CLOUD-MEDIATED VEHICLE NOTIFICATION EXCHANGE FOR LOCALIZED TRANSIT EVENTS
Vehicles in transit within a location may transmit and/or receive information about transit events arising within the location, such as accidents, developing weather, and road obstructions. Because localized exchange channels, such as a radiofrequency broadcast, may be range-limited and/or unreliable, a centralized service may be provided to facilitate the exchange of notifications about transit events, but it may be difficult to provide a centralized service that is both scalable to millions of vehicles and capable of low-latency exchange of time-sensitive notifications for transit events. The techniques presented herein provide an architecture for broadcasting transit events through a transit service that maintains vehicle area groups, respectively identifying the vehicles that are associated with each location. The service may receive a notification of a transit event for a location, and may utilize the vehicle area group for the location to broadcast the notification to the other vehicles of the area group.
1 . A method of broadcasting localized transit events detected during transit of a vehicle, the method involving a device having a processor and in communication with a transit service and comprising:
executing, on the processor, instructions that cause the device to:
detect a location of the vehicle;
transmit the location to the transit service to add the vehicle to a vehicle area group for the location;
upon detecting a transit event in the location of the vehicle, transmit the transit event to the transit service for broadcasting to other vehicles of the vehicle area group; and
upon receiving from the transit service a notification of a transit event for the vehicle area group, utilize the notification in the transit of the vehicle.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein utilizing the notification in the transit of the vehicle further comprises: presenting the notification to a user within the vehicle.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein:
the vehicle further comprises a window; and
presenting the notification to the user further comprises: displaying the notification on the window of the vehicle.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the transit event relates to a route of the transit of the vehicle; and
utilizing the notification in the transit of the vehicle further comprises: adjusting the route of the vehicle in response to the transit event.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the transit of the vehicle is controlled by a vehicle control system according to a driving behavior profile; and
utilizing the notification in the transit of the vehicle further comprises: adjusting the driving behavior profile of the vehicle control system in response to the transit event.
6 . A server that provides a transit service to vehicles, the server comprising:
a processor;
a vehicle communicator that communicates with the vehicles; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, provide a system comprising:
a vehicle area group manager that, upon receiving a location of a vehicle, adds the vehicle to a vehicle area group for the location; and
a transit event broadcaster that, upon receiving, from a vehicle, a transit event for the location:
identifies at least one other vehicle of the vehicle area group; and
broadcasts to the at least one other vehicle of the vehicle area group a notification of the transit event.
7 . The server of claim 6 , wherein the system further comprises: a vehicle anonymizer that:
identifies, in the notification of the transit event, a vehicle identifier that identifies the vehicle that transmitted the transit event; and
removes the vehicle identifier from the notification of the transit event.
8 . The server of claim 6 , wherein the server adds the vehicle to the vehicle area group by:
upon receiving from the vehicle a first location:
determining whether a vehicle area group exists for the first location;
upon determining that a vehicle area group does not exist for the first location, creating a vehicle area group for the first location; and
upon receiving from the vehicle a second location:
determining whether the second location is associated with the vehicle area group; and
upon determining that the second location is not associated with the vehicle area group, removing the vehicle from the vehicle area group for the first location.
9 . The server of claim 6 , wherein the server further comprises: a vehicle area group evaluator that, upon receiving a notification of a transit event for the location:
identifies a second location that is affected by the transit event;
identifies at least one vehicle of a second vehicle area group for the second location; and
broadcasts the notification of the transit event to the at least one vehicle of the second vehicle area group.
10 . The server of claim 9 , wherein:
the second location features a detour option for avoiding the location of the transit event; and
broadcasting the notification of the transit event to the second vehicle area group further comprises: adding to the notification a recommendation to take the detour option to avoid the location of the transit event.
11 . The server of claim 9 , wherein the system further comprises: a first responder notifier that:
identifies a first responder that provides a first response service relating to the transit event for the location; and
transmits the notification of the transit event to the first responder.
12 . The server of claim 6 , wherein the system further comprises:
a transit event verifier that, upon receiving the notification of the transit event:
identifies a second vehicle of the vehicle area group that is capable of verifying the transit event, and
transmits to the second vehicle a request to verify the transit event; and
broadcasting the notification to the vehicle area group further comprises: broadcasting the notification of the transit event to the at least one other vehicle of the vehicle area group only after receiving a verification of the transit event from the second vehicle.
13 . The server of claim 6 , wherein:
the vehicle communicator comprises an internet connection that communicates with a device of the vehicle through the internet using a websocket protocol;
the vehicle area group manager adds the vehicle to the vehicle area group by allocating a websocket to communicate with the vehicle through the internet using the websocket protocol; and
the transit event broadcaster broadcasts the notification of the transit event to the respective at least one other vehicle through the websocket for the other vehicle.
14 . A vehicle device that broadcasts localized transit events detected during transit of a vehicle, the vehicle device comprising:
a processor;
a location detector that detects a location of the vehicle;
a transit service communicator that communicates with a transit service;
a transit event detector that detects a transit event in the location of the vehicle; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed on the processor, cause the vehicle device to provide a system comprising:
a transit service interface that:
transmits the location, via the transit service communicator, to add the vehicle to a vehicle area group for the location, and
transmits, via the transit service communicator, the transit event for broadcasting to other vehicles of the vehicle area group; and
a local event notifier that, upon receiving from the transit service a notification of a transit event for the vehicle area group, utilizes the notification in the transit of the vehicle.
15 . The vehicle device of claim 14 , wherein:
the transit service communicator further comprises an internet connection through which the transit service communicator communicates with the transit service using a websocket protocol; and
the local event notifier receives the notification from the transit service through a websocket of the websocket protocol allocated to communicate with the transit service.
16 . The vehicle device of claim 14 , wherein the transit event detector further comprises:
a proximity sensor that generates proximity data indicating a proximity of the vehicle to a second vehicle; and
a proximity data evaluator that evaluates the proximity data to identify the transit event.
17 . The vehicle device of claim 14 , wherein the transit event detector further comprises: a localized broadcast channel monitor that receives a notification of a localized transit event over a localized broadcast messaging channel.
18 . The vehicle device of claim 17 , wherein the transit service interface transmits, via the transit service communicator, the notification of the localized transit event received over the localized broadcast messaging channel.
19 . The vehicle device of claim 14 , wherein the system further comprises: a local transit event rebroadcaster that locally rebroadcasts the notification of the transit event over a localized broadcast messaging channel.
20 . The vehicle device of claim 14 , wherein:
the vehicle is in communication with a second vehicle of the location through a local vehicle communicator; and
the system further comprises: a local transit event notifier that transmits the notification of the transit event to the second vehicle through the local vehicle communication.