Abstract:
An apparatus, a system and a method of collecting vehicle data for use in incident investigations, including: a vehicle data recorder for recording vehicle parameters such as geographic location, speed, azimuth of motion, acceleration, brake pedal pressure and similar parameters: a means for detecting incidents such as an accident, and sending an incident message to a incident monitoring station, which then transmits a broadcast message. Other vehicles within communication range of the incident monitoring station each respond to the broadcast message with a report message including a unique identifier. When an incident occurs, a portion of the data stored prior to, and at the time of, the incident is saved for future retrieval. The incident message may be reported to a central site or other authority so that emergency response can be provided.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0001]     This application relates to a method and system of vehicle telematics, and more particularly to the gathering of information regarding vehicles in or in proximity to an incident.  
       BACKGROUND  
       [0002]     The investigation of vehicular incidents and their causes would be facilitated by knowledge of the environment in which the incident occurred. Knowledge of the environment includes, but is not limited to, the position and motions of the vehicles involved, as well as vehicles which were in proximity to the incident but were not directly involved, or whose identity cannot be ascertained. Heretofore, the environment at the time of an incident may have been difficult to ascertain. The identity of the cars present, their positions, their speeds, and the actions taken by the drivers are all relevant to an incident investigation, both forensically and legally. Eyewitness accounts are often considered unreliable, and vehicles in proximity to the incident may have left the scene prior to the arrival of investigators. Lack of complete, reliable and factual information can hamper incident investigations. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0003]     Embodiments of the inventive aspects of this disclosure will be best understood with reference to the following detailed description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0004]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of vehicle-mounted components of a vehicular data collection system;  
         [0005]      FIG. 2  illustrates the relationship between vehicles, a incident monitoring station and a central location in a vehicle data collection system;  
         [0006]      FIG. 3  is a plan view illustrating the spatial relationship between vehicles and incident monitoring stations in the vicinity of an incident;  
         [0007]      FIG. 4  illustrates a method of collecting data relating to vehicle operation, reporting incidents and storing vehicle data relating to incidents; and  
         [0008]      FIG. 5  illustrates a method of responding to the receipt of an incident report message. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0009]     Motor Vehicle Event Data Recorders (MVEDRs) collect, record, store and export data related to motor vehicle pre-defined events. Such data may be stored in proprietary data formats or conforming to voluntary industry standards, such as IEEE Std. 1616 “Motor Vehicle Event Data Recorders” (IEEE, Piscataway, NJ). IEEE Std. 1616 defines a protocol for MVEDR output data compatibility and export protocols of MVEDR data elements. The IEEE std 1616 does not prescribe which specific data elements shall be recorded, but instead provides a data dictionary of data attributes. The standard is applicable to event data recorders for all types of motor vehicles licensed to operate on public roadways, whether offered as original or aftermarket equipment, whether stand-alone or integrated into the vehicle.  
         [0010]     IEEE P1616a, “Standard for Motor Vehicle Event Data Recorders (MVEDRs)—Amendment 1: Brake and Electronic Control Unit (ECU) Electronic Fault Code Data Elements,” which is being developed, requires units to store a history of time-stamped fault codes synchronized with other on-board MVEDR devices. As vehicles are outfitted with more electronic components, including communications, vehicle telematics and vehicle location systems, the accuracy and breadth of data which may be recorded on the state of a vehicle, and related to a time base, increases. Such data is likely to be recorded on a voluntary or mandatory basis in future.  
         [0011]     The industry standards that have been described are only as examples of the types of data and the data formats which may be stored. Other non-standard or proprietary formats may be used as well, and the use of a specific format or data set is not necessary in the apparatus, systems and methods described herein.  
