Patent ID: 8738214

Claim:
A method of determining a status of a vehicle on a roadway, comprising: monitoring a then-current vehicle speed by a processor operatively disposed in the vehicle, the processor executing computer readable code encoded on a non-transitory computer readable medium; during the monitoring, via the processor executing the computer readable code, determining that the then-current vehicle speed has exceeded a threshold speed; and triggering an algorithm upon determining that the then-current vehicle speed has exceeded the threshold speed, the algorithm including computer readable code encoded on the non-transitory computer readable medium of the processor, wherein triggering the algorithm initiates a sub-routine included in the algorithm wherein the sub-routine includes computer readable code for: processing data over a predetermined time interval to obtain input data, the data being chosen from an average vehicle speed, a vehicle heading signal, and combinations thereof; one of maintaining or incrementing a jam score based on the input data, the incrementing including changing the jam score by a single numerical digit; processing updated data over at least one other predetermined time interval to obtain updated input data; one of maintaining or incrementing the jam score based on the updated input data; and when the jam score reaches a predefined jam score, the method further includes triggering an indicator signifying that the vehicle is then-currently in a traffic jam; or when the jam score is maintained below the predefined jam score, the method further includes repeating the processing of updated data and the one of maintaining or incrementing the jam score until the algorithm is stopped or the jam score reaches the predefined jam score.