IP Library Granted Patent US 10,783,500
Granted Patent B1
US 10,783,500 · App. 16/391,294 · Granted Sep 22, 2020

Systems and methods for managing electrically-assisted personal mobility vehicles

Inventors: David Keith Bromwich (Brooklyn, NY); Jules Baden Flynn (New York City, NY); Daniel Fried (Brooklyn, NY); Emily Kathleen Gates (Brooklyn, NY); Alexander Reed Hill (Brooklyn, NY); John Mokry (Brookyln, NY); Josselin Philippe (Far Rockaway, NY)
Assignee: LYFT, INC.
G06Q10/20B62K19/30G06Q10/02G06Q50/30G07C5/006B62J43/00
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,783,500
App. No.
16/391,294
Granted
Sep 22, 2020
Kind
B1
Abstract

The disclosed computer-implemented method may include identifying a personal mobility vehicle that is available to reserve for a trip, determining that at least one metric for a level of maintenance for the personal mobility vehicle indicates a need for performing the maintenance on the personal mobility vehicle, determining at least one metric for an operations effort for performing the maintenance at a current location of the personal mobility vehicle, and blocking use of the personal mobility vehicle, to facilitate the operations effort for the performing of the maintenance, based at least in part on the metric for the level of maintenance and at least in part on the metric for the operations effort indicating an advantage to performing the maintenance at the current location. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Claims (62)

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

establishing, by a computing system, wireless network communications with a personal mobility vehicle remote from the computer system and available to reserve for a trip and a battery charge device associated with the personal mobility vehicle, wherein:

the battery charge device is electrically coupled to a battery included on the personal mobility vehicle; and

the wireless network communications enable (i) a current location of the personal mobility vehicle remote from the computing system to be determined, and (ii) the battery charge device to be controlled by the computing system to request and obtain voltage level readouts of the battery included on the personal mobility vehicle;

determining, by the computing system and via the wireless network communications, an amount of charge of the battery by:

remotely controlling the battery charge device to read a voltage level held by the battery; and

determining the amount of charge based on the voltage level, wherein the amount of charge indicates a state of charge of the battery of requiring replacement of the battery with another charged battery;

determining that at least one metric indicates an advantage to replacing the battery with another charged battery at the current location of the personal mobility vehicle; and

providing, to the personal mobility vehicle via the wireless network communications, data to cause a change of the availability of the personal mobility vehicle making the personal mobility vehicle unavailable to reserve for the trip to facilitate the replacement of the battery with another charged battery at the current location of the personal mobility vehicle.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising calculating, by the computing system, the state of charge of the battery by:

accessing, by the computing system, a previous state of charge of the battery stored in a database, the previous state of charge of the battery being a percentage remaining battery charge for the battery;

determining, by the computing system, a total expected riding time for the personal mobility vehicle;

determining, by the computing system, a time duration of a most recent trip of the personal mobility vehicle;

determining, by the computing system, a percentage of battery usage for the most recent trip by dividing the time duration of the most recent trip by the total expected riding time; and

subtracting the percentage of battery usage for the most recent trip from the previous state of charge of the battery.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising determining, by the computing system, a number of days since the battery of the personal mobility vehicle was replaced with another battery.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 ,

wherein the personal mobility vehicle is located in a dock at a station; and

wherein the at least one metric indicating an advantage to replacing the battery with another charged battery at the current location of the personal mobility vehicle is an availability of a service technician at the station.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein the at least one metric indicating an advantage to replacing the battery with another charged battery at the current location of the personal mobility vehicle further includes a number of personal mobility vehicles located at the station.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 ,

wherein the personal mobility vehicle is located between a location of a service technician and a station, the personal mobility vehicle able to be transported to the station by the service technician; and

wherein the at least one metric indicating an advantage to replacing the battery with another charged battery at the current location of the personal mobility vehicle is an availability of the service technician at the station.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one metric indicating an advantage to replacing the battery with another charged battery at the current location of the personal mobility vehicle includes a number of minutes that the personal mobility vehicle will be unavailable to reserve for the trip.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 ,

wherein the wireless network communications further comprise a current state of the personal mobility vehicle; and

wherein the computer-implemented method further comprises determining that the state of charge of the battery requires replacement of the battery with another charged battery by comparing the state of charge of the battery to a threshold level for the state of charge of the battery.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising dynamically setting, by the computing system, the threshold level for the state of charge of the battery in order to optimize the advantage to replacing the battery with another charged battery at the current location of the personal mobility vehicle.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 ,

wherein the personal mobility vehicle is located in a dock; and

wherein the personal mobility vehicle communicates the state of charge of the battery to the dock.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the personal mobility vehicle is an electrically-assisted bicycle.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the advantage to replacing the battery with another charged battery at the current location is a decrease in an expected operations effort.

