Patent ID: 6895332

Claim:
An emergency vehicle alert system for providing information as to a location of an emergency vehicle to a motor vehicle, the system comprising: a first GPS receiving unit that is provided on the emergency vehicle and that is configured to receive at least three different GPS signals from at least three different GPS satellites and to determine emergency vehicle location information of the emergency vehicle as a result thereof; a transmitter unit that is provided on the emergency vehicle and that is configured to transmit the emergency vehicle location information by way of an emergency vehicle location signal that includes the emergency vehicle location information; a second GPS receiving unit that is provided on the motor vehicle and that is configured to receive at least three different GPS signals from at least three different GPS satellites and to determine vehicle location information of the motor vehicle as a result thereof; a receiver unit that is provided on the motor vehicle and that is configured to receive the emergency location signal output by the transmitter unit of the emergency vehicle; and a map display, provided on the motor vehicle, that is configured to display, on a map, a current location of the motor vehicle as provided by the vehicle location information, and that is configured to display, on the map, a current location of the emergency vehicle as provided by the emergency vehicle location information obtained from the emergency vehicle location signal received by the receiver unit when the receiver unit is in communication range with respect to the transmitter unit, wherein the map display displays the emergency vehicle as an icon on the map with a different visual characteristic when the emergency vehicle is determined to be at a particular location relative to the motor vehicle.