Vehicle specific hazard estimation, presentation, and route planning based on meteorological and other environmental data

A method of planning or updating a travel route based on a potential affect of environmental conditions on a particular vehicle, comprising:

• receiving at least a starting location of a journey and an end point of a journey;
• determining a best travel route from at least the starting location of the journey to the end point of the journey;
• receiving environmental conditions information for at least the determined best travel route;
• receiving vehicle information;
• receiving vehicle specific information;
• determining, based on the determined best travel route, the received environmental conditions information, the received vehicle information, and the received vehicle specific information, whether any environmental conditions represent environmental conditions that are severe enough to affect the particular vehicle;
• re-determining, if any environmental conditions represent environmental conditions that are severe enough to affect the particular vehicle, the best travel route to traverse the environmental conditions that represent environmental conditions that are severe enough to affect the particular vehicle;
• and
• creating a display that shows at least the determined best travel route and at least one environmental condition annotation that represents each environmental condition that is severe enough to affect the particular vehicle.

An apparatus for displaying environmental conditions as the environmental conditions relate to a particular vehicle, comprising:

• a display;
• an input circuit that receives incoming information;
• a vehicle information database that at least stores static data specific to the particular vehicle;
• a vehicle conditions database that at least periodically receives and stores dynamic data specific to the particular vehicle;
• an environmental conditions database that at least periodically receives and stores weather and other environmental conditions information;
• a map annotation database that stores environmental condition annotations;
• an annotation injection circuit that injects appropriate environmental condition annotations in one or more appropriate locations on the display;
• a memory that contains at least a software program and specific algorithms used by the environmental conditions display apparatus;
• an output circuit that outputs the environmental condition annotations to the display;
• and
• a controller coupled to the display, the input circuit, the vehicle information database, the vehicle conditions database, the environmental conditions database, the map annotation database, the memory, and the output circuit, and configured to determine, based on the specific algorithms, the static data, the dynamic data, and the weather and other environmental conditions information, whether any environmental conditions represent environmental conditions that are severe enough to affect the particular vehicle, to create, using the environmental condition annotations, at least one environmental condition annotation for each environmental condition that represents an environmental condition that is severe enough to affect the particular vehicle, and to control the annotation injection circuit to inject, via the output circuit, appropriate environmental condition annotations in one or more appropriate locations on the display.

An environmental conditions display system that displays environmental conditions as the environmental conditions relate to a particular vehicle, comprising:

• a display;
• an input circuit that receives incoming information;
• a vehicle information database that at least stores static data specific to the particular vehicle;
• a vehicle conditions database that at least periodically receives and stores dynamic data specific to the particular vehicle;
• an environmental conditions database that at least periodically receives and stores weather and other environmental conditions information;
• a map annotation database that stores environmental condition annotations;
• an annotation injection circuit that injects appropriate environmental condition annotations in one or more appropriate locations on the display;
• a memory that contains at least a software program and specific algorithms used by the environmental conditions display apparatus;
• an output circuit that outputs the environmental condition annotations to the display;
• and
• a controller coupled to the display, the input circuit, the vehicle information database, the vehicle conditions database, the environmental conditions database, the map annotation database, the memory, and the output circuit, and configured to determine, based on the specific algorithms, the static data, the dynamic data, and the weather and other environmental conditions information, whether any environmental conditions represent environmental conditions that are severe enough to affect the particular vehicle, to create, using the environmental condition annotations, at least one environmental condition annotation for each environmental condition that represents an environmental condition that is severe enough to affect the particular vehicle, and to control the annotation injection circuit to inject, via the output circuit, appropriate environmental condition annotations in one or more appropriate locations on the display.

A method of displaying environmental conditions as the environmental conditions relate to a particular vehicle, comprising the steps of:

• receiving at least some static vehicle information from at least one second vehicle;
• receiving at least some dynamic vehicle information from the at least one second vehicle;
• comparing at least some of the static vehicle information and at least some of the dynamic vehicle information received from the at least one second vehicle to at least some static vehicle information and at least some dynamic vehicle information from the particular vehicle;
• determining, based on the compared information, whether there are any environmental conditions that are severe enough to affect the particular vehicle;
• creating, if it is determined that there are environmental conditions that are severe enough to affect the particular vehicle, at least one environmental condition annotation for each environmental condition that represents an environmental condition that is severe enough to affect the particular vehicle;
• and
• producing a display of environmental conditions, wherein the display of environmental conditions includes the at least one environmental condition annotation inserted in an appropriate location on a display so as to indicate a relationship between the environmental condition and the particular vehicle.

A method of providing environmental conditions data as the environmental conditions data relates to a particular vehicle, comprising the steps of:

• receiving at least some static vehicle information from the particular vehicle;
• receiving at least some dynamic vehicle information from the particular vehicle;
• receiving at least some static vehicle information from at least one second vehicle;
• receiving at least some dynamic vehicle information from the at least one second vehicle;
• comparing at least some of the static vehicle information and at least some of the dynamic vehicle information received from the at least one second vehicle to at least some of the static vehicle information and at least some of the dynamic vehicle information from the particular vehicle;
• determining environmental conditions data that relates to the particular vehicle,
• wherein the determined environmental conditions data is based on the comparison of the at least some static vehicle information and the at least some dynamic vehicle information received from the at least one second vehicle to the at least some static vehicle information and the at least some dynamic vehicle information from the particular vehicle;
• and
• transmitting the environmental conditions data to at least one vehicle.