Managing a vehicle incident

• US 9,685,007 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2014
• Issued: 06/20/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dietz, William R., Holtzhauser, III, William R., Schembari, Francesco C., Jariwala, Ajit
• Primary Examiner(s): Edwards, Jerrah
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALSOMIRI, MAJDI A
• Application Number:
  US14/296,969
• Publication Number:
  US 20150356792A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,111 Days
• Field of Search: 701 1, 701 322- 327, 701 334, 340 81, 345467, 370328
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 9/00 Arrangement or adaptation of signal devices not provided for in one of main groups B60Q1/00 - B60Q7/00 , e.g. haptic signalling
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/30 Detection related to theft or to other events relevant to anti-theft systems
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

A system and computer implemented method for managing a vehicle incident is disclosed. The method may include monitoring, in response to a triggering event, a first vehicle having a first vehicle state including a set of physical condition characteristics. The method may also include detecting, for the first vehicle, a vehicle incident including a change of one or more physical condition characteristics of the set of physical condition characteristics. The method may also include collecting, in response to detecting the vehicle incident for the first vehicle, incident circumstance information including a set of potential causes of the vehicle incident. In certain embodiments, the method may include providing incident data based on at least a portion of the incident circumstance information and at least a portion of the change of one or more physical condition characteristics.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for managing a vehicle incident, the method comprising:

monitoring, in response to a triggering event, a first vehicle having a first vehicle state including a respective condition of one or more components of the first vehicle;

detecting, for the first vehicle, a vehicle incident including a change to the respective condition of at least one of the one or more components of the first vehicle;

collecting, in response to detecting the vehicle incident for the first vehicle, incident circumstance information including a plurality of potential causes of the change to the respective condition of at least one of the one or more components of the first vehicle; and

providing incident data based on at least a portion of the incident circumstance information and at least a portion of the change to the respective condition of at least one of the one or more components of the first vehicle;

wherein the triggering event is an environmental stimuli including one or more selected from a group consisting of an audio trigger, a motion-based trigger, an impact trigger, or a visual trigger;

wherein the first vehicle is configured to detect the environmental stimuli using a sensor array having one or more sensors selected from a group consisting of cameras, microphones, motion sensors, or impact sensors;

wherein the vehicle incident includes an impact to the first vehicle from a second vehicle; and

wherein collecting incident circumstance information further comprises obtaining, from the second vehicle, identification information of the second vehicle including one or more of a license plate number, vehicle identification number, or insurance policy number.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first vehicle is stationary and unattended.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on the incident circumstance information, a security action, wherein the security action is one or more selected from the group consisting of an alarm signal, an ignition lock, a door lock, or contacting an emergency response unit; and

performing, in response to determining the security action based on the incident circumstance information, the security action.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein providing the incident data further comprises:

transmitting, via a mobile application communicatively connected to a vehicle management system, an incident notification to a communication device identified with the first vehicle; and

uploading, to a secure management cloud, the incident data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the security action is determined by the mobile application communicatively connected to the vehicle management system.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising managing, by the mobile application, a set of operation settings for the sensor array of the first vehicle.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein uploading the incident data to a secure management cloud further comprises:

analyzing the plurality of potential causes of the vehicle incident; and

determining a rank-order for the plurality of potential causes based on the incident data.