Traffic score determination

• US 9,702,716 B2
• Filed: 08/28/2013
• Issued: 07/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Telematics Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Barfield, Jr., James, Siegel, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kong, Sze-Hon
• Application Number:
  US14/012,291
• Publication Number:
  US 20150066355A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,413 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3446 Details of route searching algorithms, e.g. Dijkstra, A*, arc-flags, using precalculated routes
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3492 employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/367 Details, e.g. road map scale, orientation, zooming, illumination, level of detail, scrolling of road map or positioning of current position marker

Abstract

A computing device may execute a routing application to perform operations including identifying a contextual parameter indicative of a quality preference for routing over segments of geographic mapping data, weighing the segments of geographic mapping data according to traffic score information indicative of the presence of the contextual parameter over the respective segments determined based at least in part on vehicle diagnostic data, and determining a suggested route for a vehicle from a current location to a destination location over the weighed segments of geographic mapping data based on the contextual parameter. The device may be further configured to receive a route request including the destination location for the vehicle; and display the route for the vehicle on a map including indications of the quality of the segments along the suggested route. To improve the routing, learning heuristics identify what diagnostic data variables correlate with presence of which contextual parameters.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an aggregation device to;

receive input parameters including vehicle data from a plurality of vehicles traversing a set of road segments,

the vehicle data being from at least one of;

a telematics unit,

a sensor, or

a global positioning system device;

receive user feedback from the plurality of vehicles indicating contextual parameters associated with the set of road segments;

perform analysis on the vehicle data to determine a data element as an outlier;

determine a relationship between the outlier and at least one of the contextual parameters;

determine, based on the relationship, an association between the at least one of the contextual parameters and another set of road segments;

receive a request for traffic scores associated with a specified contextual parameter,

the specified contextual parameter being indicative of a quality preference for routing over segments of geographic mapping data,

generate traffic scores based on the specified contextual parameter, the relationship, and the association; and

provide, to a device associated with a vehicle, the traffic scores to generate a suggested route,

the segments of geographic mapping data being weighed according to the traffic scores, and

the suggested route being provided, for display, at the device associated with the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, where the quality preference for routing over the segments of geographic mapping data includes being at least one of:

more enjoyable,

more scenic,

more exciting,

having less stop and go traffic, or

having a lower historical rate of vehicle accident.

3. The system of claim 1, where the specified contextual parameter is at least one of:

included in a route request, or

retrieved from routing preferences associated with a user of a routing application.

4. The system of claim 1, where the aggregation device, when receiving the request for traffic scores, is to:

receive the request for traffic scores based on a route request; and

where the suggested route is provided, for display, on a map,

the map including indications of quality of segments along the route.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the aggregation device communicates with a processing device,

the processing device being at least one of:

a mobile telephone,

or

a computing device embedded within a vehicle; and

the processing device including a routing application configured to determine a route according to at least one of;

Dijkstra'"'"'s algorithm, or

A* algorithm.

6. The system of claim 1, where the aggregation device, when receiving the user feedback, is to:

receive the user feedback via a user interface,

the user interface including at least one of a prompt or a message requesting user entry of the contextual parameters, and

a plurality of selectable contextual parameter options to use to input the contextual parameters.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the aggregation device is further to:

generate an inferred relationship based on a difference between a non-normal parameter and historical norms for parameters that are not determined to be outliers.

8. The system of claim 1, where the aggregation device, when receiving the request for the traffic scores, is to:

receive the request for the traffic scores from a routing application; and

where the aggregation device, when providing the traffic scores, is to;

provide the traffic scores to the routing application.

9. The system of claim 1, where the user feedback is received from a routing application.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving, by an aggregation device and from a processing device, input parameters including vehicle data from a plurality of vehicles traversing a set of road segments,

the vehicle data being from at least one of;

a telematics unit,

a sensor, or

a global positioning device;

receiving, by the aggregation device and from the processing device, user feedback from the plurality of vehicles indicating contextual parameters associated with the set of road segments;

performing, by the aggregation device, analysis on the vehicle data to determine a data element as an outlier;

determining, by the aggregation device, a relationship between the outlier and at least one of the contextual parameters;

determine, based on the relationship, an association between the at least one of the contextual parameters and another set of road segments;

receiving, by the aggregation device, a request for traffic scores associated with a specified contextual parameter,

the specified contextual parameter being indicative of a quality preference for routing over segments of geographic mapping data; and

sending, by the aggregation device to a device associated with a vehicle, information indicative of quality of the segments of geographic mapping data to generate a suggested route,

the information being based on the relationship and the association,

the segments of geographic mapping data being weighed according to traffic score information indicative of a presence of the specified contextual parameter, and

the suggested route being provided, for display, at the device associated with the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 10, where the quality preference for routing over the segments of geographic mapping data includes being at least one of:

more enjoyable,

more scenic,

more exciting,

having less stop and go traffic, or

having a lower historical rate of vehicle accident.

12. The method of claim 10, where the specified contextual parameter is at least one of:

included in a route request, or

retrieved from routing preferences associated with a user of a routing application.

13. The method of claim 10,

where the suggested route is provided, for display on a map,

the map including indications of the quality of the segments of geographic mapping data along the suggested route.

14. The method of claim 10, where the suggested route is determined according to at least one of:

Dijkstra'"'"'s algorithm, or

A* algorithm.

15. The method of claim 10, where receiving the request for the traffic scores includes:

receiving the request for the traffic scores from the processing device,

the processing device running a routing application.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:

a plurality of instructions that, when executed by a processor of an aggregation device, cause the processor to;

receive input parameters including vehicle data from at least one vehicle traversing at least a first set of road segments and a second set of road segments,

the vehicle data including at least one of;

a telematics unit,

a sensor, or

a global positioning system device;

receive user feedback from the at least one vehicle indicating a first contextual parameter associated with the first set of road segments;

perform analysis on the vehicle data to determine a data element as an outlier;

determine a relationship between the outlier and the first contextual parameter;

determine, based on the relationship, an association between a second contextual parameter and the second set of road segments;

receive a request for traffic score information associated with a specified contextual parameter,

the specified contextual parameter being indicative of a quality preference for routing over segments of geographic mapping data,

generate the traffic score information based on the specified contextual parameter, the relationship, and the association; and

provide, to a device associated with a vehicle, the traffic score information to generate a suggested route,

the segments of geographic mapping data being weighed according to the traffic score information, and

the suggested route being provided, for display, at the device associated with the vehicle.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, where the plurality of instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to:

perform at least one heuristic learning technique on the vehicle data to infer presence data element indicative of the first contextual parameter.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16,

where

the user feedback is associated with at least one of a request for:

a more enjoyable route,

a more scenic route,

a hilly route,

a route with a lower chance of getting into an accident, or

a longer route with less stop-and-go traffic.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, where the traffic score information is first traffic score information;

and

where the plurality of instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to;

receive, from a routing application, another request including another contextual parameter;

generate second traffic score information, indicative of a presence of the other contextual parameter over another set of road segments; and

provide the second traffic score information to the routing application.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, where the device, associated with the vehicle, is embedded in the at least one vehicle or is a mobile device that is carried by an occupant of the vehicle.