Ride monitoring system
The system is an integrated solution that provides end-to-end visibility for 3rd party observers (parents, school administrators, socials workers, etc.), and system safety personnel (“Safe Ride Support Specialists”) to monitor each trip in real-time for safety related anomalies. These incidents generate alerts that are prioritized and distributed to the appropriate party to take action through a combination of automated and manual processes. An advantage of the system is that it does not require the passenger to have a cell phone or other mobile device. In addition, the system is active instead of passive, with alerts being issued to observers in response to certain triggers. In addition, the system can take automated actions to preserve passenger safety.
1 . A method of monitoring a ride having a driver and a passenger in a vehicle comprising:
collecting, at the vehicle, data from an onboard camera comprising real-time images or video of at least a portion of a passenger compartment and showing a human driver and a dependent passenger;
transmitting to a server vehicle data from the vehicle comprising speed, acceleration, deceleration, and turning behavior, wherein the vehicle data is a result of manual driving actions of the human driver;
transmitting to the server GPS data comprising location, route, start time, and estimated end time;
transmitting to the server contextual data comprising traffic conditions, planned route, expected ride duration, weather conditions, driver/passenger history associated with the ride, data from an onboard camera, and data generated by a ride-specific a risk scoring module configured to compute a predicted risk level for the ride prior to an anomaly detection and generating a risk score for the ride;
analyzing the vehicle data, risk score, and GPS data together with the transmitted driver/passenger history, camera data, and contextual ride data at the server to identify an anomaly in the ride.
2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the vehicle data is provided by a telematics system.
3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the GPS data is provided by a mobile device carried by the driver.
4 . The method of claim 1 further including the step of categorizing the anomaly.
5 . The method of claim 4 further including the step of determining if intervention is required based on a category of the anomaly.
6 . The method of claim 5 further including the step of determining if human intervention is required based on the category.
7 . The method of claim 6 wherein a human intervenes in the ride to resolve the anomaly.
8 . The method of claim 6 wherein automated steps are taken to resolve the anomaly when human intervention is not required.
9 . The method of claim 1 wherein the passenger is a dependent passenger.
10 . The method of claim 1 wherein the passenger is a minor.