Method and Apparatus for Locating Optimal Refueling Stations
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsAllan Roy Gale, David Allen Kowalski
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The illustrative embodiments classify vehicle performance by fuel providers under a variety of driving demands. Individual measured performance may be combined with collaborative crowd-sourced experiences to leverage a vast data set usable to improve statistical accuracy. The illustrative embodiments provide non-limiting examples of methods usable to save fuel costs at the pump through the use of performance forecasts based on observed historic fuel quality at known fuel providers.
Claims20
A system comprising:
- a processor configured to:
- register an amount of fuel dispensed to a vehicle;
- associate a fuel-dispensary with the amount of fuel;
- determine miles-per-gallon efficiency while the dispensed fuel is being used by the vehicle;
- and
- save a record of the efficiency of the dispensed fuel, in miles-per-gallon, with respect to a record associated with the fuel-dispensary.
A system comprising:
- a processor configured to:
- receive a request to find a refueling point;
- obtain fuel station fuel-quality statistics for a plurality of fuel stations;
- determine a recommended fuel station from the plurality of fuel stations based on obtained fuel station fuel-quality statistics;
- and
- present the recommended fuel station to the driver as a preferred fuel station.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, storing instructions, that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:
- registering an amount of fuel dispensed to a vehicle;
- associating a fuel-dispensary with the amount of fuel;
- determining, via a vehicle computing system, miles-per-gallon efficiency while the dispensed fuel is being used by the vehicle;
- and
- saving a record of the efficiency of the dispensed fuel, in miles-per-gallon, with respect to a record associated with the fuel-dispensary.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.