This specification generally relates to motorized scooters.
Motorized scooters come in many shapes and configurations, such as being stand-up or sit-down and having various engine sizes. One example of a motorized scooter is a powered stand-up scooter using a small utility gas engine or electric motor. Some scooters may be designed with a large deck in the center on which the operator may stand and an upright support having handlebars for the operator to steer and control the motorized scooter.
According to one implementation, this specification describes motorized scooters and systems of motorized scooters. In some embodiments, a motorized scooter includes a computing platform and wireless communications capabilities on board. Wireless communications interfaces may include one or more wireless local area network interfaces, wireless personal area networks interfaces, wireless wide area network interfaces, wireless metropolitan area network interfaces, and/or cellular network interfaces. A scooter may communicate with a remote computing platform via one or more of the on board wireless network interfaces. Embodiments relate to choosing which of the plurality of wireless network interfaces to use for transmitting a message.
In some embodiments, a scooter may also include one or more sensors such as but not limited to light sensors, temperature sensors, force sensors, color sensors, imaging sensors, acoustic or sound sensors, vibration sensors, magnetic sensors, electric current sensors, humidity sensors, position sensors, compasses, acceleration sensors, orientation sensors, or other similar sensors. Sensors may be used to detect intrusion or theft of the scooter. In some embodiments, messages may be tagged or marked with an importance indicator and an optional timeout indicator. Messages may be ranked on a relative scale of importance, such as an integer from 0 to 100, or a more coarse representation such as low priority, medium priority, and high priority. A timeout may be expressed as either a duration of time measured from the controller receiving the message or as a set absolute time by which the message will timeout. A timeout may also be infinite such that the timeout never expires for some messages. In operation, some messages may be tried and retried several times based on retry criteria before the timeout period expires. Some messages may be escalated to a different wireless network interface before the timeout expires. Some messages may be dropped upon timeout expiration, and other messages may be escalated to a different wireless network interface upon timeout expiration.
The details of one or more implementations of the subject matter described in this specification are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other potential features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter will become apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims.
The present disclosure will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Electronics housing 108 houses electronics and other associated systems or devices. In some embodiments, electronics housing 108 houses a computing platform including a processor and a memory, a location determination module, and a plurality of wireless communications interfaces. For example, a computing platform may comprise a “system on a chip” that integrates all components of a computer system in one compact form factor. A location determination module may be, for example, a module capable of determining location based on one or more of Global Positioning System (GPS), Differential GPS, GALILEO, GLONASS, or other such radionavigation-satellite services.
Wireless communications interfaces may include one or more wireless local area network interfaces, wireless personal area networks interfaces, wireless wide area network interfaces, wireless metropolitan area network interfaces, and/or cellular network interfaces. Wireless local area network interfaces may include interfaces compatible with any wireless local area network technology such as but not limited to IEEE 802.11 (i.e., Wi-Fi). Wireless personal area network interfaces may include interfaces compatible with any wireless personal area network technology such as but not limited to Bluetooth, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Wireless USB, and/or IrDA. Wireless metropolitan area network interfaces may include interfaces compatible with any wireless metropolitan area network technology such as but not limited to IEEE 802.16 (i.e., WiMAX). Wireless wide area network interfaces may include interfaces compatible with any wireless wide area network technology such as but not limited to LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network). Cellular network interfaces may include interfaces compatible with any cellular network technology such as but not limited to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Long-Term Evolution (LTE), cdmaOne, CDMA2000, Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO), Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT), Digital AMPS (IS-136/TDMA), and/or Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN).
Electronics housing 108 may also include one or more sensors disposed within or near electronics housing 108 such as but not limited to light sensors, temperature sensors, force sensors, color sensors, imaging sensors, acoustic or sound sensors, vibration sensors, magnetic sensors, electric current sensors, humidity sensors, position sensors, compasses, acceleration sensors, orientation sensors, or other similar sensors.
A scooter may communicate with a remote computing platform via one or more of the on board wireless network interfaces.
In some embodiments, messages may be tagged or marked with an importance indicator and an optional timeout indicator. Messages may be ranked on a relative scale of importance, such as an integer from 0 to 100, or a more course representation such as low priority, medium priority, and high priority. A timeout may be expressed as either a duration of time measured from the controller receiving the message or as a set absolute time by which the message will timeout. A timeout may also be infinite such that the timeout never expires for some messages. In operation, some messages may be tried and retried several times based on retry criteria before the timeout period expires. Some messages may be escalated to a different wireless network interface before the timeout expires. Some messages may be dropped upon timeout expiration, and other messages may be escalated to a different wireless network interface upon timeout expiration.
