Casual driver ride sharing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9976863-B2
Application number	US-201615143406-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 29, 2016
Priority date	Mar 29, 2016
Publication date	May 22, 2018
Grant date	May 22, 2018

Abstract

A system for casual driver ride sharing includes an interface and processor. The interface is to receive a request for a ride from a user, wherein the request includes GPS information for the user. The processor is to determine compatibility between the typical route information and the request for the ride; determine a ranked list based at least in part on the compatibility; and provide a ride offer to a driver of the one or more casual drivers based at least in part on the ranked list.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A ride matching system, comprising:
a processor; and
a non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the ride matching system to:
determining a typical route of a driver, wherein the typical route comprises a home location, a work location, and a typical route time;
receiving, from a driver computing device associated with the driver, an indication that the driver has begun the typical route from the home location;
based on receiving the indication, make the driver available within the ride matching system;
receive a request for a ride from a user computing device, wherein the request includes a request location and a destination location;
determine a route for the request based on the request location and the destination location;
in response to receiving the request for the ride, determine a compatibility between the typical route of the driver and the route for the request;
determine a ranked list of available drivers, wherein a position of the driver on the ranked list is based at least in part on the compatibility; and
provide the request for the ride to the driver computing device associated with the driver based at least in part on the ranked list of available drivers.

2. The ride matching system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the ride matching system to determine the typical route for the driver by:
determining the home location by examining driver location data during overnight periods and determining a most common overnight location for the driver;
determining the work location by examining driver location data during midday periods and determining a most common midday location for the driver; and
determining the typical route time by determining an average time that the driver ceases to be located at the home location and begins to be located at the work location.

3. The ride matching system of claim 2 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the ride matching system to determine the typical route by determining the driver has driven a repeated route between the most common overnight location and the most common midday location more than a threshold number of times.

4. The ride matching system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the ride matching system to determine the typical route of the driver based on input received from the driver.

5. The ride matching system of claim 2 , wherein determining the average time the driver ceases to be located at the home location and begins to be located at the work location comprises determining an average travel time to travel between the home location and the work location for the driver.

6. The ride matching system of claim 1 , wherein the compatibility is based on an extra travel distance that would be added to the typical route if the driver picks up the user from the request location and transports the user to the destination location while traveling to the work location.

7. The ride matching system of claim 6 , wherein the compatibility is further based on an extra time that would be added to the typical route if the driver picks up the user from the request location and transports the user to the destination location while traveling to the work location.

8. The ride matching system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the ride matching system to receive the indication that the driver has begun the typical route from the home location by receiving input from the driver that the driver has begun the typical route.

9. A method, comprising:
determining a typical route of a driver, wherein the typical route comprises a home location, a work location, and a typical route time;
receiving, from a driver computing device associated with the driver, an indication that the driver has begun the typical route from the home location;
based on receiving the indication, making the driver available within a ride matching system;
receiving, at the ride matching system, a request for a ride from a user computing device, wherein the request includes a request location and a destination location;
determining a route for the request based on the request location and the destination location;
in response to receiving the request for the ride, determining a compatibility between the typical route of the driver and the route for the request;
determining a ranked list of available drivers, wherein a position of the driver in the ranked list is based at least in part on the compatibility; and
providing the request for the ride to the driver computing device associated with the driver based at least in part on the ranked list of available drivers.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a computing device to:
determine a typical route of a driver, wherein the typical route comprises a home location, a work location, and a typical route time;
receive, from a driver computing device associated with the driver, an indication that the driver has begun the typical route from the home location;
based on receiving the indication, making the driver available within a ride matching system;
receive, at the ride matching system, a request for a ride from a user computing device, wherein the request includes a request location and a destination location associated with the user computing device;
determine a route for the request based on the request location and the destination location;
in response to receiving the request for the ride, determine a compatibility between the typical route of the driver and the route for the request;
determine a ranked list of available drivers, wherein a position of the driver in the ranked list is based at least in part on the compatibility; and
provide the request for the ride to the driver computing device associated with the driver based at least in part on the ranked list of available drivers.

11. The ride matching system of claim 1 , wherein determining the home location and determining the work location is based on location information that is gathered at predetermined durations during movement of the driver computing device associated with the driver.

12. The ride matching system of claim 2 , wherein the driver location data during overnight periods and the driver location data during midday periods comprises GPS data.

13. The ride matching system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the ride matching system to determine the typical route of the driver based on manual input for the home location and the work location received from the driver computing device.

14. The ride matching system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the ride matching system to:
detect the driver has arrived at the work location; and
based on detecting the driver has arrived at the work location, make the driver unavailable within the ride matching system.

15. The ride matching system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the ride matching system to:
detect completion of the request for the ride by the driver; and
based on detecting completion of the request for the ride by the driver, make the driver unavailable within the ride matching system.

16. The ride matching system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions that, when executed

Assignees

• Lyft Inc

Inventors

• Dryjanski David
• Popov Lev
• Brown Timothy
• Green Logan
• Broyles Austin

Classifications

• G08G1/202

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

• H04W4/14

  Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD] · CPC title

• G01C21/343

  Calculating itineraries (travelling salesman problem G06Q10/04; optimisation of routes G06Q10/047) · CPC title

• G01C21/3438 Primary

  Rendezvous; Ride sharing · CPC title

• G07B15/02

  taking into account a variable factor such as distance or time, e.g. for passenger transport, parking systems or car rental systems (G07B15/06 takes precedence; taximeters G07B13/00; parking meters per se G07F17/24) · CPC title