Smart road system for vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10554757-B2
Application number	US-201816059552-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 9, 2018
Priority date	Aug 1, 2014
Publication date	Feb 4, 2020
Grant date	Feb 4, 2020

Abstract

A road system includes a road surface along which vehicles travel, with the vehicles traveling along the road surface including electric vehicles. A plurality of electrical charging elements is disposed along the road surface. Batteries of electric vehicles traveling along the road surface are electrically charged as the electric vehicles travel along the electrical charging elements disposed along the road surface. A plurality of communication devices along the road surface. The communication devices are operable to wirelessly communicate with vehicles traveling along the road surface. At least some of the communication devices along the road wirelessly communicate lane information to a vehicle traveling along a lane of the road surface. Responsive to the wirelessly communicated lane information, the vehicle maintains its path of travel in the lane traveled along by the vehicle as the vehicle travels along the road surface.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A road system, said road system comprising:
a road surface along which vehicles travel, wherein the vehicles traveling along the road surface include electric vehicles;
a plurality of electrical charging elements disposed along the road surface;
wherein batteries of electric vehicles traveling along the road surface are electrically charged as the electric vehicles travel along the electrical charging elements disposed along the road surface;
a plurality of communication devices along the road surface;
wherein said communication devices are operable to wirelessly communicate with vehicles traveling along the road surface;
wherein at least some of said communication devices along the road wirelessly communicate lane information to a vehicle traveling along a lane of the road surface; and
wherein, responsive to the lane information wirelessly communicated by the at least some of the said communication devices to the vehicle traveling along the road surface, the vehicle maintains its path of travel in the lane traveled along by the vehicle as the vehicle travels along the road surface.

2. The road system of claim 1 , wherein the batteries of the electric vehicles traveling along the road surface are electrically charged via rolling engagement of the tires of the electric vehicles with the road as the electric vehicles travel along the road surface.

3. The road system of claim 2 , wherein a conductive wheel/tire assembly of an electric vehicle traveling along the road surface rollingly engages a solar panel integrated conductive surface of the road surface as the electric vehicle travels along the road surface.

4. The road system of claim 1 , wherein the batteries of the electric vehicles traveling along the road surface are electrically charged via an induction power transmission link disposed at and along the road surface.

5. The road system of claim 1 , wherein at least some of said communication devices along the road surface wirelessly communicate geographic location information to the vehicle traveling along the lane of the road surface.

6. The road system of claim 5 , wherein the geographic location information is communicated at least during situations where GPS satellite reception at the vehicle is lost or interrupted.

7. The road system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle traveling along the lane of the road surface comprises an autonomous vehicle, and wherein said communication devices communicate signals to an automated driving system of the autonomous vehicle to control the autonomous vehicle as it travels along the road surface.

8. The road system of claim 1 , wherein said communication devices wirelessly communicate with a remote server, and wherein said remote server receives information via at least some of said communication devices pertaining to at least some of the vehicles traveling along the road surface.

9. The road system of claim 8 , wherein, responsive at least in part to the received information, said remote server communicates information to at least some of the vehicles traveling along the road surface.

10. The road system of claim 9 , wherein the communicated information comprises information about a route of at least one of the vehicles traveling along the road surface.

11. The road system of claim 10 , wherein said remote server transmits commands to the at least one vehicle to at least partially control the at least one vehicle along the route.

12. The road system of claim 10 , wherein, responsive to information pertaining to (i) traffic condition information and/or (ii) weather information, said remote server communicates information to adjust the route.

13. The road system of claim 1 , wherein, responsive to a hazardous condition of at least one vehicle traveling along the road surface, at least some of said communication devices communicate signals to a vehicle control system of the at least one vehicle to control (i) the throttle of the at least one vehicle, (ii) the brakes of the at least one vehicle and/or (iii) the steering of the at least one vehicle.

14. The road system of claim 1 , wherein said communication devices receive communications from vehicles traveling along the road surface.

15. The road system of claim 14 , wherein the communications received from vehicles comprise information pertaining to (i) at least one sensor of at least one of the vehicles, (ii) at least one actuator of at least one of the vehicles and/or (iii) driver intent information of a driver of at least one of the vehicles.

16. A road system, said road system comprising:
a road surface along which vehicles travel, wherein the vehicles traveling along the road surface include electric vehicles;
a plurality of electrical charging elements disposed along the road surface;
wherein batteries of electric vehicles traveling along the road surface are electrically charged as the electric vehicles travel along the electrical charging elements disposed along the road surface;
a plurality of communication devices along the road surface;
wherein said communication devices are operable to wirelessly communicate with vehicles traveling along the road surface;
wherein at least some of said communication devices along the road wirelessly communicate lane information to a vehicle traveling along a lane of the road surface;
wherein at least some of said communication devices along the road surface wirelessly communicate geographic location information to the vehicle traveling along the lane of the road surface;
wherein, responsive to the lane information wirelessly communicated by the at least some of the said communication devices to the vehicle traveling along the road surface, the vehicle maintains its path of travel in the lane traveled along by the vehicle as the vehicle travels along the road surface; and
wherein the vehicle traveling along the lane of the road surface comprises an autonomous vehicle, and wherein said communication devices communicate signals to an automated driving system of the autonomous vehicle to control the autonomous vehicle as it travels along the road surface.

17. The road system of claim 16 , wherein said communication devices wirelessly communicate with a remote server, and wherein said remote server receives information via at least some of said communication devices pertaining to at least some of the vehicles traveling along the road surface, and wherein, responsive at least in part to the received information, said remote server communicates information to at least some of the vehicles traveling along the road surface.

18. The road system of claim 16 , wherein, responsive to a hazardous condition of the vehicle traveling along the lane of the road surface, at least some of said communication devices communicate signals to a vehicle control system of the vehicle to control (i) the throttle of the vehicle, (ii) the brakes of the vehicle and/or (iii) the steering of the vehicle.

19. A road system, said road system comprising:
a road surface along which vehicles travel, wherein the vehicles traveling along the road surface include electric vehicles;
a plurality of electrical charging elements disposed along the road surface;
wherein batteries of electric vehicles traveling along the road surface are electrically charged as the electric vehicles travel along the electrical charging elements disposed along the road surface;
a plurality of communication devices along the road surface;
wherein said communication devices are operable to wirelessly communicate with vehicles tr

Assignees

• Magna Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Koravadi Krishna
• Vanophem Paul A

Classifications

• H04W4/44

  for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H] · CPC title

• G08G1/164

  Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles · CPC title

• Y02T10/7072

  Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors · CPC title

• H04L67/12 Primary

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• G08G1/096783

  where the origin of the information is a roadside individual element · CPC title