Patent ID: 11928619
Assignee: RENAULT S.A.S.
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A vehicle dispatch service method that uses a terminal and a vehicle dispatch information data server including a map database to determine a boarding location for a dispatched vehicle based on a vehicle dispatch request from the terminal and uses an in-vehicle terminal to autonomously dispatch the dispatched vehicle to the boarding location, the vehicle dispatch service method comprising:
receiving the vehicle dispatch request, the vehicle dispatch request including position information indicating a starting location of a user who generated the vehicle dispatch request;
calculating boarding location candidates present within a range surrounding the starting location based on the position information and map information in the map database;
extracting information on peripheral targets present in peripheries of the boarding location candidates from the map information, each of the peripheral targets being a visible landmark existing within a range of a respective one of the boarding location candidates, the peripheral targets being registered as points on a map in the map information;
calculating a boarding location recognition difficulty of each of the boarding location candidates based on a predetermined specificity value a respective one of the peripheral targets and a distance between each of the boarding location candidates and the respective one of the peripheral targets such that the boarding location recognition difficulty decreases commensurately as the distance decreases,
the predetermined specificity value being a numerical value from 0 to 1, inclusive, and set to be larger when a radius of the respective one of the peripheral targets is smaller and smaller when the radius of the respective one of the peripheral targets is larger,
a base boarding location recognition difficulty being calculated by subtracting the predetermined specificity value from 1, and
the boarding location recognition difficulty being calculated by applying a correction to the base boarding location recognition difficulty, the correction being based on the distance, the boarding location recognition difficulty being a numerical value expressing a degree of difficulty for the user to visually recognize each of the boarding location candidates; and

determining at least one of the boarding location candidates having a lower boarding location recognition difficulty than others of the boarding location candidates;
presenting the at least one of the boarding location candidates to the user via the terminal;
receiving a selection by the user of one of the at least one boarding location candidates presented via the terminal as the boarding location for the dispatched vehicle; and
using the in-vehicle terminal to control the dispatched vehicle to move autonomously from a current location to the boarding location that was selected.