US 11,599,833 B2Granted

Vehicle ride sharing system and method using smart modules

AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC

InventorsPietro Buttolo, Stuart C. Salter, James Stewart Rankin, II, James J. Surman, Annette Lynn Huebner, Jeffrey A. Wallace, Cornel Lewis Gardner

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Abstract

A vehicle sharing system includes a vehicle having interior transceiver modules associated with different passenger seating areas and a vehicle computing system (VCS) including a processor and a memory in communication with the modules and programmed to detect occupancy status of each seating area based on signals from the modules and to communicate the occupancy statuses to a remote server to facilitate scheduling of ride-sharing passengers for a specified seating area of the vehicle. The reserved seating location may be used to align the seating location/door with a passenger during pick-up, adjust vehicle accessory settings associated with the reserved seating location, and activate a visual indicator to direct the passenger to the assigned/reserved seating location.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A vehicle sharing system, comprising:

a vehicle having interior transceiver modules associated with different passenger seating areas;
and
a vehicle computing system (VCS) including a processor and a memory in communication with the modules and programmed to detect occupancy status of each seating area based on signals from the modules and to communicate the occupancy statuses to a remote server to facilitate scheduling of ride-sharing passengers for a specified seating area of the vehicle, wherein the VCS is programmed to position the vehicle to align a vehicle ingress predefinedly associated with a reserved passenger seating area with a passenger location, for a passenger scheduled for pick-up and located outside the vehicle, in response to triangulation of signals received from a passenger mobile device by the modules and used to determine the passenger location with which the vehicle ingress should be aligned, such that the vehicle stops in a manner that places the ingress at the passenger location.

A vehicle sharing system, comprising:

a vehicle having interior transceivers each associated with one of a plurality of passenger seating areas;
and
a vehicle computing system including a processor and a memory in communication with the transceivers and configured to detect occupancy status based on signals received by the transceivers from a passenger mobile device and to communicate associated occupancy statuses to a remote server that schedules passengers for unoccupied passenger seating areas, wherein the vehicle computing system is further configured to position the vehicle to align a vehicle cargo area access location, different from a passenger entry location designated for the passenger, on a vehicle, with a passenger location, for a passenger scheduled for pick-up, in response to receiving reservation data indicating the passenger has luggage, the passenger location being determined based on triangulation of a passenger device, such that the arriving vehicle lines up the cargo access location to the passenger location.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.