Patent ID: 11892306
Assignee: MITAC DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A method for identifying accident-prone road sections, the method being implemented using a server that communicates with a plurality of vehicles, the server including a processor, a communication unit, and a data storage that stores an electronic map, a plurality of section categories each of which is defined by at least one condition of a road section, and a plurality of reference datasets that correspond respectively with the plurality of section categories, each of the reference datasets representing a representative driving pattern of vehicles driving on predetermined accident-prone road sections that belong to the respective one of the plurality of section categories, the method comprising steps of:
by the processor, obtaining an identified road section by scanning the electronic map to identify an unidentified road section that fits the at least one condition associated with one of the plurality of the section categories to serve as the identified road section, and categorizing the identified road section into said one of the plurality of the section categories;
receiving, by the communication unit, a vehicle dataset from each of the vehicles, the vehicle dataset including a moving track of the vehicle and raw data related to a plurality of components of the vehicle;
with respect to the vehicle dataset from each of the vehicles, determining, by the processor, whether the moving track included in the vehicle dataset indicates that a travelled road section, through which the vehicle has travelled, has been categorized into one of the plurality of section categories, and when it is determined that the travelled road section has been categorized into one of the plurality of section categories, by the processor, extracting a driving record associated with the travelled road section from the vehicle dataset and storing the driving record in the data storage, so as to obtain, for each of the road sections belonging to one of the plurality of section categories, a plurality of driving records that are obtained respectively from the vehicle datasets of the vehicles which were driven on the road section;
for each of the identified road sections, calculating, by the processor, an identified-road-section (IRS) driving characteristic dataset based on the driving records that are associated with the identified road section; and
for each of the identified road sections, determining, by the processor, whether the identified road section should be deemed as a potential accident-prone road section based on at least the IRS driving characteristic dataset and a corresponding one of the plurality of reference datasets that corresponds to one of the section categories, to which the identified road section belongs;
obtaining, by the processor, a predetermined accident-prone section list including a plurality of predetermined accident-prone road sections;
assigning, by the processor, each of the predetermined accident-prone road sections to one of the plurality of section categories stored in the data storage;
for each of the predetermined accident-prone road sections, calculating, by the processor, a predetermined driving characteristic dataset based on the driving records that are associated with the predetermined accident-prone road section; and
for each of the plurality of section categories, generating, by the processor, the reference dataset based on the predetermined driving characteristic datasets that correspond to those of the predetermined accident-prone road sections that belong to the section category;
wherein:
the section categories include a road section with one curve;
the determining of whether the identified road section should be deemed as a potential accident-prone road section is based on the IRS driving characteristic dataset and a predetermined risk threshold value;
the IRS driving characteristic dataset includes velocities of the vehicles entering the curve, and velocities of the vehicles leaving the curve; and
the predetermined risk threshold value includes a predetermined safety speed ceiling;

tagging, by the processor, each of the predetermined accident-prone road sections in the predetermined accident-prone section list on the electronic map;
when it is determined that the identified road section should be deemed as a potential accident-prone road section, tagging the identified road section as a potential accident-prone road section on the electronic map, so as to obtain an updated electronic map which displays the predetermined dangerous road sections and potential dangerous road sections;
storing the updated electronic map in the data storage; and
transmitting the updated electronic map to an in-vehicle electronic system in each of the vehicles, the in-vehicle electronic system generating an alert and displaying the map and the alert within the map in the vehicles when the vehicles approach one of the predetermined accident-prone road sections and the potential accident-prone road sections.