Method and apparatus for determining traffic safety events using vehicular participative sensing systems
First Claim
1. A method for identifying hazardous driving conditions using vehicular participative sensing systems, said method comprising:
- providing data about traffic safety events by a plurality of participative sensing system vehicles;
collecting, on a server computer including a processor and memory, the data about the traffic safety events from the participative sensing system vehicles;
analyzing the data about the traffic safety events, by the server computer, to identify hazardous conditions, including aggregating the data, filtering the data, applying a time-decay to the data and purging the data;
issuing advisories about the hazardous conditions from the server computer to advisory-receiving vehicles and other entities, where the advisories include a type of the hazardous condition and a location of the hazardous condition; and
notifying drivers of the advisory-receiving vehicles of the hazardous conditions described in the advisories.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and systems are disclosed for participative sensing of events and conditions by road vehicles, collection of this data from a large number of road vehicles by a central server, processing the data to identify events and conditions which may be of interest to other vehicles in a particular location, and sending notifications of the events and conditions to vehicles. A large number of vehicles use participative sensing systems to identify a safety-related event or condition which should be reported to the central server—such as a large pothole, an obstacle in the roadway, an icy road surface, a traffic accident, etc. The central server stores and aggregates the data, filters it and ages it. Vehicles requesting advisories from the central server will receive notices of safety-related events and conditions based on their location and heading. Driver warnings can be issued, and vehicle systems may respond to the notices.
193 Citations
21 Claims
-
1. A method for identifying hazardous driving conditions using vehicular participative sensing systems, said method comprising:
-
providing data about traffic safety events by a plurality of participative sensing system vehicles; collecting, on a server computer including a processor and memory, the data about the traffic safety events from the participative sensing system vehicles; analyzing the data about the traffic safety events, by the server computer, to identify hazardous conditions, including aggregating the data, filtering the data, applying a time-decay to the data and purging the data; issuing advisories about the hazardous conditions from the server computer to advisory-receiving vehicles and other entities, where the advisories include a type of the hazardous condition and a location of the hazardous condition; and notifying drivers of the advisory-receiving vehicles of the hazardous conditions described in the advisories. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A method for identifying hazardous driving conditions using vehicular participative sensing systems, said method comprising:
-
providing data about traffic safety events by a plurality of participative sensing system vehicles, including monitoring data from vehicle sensors and systems, identifying a trigger event, computing a safety metric about the traffic safety event, and wirelessly communicating the safety metric and a vehicle location to a server computer; collecting, on the server computer including a processor and memory, the data about the traffic safety events from the participative sensing system vehicles; analyzing the data about the traffic safety events, by the server computer, to identify hazardous conditions, including segregating the hazardous conditions into those that relate to behavior of specific other vehicles and their drivers, those that relate to chronic conditions that repeatedly occur at a particular fixed location on a roadway, and those that relate to transient conditions at various locations on the roadway; issuing advisories about the hazardous conditions from the server computer to advisory-receiving vehicles, where the advisories include a type of the hazardous condition and a location of the hazardous condition; notifying drivers of the advisory-receiving vehicles of the hazardous conditions described in the advisories; and issuing advisories about the hazardous conditions from the server computer to a road commission which has responsibility for a road on which the hazardous condition exists, where the advisories include advisories of conditions needing immediate attention including road repair, snow plowing and road salt, and electronic sign message content, and advisories of chronic conditions needing long-term attention including road design changes and permanent road sign changes. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
-
-
13. A vehicular participative sensing system for identifying hazardous driving conditions, said system comprising:
-
a plurality of participative sensing system vehicles with sensors and a processor configured to provide data about traffic safety events, where the processor monitors data from vehicle dynamics sensors and object detection sensors, data from vehicle systems available on a vehicle data bus, and data about other vehicles from a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication system, said participative sensing system vehicles also including a wireless communications system for communicating the data about the traffic safety events; a server computer including a processor and memory, said server computer being configured to receive the data about the traffic safety events from the participative sensing system vehicles, analyze the data about the traffic safety events to identify hazardous conditions, and issue advisories about the hazardous conditions, where the advisories include a type of the hazardous condition and a location of the hazardous condition, and where analyzing the data includes aggregating the data, filtering the data, applying a time-decay to the data and purging the data; and a plurality of advisory-receiving vehicles with a wireless communications system for receiving the advisories about the hazardous conditions, and a processor configured to notify drivers of the hazardous conditions described in the advisories. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A vehicular participative sensing system for identifying hazardous driving conditions, said system comprising:
-
a plurality of participative sensing system vehicles with sensors and a processor configured to provide data about traffic safety events, where the processor monitors data from vehicle dynamics sensors and object detection sensors, data from vehicle systems available on a vehicle data bus, and data about other vehicles from a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication system, said participative sensing system vehicles also including a wireless communications system for communicating the data about the traffic safety events; a server computer including a processor and memory, said server computer being configured to receive the data about the traffic safety events from the participative sensing system vehicles, analyze the data about the traffic safety events to identify hazardous conditions, and issue advisories about the hazardous conditions, where the advisories include a type of the hazardous condition and a location of the hazardous condition, where analyzing the data includes segregating the hazardous conditions into those that relate to behavior of specific other vehicles and their drivers, those that relate to chronic conditions that repeatedly occur at a particular fixed location on a roadway, and those that relate to transient conditions at various locations on the roadway; and a plurality of advisory-receiving vehicles with a wireless communications system for receiving the advisories about the hazardous conditions, and a processor configured to notify drivers of the hazardous conditions described in the advisories.
-
-
21. A vehicular participative sensing system for identifying hazardous driving conditions, said system comprising:
-
a plurality of participative sensing system vehicles with sensors and a processor configured to provide data about traffic safety events, where the processor monitors data from vehicle dynamics sensors and object detection sensors, data from vehicle systems available on a vehicle data bus, and data about other vehicles from a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication system, said participative sensing system vehicles also including a wireless communications system for communicating the data about the traffic safety events; a server computer including a processor and memory, said server computer being configured to receive the data about the traffic safety events from the participative sensing system vehicles, analyze the data about the traffic safety events to identify hazardous conditions, and issue advisories about the hazardous conditions, where the advisories include a type of the hazardous condition and a location of the hazardous condition, where the advisories are designated as watch-level advisories related to moderately hazardous conditions or warning-level advisories related to severely hazardous conditions; and a plurality of advisory-receiving vehicles with a wireless communications system for receiving the advisories about the hazardous conditions, and a processor configured to notify drivers of the hazardous conditions described in the advisories.
-
Specification