Patent ID: 8718917

Claim:
A method of determining relative positioning between a host vehicle and a remote vehicle using an indirect assisting entity technique, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining Global Positioning System (GPS) data of the host vehicle that includes a GPS position of the host vehicle; the host vehicle obtaining GPS data of the remote vehicle that includes a GPS position of the remote vehicle and a confidence estimate of the GPS position of the remote vehicle; determining a number of common satellites receiving GPS data between the host vehicle and the remote vehicle; determining whether the number of common satellites exceeds a predetermined common satellite threshold; in response to the number of common satellites exceeding a predetermined common satellite threshold, identifying a mobile indirect-assisting entity having a common number of satellites in communication with the host vehicle that is greater than the number of common satellites between host vehicle and the remote vehicle, and having a common number of satellites in communication with the remote vehicle greater than the number of common satellites between host vehicle and the remote vehicle; determining a relative position between the host vehicle and the mobile indirect-assisting entity and a relative position between the remote vehicle and the mobile indirect-assisting entity; and determining a position of the host vehicle relative to the remote vehicle as a function of the determined position of the host vehicle and remote vehicle relative to the mobile indirect-assisting entity.