Platform for acquiring driver behavior data

• US 9,940,530 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2016
• Issued: 04/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2015
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Thunder Power New Energy Vehicle Development Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Thunder Power New Energy Vehicle Development Company Limited
• Inventors: Lai, Sheng-Fu
• Primary Examiner(s): Amin, Bhavesh V
• Application Number:
  US15/361,998
• Publication Number:
  US 20170185854A1
• Time in Patent Office: 498 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/26 Government or public services business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/582 of traffic signs
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/054 photographing overspeeding vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

Described herein is an onboard vehicle system capable of gathering driver behavior to be provided to a service provider computer. In some embodiments, the onboard vehicle system includes one or more input sensors, such as camera devices, configured to capture image information surrounding the onboard system. Upon detecting another vehicle within the image information, the onboard system may determine a vehicle identifier and determine, based on the vehicle'"'"'s movements, that the vehicle is exhibiting anomalous behavior. Upon detecting anomalous behavior of a vehicle within its vicinity, the onboard system may transmit an indication of the anomalous behavior and a vehicle identifier to the service provider computer to be stored in a database. In some embodiments, the information provided to the service provider computer may be accessed by one or more users over a public network.

Claims

1. An onboard vehicle apparatus, comprising:

one or more camera devices configured to capture image input related to target vehicles;

a processor device configured to;

continuously receive image inputs from the one or more camera devices;

identify, from the received image input, target vehicles associated with the image inputs;

determine a speed of each target vehicles based on the image inputs;

determine a speed limit for a road;

determine that the speed of at least one of the target vehicles has exceeded the speed limit; and

provide, via wireless transmission, behavior information to a service provider computer, the behavior information including the identifier of at least one target vehicle and the speed of the at least one target vehicle, wherein the service provider computer is further configured to;

identify, by querying a database that relates drivers to vehicle identifies, a driver from the identifier of the at least one target vehicle;

identify a record of anomalous behavior associated with the identified driver;

append the behavior information to the record of anomalous behavior, the record of anomalous behavior being accessible via a web browser over a public network;

receive an indication of the identifier of the target vehicle from a second onboard vehicle apparatus; and

provide, to the second onboard vehicle apparatus, the record of the anomalous behavior that includes the behavior information.

2. The onboard vehicle apparatus of claim 1, wherein the received image inputs include images depicting at least a portion of each target vehicles.

3. The onboard vehicle apparatus of claim 2, wherein the identifier of the at least one target vehicle is identified using one or more image processing techniques.

4. The onboard vehicle apparatus of claim 1, wherein the behavior information provided to the service provider includes the received image inputs for the at least one target vehicle.

5. The onboard vehicle apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor device is further configured to provide, via wireless transmission, the behavior information to a local law enforcement agency.

6. A method comprising:

continuously receiving, from a camera device installed on a first vehicle, image information regarding target vehicles other than the first vehicle;

identifying, from the image information, target vehicles associated with the image inputs;

determining a speed of each target vehicles based on the image inputs;

determine a speed limit for a road;

determine that the speed of at least one of the target vehicles has exceeded the speed limit;

providing, via wireless transmission, behavior information to a service provider computer, the behavior information including the identifier of at least one target vehicle and the speed of the at least one target vehicle such that the service provider computer is caused to;

identify a driver from a driver database based on the identifier of the at least one target vehicle;

append the anomalous driving behavior to a driving record associated with the identified driver; and

provide the driving record associated with the identified driver to a second vehicle upon receiving a request related to the driver.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the image information is stored at the service provider for future reference.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a user is able to view the stored image information or the driving record via a network connection.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the received image inputs include images depicting at least a portion of each target vehicles.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising providing, via wireless transmission, the behavior information to a local law enforcement agency.

11. A service provider computer, comprising:

a processor device; and

a memory including instructions that, when executed with the processor device, cause the system to, at least;

continuously receive, from an onboard system installed in a first vehicle, image inputs regarding target vehicles other than the first vehicle;

identify, from the received image input, target vehicles associated with the image inputs;

determine a speed of each target vehicles based on the image inputs;

determine a speed limit for a road;

determine that the speed of at least one of the target vehicles has exceeded the speed limit;

determine, by querying a data store including relationships between vehicle identifiers and vehicle drivers, a vehicle driver associated with the at least one target vehicle;

store an indication of the driving behavior in a database with respect to a driving record associated with the vehicle driver, such that the indication of the driving behavior may be accessed by a second onboard system.

12. The service provider computer of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the system, to at least:

receive, from a client device, via a network connection, a request to provide the stored indication of the driving behavior; and

provide, to the client device, the stored indication of the driving behavior.

13. The service provider computer of claim 12, wherein the request is received via a public network.

14. The service provider computer of claim 12, wherein the driving behavior is one of swerving, driving erratically, driving too fast, driving too slow, or driving outside of the bounds of a road.

15. The service provider computer of claim 11, wherein the speed limit is determined based on a current geographic location of the first vehicle.

16. The service provider computer of claim 11, further comprising:

continuously receive, from an onboard system installed in a second vehicle, image inputs regarding a second set of target vehicles other than the second vehicle, wherein the image inputs received from the onboard system installed in a first vehicle regard a first set of target vehicles;

identify, from the received image input, the second set of target vehicles associated with the image inputs received from the onboard system installed in the second vehicle;

determine a speed of each target vehicles in the second set based on the image inputs received from the onboard system installed in the second vehicle;

determine that the speed of a least one target vehicle in the second set has exceeded the speed limit;

determine, by querying a data store including relationships between vehicle identifiers and vehicle drivers, a vehicle driver associated with the at least one target vehicle in the second set; and

determine that the at least one target vehicle in the second set is the same vehicle as the at least one target vehicle in the first set.