Responder assistance for vehicular events

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12337779-B2
Application number	US-202217860195-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 8, 2022
Priority date	Jul 8, 2022
Publication date	Jun 24, 2025
Grant date	Jun 24, 2025

Abstract

A vehicle includes one or more sensors and engages at least one of the one or more sensors to evaluate at least one of a count or location of vehicle occupants prior to an incident. The vehicle determines that an incident has occurred and that at least one of an evaluated count or location of at least one vehicle occupant has changed following the incident. Also, the vehicle engages at least one of the one or more sensors to detect a presence of a prior occupant outside the vehicle following the incident, responsive to determining that the at least one of the evaluated count or location of the at least one vehicle occupant changed and, responsive to detecting the presence of the prior occupant outside the vehicle following the incident, reports the presence to a 3 rd party response entity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
one or more processors configured to:
receive incident report data including indication of a vehicle incident, vehicle location and locations of vehicle occupants, at least one of which occupant locations is outside of the vehicle location;
access map data to determine types of map data to be provided to a responder, based at least in part on a complexity of terrain indicated by the map data;
create a visual indication of a scene of the incident, including map data based on the determined types of map data and locations of the vehicle and any occupant locations outside of the vehicle location; and
send the visual indication to a responder entity associated with response to the incident.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the complexity of terrain includes consideration of varied topography indicative of changes in elevation within a predefined proximity to the vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the complexity of terrain includes the presence of plant growth as indicated by the map data.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the map data includes at least topographical map data indicating elevations and geographical map data indicating the presence of roadways.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one occupant location is a location relative to the vehicle location, including at least an estimated distance and heading, and wherein the one or more processors are configured to convert the location relative to the vehicle location to a location on the map data included in the visual indication.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Neal Joseph Walter
• Lerner Jeremy
• Abouali Mohammad
• Abdallah Ali
• Chen Xingping
• Huggins Scott

Classifications

• B60R2021/0027

  Post collision measures, e.g. notifying emergency services · CPC title

• B60R2021/01315

  monitoring occupant displacement · CPC title

• B60R2021/01088

  wireless · CPC title

• B60R2021/0102

  the monitored value being used for calculating occupant displacement · CPC title

• B60R2021/0032

  Position of passenger · CPC title