         [0012]     The scope of the data that is recorded in a MVEDR or vehicle data recorder determines the specific utility of the data collected to an incident investigation, and may include time, vehicle speed, heading and location, acceleration and rotation, brake, accelerator and steering wheel operation, seat belt position, and the like, which may be characterized by sensors associated with the vehicle or with the vehicle data recorder. Incidents are not limited to accidents, but may encompass hard breaking, evasive or erratic maneuvers, or other driving actions as may be characterized by, for example, excessive yaw rates at a vehicle speed, and the like. Hard breaking may be characterized by a high deceleration as characterized by an accelerometer, while high yaw rate may be characterized by a gyroscope. Modem vehicles may have such devices already installed as part of systems as the automatic breaking system (ABS), or vehicle stability control. Such sensors may be used if suitable interfaces are provided in the vehicle, may be part of the data recorder, or may be external to the data recorder and interfaced with the data recorder. Other sensors, such as inclinometers, which may be used to detect vehicle upset (turnover), and global position system (GPS) receivers, which may be used to determine vehicle geographic location, are also useful, as well as information provided by vehicular navigation systems, when such systems are also installed. The data from any of these sensors may be used to determine that an incident has occurred, where the criteria for an incident is a matter of design or policy. The data from a sensor may be used directly or after analysis by the sensor, in the data recorder, or in another device. The resultant determination of whether an incident has occurred is, functionally, termed the incident detector output or result.  
         [0013]      FIG. 1  illustrates a vehicle data recorder  10 , such as a MVDER, having a memory  12  to store vehicle data  20  obtained from sensors and systems in the vehicle, which may include an incident detector  18 , and which may have an incident memory  14  to store a portion of the recorded data. Alternatively, the incident memory  14  may be a designated area of the memory  12  and may be the same or different physical or logical memories and be the same or different memory technologies. Memory technologies which may be suitable for these functions include flash memory, random access memory (RAM), programmable read only memory (PROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), removable media, hard drives or other computer readable storage media. At least a portion of the memory may be non-volatile memory so as to preserve data in the event of an extended power loss. A microprocessor  24 , or other computer as is known in the art, having a capability to read and execute stored software and firmware programs, manipulate data in one or more memory units, and interface with external devices is provided.  
         [0014]     An incident detector  18  may provide a signal to the vehicle data recorder  10  when an incident such as an accident, air bag deployment or hard breaking occurs. The incident detector  18  may be one or more of other the vehicle systems or sensors, be integral to the vehicle data recorder, or be the result of analysis of other vehicle data by software in the processor of the vehicle data recorder  10 . The incident detector  18  may be one or more of an accelerometer, an upset detector, such as an inclinometer to determine that the vehicle is no longer upright, a gyroscope to measure yaw rate, the speedometer or equivalent to measure speed, or other suitable sensor. The vehicle data recorder  10  may have sufficient memory  12  to store data for a length of time such that recording may take place continually from a time prior to the incident to a time after the incident. Providing that sufficient memory  12  is available, the time of the incident may not need to be identified until the data stored in the memory  10 ,  14  of vehicle data recorder  10  is read out. Alternatively, the data may be retained for a period of time and then overwritten in, for example, a circular data buffer maintained by software in the memory  12 ; the recording of data may be stopped at a time after the incident, thus preserving data representing the time prior to and during the incident. In another alternative, data for a period of time encompassing the time of an incident may be transferred to another memory location, the incident memory  14 , or otherwise protected against being overwritten, where the memory  14  may be either a separate memory or be a logical or physical part of memory  12 . Depending on the use of the incident reporting data, the data may be retained until read out by an authorized person, be retained for a specified time period, or maintained indefinitely.  
         [0015]     The vehicle data recorder  10  is preferably installed in a vehicle  36  ( a - n ) as is shown in  FIG. 2 . Such a vehicle data recorder or “black box” may be powered from the vehicle electrical system, and may also have an internal power source such as a battery to facilitate recording during an incident when the electrical system may be damaged. The data may be recorded in memory  12 ,  14 . Data and software programs may be stored in the non-volatile memory portion to preclude loss in the event of a power outage.  
