Patent ID: 7680595

Claim:
A method for automatically defining optimal route data for a specific route to be traversed by a vehicle, where the specific route will be traversed a plurality of different times, comprising the steps of: (a) initially traversing the specific route using a vehicle equipped to collect vehicle geographical position data while the vehicle is traversing the specific route, to obtain actual route data for the initial traversal of the specific route, wherein the actual route data includes the vehicle geographical position data; (b) transmitting the actual route data to a remote computing device; (c) using the remote computing device, initially defining the optimal route data based on the actual route data collected while initially traversing the specific route; (d) completing a subsequent traversal of the specific route with a vehicle, while collecting vehicle geographical position data during the subsequent traversal, to obtain actual route data for the subsequent traversal of the specific route, wherein the actual route data for the subsequent traversal of the specific route includes the vehicle geographical position data for the vehicle collected during the subsequent traversal; (e) transmitting the actual route data for the subsequent traversal of the specific route to the remote computing device; (f) using the remote computing device, comparing the actual route data collected during the subsequent traversal of the specific route with the optimal route data, and if the actual route data collected during the subsequent traversal represents an improvement over the optimal route data as determined by one or more predefined criteria, then redefining the optimal route data based on the actual route data collected during the subsequent traversal.