental condition;

comparing the nature, duration and severity of the environmental condition to a stored listing of environmental conditions, each nature, duration and severity of the listing of environmental conditions being associated with at least one remedial action; and

when a listed environmental condition possessing substantially identical parameters for nature, duration and severity is found, communicating the associated remedial action for that condition to the vehicle occupants.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising automatically executing the associated remedial action.

7. The method of claim 5 comprising requesting authorization from the occupants prior to automatically executing the associated remedial action.