Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of systems for assessment of driver behavior during driving of vehicles. More particularly, the invention relates to a method for crediting a driver for safe driving behavior.

Background of the invention

The more a driver breaks traffic regulations, the greater the odds that he or she will be involved in an accident. Therefore, an appropriate driver reward scheme should be developed to motivate drivers to the desired level of safe driving performance and to recognize significant achievements. As a result, society would benefit if this could help lower traffic accidents and result in fewer deaths and injuries.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a system which is capable of motivating drivers to the desired level of safe driving performance and to promote positive driving behavior.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method of crediting a driver for a safe driving behavior, comprising:

a) Receiving data relative to geolocation of roadways. For example, the data can be received from one or more sources, such as Waze, Google Maps, online weather data sources, etc.;

b) Processing said received data for dynamically determining optimal driving behavior for each specific geolocation of said roadways;

c) Receiving data relative to driving behavior of a driver of a vehicle at said specific geolocation;

d) Matching between said dynamic determined optimal driving behavior and the driving behavior of said driver; and

e) Crediting said driver whenever the matching results are within a predetermined range. According to an embodiment of the invention, the data relative to roadways comprises traffic laws/rules/regulations.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the data relative to roadways comprises data relative to real-time traffic and/or road conditions, such as environmental conditions. For example, the environmental conditions may comprise data relative to weather condition (e.g., rain, wind, snow) and/or road condition (e.g., slippery road) with respect to a specific geolocation.

According to an embodiment of the invention, data relative to the driving behavior of the driver of the vehicle is received from one or more devices/systems that are located within said vehicle and are adapted to collect/provide/produce vehicle data during driving of said vehicle, such as an in-vehicle telemetry system, a smartphone located within said vehicle, an in-car entertainment (ICE) or in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system, vision-based advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) or any combination thereof.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises enabling to share information associated with the driver's credits with other users and/or entities. For example, the driver's credits can be shared via a social network, either a driver-based social network or a third party one.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the data relative to the driving behavior of the driver is not recorded or saved in order to keep on the privacy of the driver.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the dynamic optimal driving behavior comprises data relative to a range of desired speed values as a function of real-time traffic and/or road conditions and traffic laws/rules/regulations with respect to a specific geolocation.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the driving behavior of the driver comprises data relative to speed, acceleration and deceleration of the vehicle at a specific geolocation. In another aspect, the present invention relates to non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which when executed by at least one processor causes the processor to perform the method of crediting a driver for a safe driving behavior.

In yet another aspect, the present invention relates to a system, comprising: a) at least one processor; and b) a memory comprising computer-readable instructions which when executed by the at least one processor causes the processor to execute a dynamic optimal driving behavior agent, wherein the agent:

i. receives data relative to roadways;

ii. processes said received data for dynamically determining optimal driving behavior for a specific geolocation;

iii. receives data relative to driving behavior of a driver of a vehicle at said specific geolocation;

iv. matches between said dynamically determined optimal driving behavior and the driving behavior of said driver; and

v. credits said driver whenever the matching results are within a predetermined range and storing the credits in an account associated with said driver.

Brief Description of the Drawings

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a flow chart generally illustrating a method of crediting a driver for a safe driving, according to an embodiment of the invention; and

Fig. 2 is a block diagram generally illustrating a system of crediting a driver for a safe driving, according to an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Reference will now be made to several embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying figures for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following description that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of claimed invention. Fig. 1 is a flow chart generally illustrating a method of crediting a driver for a safe driving, according to an embodiment of the invention. The method may involve the following procedures:

Receiving data relative to geolocation of roadways (bloc 11), wherein the data may comprise real-time traffic indications, road conditions (e.g., hazard on road, a potholed road, ice on road, slippery road, etc.), weather condition (e.g., rain, wind, snow), traffic laws/rules/regulations (e.g., speed limits, road signs, etc.);

Determining parameters of optimal driving behavior for a specific geolocation according to the received data (bloc 12). For example, in a specific roadway the speed limit is 90 Km/h (e.g., as set according to the local traffic rules, e.g., and taken from GPS navigation software such as Waze or Google Maps), however due to bad weather conditions at the area of this specific roadway, the system of the present invention may dynamically determine (e.g., by a dynamic optimal driving behavior agent that is configured to process data relative to roadways for dynamically determining optimal driving behavior for a specific geolocation), that currently, a parameter that represents the speed limit at this specific roadway (or at least at a section of this specific roadway) should be set to 50 Km/h and not 90 Km/h;

Receiving data relative to driving behavior of a driver of a vehicle that drives at the specific geolocation in real-time (bloc 13). For example, such data may comprise the following parameters: vehicle's speed, acceleration, deceleration, the position of the vehicle within a roadway lane, etc.;

