Vehicular Location Monitoring and Space Sharing Method and System

• US 20180102053A1
• Filed: 03/17/2017
• Published: 04/12/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2016
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Space Matter Alliance, LLC
• Original Assignee: Space Matter Alliance, LLC
• Inventors: Hillman, Dustin, Hillman, Cassandra
• Application Number:
  US15/461,657
• Publication Number:
  US 20180102053A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/02 taking into account a variable factor such as distance or time, e.g. for passenger transport, parking systems or car rental systems G07B15/06 takes precedence; taximeters G07B13/00; parking meters per se G07F17/24; car rental systems per se G07B15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/143 inside the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/144 on portable or mobile units, e.g. personal digital assistant [PDA]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/146 where the parking area is a limited parking space, e.g. parking garage, restricted space
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/147 where the parking area is within an open public zone, e.g. city centre

Abstract

A vehicular location monitoring and space sharing process is coordinated by a management facility processing system. The management facility processing system receives vehicle locations from two driver processing systems as well as an intended location from one of the two driver processing systems. The management facility processing system matches an offering driver processing system, which identified its location as a potentially available parking location, with a requesting driver processing system, which specified an intended location proximal to the location of the offering driver processing system. The matching performed by the management facility processing system may take into account factors such as location, distance, congestion, timing constraints, and vehicle size. Post-parking ride sharing is also coordinated through the management facility processing system.

Claims

1. A vehicle location monitoring and space sharing method, comprising:

a) receiving at a parking space management facility through an electronic communication interface to an external communication system, offers from a plurality of offering vehicle processing systems to vacate respective vehicle locations, and for each such offer;

(i) storing offer information in tangible electronic storage, the offer information including;

(A) offering vehicle location information,

(B) offering driver information, and

(C) offer termination time specifying when the offer will terminate,

(ii) terminating the offer if not accepted by the offer termination time;

c) receiving through the electronic communication interface a request from a requesting vehicle processing system, the request including;

(A) requesting vehicle location information,

(B) requesting driver information,

(C) request termination time specifying when the request will terminate if not accepted, and

(D) an intended destination location;

d) searching the electronic storage for an offer that matches the request, taking into consideration the following elements;

(i) the offering vehicle location information and the intended destination location, and

(ii) estimated travel time from the requesting vehicle location to the offering vehicle location;

e) transmitting, through the electronic communications interface, information characterizing a matching offer for a particular parking space to the requesting vehicle processing system, and receiving agreement to the matching offer;

f) transmitting, through the electronic communications interface, information characterizing the request to a matching offering vehicle processing system that transmitted the matching offer, and receiving agreement to the request; and

g) receiving, through the electronic communications interface, confirmation, that an exchange of the parking space has occurred.

2. The method of claim 1, the searching for an offer further taking into consideration:

(v) sizes of the two vehicles.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

h) after the receiving step, transferring by the facility a payment from a requesting driver account to an offering driver account.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the amount of the payment is a function of parking congestion near the parking space.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the amount of the payment is uniform throughout a particular geographic area.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the amount of the payment is negotiated between the two vehicle processing systems.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimation of travel time considers information selected from a set consisting of:

a distance between the vehicle locations, recurring events, scheduled events, traffic density, road closures, detours, and weather.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

h) transmitting a first offer from a first offering vehicle processing system associated with a first offering vehicle.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first offer specifies a first offering vehicle location that is determined by the first offering vehicle processing system from GPS.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

i) receiving information pertaining to the first offer through a user interface of the first offering vehicle processing system.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the first offering vehicle is a self-driving vehicle, and the first offer and relevant information are automatically generated by the first offering vehicle itself in response to an indication received through a user interface of an intent to leave a first parking space.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

h) transmitting the request from the requesting vehicle processing system, wherein the requesting vehicle processing system is associated with a requesting vehicle.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the requesting vehicle location is determined by the requesting vehicle processing system from GPS.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

i) receiving through a user interface of the requesting vehicle processing system information pertaining to the request.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the requesting vehicle is a self-driving vehicle, and the request and relevant information are automatically generated by the vehicle itself in response to input receive through a user interface to go to the intended destination location.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the offer information further includes an indication of willingness to drive a short distance after the exchange of the parking space, further wherein the request further includes a request to obtain a drive from the parking space to the intended destination location, and still further wherein the receiving of step d) includes receiving confirmation that the drive from the parking space to the intended destination location was completed.

17. A system, comprising:

a) a parking space management facility, including

(i) a server, with a processing system that includes a tangible hardware processor,

(ii) a communication interface whereby the server communicates with a communication system external to the management facility,

(iii) storage that contains

(A) driver data for a plurality of drivers, which includes, for each driver in the plurality, identification information,

(B) vehicle data, for a plurality of vehicles, which includes for each vehicle in the plurality, color, make, model, and license plate number,

(C) offer data, for a plurality of parking space availability offers, specifying a driver, a vehicle, a location, an offer expiration time, and a latest time for waiting to vacate the space, and

(D) request data, for a plurality of parking space requests, specifying a driver, a vehicle, and an expiration time, and

(E) agreement data, for a plurality of agreements, specifying a request-offer pair, and

(iv) logic, including software instructions that are executed by the processor, that

(A) estimates relevant travel times between locations,

(B) estimates relevant parking densities, and

(C) compares time requirements and location requirements in matching requests to offers.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

b) a requesting vehicle processing system, that transmits request data pertaining to a request through a communication interface to the management facility.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

c) an offering vehicle processing system, that transmits offer data pertaining to an offer through a communication interface to the management facility.

20. A method, comprising:

a) receiving by an offering vehicle smart system information specifying an offer of a parking space, which is at the time of the transmission is occupied by the offering vehicle;

b) transmitting by the system information characterizing the offer through an external electronic communication interface to a remote parking space management facility;

c) within a previously specified interval, receiving through the external interface from the facility information characterizing a request for the parking space from a requesting vehicle smart system, and specifying a time to hold the parking space;

d) within the holding time, transmitting through the external interface from the facility a confirmation that the offering vehicle has vacated the parking place and that the requesting vehicle has replaced it.