Patent ID: 8451140

Claim:
A method of monitoring a road surface of a road network, the method comprising: associating a mobile computer unit with a vehicle operating on said road network, wherein the mobile computer unit is onboard the vehicle and interfaced with a cellular communication device providing bidirectional communication over a cellular communication network, the mobile computer unit interfaced with sensors comprising at least one shock sensor; monitoring the road surface using said at least one shock sensor of the mobile computer unit during said vehicle operation so as to detect a bump, a bump intensity, and one of a bump width, length, or depth; determining a position of the vehicle using GPS positioning data in response to detecting a bump on the road surface; associating the position of the vehicle with a detected bump on the road surface; providing information associated with the detected bump, the bump intensity, one of a bump width, length, or depth, and the determined position of the vehicle to a predetermined fixed receiver positioned proximate to a road of the road network to store in a shared database automatically accessible by the mobile computer unit of other vehicles operated by other users, wherein the information is processed to provide information representative of a condition of the road surface; and automatically adjusting adjustable equipment of vehicles having access to the shared database for the condition of the road surface at the determined position using an analysis of processed information stored on the shared database and a determined condition of the road surface, comprising at least one of adjusting a setting for the suspension system and adjusting a setting for tension of a seat belt according to the determined condition of the road surface at the determined position.