Patent ID: 8571748

Claim:
A method performed in general purpose computer of estimating a propulsion-related operating parameter of a vehicle for a road segment, the method comprising: estimating at least one operating parameter of the vehicle for the road segment based on information corresponding to the road segment; estimating the propulsion-related operating parameter for the road segment using the at least one estimated operating parameter and at least one vehicle specific parameter, where the at least one vehicle specific parameter is determined by: acquiring driving data to determine a plurality of vehicle operating parameters while the vehicle is in operation; using at least two of the determined vehicle operating parameters in a predetermined relationship that includes the at least one vehicle specific parameter; and determining the at least one vehicle specific parameter from the driving data for the at least two vehicle operating parameters and the relationship, identifying different driving phases in the driving data acquired for the plurality of vehicle operating parameters where at least one vehicle specific parameter is determined for driving phase, where each identified driving phase is associated with a set of vehicle specific parameters determined from the respective driving data, the vehicle specific parameters determined for the identified driving phases being used to estimate the propulsion related operating parameter.