US 10,311,728 B2 · Method and apparatus for providing a confidence-based road event message

Abstract

An approach is provided for a confidence-based road event message. For example, the approach involves aggregating road event reports (e.g., slippery road event reports) from vehicles traveling in an area of interest. The approach also involves retrieving weather data records for the area of interest for a time period corresponding to the reports. The approach may further involve determining a data freshness parameter based on an age of the reports, and a number of vehicle generating the reports. The approach further involves calculating a confidence level for the road event based on the weather data records, data freshness parameter, number of the one or more vehicles, or a combination thereof.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A computer-implemented method for transmitting a road event message comprising:

aggregating one or more reports of a road event reported from one or more vehicles traveling in an area of interest;
calculating a data freshness parameter WTIME for the one or more reports based on an equation
WTime=1−e−t0/t,
wherein t is an age of each of the one or more reports and t0 is a configurable parameter that controls how fast the data freshness parameter decreases with the age;
calculating a confidence level for the road event based, at least in part, on the data freshness parameter;
and
transmitting the road event message for the area of interest based on the confidence level.

4 more elements

An apparatus for transmitting a road event notification comprising:

at least one processor;
and
at least one memory including computer program code for one or more programs,
the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following,
determine one or more vehicles traveling in an area of interest that report a road event;
determine a quality factor associated with the one or more vehicles, a vehicle type of the one or more vehicles, a manufacturer of the one or more vehicles, or a combination thereof;
calculate a confidence level for the road event based on an equation
confidence
=
1
-
∏
i
=
1
N
⁢
⁢
(
1
-
C
i
)
y
,
wherein N is a number of the one or more vehicles, Wii is the quality factor for a single vehicle i, Ci=x*Wii, and x and y are configurable parameters that govern dependence of the confidence level on Wii;
and
transmit the road event notification based on the confidence level.

26 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for configuring an autonomous function of a vehicle based on a slippery road event, carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause an apparatus to perform:

aggregating one or more reports of the slippery road event reported from one or more other vehicles traveling in an area of interest;
determining weather data records for the area of interest for a time period corresponding to the one or more reports;
determining a road condition weighting factor WWeather based on the weather data records;
calculating a confidence level for the slippery road event based on an equation
Confidence
=
1
-
∏
i
=
1
N
⁢
⁢
(
1
-
x
×
W
i
)
y
×
(
1
-
W
Weather
)
,
wherein N is the number of the one or more vehicles, x and y correlate with confidence ground truth data associated with the slippery road event, and Wi is a weight for a single vehicle;
and
providing instructions for configuring the autonomous function of the vehicle based on the confidence level.

32 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method and apparatus for providing a confidence-based road event message

Life of this patent

Method and apparatus for providing a confidence-based road event message

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20