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

Claim 6:
7. A server for identifying accident-prone road sections on an electronic map, said server comprising a processor, a communication unit coupled to said processor for communicating with a plurality of vehicles, and a data storage coupled to said processor and storing an electronic map and a plurality of section categories each of which is defined by at least one condition of a road section, the data storage further storing a plurality of reference datasets respectively for 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, wherein said processor is programmed to:
obtain 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 categorize the identified road section into said one of the plurality of the section categories;
control said communication unit to receive 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, determine 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, extract a driving record associated with the travelled road section from the vehicle dataset and store 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, calculate 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, determine 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 reference datasets that corresponds to one of the section categories, to which the identified road section belongs;
wherein said processor is further programmed to:
obtain a predetermined accident-prone section list including a plurality of predetermined accident-prone road sections;
assign each of the predetermined accident-prone road sections to one of the plurality of section categories stored in said data storage;
for each of the predetermined accident-prone road sections, calculate 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, generate 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, and said processor is programmed to determine whether the identified road section should be deemed as a potential accident-prone road section 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;

the processor is further programmed to tag 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, the processor is further programmed to tag 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 and stores the updated electronic map in the data storage; and
the processor is further programmed to control the communication unit to transmit 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.