Matching between parameters of the determined optimal driving behavior and parameters of the driving behavior of the driver for detecting whether the driver's driving behavior is within the range of the dynamically determined optimal driving behavior (bloc 14). For example, currently the speed limit parameter of the optimal driving behavior at a specific roadway is set to 80 Km/h, thus a driver that currently drives a vehicle on that specific roadway at a speed in the range of 65-85 Km/h, the system may determine that the driver's driving behavior matches the optimal driving behavior; and

Crediting the driver whenever there is match between the optimal driving behavior and the driver's driving behavior (bloc 15). According to an embodiment of the invention, an online user account of the driver can be used to store information associated with the driver and the driver's credits (e.g., a dedicated cloud-based account or online data storage can be used for such purpose). Alternatively, one may use local storage to store the credits or other related data (e.g., in a smartphone via a dedicated application).

According to an embodiment of the invention, data relative to driving behavior of the vehicle's driver can be received from one or more of the following systems: an in-vehicle telemetry system, a dedicated software application that runs in a smartphone that is located within the vehicle (e.g., Waze, Google Maps, etc.), an in-car entertainment (ICE) or in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system, vision-based advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) such as Mobileye, a device that is adapted to obtain vehicle position and speed values from Global Positioning System (GPS) and accordingly to provide accurate and detailed information on traffic characteristics and driving behavior of a driver.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises enabling to share the driver's credits with other users and/or entities. For example, the driver's credits can be shared via a social network, either a particular driver-based social network or a third party social network such as Linkedln, Facebook, etc.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the driver's credits can be associated with a rewards-based system designed to motivate safe driving that may provide tangible rewards for drivers (prizes, discounts, etc.).

According to an embodiment of the invention, in order to keep on the privacy of the driver the system may not record or save any data relative to the driving behavior of the driver.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the optimal driving behavior comprises data relative to a range of desired parameters (e.g., speed values, the position of a vehicle within a roadway lane, frequent lane changing, etc.) as a function of real-time traffic and/or road conditions and traffic laws/rules/regulations with respect to a specific geolocation.

The following discussion is intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment in which the invention may be implemented. The invention can be implemented by using program modules or codes that execute in conjunction with an application program that runs on an operating system on a server or a cloud computing. The functions described herein may be performed by executable code and instructions stored in computer readable medium and running on one or more processor-based systems. Embodiments of the invention may be implemented as a computer process, e.g., a computer system that encodes a computer program of instructions for executing the computer process.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram generally illustrating a system 20 of crediting a driver for a safe driving, according to an embodiment of the invention. System 20 comprises a server 21, at least one in-vehicle device 22 that is adapted to obtain data relative to driving behavior of the driver and one or more sources 23 for providing data relative to geolocation of roadways. The at least one in-vehicle device 22 and the one or more sources 23 are adapted to communicate with server 21 via a data network (e.g., in a wireless manner via the Internet).

Server 21 may perform the following tasks: receives data from in-vehicle device 22 and the one or more sources 23, processes the received data in order to dynamically determine the optimal driving behavior, detects whether the driver's driving behavior matches the dynamically determined optimal driving behavior, and credits the driver whenever there is a match. According to some embodiments server 21 can be implemented in a cloud computing environment.

In-vehicle device 22 can be an in-vehicle telemetry system, a dedicated software application that runs in a smartphone that is located within the vehicle (e.g., Waze, Google Maps, etc.), an in-car entertainment (ICE) or in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system, vision-based advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) such as Mobileye, a device that is adapted to obtain vehicle position and speed values from Global Positioning System (GPS) and accordingly to provide accurate and detailed information on traffic characteristics and driving behavior of a driver, or any other suitable device that may comprise one or more of the following sensors/elements: camera, accelerometer, a GPS receiver or other elements/sensors that may provide geolocation and time information, etc.

Sources 23 can be any data source (e.g., websites, social network based applications, database, etc.) that may provide geolocation with real-time traffic indications, road conditions (e.g., hazard on road, a potholed road, ice on road, slippery road, etc.), weather condition (e.g., rain, wind, snow), data relative to traffic laws/rules/regulations and their geolocation (e.g., speed limits, road signs, etc.).

The terms, "for example", "e.g.", "optionally", as used herein, are intended to be used to introduce non-limiting examples. While certain references are made to certain example system components or services, other components and services can be used as well and/or the example components can be combined into fewer components and/or divided into further components.

All the above description and examples have been given for the purpose of illustration and are not intended to limit the invention in any way. Many different devices, methods of obtaining roadways and driving related data, electronic and logical elements can be employed, all without exceeding the scope of the invention.