Patent ID: 8706409

Claim:
A method of optimizing energy use of a powered vehicle, the method comprising: by execution of specific instructions by one or more computing devices: identifying a starting waypoint and a destination waypoint, wherein the starting waypoint and the destination waypoint comprise three-dimensional location data having a latitude component, a longitude component, and an elevation component; identifying a driver from a fleet of drivers; identifying a vehicle from a fleet of vehicles; determining a plurality of candidate transportation routes from the starting waypoint location to the destination waypoint location based, at least in part, on shortest distance or shortest transit time; calculating an overall energy use estimate for each of the candidate transportation routes, wherein the overall energy use estimate is based, at least in part, on a driver profile comprising information regarding past driver behavior that is reflective of energy use and on a type of the vehicle, wherein the vehicle type is internal combustion, electric or hybrid; ranking the candidate transportation routes based, at least in part, on the calculated energy use estimate of each of the candidate transportation routes; and selecting a preferred transportation route having a lowest energy use estimate from the candidate transportation routes based, at least in part, on the calculated energy use estimates of the candidate transportation routes.