Learning road navigation paths based on aggregate driver behavior

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9299251-B2
Application number	US-201414249168-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 9, 2014
Priority date	Mar 11, 2010
Publication date	Mar 29, 2016
Grant date	Mar 29, 2016

Abstract

Techniques are described for generating and using information regarding road traffic in various ways, including by obtaining and analyzing road traffic information regarding actual behavior of drivers of vehicles on a network of roads. Obtained actual driver behavior information may in some situations be analyzed to identify decision point locations at which drivers face choices corresponding to possible alternative routes through the network of roads (e.g., intersections, highway exits and/or entrances, etc.), as well as to track the actual use by drivers of particular paths between particular decision points in order to determine preferred compound links between those decision point locations. The identified and determined information from the analysis may then be used in various manners, including in some situations to assist in determining particular recommended or preferred routes of vehicles through the network of roads based at least in part on actual driver behavior information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, by one or more configured computing systems, information that is gathered by a plurality of devices in a plurality of vehicles traveling on one or more roads and that reflects actual prior driver behavior during a plurality of prior vehicle trips along the one or more roads by the plurality of vehicles, wherein the actual prior driver behavior during the prior vehicle trips includes driver selections between multiple alternative choices at decision points along the one or more roads;
automatically analyzing, by the one or more configured computing systems and for multiple alternative paths between two locations on the one or more roads, the received information to determine a compound link representing a preferred path of the multiple alternative paths based at least in part on use of the preferred path from the actual prior driver behavior during the plurality of prior vehicle trips, wherein the automatic analyzing includes using values of an indicated traffic measure for the multiple alternative paths that are assessed from the received information; and
providing, by the one or more configured computing systems, an indication of the determined compound link, to enable future routine decisions using the determined compound link for vehicles on the one or more roads.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the automatic analyzing further includes determining multiple decision points along the one or more roads based at least in part on the plurality of prior vehicle trips, each of the determined decision points corresponding to a connection of multiple roads which at least some of the plurality of vehicles travel past during at least some of the prior vehicle trips.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein the automatic analyzing further includes identifying multiple pairs of the determined decision points, each of the identified pairs of determined decision points having multiple alternative paths along the one or more roads from a starting one of the determined decision points of the pair to an ending one of the determined decision points of the pair and being associated with multiple of the plurality of prior vehicle trips that each includes one of those multiple alternative paths.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 wherein the automatic analyzing further includes selecting one of the identified decision point pairs to represent the compound link, the selecting of the one decision point pair including excluding at least one other of the identified decision point pairs based at least in part on the at least one other decision point pair having more than a specified minimum amount of traffic passing one of the decision points of the pair and diverging at an additional intermediate decision point between the decision points of the pair.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein the automatic analyzing further includes identifying locations at which the plurality of prior vehicle trips perform at least one of diverging to multiple roads and of converging from multiple roads, the identified locations being candidates for the determined multiple decision points.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the indicated traffic measure is a variability of traversal time, and wherein the automatic analyzing further includes determining the values of the indicated traffic measure based on the prior vehicle trips.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the automatic analyzing is performed for each of multiple distinct aggregation categories by selecting a subset of the plurality of prior vehicle trips that correspond to the aggregation category and determining the preferred path with respect to the aggregation category based on the prior vehicle trips of the selected subset.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein the multiple distinct aggregation categories each includes one of multiple driver preferences.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein the multiple distinct aggregation categories each includes one of multiple vehicle types.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 wherein the multiple distinct aggregation categories each further correspond to a distinct period of time.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising, after determining the compound link, using the determined compound link as part of generating multiple alternatives for a route along the one or more roads, wherein at least one of the multiple alternatives includes using the determined compound link.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein the automatic analyzing further includes:
determining one or more additional compound links that each represents a preferred path of multiple alternative paths between distinct pairs of locations on the one or more roads; and
assessing, for each of the determined compound link and at least one of the additional compound links, the value of the indicated traffic measure for at least the preferred paths of that compound link, and
wherein the using of the determined compound link as part of generating the multiple alternatives for the route includes using the assessed value of the indicated traffic measure for the preferred path of the determined compound link.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the information gathered by the plurality of devices includes a plurality of data samples that each reflects an associated road location of one of the plurality of vehicles at an indicated time.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored contents that configure a computing system to perform a method, the method comprising:
receiving, by the configured computing system, one or more indications of multiple vehicle trips along one or more roads by multiple vehicles;
determining, by the configured computing system and based at least in part on the multiple vehicle trips, one or more compound links that each represents one of multiple alternative paths between two locations on at least one of the one or more roads, wherein the determining of each of the one or more compound links is based at least in part on an assessed value of an indicated measure for each of the multiple alternative paths for the compound link, the assessed value for each alternative path being based at least in part on some of the multiple vehicle trips that include that alternative path; and
providing, by the configured computing system, an indication of at least one of the determined one or more compound links.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises determining multiple decision points on the one or more roads based at least in part on the multiple vehicle trips, each of the determined decision points corresponding to a connection of multiple roads which at least some of the multiple vehicles travel past during at least some of the multiple vehicle trips.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim wherein the determining of the one or more compound links further includes identifying multiple pairs of the determined decision points such that each identified pair has multiple alternative paths on the one or more roads between the pair of determined decision points and is included by at least some of the indicated multiple vehicle trips, and associating each of the one or more compound links with one of the identified multiple pairs.

17. The non-transitory computer-readabl

Assignees

• Inrix Inc

Inventors

• Scofield Christopher L
• Cahn Robert
• Wang Weimin Mark
• Barker Alec
• Leidle Robert Frederick

Classifications

• G08G1/0104 Primary

  Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions · CPC title

• G08G1/096827

  where the route is computed onboard · CPC title

• G08G1/052

  with provision for determining speed or overspeed {(speed measuring in general G01P)} · CPC title

• G01C21/3492

  employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical (traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968) · CPC title

• G08G1/0129

  for creating historical data or processing based on historical data · CPC title