Road brightness route planning

A system for providing route guidance based on road brightness metrics, comprising:

• a primary vehicle having an on-board data processor, a driver interface in communication with the on-board data processor and adapted to allow a driver of the vehicle to receive information from the on-board data processor and to input information to the on-board data processor, and a wireless communication module in communication with the on-board data processor;
• a cloud-based data processor adapted to collect real-time road brightness data from the primary vehicle and a plurality of other vehicles and to store collected road brightness data from the primary vehicle and the plurality of other vehicles and to build a model of road brightness metrics at identified road segments at different times and different dates;
• the cloud-based data processor further adapted to:
• receive data related to a starting position and final destination of the primary vehicle from the on-board data processor within the primary vehicle;
• calculate brightness characteristics for a shortest path route between the starting point and the final destination;
• calculate brightness characteristics for at least one viable alternate route between the starting point and the final destination;
• and
• present to a driver of the primary vehicle, via the driver interface within the primary vehicle, the at least one viable alternate route between the starting point and the final destination, when the at least one viable alternate route has brightness characteristics which satisfy pre-determined brightness preferences better than the shortest path route between the starting point and the final destination.