System and method of data collection at a vehicle for street monitoring, and vehicle incorporating same

1 . A vehicle system for a vehicle, the vehicle system comprising:

at least one sensor configured to capture data of external environmental conditions;

a controller configured to monitor a processing load of the vehicle and prioritize allocation of processing resources to a first mode over a second mode, wherein:

the first mode includes one or more driving assistance functions,

the second mode includes an identification of at least one external street condition from the captured data, and

the controller is configured to determine that a speed of the vehicle is below a speed threshold and, based on the determination that the speed of the vehicle is below the speed threshold, enable the second mode; and

a wireless communication device configured to communicate information associated with the at least one external street condition to a remote receiving station.

2 . The vehicle system of claim 1 wherein the at least one sensor is at least one camera on the vehicle.

3 . The vehicle system of claim 1 wherein:

the at least one sensor includes a plurality of sensors, and

the controller is configured to select one or more sensors from the plurality of sensors to allocate for use by the first mode or the second mode.

4 . The vehicle system of claim 1 further comprising:

a global positioning system (GPS) device,

wherein the controller is configured to send GPS location data and/or a timestamp with the at least one external street condition.

5 . The vehicle system of claim 1 wherein the controller is configured to send images of a street via the wireless communication device.

6 . The vehicle system of claim 1 wherein the at least one external street condition is classified into at least one condition selected from cleanliness, parking space occupancy, road damage, water coverage, curb damage, ice or snow coverage, or illumination.

7 . The vehicle system of claim 6 wherein the selected condition is further sub-classified to a sub-condition.

8 . A vehicle electronic control unit comprising:

at least one processor configured to:

monitor a processing load of processing resources,

prioritize allocation of the processing resources to a first mode over a second mode, wherein:

the first mode includes one or more driving assistance functions, and

the second mode includes an identification of at least one external street condition,

determine that a speed of the vehicle is below a speed threshold and, based on the determination that the speed of the vehicle is below the speed threshold, enable the second mode, and

classify between states of the at least one external street condition of the second mode to a state selected from cleanliness, parking space occupancy, road damage, water coverage, curb damage, ice or snow coverage, or illumination; and

a communication device configured to send information associated with the classified at least one external street condition to a remote receiving station.

9 . A method of monitoring a street condition by a vehicle processor having processing resources, the method comprising:

capturing data of external environmental conditions from at least one sensor in a vehicle;

monitoring a processing load of the processing resources;

allocating the processing resources by prioritizing a driving assistance function over an external street condition monitoring function;

determining that the processing resources are available for a deprioritized external street condition monitoring function based on a determination of whether a speed of the vehicle is below a speed threshold;

based on the determination that the processing resources are available for the deprioritized external street condition monitoring function, classifying the external street condition according to one or more of cleanliness, parking space occupancy, road damage, water coverage, curb damage, ice or snow coverage, or illumination; and

communicating information associated with the classified external street condition to a remote monitoring station.

10 . The method of claim 9 wherein one or more of location data, image data, and classification data of the street condition is communicated to the remote monitoring station.

11 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions that include:

capturing data of external environmental conditions from at least one sensor in a vehicle, wherein the external environmental conditions include a street condition;

monitoring a processing load of processing resources;

allocating the processing resources by prioritizing a driving assistance function over an external street condition monitoring function;

determining that the processing resources are available for a deprioritized external street condition monitoring function based on a determination of whether a speed of the vehicle is below a speed threshold;

based on the determination that the processing resources are available for the deprioritized external street condition monitoring function, classifying the external street condition according to one or more of cleanliness, parking space occupancy, road damage, water coverage, curb damage, ice or snow coverage, or illumination; and

communicating information associated with the classified external street condition to a remote monitoring station.

12 . The vehicle system of claim 1 further comprising a neural network configured to classify the captured data into one of a clean environment condition and a dirty environment condition, wherein the at least one external street condition is based on the classification.

13 . The vehicle system of claim 1 wherein the speed of the vehicle being below the speed threshold corresponds to the vehicle being stationary.