In general, messages may be marked with any combination of properties to produce the desired balance between the cost of transmitting the message and the relative importance that the message be transmitted within a given timeout window. Any combination of any portion of the above examples may be mixed to produce a desired result in a given application.
In some embodiments, one or more of the wireless network interfaces may cooperate with other like network interfaces one other scooters to form a mesh network.
A scooter may use its array of wireless network interfaces for location determination. For example, radio triangulation may be used based on received signals to estimate a location relative to other radio signals. In the event that the received radio signals are identifiable and associated with a known location, the scooter controller may be able to estimate its current position based on received signal strength indicators. Similarly, a scooter may broadcast a beacon message on one or more network interfaces to enable other receiving radios to estimate the scooter's location using one or more receiving stations. In some embodiments, a scooter may periodically relay a snapshot of all of the radio signals that it can observe on all of its available wireless network interfaces to a centralized computing platform which may combine the aggregate information and determine estimates for each reporting scooter. In addition, external services or databased may be queried for additional locating information. For example, a Wi-Fi location database may be used to determine a scooter's position with a Wi-Fi positioning system (WPS). In some embodiments, a charging dock may include similar computing and wireless communications capabilities and hardware as a scooter, adding additional radio nodes with known fixed locations that may be used for wireless location determination. For example, in some embodiments, a Bluetooth interface on a scooter may broadcast a beacon signal and a charging dock with a fixed location may listen for the beacon signal. When the scooter is in proximity to the charging dock, a received signal strength or time-of-flight based distance estimate may provide a location estimation of the scooter. Similarly, the charging dock may broadcast a Bluetooth beacon signal of its own that the scooter listens for. Then, the scooter may estimate its own position based on a range estimation of the identified charging dock that has a known fixed location. In some embodiments, scooter operators having other wireless communication devices may also provide additional radio nodes from which to estimate location. For example, an operator of a scooter may carry a smartphone device on their person which includes a Bluetooth interface which can operate as both a beacon and a receiver for other beacons. Software running on the smartphone may relay range estimates to the central platform that indicate proximity estimates for scooters and charging docks that add further data points to the overall location estimation.
The scooter controller may detect intrusion attempts into the scooter. In some embodiments, the controller may detect attempts to open electronics housing 108 that are not authorized. While the housing 108 may be locked and secured by physical means such as a key lock, thieves may attempt to forcibly open the housing to retrieve one or more components therein. For example, lithium-ion batteries may be valuable targets for potential thieves. The scooter controller may be programmed to detect certain conditions that may indicate whether or not an attempted intrusion is malicious or not.
Any combination of sensors and parameters may be combined to form a key condition, including any condition sensed from any sensors of the scooter as well as location estimates and radio signal environment information. For example, a particular area may be designated as a maintenance area, and any access to the scooter's housing outside of that area may be unauthorized. This area-bounding may be referred to as geofencing. Similarly, presence of a particular Bluetooth beacon or other wireless radio beacon may signal an unauthorized access condition.
Similarly, a scooter controller may detect theft of the scooter. A scooter is a portable device and may be stolen in whole rather than tampered with in the field. In some embodiments, the scooter controller may monitor location and speed information from positioning sensors to detect conditions indicative of theft. For example, a scooter may be geofenced to a particular city or locale and transport outside of that area may be an indication of theft. Similarly, if a scooter detects its rate of speed exceeds the speed it is capable of under its own power, that may indicate that the scooter has been placed in another vehicle which may also signal a theft condition. Anomalies in network connectivity or radio frequency environment may signal a theft condition. For example, a sustained and complete lack of any received wireless communication signals may indicate that the scooter has been placed in an environment designed to disrupt communications intentionally, such as a Faraday cage. Similarly, a scooter may detect presence of many other scooters in close proximity as an indication of theft as it may indicate that a large number of scooters have been grouped together for transport. In some embodiments, any combination of these features may comprise a condition to determine if the scooter has been stolen.
