Direct vehicle engagement system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10839684-B2
Application number	US-202016751576-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 24, 2020
Priority date	May 8, 2017
Publication date	Nov 17, 2020
Grant date	Nov 17, 2020

Abstract

A direct vehicle engagement system, device and method that allows end-users to select a driven or autonomous vehicle from amongst a group of available, unassigned vehicles within a geographical area, and arrange an extemporaneous trip directly with the selected vehicle, eliminating the need for the involvement of a Central Operations Center or third party intermediary in the trip assignment and vehicle engagement processes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A direct vehicle engagement system comprising:
a beacon associated with a vehicle; and
a mobile device;
wherein the beacon is configured to transmit an availability status signal, the availability status signal indicating whether the vehicle is available for hire or not available for hire; and
wherein the mobile device is configured to receive the availability status signal; and
wherein the mobile device comprises a camera and a display, wherein the mobile device is configured to dynamically display a video on the display based on detections by the camera.

2. The direct vehicle engagement system according to claim 1 , wherein the display is a touch-screen, and wherein the mobile device is configured to preliminarily engage the vehicle for hire when the vehicle is selected by a user on the touch-screen.

3. The direct vehicle engagement system according to claim 2 , further including a receiver associated with the vehicle, wherein the receiver is configured to receive a confirmation code for formal engagement.

4. The direct vehicle engagement system according to claim 3 , wherein the receiver is configured to receive the confirmation code from the mobile device through wireless radio communication, from the mobile device through optical recognition, or from the user by manual input through an interface on or in the vehicle.

5. The direct vehicle engagement system according to claim 1 , wherein the mobile device is configured to highlight and/or annotate the vehicle in the display based on the availability status signal.

6. The direct vehicle engagement system according to claim 1 , wherein the beacon is configured to transmit a company affiliation of the vehicle, and wherein the mobile device is configured to annotate the vehicle on the display with the company affiliation.

7. The direct vehicle engagement system according to claim 1 , wherein the mobile device is configured to store a filter parameter, and wherein the mobile device is further configured to grey out or disregard the vehicle on the display based on the filter parameter.

8. The direct vehicle engagement system according to claim 7 , wherein the filter parameter is a destination address.

9. The direct vehicle engagement system according to claim 7 , wherein the filter parameter is a type of vehicle, a category of vehicle, a size of vehicle, a seating capacity of vehicle, a seating configuration of vehicle, an available operating range of vehicle, a charge level of vehicle, a gas level of vehicle, or an existence of a special accommodation.

10. The direct vehicle engagement system according to claim 1 , wherein the mobile device is configured to directly receive the availability status signal transmitted by the beacon associated with the vehicle.

11. A direct vehicle engagement system comprising:
a beacon associated with a vehicle; and
a mobile device;
wherein the beacon is configured to transmit an availability status signal, the availability status signal indicating whether the vehicle is available for hire or not available for hire;
wherein the mobile device is configured to receive the availability status signal; and
wherein the beacon is configured to transmit the availability status signal as a digitally modulated infra-red and/or visible signal.

12. A direct vehicle engagement system comprising:
a beacon associated with a vehicle; and
a mobile device;
wherein the beacon is configured to transmit an availability status signal, the availability status signal indicating whether the vehicle is available for hire or not available for hire;
wherein the mobile device is configured to receive the availability status signal; and
wherein the mobile device is configured to transmit an engagement signal to the vehicle through radio frequency transmission to hire the vehicle if the availability status signal indicates that the vehicle is available for hire.

13. The direct vehicle engagement system according to claim 12 , wherein the beacon is configured to change the availability status signal to indicate that the vehicle is not available for hire by a device other than the mobile device upon receiving an engagement signal sent by the mobile device, and change the availability status signal to indicate that the vehicle is available for hire if a trip arrangement is not confirmed within a predetermined amount of time.

14. A direct vehicle engagement system comprising:
a mobile device;
a plurality of beacons, each beacon being associated with a vehicle;
wherein the beacon is configured to transmit an availability status signal, the availability status signal indicating whether the vehicle is available for hire or not available for hire;
wherein the mobile device is configured to receive the availability status signal;
wherein each beacon is configured to transmit an availability status signal, the availability status signal indicating whether the respective associated vehicle is available for hire or not available for hire; and
wherein the mobile device is configured to receive each availability status signal within a select range.

15. The direct vehicle engagement system according to claim 14 , wherein the mobile device is configured to directly engage a desired vehicle associated with the plurality of beacons based on a selection by a user if the availability status signal transmitted by the beacon associated with the desired vehicle indicates that the desired vehicle is available for hire.

16. A direct vehicle engagement system comprising:
a beacon associated with a vehicle; and
a mobile device;
wherein the beacon is configured to transmit an availability status signal, the availability status signal indicating whether the vehicle is available for hire or not available for hire;
wherein the mobile device is configured to receive the availability status signal; and
wherein the mobile device is configured to engage the vehicle for hire without communicating with a central operations center or third party intermediary for assignment of a trip to the vehicle.

17. A direct vehicle engagement system comprising:
a beacon associated with a vehicle; and
a mobile device;
wherein the beacon is configured to transmit an availability status signal, the availability status signal indicating whether the vehicle is available for hire or not available for hire;
wherein the mobile device is configured to receive the availability status signal; and
wherein the mobile device is configured to receive the availability status signal when the vehicle is not visible to a user from the position of the mobile device.

18. The direct vehicle engagement system according to claim 17 , wherein the mobile device is configured to preliminarily engage the vehicle when the vehicle is not visible from the position of the mobile device.

19. A direct vehicle engagement device comprising:
a mobile device comprising a display; and
a camera;
wherein the mobile device is configured to receive an availability status signal transmitted from a beacon of a vehicle; and
wherein the mobile device is configured to dynamically display a video on the display based on detections by the camera, and wherein the mobile device is configured to highlight and/or annotate the vehicle on the display based on the availability status signal.

20. The direct vehicle engagement device according to claim 19 , wherein the mobile device is configured to highlight the vehicle on the display green if the availability status signal indicates that the vehicle is avai

Assignees

• Chase Arnold

Inventors

• Chase Arnold

Classifications

• G08G1/202

  Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching · CPC title

• G08G1/123

  indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; {Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, trams}(transmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968) · CPC title

• B60W60/00253

  Taxi operations · CPC title

• G01C21/3438

  Rendezvous; Ride sharing · CPC title

• B60W60/0017

  of other traffic participants · CPC title