Intelligent trip status notification
View Patent ↗Methods of providing trip status information periodically to a user in transit to a destination are disclosed. Trip status information comprises information and alerts based on estimates of various time-of-arrival metrics, such as expected time-of-arrival and earliest time-of-arrival. The estimates are based on a plurality of data, including calendrical time (the time and date), historical statistics, average speed, current weather, weather forecasts, current traffic, and traffic forecasts.
1. A method comprising:
(i) receiving a location of a mobile communications device that is in transit to a destination;
(ii) estimating the time-of-arrival bounds for said mobile communications device at said destination for a confidence interval based on:
(a) said location, and
(b) at least one historical travel time statistic; and
(iii) sending the time-of-arrival bounds to said mobile communications device.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said historical travel time statistic comprises at least one of:
a minimum value;
a maximum value;
a variance;
an nth-order moment, wherein n is an integer greater than 2; and
a probability distribution.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein said estimating is also based on at least one of:
current weather information;
current traffic information;
forecasted weather;
forecasted traffic; and
a metric of said user's speed over a time interval.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein said mode of travel is selected from the group consisting of: automobile, private watercraft, private aircraft, snowmobile, skateboard, roller skates, skiing, ambulating, and swimming.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein said mode of travel is selected from the group consisting of: bus, train, commercial watercraft, commercial aircraft, and spacecraft; and
wherein said estimating is also based on a departure schedule for said mode of travel.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein said user specifies a desired time-of-arrival, and wherein the expected time-of-arrival and the time-of-arrival bounds is also based on said desired time-of-arrival.