Systems and methods for generating and validating incentives based on multi-person vehicle occupancy

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10453084-B2
Application number	US-201213724802-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2012
Priority date	Dec 21, 2012
Publication date	Oct 22, 2019
Grant date	Oct 22, 2019

Abstract

Systems and methods for determining a number of vehicle occupants based at least in part on sensor data gathered by one or more in-vehicle sensors are disclosed. The number of vehicle occupants may be determined, at least in part, by an in-vehicle system associated with the vehicle. Vehicle occupancy information indicative of the number of vehicle occupants may be transmitted to facilitate identification of one or more incentives based at least in part on the vehicle occupancy information. The incentive(s) may include a reduction in a fee associated with operation of the vehicle such as a discounted toll amount, an elimination of a fee, an incentive payment, a discount associated with a product or service offering, and so forth. A tolling system ma be provided for receiving the vehicle occupancy information and determining a toll amount based at least in part on the received information.

First claim

That which is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
receiving, by one or more computer processors associated with a vehicle, sensor data from one or more sensors;
determining, by the one or more computer processors, that a vehicle occupancy determination condition is satisfied, based on a speed of the vehicle being below a first predetermined threshold;
determining, by the one or more computer processors and based at least in part on the sensor data, a first metric indicative of a likelihood of a first potential number of occupants of the vehicle and a second metric indicative of a likelihood of a second potential number of occupants of the vehicle, wherein the first metric is less than a second predetermined threshold, and the second metric is less than the second predetermined threshold:
determining, by the one or more computer processors, that the first metric is greater than the second metric;
determining, by the one or more computer processors, that a vehicle occupancy of the vehicle corresponds to the first potential number of occupants based at least in part on the determining that the first metric is greater than the second metric; and
causing to send, by the one or more computer processors, vehicle occupancy information indicative of the vehicle occupancy, and time information indicative of a percentage of time the vehicle spends on each of one or more types of infrastructure, via a reprogrammable electronic tolling tag associated with the one or more computer processors, to an interrogator associated with a tolling infrastructure responsive to an interrogation signal received from the interrogator, wherein:
one or more incentives are identified based at least in part:
on the vehicle occupancy information, and
the time information indicative of the percentage of time the vehicle spends on each of the one or more types of infrastructure, and

the reprogrammable electronic tolling tag receives the sensor data from the one or more sensors via the one or more computer processors.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more incentives comprise a reduction in a fee associated with operation of the vehicle.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the fee comprises a standard toll amount associated with the operation of the vehicle and the reduction comprises a discount by which the standard toll amount is adjusted, and wherein an amount of the discount increases as the vehicle occupancy increases.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein facilitating transmission of the vehicle occupancy information comprises:
storing, by the one or more computer processors, the vehicle occupancy information on the reprogrammable electronic tolling tag.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sensor data is first sensor data and the vehicle occupancy is first vehicle occupancy, the method further comprising:
receiving, by the one or more computer processors, second sensor data from the one or more sensors;
determining, by the one or more computer processors, and based at least in part on the second sensor data, a third metric indicative of a likelihood of the first potential number of occupants of the vehicle and a fourth metric indicative of a likelihood of the second potential number of occupants of the vehicle; and
determining, by the one or more computer processors, that the third metric and the fourth metric are each less than a third predetermined threshold,
wherein a second vehicle occupancy of the vehicle is determined based at least in part on, sensor data captured by one or more sensors external to the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle occupancy determination condition comprises one of:
i) opening or closing a door of the vehicle,
ii) opening or closing a window of the vehicle, or
iii) use of an ignition of the vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the vehicle occupancy corresponds to the first potential number of vehicle occupants comprises using a first portion of the sensor data received from a first sensor to confirm the first potential number of occupants of the vehicle, and wherein determining the first metric comprises calculating the first metric from a second portion of the sensor data received from a second sensor.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting, by the one or more computer processors, the vehicle occupancy information for presentation to at least one occupant of the vehicle;
receiving, by the one or more computer processors, input indicating that the vehicle occupancy information is inaccurate; and
re-determining, by the one or more computer processors, the vehicle occupancy responsive to the input.

9. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions that responsive to execution by one or more computer processors, configure the one or more computer processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving, by the one or more computer processors, sensor data from one or more sensors;
determining, by the one or more computer processors, that a vehicle occupancy determination condition is satisfied, based on a speed of a vehicle being below a first predetermined threshold;
determining, by the one or more computer processors and based at least in part on the sensor data, a first metric indicative of a likelihood of a first potential number of occupants of the vehicle and a second metric indicative of a likelihood of a second potential number of occupants of the vehicle, wherein the first metric is less than a second predetermined threshold, and the second metric is less than the second predetermined threshold;
determining, by the one or more computer processors, that the first metric is greater than the second metric;
determining, by the one or more computer processors, that a vehicle occupancy of the vehicle corresponds to the first potential number of occupants based at least in part on the determining that the first metric is greater than the second metric; and
causing to send, by the one or more computer processors, vehicle occupancy information indicative of the vehicle occupancy, and time information indicative of a percentage of time the vehicle spends on each of one or more types of infrastructure, via a reprogrammable electronic tolling tag associated with the one or more computer processors, to a tolling infrastructure for assessment of a toll amount based at least in part on the vehicle occupancy information, wherein the reprogrammable electronic tolling tag receives the sensor data from the one or more sensors via the one or more computer processors.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein causing a transmitter to transmit the vehicle occupancy information comprises:
storing the vehicle occupancy information on the reprogrammable electronic tolling tag.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9 , the operations further comprising:
directing, by the one or more computer processors, transmission of a vehicle identifier to the tolling infrastructure,
wherein the toll amount is assessed to a tolling account associated with the vehicle identified by the vehicle identifier.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein the toll amount is further assessed based at least in part on static information associated with the vehicle.

13. A system associated with a vehicle, comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory storing computer-executable instructions,
wherein the at least one processor is configured to access the at least one memory and to execute the computer-executable instructions to:
receive sensor data from one or more sensi

Assignees

• Zafiroglu Alexandra
• Healey Jennifer
• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Zafiroglu Alexandra
• Healey Jennifer

Classifications

• G07B15/063

  using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station (identification of vehicles G08G) · CPC title

• G08G1/017

  identifying vehicles (G08G1/015, G08G1/054 take precedence) · CPC title

• G08G1/0112

  from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD] · CPC title

• G06Q30/0207 Primary

  Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates · CPC title

• G06Q50/30

  Physics · mapped topic