Patent ID: 9355561
Filing Date: 2016-05-31
CPC Classification: B60R,B60W,G01C,G01S,G08G,H04J,H04L,H04W

Claim Text:
1. A vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication transponder, comprising a processor and a radio, configured to operate in a first vehicle wherein the transponder is configured to accept as input a first location of the first vehicle and a vehicle heading of the first vehicle, and wherein the radio is configured to broadcast a series of V2V safety messages wherein a majority of V2V safety messages comprise: (i) the first vehicle position; (ii) the first vehicle heading; and (iii) a first vehicle speed; wherein the improvement is: the processor uses a basic time interval (“frame”) of predetermined duration wherein the frame repeats continuously; wherein the frame comprises n time slots of predetermined duration, enumerated and contiguous; wherein the frame is subdivided into a priority class region comprising contiguous time slots from a first time slot S1 to a last time slot S2; and a non-priority class region comprising contiguous time slots from a first time slot S3 to a last time slot S4; wherein the range S1 to S2 and the range S3 to S4 do not overlap; wherein the radio transmits only time-critical V2V safety messages in the priority class region; wherein the radio broadcasts a V2V safety message in one self-selected time slot in the priority class region in every frame; wherein the transponder comprises a parameter, a baseline value for the parameter, and an as-used value for the parameter; wherein the processor determines a subset of one or more vehicles within communication range, the “consensus set”; wherein the processor computes, for each vehicle in the consensus set, a remote as-used value for the parameter for each vehicle; wherein the processor computes a new as-used value for the parameter responsive to the remote as-used values, the baseline value, and previous as-used value: wherein the processor incorporates the new as-used value in one or more V2V safety message broadcasts; wherein the baseline value of the parameter is not responsive to the remote as-used values; wherein the processor repeats the steps of determining a baseline value, determining a consensus set, computing a remote as-used value for each vehicle in the consensus set, and computing a new as-used value repetitively; wherein at least one other transponder in the consensus set performs the same steps of determining their consensus set; computing a remote as-used value for each vehicle in their consensus set, and computing a new as-used value repetitively; and wherein the consensus sets for vehicles in the consensus set may not be the same.