Patent ID: 8854198

Claim:
A forward vehicle brake warning system comprising: an incoming message receiving component that receives hard brake messages from neighboring vehicles located within a prescribed communication region around a host vehicle equipped with the forward vehicle brake warning system, each of the hard brake messages including a vehicle location of a corresponding one of the neighboring vehicles and a hard brake indication; an incoming message relevancy component that performs a relevancy determination, based on the vehicle location of the neighboring vehicle sending the hard brake messages received by the incoming message receiving component, determining the hard brake messages are relevant in response to the vehicle location being within an adjustable zone of interest, determining the hard brake messages are irrelevant in response to the vehicle location being outside the adjustable zone of interest, filtering out irrelevant hard brake messages and retaining relevant messages, the adjustable zone of interest being an area in front of the host vehicle that is bound by a maximum distance ahead measured from the front of the host vehicle forward along a current trajectory of the host vehicle and a lateral dimension measured relative to the front of the host vehicle side-to-side from the current trajectory of the host vehicle; a relevancy adjustment component that adjusts the relevancy determination by selectively changing the maximum distance ahead of the adjustable zone of interest relative to the host vehicle and changing the lateral dimension to selectively filter the hard brake messages received such that in response to a decrease in the maximum distance, the lateral dimension is increased and in response to an increase in the maximum distance the lateral dimension is decreased; and a driver warning component that alerts a driver of the host vehicle with a warning signal in response to relevant messages identified during the relevancy determination by the incoming message relevancy component.