When an unauthorized access or theft is detected, the scooter controller may respond accordingly. In some embodiments, a response to unauthorized intrusion may include transmitting a message to a management platform indicating the scooter may be under threat. In some embodiments, the scooter controller may respond by active measures, such as disabling or damaging components of the scooter to render them valueless to a would-be intruder. For example, a battery may be intentionally disabled to render it inoperable and therefore undesirable to steal. Similarly, various components may be intentionally subject to large currents or high voltages to safely render them inoperable in response to detecting intrusion.
Responses to both theft and intrusion may be modulated based on a trust factor of an associated user.
In some embodiments, a scooter charging dock may be hosted by a business. Information about the benefits of hosting a charging dock may be tracked and provided to the hosting business. Such information may include indirect benefits, such as foot traffic, or direct benefits, such as sales.
In one embodiment, indirect traffic metrics are tracked for a hosting business. Traffic metrics may include the number of rides starting or ending at docks associated with the business, the number of times a business name is viewed by users looking for scooters or charging docks, or an estimated dollar value of user views. Metrics may be aggregated across multiple associated branches for businesses with multiple locations.
In one embodiment, direct benefit metrics are tracked for a hosting business. Riders may be shown offers such as discounts or reservation availability for businesses hosting a dock and are located at the starting point, ending point, or along the route of a ride. Offers may be shown at booking, after return, or during a ride based on location. Offers may be provided on a screen attached to the handlebars of the scooter, provided through the scooter booking app, or provided by other means. Direct benefit metrics may include offer display rates, offer acceptance rates, number of offer acceptances, or dollar value of offer acceptances.
In some embodiments gamification elements may be added to the user interface to incentivize beneficial behavior. Riders may receive points for taking certain actions. Accumulation of a threshold number of points may grant levels or badges. Points may be exchangeable for discounts, displayable through the app or social media, or provide rewards at certain levels. Rewards may include physical rewards such as t-shirt or other swag or digital rewards such as discounts or ride credit.
In one embodiment, points are granted for beneficial behavior related to maintenance such as reporting damage or errors, reporting location of a lost or missing scooter, or returning a scooter to a specified dock or location. In one embodiment, points are granted for beneficial behavior related to increasing accessibility of scooters such as returning a scooter to a dock or photographing or describing a scooter parking location when not returning to a dock. In one embodiment, points are granted for beneficial behavior related to scooter usage, such as frequent rides or consecutive daily rides. In some embodiments, scooter pricing may be dynamically set based on a variety of factors. Pricing may be adjusted prior to a ride or discounted based on triggers during or after a ride. Price reductions may be provided as discounts or as offsetting ride credit toward future rides.
In one embodiment, prices may be adjusted to balance scooter availability across geographic regions. For example, prices may be raised based on high demand or lowered based on low demand in the pickup region. Prices may also be raised or lowered based on likelihood of finding a next rider, rising with low demand or lowering with high demand in the drop off region. Demand may be measured by current active users or user requests or by expected demand based on historical activity.
In one embodiment, prices may be adjusted based on scooter security or risk. For example, prices may be raised for users associated with scooter damage in the past, or lowered for users with longer history of use. Pricing may be lowered for rides ending at a charging dock or for photos of safe parking locations.
In one embodiment, prices may be adjusted based on making maintenance easier. For example, prices may be lowered for scooters returned to a charging dock when low on battery. Prices could also be lowered for scooters returned to charging docks ahead of periods of expected low activity or low visibility such as in the evening or prior to inclement weather. A discount or ride credit may be provided for accurately reporting scooter damage or the location of a lost or missing scooter. In some cases, prices could be negative such that users receive a net refund or ride credit.
In some embodiments, a mobile sensing system may be deployed to determine the location of a scooter when it is unable to self-report location based on GPS. Inability to self-report may be due to GPS malfunction or malfunction of the communication array. In these embodiments, scooters may be equipped to broadcast an identifier over a communications protocol such as Bluetooth or LoRaWAN.
The mobile sensing system may include multiple sensing units which may be land-based or air-based and may be an autonomous drone or mounted on a manually operated vehicle such as a maintenance truck.