13. A system comprising:

a battery charge device installed on a personal mobility vehicle and electrically coupled to a battery of the personal mobility vehicle, wherein the battery charge device is configured to provide readouts of the battery to the personal mobility vehicle;

one or more physical processors; and

one or more physical memories coupled to one or more of the physical processors, the one or more physical memories comprising instructions operable when executed by the one or more physical processors to cause the system to perform operations comprising:

establishing communications with the personal mobility vehicle available to reserve for a trip, wherein the communications enable (i) a current location of the personal mobility vehicle remote from the one or more physical processors to be determined, and (ii) readouts provided by the battery charge device to the personal mobility vehicle to be obtained from the personal mobility vehicle;

determining, via the communications, (i) an amount of charge of the battery included on the personal mobility vehicle using the battery charge device electrically coupled to the battery to read a charge held by the battery, wherein the amount of charge of the battery indicates a state of charge of the battery of needing to replace the battery with another battery, and (ii) that at least one metric indicates an advantage to replacing the battery with another battery at the current location of the personal mobility vehicle; and

providing, to the personal mobility vehicle via the communications, data to change the availability of the personal mobility vehicle making the personal mobility vehicle unavailable to reserve for the trip to facilitate replacement of the battery with another battery at the current location of the personal mobility vehicle.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise determining, based on the communications, a number of days since the battery of the personal mobility vehicle was replaced with another battery.

15. The system of claim 13 ,

wherein the personal mobility vehicle is located in a dock at a station; and

wherein the at least one metric indicating an advantage to replacing the battery with another battery at the current location of the personal mobility vehicle is an availability of a service technician at the station.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the at least one metric indicating an advantage to replacing the battery with another battery at the current location of the personal mobility vehicle further includes a number of personal mobility vehicles located at the station.

17. The system of claim 13 , wherein providing data to change the availability of the personal mobility vehicle making the personal mobility vehicle unavailable to reserve for the trip comprises providing data for updating a state of the personal mobility vehicle from a first state being available to reserve for the trip to a second state being unavailable to reserve for the trip.

18. The system of claim 17 ,

wherein the personal mobility vehicle is located in a dock; and

wherein updating the state of the personal mobility vehicle comprises:

activating a locking of the personal mobility vehicle in the dock; and

providing a visual indication on the dock indicating that the personal mobility vehicle is unavailable to reserve for the trip.

19. A computer-readable medium comprising:

computer-readable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

establish wireless network communications with a personal mobility vehicle remote from the computing device and available to reserve for a trip and a battery charge device associated with the personal mobility vehicle, wherein:

the battery charge device is electrically coupled to a battery included on the personal mobility vehicle; and

the wireless network communications enable (i) a current location of the personal mobility vehicle remote from the computing device to be determined, and (ii) the battery charge device to be controlled by the computing device to request and obtain voltage level readouts of the battery;

determine, via the wireless network communications, an amount of charge of the battery by:

remotely controlling the battery charge device to read a voltage level held by the battery; and

determining the amount of charge of the battery based on the voltage level read out by the battery charge device, wherein the amount of charge of the battery indicates a state of charge of the battery of requiring replacement of the battery with another battery;

determine that at least one metric indicates an advantage to replacing the battery with another battery at the current location of the personal mobility vehicle; and

provide, to the personal mobility vehicle via the wireless network communications, data to cause a change of the availability of the personal mobility vehicle making the personal mobility vehicle unavailable to reserve for the trip to facilitate the replacement of the battery with another battery at the current location of the personal mobility vehicle.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the computing device to determine a number of days since the battery was replaced with another battery.

Assignments (2)
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Nov 3, 2022
From: LYFT, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS ADMINISTRATIVE AGENT
Reel/Frame 061880/0237 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 20, 2019
From: BROMWICH, DAVID KEITH; FLYNN, JULES BADEN; FRIED, DANIEL; GATES, EMILY KATHLEEN; HILL, ALEXANDER REED; MOKRY, JOHN; PHILIPPE, JOSSELIN
To: LYFT, INC.
Reel/Frame 049545/0174 →
Cited By (1)
US 12,248,937