Patent ID: 7920969

Claim:
A tracking system ( 10 ) adapted for use with a traveling host vehicle ( 12 ) spaced from and communicatively coupled to at least one traveling remote vehicle ( 16 ) that precedes the host vehicle ( 12 ), said system comprising: a locator device ( 20 ) configured to autonomously determine and cause to be stored for at least a minimum period a set current position coordinates, and a plurality of sets of trail coordinates for said host and at least one remote vehicle ( 12 , 16 ); a remote vehicle sensor ( 36 ) configured to autonomously determine and cause to be stored for at least a minimum period a data value of a condition relating to the remote vehicle ( 16 ), at each of said stored remote vehicle positions; a host vehicle sensor ( 36 ) configured to autonomously determine and cause to be stored for at least a minimum period data values of the condition relating to the host vehicle ( 12 ), at the current host vehicle position; and a host vehicle controller ( 38 ) communicatively coupled to the device ( 20 ) and sensors ( 36 r,h ), and configured to: compare the current position and trail coordinates of the host and remote vehicles ( 12 , 16 ), so as to determine the relative positioning of the vehicles ( 12 , 16 ), compare the host vehicle current position data value to the stored remote vehicle data values at the two most proximate remote vehicle trail coordinates, relative to the current host vehicle position, when the remote vehicle ( 16 ) precedes the host vehicle ( 12 ), so as to autonomously determine a data discrepancy, and compare the discrepancy to a threshold, so as to determine a congruent path divergence by the host vehicle ( 12 ), wherein said data, discrepancy, and threshold are cooperatively configured to indicate the congruent path divergence by the host vehicle ( 12 ).