A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The following notice applies to the software and data as described below and in the drawings that form a part of this document: Copyright ©2019-20 Wheels Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This document pertains generally, but not by way of limitation, to safety integrated shared vehicle systems.
The shared vehicle ecosystem has moved from a nascent set of startup companies to a vibrant industry with a number of companies in a large number of markets, each company specializing in short distance rentals of bicycles and powered scooters. The industry has also experienced growing pains in the areas of safety. There have been a number of highly publicized accidents, injuries and deaths of subscribers to these services. Several safety measures have been fielded including rental of safety devices (e.g. traditional bicycle helmets rented or various disposable helmet types). In each case, these measures have left much to be desired in the areas of helmet sanitation, item loss/theft and validation that the safety device is being used. In all cases, the safety device is not in communication with the shared vehicle, not integrated to the deployment or recovery of the safety device before and after the shared vehicle rental. The previous safety measures also rely heavily on a direct human involvement (helmet rental/recovery by a human) (sanitation and restocking by a human.
The present inventors have recognized, among other things, that a problem to be solved can include minimizing the labor involved in deploying safety device s with a shared ride system. Another aspect that can be solved is to minimize the effort required to keep a safety device sanitized. Yet another problem that can be solved is to determine whether a safety device is being used in conjunction with the shared ride rental. (e.g. helmet is not being worn by the renter during the ride) and a final problem of retrieving the safety devices after the ride is over. And another aspect of the solution includes allowing the ride to be monitored and controlled from a local or global controller by measuring a plurality of data parameters gathered during a ride to ensure the safest ride possible.
The present subject matter can help provide a solution to this problem, such as by using integrally designed safety devices that a) are deployed with the shared vehicle rental, b) are communicatively coupled to the shared vehicle, c) the system as a whole, is in constant communication between the shared vehicle, the shared vehicle management system, and the user who is using the Safety Device during a ride, d) the retrieval of the safety device, and e) the verified sanitation of the safety device, and f) the reset of the safety device. By accomplishing these integrations, the present solution can ensure the deployment of a safety device (helmet) at the time of rental, the use of a helmet by a shared vehicle renter during the rental, the retrieval and sanitization of the helmet without the intervention of a servicing personnel allowing the immediate redeployment of the shared vehicle with the same Safety Device
Each of these non-limiting examples can stand on its own or can be combined in various permutations or combinations with one or more of the other examples.
This overview is intended to provide an overview of subject matter of the present patent application. It is not intended to provide an exclusive or exhaustive explanation of the invention.
The detailed description is included to provide further information about the present patent application.
In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. Like numerals having different letter suffixes may represent different instances of similar components. The drawings illustrate generally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the present document.
System Level Description:
The example used in this description is intended as a median example of the solution proposed, rather than an exhaustive example of every permutation of this proposed solution. It can be appreciated that the recombination of the various aspects of this solution may result in many permutations.
The system example of this solution shown in
The solution further comprises a user validation system 128 that serves to validate a user and to release the safety device 114 via a coupling control apparatus 122, the coupling mechanism 132 holding the safety device 114 in storage, the safety device 114 affixed to a user of the SIPV 100 during the SIPV 100 trip or usage. The SIPV 100 is in communication with at least a network 116 and a sensor suite 118 affixed to the SIPV 100 and sensing the surrounding environment 134 or to the roadway 136. The SIPV 100 sensing comprises; several measurements related to the SIPV 100 location, the SIPV 100 condition, SIPV 100 battery levels, SIPV 100 tires pressure, rider/load weight, the ride progress, the use and 3D position of any safety devices 114 associated with the SIPV 100, the visual surroundings of the SIPV 100 with at least one camera 120 resident on the SIPV 100, the orientation and positions of the SIPV 100 as reported by accelerometers 124, load sensors 126 and the electric motor 108.
System Typical Method of Operation:
As shown in
The safety device 114 will then authenticate that it is being used or not used, send an appropriate disclaimer to the user; if it is not being used, or has been left behind. In the case of non-equipped safety device 114 or cast-off safety device 114, the SIPV system 200 can be configured to disable the SIPV 100 until the safety device 114 is retrieved or utilized. The safety device 114, once properly equipped, connects to the vehicle as well as the SIPV system 200 network and the user's ride initiates. As shown in
If the SIPV system 200 comprises, a destination management function, GPS monitoring that identify ride hazard/danger zones, (e.g., user leaving the destination route, rerouting or other ride deviation warnings). The SIPV system 200 can either activate SIPV 100 alarms, SIPV system 200 alarms or the user mobile device 202 alarms to alert that there is a deviation from the route plan. At this point other actions may be taken. The user finishes their ride with the SIPV 100, reattaches the safety device 114, removes the disposable liner on the safety device 114 to recondition the safety device 114 for the next user and disposes the disposable liner in the receptacle on the SIPV 100. The SIPV system 200 then confirms the user's ride completion and performs the ride completion actions comprising: parking the SIPV 100 in an approved location, reattaching the safety device 114s, and remediating the liners for the safety device 114 for the next user, disposing the used liner in the SIPV 100 receptacle, and then finalizes the transaction. The SIPV 100 then transmits its availability and status to the SIPV system 200. This would then initiate a status report of “Ready for the Next User”, “Requires Servicing” (i.e. Power Depleted, Bad Location, Component Failure, or some other item) or in the case of nonresponsive SIPV 100; nearby SIPV 100 to SIPV 100 communication can be used to identify last known position of the failed SIPV 100 and provide other services like Bluetooth pinging to determine if a failed SIPV 100 is in Bluetooth range of another SIPV 100.