In one embodiment, the sensing system would dispatch a sensing unit on demand when a scooter is determined to be missing. This determination may be made based on criteria such as a lack of location update for a period of time, a report of missing scooter from a user, or a scooter indicating it is not able to detect GPS signal. The sensing unit would be dispatched to the last known location of the scooter. An autonomous sensing unit may be dispatched directly to a location or batch of locations to search. A sensing unit mounted on a manually operated vehicle may be dispatched by adding the location to the vehicle's scheduled route. If the missing scooter's signal is detected, multiple measurements may be taken to triangulate the scooter's location. This location would be recorded and flagged for maintenance tasks.
In one embodiment, the sensing system would assign each sensing unit to monitor an area. Routes for autonomous and mounted sensing units may be planned and adjusted to substantially cover the assigned area. Sensing units may be provided a set of scooters determined to be missing per the criteria above. Sensing units may be instructed to passively listen to all scooter signals or to actively search for missing scooters last seen or expected to be in the assigned area. If a missing scooter's signal is detected, multiple measurements may be taken to triangulate the scooter's location. This location would be recorded and flagged for maintenance tasks.
In some embodiments, scooters may be equipped with signal interference capabilities to ensure exclusive use of a communication channel. The communication channel may be a cell band or wavelength. Scooters may be assigned a channel or determine a channel based on rules or heuristics. Scooters may broadcast a fixed interference pattern on the channel, creating noise which saturates the communication channel. Scooters may still operate on the communication channel by filtering the fixed interference pattern while preventing use of the channel by other units which do not know the interference pattern.
In one embodiment, scooters consistently broadcast the interference pattern to continuously exclude use of the assigned channel.
In one embodiment, scooters only broadcast the interference pattern when detecting use of the assigned channel by an unknown system. Detection may require a threshold such as a certain length of time or signal strength.
In one embodiment, interference pattern may be broadcast by automated drones rather than attached to the scooters.
The machine may be a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance, a server, a network router, a switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.
The example computer system 900 includes a processing device 902, a main memory 904 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) or Rambus DRAM (RDRAM), etc.), a static memory 906 (e.g., flash memory, static random access memory (SRAM), etc.), and a data storage device 918, which communicate with each other via a bus 930.
Processing device 902 represents one or more general-purpose processing devices such as a microprocessor, a central processing unit, or the like. More particularly, the processing device may be complex instruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, or processor implementing other instruction sets, or processors implementing a combination of instruction sets. Processing device 902 may also be one or more special-purpose processing devices such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), network processor, or the like. The processing device 902 is configured to execute instructions 926 for performing the operations and steps discussed herein.
The computer system 900 may further include a network interface device 908 to communicate over the network 920. The computer system 900 also may include a video display unit 910 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), an alphanumeric input device 912 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device 915 (e.g., a mouse), a graphics processing unit 922, a signal generation device 916 (e.g., a speaker), graphics processing unit 922, video processing unit 928, and audio processing unit 932.
The data storage device 918 may include a machine-readable storage medium 924 (also known as a computer-readable medium) on which is stored one or more sets of instructions or software 926 embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 926 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 904 and/or within the processing device 902 during execution thereof by the computer system 900, the main memory 904 and the processing device 902 also constituting machine-readable storage media.
In one implementation, the instructions 926 include instructions to implement functionality corresponding to the components of a device to perform the disclosure herein. While the machine-readable storage medium 924 is shown in an example implementation to be a single medium, the term “machine-readable storage medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term “machine-readable storage medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing or encoding a set of instructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present disclosure. The term “machine-readable storage medium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical media and magnetic media.
Some portions of the preceding detailed descriptions have been presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the ways used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. The operations are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “identifying” or “determining” or “executing” or “performing” or “collecting” or “creating” or “sending” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage devices.
The present disclosure also relates to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the intended purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, each coupled to a computer system bus.
Various general purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the method. The structure for a variety of these systems will appear as set forth in the description below. In addition, the present disclosure is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the disclosure as described herein.
The present disclosure may be provided as a computer program product, or software, that may include a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which may be used to program a computer system (or other electronic devices) to perform a process according to the present disclosure. A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable (e.g., computer-readable) medium includes a machine (e.g., a computer) readable storage medium such as a read only memory (“ROM”), random access memory (“RAM”), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices, etc.
A number of embodiments have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. In addition, the logic flows depicted in the figures do not require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. In addition, other steps may be provided, or steps may be eliminated, from the described flows, and other components may be added to, or removed from, the described systems. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/733,022, filed on Sep. 18, 2018, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62733022 | Sep 2018 | US |