Patent ID: 8554468

Claim:
A driver performance assessment and improvement method comprising: inputting, via an on-board global positioning satellite (GPS) tracking computer, information on vehicle configuration and load parameters; automatically, via the on-board GPS tracking computer, locating the vehicle and determining its direction of travel and speed once driving is underway; automatically, via the on-board GPS tracking computer, selecting a road segment that the vehicle is traversing from a linked map data base that contains accurate three dimensional characterizations of road centerlines, curve radii and slopes, and pre-calculated recommended safe speeds for various vehicle types, loads and trailer configurations; automatically, via the on-board GPS tracking computer, predicting the path of the vehicle; automatically, via the on-board GPS tracking computer: selecting the recommended safe speed (RSS) from the database; and calculating the RSS that the vehicle can use to transit a next road segment from the information on vehicle configuration and load parameters along with the curve radii and slopes; automatically, via the on-board GPS tracking computer, recording actions of a driver as well as actual speed and accelerations as the vehicle traverses a particular road segment; automatically, via the on-board GPS tracking computer, transmitting the recorded driver behavior and other information to a server for storage and analysis; and automatically, via the server, analyzing the recorded driver behavior and other information to score driver performance.