METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR VEHICLE DATA COLLECTION REGARDING TRAFFIC

1 . A vehicle, comprising:

plural on board sensors to sense vehicle performance and location information; and

a data collection module operable to collect vehicle performance and location information and provide the collected vehicle performance and location information to a remote node for providing the performance and location information to other vehicles.

2 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the remote node is an automotive navigation system and the vehicle further comprises a reporting module to provide a vehicle operator with the updated roadway map based on the collected vehicle performance and location information, wherein the updated roadway map comprises vehicle performance and location information collected from other vehicles having different ownership, and wherein the vehicle location information is received from an on board satellite positioning system receiver.

3 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the on board sensors comprise a plurality of:

wheel state sensor to sense one or more of vehicle speed, acceleration, deceleration, wheel rotation, wheel speed, and/or wheel slip, energy output sensor to sense a power output of a vehicle power source, switch state sensor, a transmission control unit state sensor, a brake state sensor, a collision sensor, a seat belt sensor, vehicle light state sensor, door setting sensor, window setting sensor, imaging sensor, external object sensor, seating system sensor, odometer reading sensor, trip mileage reading sensor, wind speed sensor, radar transmitter/receiver output sensor, brake wear sensor, steering/torque sensor, oxygen sensor, ambient lighting sensor, vision system sensor, ranging sensor, parking sensor, heating, venting, and air conditioning sensor, water sensor, air-fuel ratio meter, blind spot monitor, hall effect sensor, microphone, radio frequency sensor, infrared sensor, vehicle control system sensor, wireless network sensor, and cellular data sensor.

4 . The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle performance information comprises plural of vehicle speed, acceleration, deceleration, wheel slip, vehicle power output, brake state, transmission control unit state, trace route followed by the vehicle, and brake light state and wherein the remote node uses the performance and location information to determine a traffic level along a roadway being traveled by the vehicle.

5 . The vehicle of claim 4 , wherein the vehicle performance and location information is received from other vehicles in temporal proximity to receipt by the map updating module of collected performance and location information from the data collection module.

6 . The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the updated map comprises information regarding a traffic level along a selected roadway.

7 . A tangible, non-transient computer readable medium comprising processor executable instructions operable to perform the operations of claim 1 .

8 . A method performed by the vehicle, wherein the method comprises the operations of claim 1 .

9 . A vehicle, comprising:

plural on board sensors to collect first vehicle performance and location information; and

a transceiver to receive second vehicle performance and location information from a second vehicle and report the first and/or second vehicle performance and location information to a third vehicle.

10 . The vehicle of claim 9 , wherein the on board sensors comprise a plurality of: wheel state sensor to sense one or more of vehicle speed, acceleration, deceleration, wheel rotation, wheel speed, and/or wheel slip, energy output sensor to sense a power output of a vehicle power source, switch state sensor, a transmission control unit state sensor, a brake state sensor, a collision sensor, a seat belt sensor, vehicle light state sensor, door setting sensor, window setting sensor, imaging sensor, external object sensor, seating system sensor, odometer reading sensor, trip mileage reading sensor, wind speed sensor, radar transmitter/receiver output sensor, brake wear sensor, steering/torque sensor, oxygen sensor, ambient lighting sensor, vision system sensor, ranging sensor, parking sensor, heating, venting, and air conditioning sensor, water sensor, air-fuel ratio meter, blind spot monitor, hall effect sensor, microphone, radio frequency sensor, infrared sensor, vehicle control system sensor, wireless network sensor, and cellular data sensor.

11 . The vehicle of claim 9 , wherein the vehicle performance information comprises plural of vehicle speed, acceleration, deceleration, wheel slip, vehicle power output, brake state, transmission control unit state, trace route followed by the vehicle, and brake light state and wherein the remote node uses the performance and location information to determine a traffic level along a roadway being traveled by the vehicle.

12 . The vehicle of claim 9 , wherein the first and second vehicle performance and location information is used to at least one of determine a traffic level, locate an accident, and update an on board roadway map.

13 . The vehicle of claim 12 , further comprising a map updating module and wherein the map updating module uses the first and/or second vehicle performance and location information to update a roadway map in vehicle memory.

14 . A tangible, non-transient computer readable medium comprising processor executable instructions operable to perform the operations of claim 9 .

15 . A method performed by the vehicle, wherein the method comprises the operations of claim 9 .

16 . A vehicle, comprising:

a transceiver to receive information from a different first vehicle regarding route information and forward route information to a different second vehicle.

17 . The vehicle of claim 16 , wherein the route information comprises one or more of automotive navigation, traffic, accident, roadside service, point of interest, weather condition, and road condition.

18 . The vehicle of claim 17 , further comprising a map updating module and wherein the map updating module uses the route information to update a roadway map in vehicle memory.

19 . A tangible, non-transient computer readable medium comprising processor executable instructions operable to perform the operations of claim 16 .

20 . A method performed by the vehicle, wherein the method comprises the operations of claim 16 .