Systems and methods for matching transportation requests to personal mobility vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019376802-A1
Application number	US-201816207002-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 30, 2018
Priority date	Jun 6, 2018
Publication date	Dec 12, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

The disclosed computer-implemented method may include matching transportation requests to personal mobility vehicles. A dynamic transportation network may incorporate different types of vehicles, such as bicycles and/or scooters. Certain vehicles may have advantages over other vehicles in certain contexts but be disadvantageous in others. For example, a dynamic transportation matching system may match a user transporting a bulky package with a basket-equipped bike rather than a scooter without a basket. Moreover, the dynamic transportation matching system may account for a wide variety of other factors, including but not limited to route features, ambient conditions, and vehicle status when matching a transportation requestor to a specific vehicle. Moreover, some systems may account for vehicle wear-and-tear, battery power levels, operational status, etc. to avoid matching users vehicles that would be unable to fulfill a transportation request. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method, the method comprising:
receiving, by a dynamic transportation matching system, a transportation request from a requesting device; analyzing the transportation request to identify at least one characteristic of the transportation request, wherein the characteristic of the transportation request comprises at least an anticipated travel route of a transportation requestor associated with the requesting device; evaluating, by the dynamic transportation matching system and based at least in part on the characteristic of the transportation request, a fitness of matching a first type of personal mobility vehicle to the transportation request and a fitness of matching at least one additional type of personal mobility vehicle to the transportation request; and matching the requesting device to a personal mobility vehicle of the first type based at least in part on comparing the fitness of matching the first type of personal mobility vehicle to the transportation request against the fitness of matching the at least one additional type of personal mobility vehicle to the transportation request.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the evaluation comprises:
identifying, based at least in part on an analysis of the anticipated travel route, a plurality of route features that are associated with the anticipated travel route; and performing the evaluation based at least in part on the plurality of route features that are associated with the anticipated travel route.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of route features comprises one or more of:
a travel distance covered by the anticipated travel route; a type of travel surface along a portion of the anticipated travel route; a slope of a travel surface along a portion of the anticipated travel route; and a type of travel infrastructure present along a portion of the anticipated travel route.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein matching the requesting device to the personal mobility vehicle of the first type comprises:
determining that the dynamic transportation matching system indicates a deficiency in the quantity of the first type of personal mobility vehicle at a destination of the anticipated travel route; and matching the requesting device to the personal mobility vehicle of the first type to remedy the deficiency at the destination of the anticipated travel route.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein matching the requesting device to the personal mobility vehicle of the first type comprises matching the requesting device to a particular model of personal mobility vehicle based on at least one identifying characteristic of the particular model of personal mobility vehicle.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the identifying characteristic of the particular model of personal mobility vehicle comprises one of:
a maximum speed of the particular model; a torque output of the particular model; a maximum battery capacity of the particular model; a loading capacity of the particular model; and a transport capability of the particular model.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the evaluation comprises performing the evaluation based at least in part on determining an optimization metric specified by the dynamic transportation matching system, wherein determining the optimization metric comprises at least one of:
calculating predicted travel times that will be incurred by using the first type personal mobility vehicle and the at least one additional type of personal mobility vehicle; identifying, based on a transportation-requestor profile of the transportation requestor, an ability metric that indicates an ability of the transportation requestor to interact with personal mobility vehicles; identifying, based on the transportation-requestor profile, a vehicle-type preference of the transportation requestor; identifying, by the dynamic transportation matching system, safety metrics associated with the first type of personal mobility vehicle and the at least one additional type of personal mobility vehicle; and identifying, by the dynamic transportation matching system, transportation capabilities of the first type of personal mobility vehicle and the at least one additional type of personal mobility vehicle.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein matching the requesting device to the personal mobility vehicle of the first type comprises:
determining, based at least in part on querying an onboard status monitor of the personal mobility vehicle of the first type, a status metric of the personal mobility vehicle that describes a physical state of the personal mobility vehicle of the first type; and determining that the status metric of the personal mobility vehicle indicates that the personal mobility vehicle is capable of fulfilling the transportation request.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein matching the requesting device to the personal mobility vehicle of the first type comprises determining that the personal mobility vehicle of the first type is within a predetermined degree of physical proximity to the requesting device.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein matching the requesting device to the personal mobility vehicle of the first type comprises:
calculating an expected time at which the requesting device is expected to be physically present at a predicted location; and determining that the personal mobility vehicle will be physically located within proximity to the predicted location of the requesting device at the expected time.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein matching the requesting device to the personal mobility vehicle of the first type comprises selecting the personal mobility vehicle based at least in part on environmental conditions.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the environmental conditions comprise one or more of:
weather conditions; traffic conditions; pollution levels; road conditions along the anticipated travel route; and the time of day at which the transportation requestor is expected to travel along the anticipated travel route.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein matching the transportation requestor to the personal mobility vehicle of the first type comprises:
determining that the requesting device is part of a group of requesting devices that have been designated within the dynamic transportation matching system as a travel group; identifying a plurality of personal mobility vehicles of the first type, wherein the number of personal mobility vehicles in the plurality of personal mobility vehicles equals the number of requesting devices in the group of requesting devices; and matching each requesting device in the group of requesting devices to a corresponding personal mobility vehicle in the plurality of personal mobility vehicles.

14 . A system comprising at least one physical computer processor and a memory, the memory having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by the at least one physical processor of the system, cause the system to:
receive, by a dynamic transportation matching system, a transportation request from a requesting device; analyze the transportation request to identify at least one characteristic of the transportation request, wherein the characteristic of the transportation request comprises at least an anticipated travel route of a transportation requestor associated with the requesting device; evaluate, by the dynamic transportation matching system and based at least in part on the characteristic of the transportation request, a fitness of matching a first type of person

Assignees

• Lyft Inc

Inventors

• Whitt Carlos Ellis
• Martisauskas Steven James
• Levi Dor

Classifications

• G01C21/3438

  Rendezvous; Ride sharing · CPC title

• G01C21/3423 Primary

  Multimodal routing · CPC title

• B60W2552/00

  Input parameters relating to infrastructure · CPC title

• B60W2552/15

  Road slope, i.e. the inclination of a road segment in the longitudinal direction · CPC title

• G07C5/004

  Indicating the operating range of the engine (economical driving B60R16/0236, F02B77/084; measuring liquid fuel of an engine G01F9/00) · CPC title