Patent ID: 8504271

Claim:
A method for assisting a braking system of a vehicle, the method comprising the steps of: determine a braking efficiency of the vehicle; collecting global positioning system information from a global positioning system; determining a distance to an end of a grade of a road the vehicle is traveling based on the global positioning system information; determining if there is a possibility of failure of the braking system of the vehicle based on the braking efficiency of the vehicle and the distance to the end of the grade on which road the vehicle is traveling; and executing a mitigating action to prevent braking failure, the mitigation action comprising: receiving destination information, which is input by a vehicle driver to an input device coupled to a processor; determining an alternative route to a destination using the global positioning system; providing alternative route information to the driver on an output device coupled to the processor, the alternative route information identifying to the driver, an alternative route to the destination and which can mitigate vehicle brake failure.