         [0016]     In an example, the system shown in  FIG. 1  includes a MVEDR or similar “black box” data recorder  10 , a communications device  16  which may be either integral to, or separate from, the data recorder  10 , and an incident detector  18 . The communications device  16  is in radio, audio or other wireless communications with an incident monitoring station  30 , shown in  FIG. 2 . The communications device  16  transmits and receives messages in accordance with a communications protocol, including hardware and data protocols, and may encode the transmitted messages by modulating a carrier wave. The incident monitoring station  30  has a communications system  32  compatible with the communications device  16  the vehicle  36  and may be a cellular radio system, a system operating in accordance with a short-range wireless protocol such as IEEE 802.11a/b/g, or the dedicated short range communications system (DSRC), or the like. The DSRC is being jointly developed for vehicle safety and other mobile applications by the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Communications may take place between the vehicle  36  and an incident monitoring station  30  or between two vehicles  36 .  
         [0017]     The incident monitoring station  30  also has a communications interface  34  to a central location  40 , and may have a means for local data storage (not shown). The incident monitoring station  30  may be located at a known geographical location on either a permanent or temporary basis. In another aspect, the incident monitoring station  30  may be replaced by vehicle-mounted equipment having the same functionality as described for the incident monitoring station  30 , and which communicates with the central location  40  using a communications means such as a cellular radio. In an aspect, the function of the incident monitoring station  30  may be performed by one or more vehicles located in the vicinity of the incident, such vehicles not being precluded from having their own vehicle data recorder, event detectors, position location devices and the like, or for sharing such capabilities with incident monitoring station functions. The use of the term “incident monitoring station” in this description shall be considered to encompass fixed, portable, mobile or vehicle-mounted equipment performing the functions thereof.  
         [0018]     Detection of an incident by the incident detector  18  or by a comparable capability in the vehicle data recorder  10  initiates a communication protocol using communications means  16  in the vehicle with the incident monitoring station  30 , having a compatible communications means  32 , reporting an incident in an incident message. The incident message may include, but is not be limited to, the type of incident, the time of the incident, the location of the incident, and the like. Depending of the details of the system and method, some or all of this information may be transmitted from the incident monitoring station  30  to a central location or supervisory site  40  through a telecommunications interface  34 , where the information received at the central location  40  may be used to initiate a response for appropriate services, such as police, fire, or ambulance.  
         [0019]     Contemporaneously with reporting the incident message to the central location  40 , the incident monitoring station  30  transmits a broadcast message to identify the vehicles  36  ( b, . . . , n ) in the vicinity of the vehicle  36   a  reporting the incident, and which are within communications range  46  of the incident monitoring station  30  (see  FIG. 3 ). The broadcast message may also be termed a broadcast poll message or a poll message.  
         [0020]     Alternatively, the transmission of the broadcast message by the incident monitoring station  30  may be in response to a broadcast request message received from the central location  40 . The range of transmission  46  of the broadcast message from the incident monitoring station  30  is limited by the usual determinants of communications systems range, including transmitter power, antenna gain and height, operating frequency, data bandwidth, background radio noise, receiver sensitivity, and the like. In a known system, such as IEEE 802.11b, a maximum transmission distance of approximately 300 meters may be expected. In a situation where there is more than one incident monitoring station  30  in proximity to the incident, the incident reporting message from the vehicle  36   a  may be received by more than one incident monitoring station  30 , and each incident monitoring station  30  may report the receipt of the incident reporting message to the central location  40 . Each of the incident monitoring stations  30  receiving the incident reporting message may also transmit a broadcast message. Alternatively, the broadcast message may include an incident location and specify that vehicle capable of determining their location be within a set distance of the incident. Such a message may also permit vehicles not having a current ability to determine position, but being in communication with the incident monitoring station  30  to respond to the broadcast message.  
         [0021]     Each vehicle  36  may be assigned a unique identification code ID, analogous to or being the vehicle identification number (VIN); however, the ID code may be different from the VIN. The correspondence between the VIN, which is unique to the vehicle, and the ID code which may be arbitrarily assigned, may be associated with the VIN or other owner data in a separate database.  
