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

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- Number: US 10,311,728 B2
- Document ID: US10311728B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 15/675,405
- Filed: 2017-08-11
- Published: 2019-02-14
- Granted: 2019-06-04
- Earliest claimed: 2017-08-11
- Assignees: HERE Global B.V.
- Applicants: Here Global B.V.
- Inventors: Leon Stenneth; Alex Averbuch; Gavril Giurgiu
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10311728B2

## CPC

- G08G 1/096791: {where the origin of the information is another vehicle}
- G01C 21/3697: {Output of additional, non-guidance related information, e.g. low fuel level (G01C21/3679 takes precedence)}
- G01W 1/06: giving a combined indication of weather conditions (catathermometers for measuring "cooling value" related either to weather conditions or to comfort of other human environment G01W1/17; computers per se G06)
- G08G 1/0112: {from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]}
- G08G 1/0129: {for creating historical data or processing based on historical data}
- G08G 1/0141: {for traffic information dissemination}
- G08G 1/096716: {where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control}
- G08G 1/096741: {where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle}
- G08G 1/096775: {where the origin of the information is a central station}
- G08G 1/163: {involving continuous checking}
- G08G 1/166: {for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes}
- H04L 63/123: {received data contents, e.g. message integrity}
- H04W 4/44: for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
- H04W 12/106: Packet or message integrity
- G01W 2001/006: {Main server receiving weather information from several sub-stations}
- H04L 67/12: specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
- H04W 4/021: Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
- G08G: TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS (guiding railway traffic, ensuring the safety of railway traffic B61L; arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00; radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91, G01S15/88, G01S17/88; {radar or analogous systems, sonar systems, lidar systems specially adapted for anti-collision purposes G01S13/93, G01S15/93, G01S17/93})
- G01C: MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY (measuring liquid level G01F; radio navigation, determining distance or velocity by use of propagation effects, e.g. Doppler effects, propagation time, of radio waves, analogous arrangements using other waves G01S)
- G01W: METEOROLOGY (radar, sonar, lidar or analogous systems, designed for meteorological use G01S13/95, G01S15/88, G01S17/95)
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)

## 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.

## Claims

### Claim 1

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.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
determining 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,
wherein the confidence level is further based on the quality factor.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
retrieving weather data records for the area of interest for a time period corresponding to the one or more reports;
calculating a road condition level based on the weather data records; and
determining a road condition weighting factor WWeather based on the road condition level, wherein the confidence level is calculated based on an equation
Confidence
=
1
-
∏
i
=
1
N
⁢
⁢
(
1
-
x
×
W
i
)
y
×
(
1
-
W
Weather
)
,
wherein N is a number of the one or more vehicles, and Wi is a weight for a single vehicle.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3 further comprising:
determining an air temperature parameter, a precipitation intensity parameter, a visibility parameter, or a combination thereof from the weather data records,
wherein the road condition level is based on the air temperature parameter, the precipitation intensity parameter, the visibility parameter, or a combination thereof.

### Claim 5 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, wherein the road condition level includes a slippery level of a roadway in the area of interest, and the method further comprising:
calculating a slippery weight based on time timeWeight and a slippery weight based on distance distWeight of one or more surrounding vehicle sensor data reports of the road event using equations:
distWeight
=
1
-
e
-
d
distanceFromReferencePoint
,
and
timeWeight
=
1
-
e
-
t
⁢
/
⁢
ageOfReport
.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
determining one or more inferred negative reports of the road event,
wherein the confidence level is further based on the one or more inferred negative reports.

### Claim 7 (depends on 2)

The method of claim 2, further comprising:
determining one or more links of a geographic database associated with the road event,
wherein the confidence level is calculated based on a product of the data freshness parameter and the quality factor,
wherein the road event message is transmitted for the determined one or more links, and
wherein Wi is the quality factor for a single vehicle i, and the confidence level is calculated based on an equation
Confidence
=
1
-
∏
i
=
1
N
⁢
⁢
(
1
-
x
×
W
i
)
y
,
wherein N is a number of the one or more vehicles, and x and y correlate with confidence ground truth data associated with the road event.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
determining a map tile associated with the one or more reports, one or more other map tiles within a distance threshold of the map tile, or a combination thereof,
wherein the road event message is transmitted for the map tile, the one or more other map tiles or a combination thereof.

### Claim 9 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, further comprising:
calculating another weight for a single vehicle Wii based on an equation
Wii=distWeight*timeWeight*Wi
wherein Wi is the quality factor for a single vehicle i, and
wherein the one or more reports of the road event are aggregated based on a predetermined time epoch.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9, wherein the confidence level is calculated based on an equation
confidence
=
1
-
∏
i
=
1
N
⁢
⁢
(
1
-
C
i
)
y
,
wherein N is a number of the one or more vehicles, Ci=x*Wii, and x and y are configurable parameters that govern dependence of the confidence level on Wii, and
wherein the one or more road event reports are based on sensor data collected from one or more sensors of the one or more vehicles.

### Claim 11

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.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:
calculate a data freshness parameter for the one or more reports of the road event from the one or more vehicles based on an age of each of the one or more reports,
wherein the confidence level is further based on the data freshness parameter.

### Claim 13 (depends on 11)

The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:
calculate a slippery weight based on time timeWeight and a slippery weight based on distance distWeight of one or more surrounding vehicle sensor data reports of the road event using equations:
distWeight
=
1
-
e
-
d
distanceFromReferencePoint
,
and
timeWeight
=
1
-
e
-
t
⁢
/
⁢
ageOfReport
.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:
calculate the weight for a single vehicle Wii based on an equation
Wii=distWeight*timeWeight*Wi
wherein Wi is 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.

### Claim 15 (depends on 11)

The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus is further caused to:
determine weather data records for the area of interest for a time period corresponding to one or more reports of the road event from the one or more vehicles; and
determining a road condition weighting factor WWeather based on the weather data records,
wherein the confidence level is calculated further based on a product of the road condition weighting factor WWeather and the quality factor.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the confidence level for the road event is calculated based on an equation
Confidence=1−(1−Quality Factor)×(1−WWeather).

### Claim 17

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.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the apparatus is further caused to perform:
determining 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,
wherein the confidence level is calculated further based on a product of the road condition weighting factor WWeather and the quality factor.

### Claim 19 (depends on 17)

The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the apparatus is further caused to perform:
calculating a data freshness parameter for the one or more reports based on an age of each of the one or more reports,
wherein the confidence level is further based on the data freshness parameter.

### Claim 20 (depends on 19)

The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the apparatus is further caused to perform:
determining an air temperature parameter, a precipitation intensity parameter, a visibility parameter, or a combination thereof from the weather data records,
wherein the road condition level is based on the air temperature parameter, the precipitation intensity parameter, the visibility parameter, or a combination thereof.