Patent ID: 9651391
Date: 2017-05-16
CPC Classifications: G01C,G01S,G06Q

Claim:
1. A method for reducing fuel consumption through ride sharing, the method comprising: receiving, by an application server, a first route from a first vehicle computing device, wherein the first vehicle computing device comprises a GPS receiver and an on-board diagnostics (OBD) system interface to a fuel gauge sensor and wherein the first route comprises GPS coordinates of a current location, received from the GPS receiver, and GPS coordinates of points on a planned route stored by the first vehicle computing device; receiving, from a second vehicle computing device, a second route comprising GPS coordinates of points on a planned route stored by the second vehicle computing device; based on the first route and the second route, determining, by the application server, that a first vehicle corresponding to the first vehicle computing device and a second vehicle corresponding to the second vehicle computing device are associated with a shared route; receiving, from the second vehicle computing device, a request by a second user for a ride; determining a driver safety rating of a first user associated with the first vehicle computing device; responsive to the determining that the first vehicle and the second vehicle are associated with the shared route and responsive to the determining that the driver safety rating is above a threshold, selecting the first vehicle for ride sharing; and transmitting, by the application server, a communication to the second vehicle computing device informing the second user that the first vehicle has been selected for ride sharing, wherein fuel consumed the first vehicle by transporting the first user and the second user over the shared route is less than the fuel consumed by the first vehicle and second vehicle separately traversing, respectively, the first route and the second routes.