         [0022]     Upon receipt of a broadcast message, a vehicle  36  may respond to the incident monitoring station  30  with a message containing the individual vehicle ID code. The IDs may be associated with VINs and vehicle ownership, and the owner of the vehicle  36  may be contacted so that the data in the MVEDR or similar vehicle data recorder  10  may be uploaded to an investigator computer or a data retrieval device  44 . To the extent that the vehicle geographical position is also contained in the ID response message, the proximity of the vehicle to the incident at the time of the incident may also be used to perform a selection of the vehicle ID or VIN numbers which may be most pertinent to the incident investigation, thus optimizing the process.  
         [0023]     In another aspect, when a vehicle has received a broadcast message, a segment of data representing a period of time prior to the receipt of the broadcast message, and which may extend to a period of time after the receipt of the broadcast message, may be transferred from the memory  12  to a separate memory  14 , or otherwise protected or identified so that the data is not overwritten. For example, a 5 minute period prior to the event and a 2 minute period after the event may be selected. Provided that sufficient incident memory  14  capacity exists, data representing a number of incidents may be stored. The oldest stored incident data may be overwritten when memory is exhausted, or the latest event not stored as incident data, depending on the system design. Initiation of an incident by manual means may not overwrite the incident memory  14 . This prevents a user from erasing the incident memory  14  by repeatedly actuating the manual incident report generating means. An example of a manual incident generating means is a “panic button”.  
         [0024]     The vehicles  36  within communications range  46  of the incident monitoring station  30  respond to the broadcast or poll message with a response message giving at least the vehicle ID code or VIN number (see  FIG. 2  and  3 ). The communications protocol may have a mechanism for randomizing the time delay between receipt of the broadcast message and the transmission of the ID code response message to avoid data collisions on the return path, or have some other transmission collision avoidance or resolution protocol to improve the probability that the response message is received by the incident monitoring station. The broadcast message may be transmitted multiple times to improve the probability of receipt at the vehicles. Other protocols, including handshaking protocols may be used, particularly for the response message.  
         [0025]     The method of management of the message transmissions may include one of: randomizing the time delay between the receipt of a broadcast message and the transmission of a response by use of a parameter stored in each MVDER or vehicle data recorder, the generation of a random delay based on an aspect of the vehicle location (such as local latitude or longitude), a random delay based on computer clock time, or the like. The message transmission may be repeated multiple times with different delays so as to increase the chance of a valid reception of data from the vehicle at the incident monitoring station. Other communication protocols, including protocols in which the incident monitoring station acknowledges the receipt of a response message may be used. An alert may be displayed to a vehicle operator as an indication that an incident has occurred, and the vehicle operator may voluntarily contact the incident investigation authority.  
         [0026]     Incident monitoring stations  30  may be disposed at locations in proximity to road areas in which frequent incidents occur, either on a temporary, permanent or mobile basis, or may be present in order to also serve other communications purposes. The central location  40 , which may be any authority or service to which the incident monitoring station may transmit an incident report message may be located wherever the appropriate physical and communications capabilities exist.  
         [0027]      FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating an embodiment of a method of collecting vehicle data. The method  800  includes at block  810  storing vehicle data in a memory; at block  820  determining if one of an incident  830  has occurred or a broadcast message has been received at block  840 ; at block  850 , storing a data portion including a period at least corresponding to a time prior to the event; at block  860 , determining if the event is an incident or a broadcast message; at block  870 , if the event is an incident, transmitting an incident message; at block  880 , if the event is the receipt of a broadcast or poll message, transmitting a vehicle ID or report message.  
         [0028]     In another aspect, as illustrated in  FIG. 5 , a method  900  of collecting vehicle data includes, in one embodiment: at block  910 , receiving an incident message at an incident monitoring station; at block  920 , transmitting a broadcast or poll message; and at block  930 , receiving a vehicle ID code response message including a vehicle ID. The method may further include: at block  940 , reporting the incident message to the central site. In yet another aspect, the method may further include reporting the vehicle ID messages to the central site.  
         [0029]     It is therefore intended that the foregoing description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understood that it is the following claims, including all equivalents, that are intended to define the spirit and scope of this invention.