Safety Device Dispenser:
As shown in
An example of this solution would be where the Safety device 114 is a helmet with a disposable liner. The Safety device 114 would be attachable to the SIPV 100 using an SDD 122 equipped Safety device hook that releasable engages with the SDD 122 when triggered by a user transaction. A user rents a SIPV 100, the SIPV system 200 authenticates the user and transmits a release command to the SDD 122, the SDD 122 releases the Safety device hook, the user removes the Safety device 114, reengages the Safety device hook again, dons the Safety device 114 and is ready to ride. The SDD 122 acknowledges the unlocking of the Safety device hook, the relocking of the Safety device hook prior to the ride, the acknowledgement that the Safety device 114 is in place on the head of the user, monitors the continued use of the Safety device 114, monitors that the Safety device 114 is kept in near proximity to the vehicle during the rental.
As shown in
On the helmet mount variation shown in
The Safety Device 114 is re mounted as shown in
The mount variation of SDD 122 shown in
The mounting process as shown in
The variation shown in
The variation shown in
These variations comprise mounting the SDD 122 in places where a Safety Device 114 may be placed and hung by a strap 1302 and not interfere with a ride should a rider decline to utilize the Safety Device 114. The strap 1302 in
The next variation as shown in
The variation shown in
The variation shown in
Disposable Safety Device Liner:
One of the aspects of this system is that it uses a disposable Safety Device liner concept as shown in
In
The above description includes references to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of the detailed description. The drawings show, by way of illustration, specific embodiments in which the invention can be practiced. These embodiments are also referred to herein as “examples.” Such examples can include elements in addition to those shown or described. However, the present inventors also contemplate examples in which only those elements shown or described are provided. Moreover, the present inventors also contemplate examples using any combination or permutation of those elements shown or described (or one or more aspects thereof), either with respect to a particular example (or one or more aspects thereof), or with respect to other examples (or one or more aspects thereof) shown or described herein.
In the event of inconsistent usages between this document and any documents so incorporated by reference, the usage in this document controls.
In this document, the terms “a” or “an” are used, as is common in patent documents, to include one or more than one, independent of any other instances or usages of “at least one” or “one or more.” In this document, the term “or” is used to refer to a nonexclusive or, such that “A or B” includes “A but not B,” “B but not A,” and “A and B,” unless otherwise indicated. In this document, the terms “including” and “in which” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and “wherein.” Also, in the following claims, the terms “including” and “comprising” are open-ended, that is, a system, device, article, composition, formulation, or process that includes elements in addition to those listed after such a term in a claim are still deemed to fall within the scope of that claim. Moreover, in the following claims, the terms “first,” “second,” and “third,” etc. are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.
Geometric terms, such as “parallel”, “perpendicular”, “round”, or “square”, are not intended to require absolute mathematical precision, unless the context indicates otherwise. Instead, such geometric terms allow for variations due to manufacturing or equivalent functions. For example, if an element is described as “round” or “generally round,” a component that is not precisely circular (e.g., one that is slightly oblong or is a many-sided polygon) is still encompassed by this description.
Method examples described herein can be machine or computer-implemented at least in part. Some examples can include a computer-readable medium or machine-readable medium encoded with instructions operable to configure an electronic device to perform methods as described in the above examples. An implementation of such methods can include code, such as microcode, assembly language code, a higher-level language code, or the like. Such code can include computer readable instructions for performing various methods. The code may form portions of computer program products. Further, in an example, the code can be tangibly stored on one or more volatile, non-transitory, or non-volatile tangible computer-readable media, such as during execution or at other times. Examples of these tangible computer-readable media can include, but are not limited to, hard disks, removable magnetic disks, removable optical disks (e.g., compact disks and digital video disks), magnetic cassettes, memory cards or sticks, random access memories (RAMs), read only memories (ROMs), and the like.
The above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. For example, the above-described examples (or one or more aspects thereof) may be used in combination with each other. Other embodiments can be used, such as by one of ordinary skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. The Abstract is provided to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Also, in the above Detailed Description, various features may be grouped together to streamline the disclosure. This should not be interpreted as intending that an unclaimed disclosed feature is essential to any claim. Rather, inventive subject matter may lie in less than all features of a particular disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description as examples or embodiments, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment, and it is contemplated that such embodiments can be combined with each other in various combinations or permutations. The scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
This patent application claims the benefit of priority of Viner, et. al, U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/820,005 filed on Mar. 18, 2019, the benefit of priority of Viner, et. al, U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/820,013 filed on Mar. 18, 2019, the benefit of priority of Viner, et. al, U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/820,039 filed on Mar. 18, 2019, the benefit of priority of Viner, et. al, U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/875,187 filed on Jul. 17, 2019, and the benefit of priority of Viner, et. al, U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/909,653 filed on Oct. 2, 2019, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
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