Patent ID: 8103449

Claim:
A method for determining when to issue an alert warning to a driver of a vehicle relating to an upcoming stopping location in a road of travel, the method comprising the steps of: a receiver receiving a wireless message transmitted from a remote entity to the vehicle, the message containing position data for determining a distance to the stopping location in the traveled road; a GPS receiver retrieving GPS data relating to instantaneous vehicle position in the road of travel; determining an instantaneous vehicle speed; determining a travel time until the vehicle reaches the stopping location via a controller; detecting whether the driver has initiated braking; determining an advance notice period via the controller for issuing a warning to the driver to decelerate the vehicle, the advance notice period comprising the travel time plus a predetermined reaction time plus a selectable driver configured increment, the selectable driver configured increment allowing the driver to selectively configure the advance notice period to modify a time to issue a warning to alert the driver of the vehicle to initiate deceleration of the vehicle; wherein the advance notice period is represented by the following formula: t warning ⁢ _ ⁢ earliest = t warn ⁢ _ ⁢ window + t react + v 2 * a where t warn — window is the additional time added to the lead time to warn the driver, t react is is a typical reaction time of a driver reacting to a warning signal and initiating an action for decelerating of the vehicle; v is the speed of vehicle of the vehicle, and a is an average value for the deceleration of the vehicle; wherein, in the absence of a selectable driver configured increment, the default value for t warn — window , is determined by the following formula: t warn — window =r auto +( K rain +K ice +K light +K road −K war *N war )* T where r auto is a default driver selectable setting, K rain is a weight factor for rain, K ice is a weight factor for ice, K light is a weight factor for ambient lighting conditions, K road is a weight factor for road grade conditions, K war is a weight factor for driving behavior, N war is a number of warnings-brake events within a past time window, and T is a predetermined time constant; and actuating a sensory warning by a driver vehicle interface device to the driver of the vehicle when the advance notice period is less than the travel time and the driver has not initiated braking.