RU2733185C1 - Method of vehicle sharing by clients of carsharing services - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to a method for vehicle sharing by clients of services of carsharing. Method of vehicle sharing by clients of the carsharing consists in recording the clients of the service of the carsharing on the reservation server, forming the customer profile for the driver and the data for reservation of the vehicle. After the customer profile for the driver is formed, forming the customer profile for the passenger, after confirming the car rent, offering the driver to participate in the vehicle joint use, in case of consent of driver for joint use of vehicle, information on profile of driver and its route is entered into ridesharing-infrastructure, then loading into ridesharing-infrastructure information on profile and route of passenger, searching for matching paths and meeting points, providing search results to passenger, selecting potential driver, forming for potential driver request for joint trip, in case the driver agrees to travel together, the route of the vehicle is changed in the navigation application on the client device, after which the journey is continued.

EFFECT: possibility of simultaneous joint use of the car by several clients of the carsharing service is achieved.

1 cl, 8 dwg

Description

The invention relates to a car-sharing technique and relates to the sharing of vehicles by customers of car-sharing services.

Currently, car sharing is becoming more and more popular services in large cities of Russia. This concept allows people to use the car and pay for the time of use without having to buy it and without additional maintenance costs.

Car sharing allows people to get a comfortable and inexpensive (in comparison with a taxi) way to move around the city (and in some cases, the region). His ideas have existed since 1970, but widespread use and growth in popularity became possible only with the development of the Internet and mobile communications, thanks to which passengers and drivers, previously unknown, were able to quickly find each other and agree on the details of the trip. Currently the following car sharing schemes exist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpool].

1. Search through forums and communities. Such resources are, for example, “Come with me” [http://www.gowithme.ru/], “I'll take it! Ru” [http://www.dovezu.ru/], eRideShare.com [http: // erideshare.com/], PickupPal [http://www.pickuppal.com/], Zimride [http://www.zimride.com/], RideshareOnline [http://www.rideshareonline.com/], rideshare. 511.org [http://rideshare.511.org/], CarJungle [http://www.carjungle.ru/]. A travel ad is posted on the site, which contains information about the person submitting this ad and the route, indicating the starting and ending points. The search for travel companions is carried out by setting the trip route and additional conditions, such as fare, travel time, etc.

2. Search through closed websites. Closedness is expressed in the need for an invitation to participate. For example, the Zimride service [http://www.zimride.com/], along with a public interface, has a closed one that can be used by various organizations to provide transportation of their employees to the workplace.

3. Using specialized software for searching. A program is loaded onto mobile devices that allows you to edit the user's profile, indicate the route and find fellow travelers. An example is the PickupPal program [http://www.pickuppal.com/], which allows you to search through various agents (taxi companies) and randomly select fellow travelers at meeting points, which may be, for example, public transport stops.

A known method of providing passenger information [Patent RU 2696556; publ. 08/02/2019 Bul. No. 22], characterized in that they provide passenger information about the vehicle transmitted between the mobile device and the central computer, and before providing the passenger information, it is automatically determined with the help of the mobile device, about which vehicle the passenger information device is provided, while determining the position and / or the orientation of the mobile device, wherein at least part of the passenger information depends on the position and / or orientation of the mobile device, and said part of the passenger information is automatically corrected when the position and / or orientation of the mobile device changes.

The known method [Patent US 10360518 B2; publ. 07/23/2019] for the management of shared vehicles, allowing you to determine whether to prohibit / allow the rental of a shared vehicle with information about the condition of the shared vehicle and a request for rent by the user based on the conclusion that the shared vehicle requires technical service.

The known method of detecting and eliminating the inconsistency of the location of the vehicle [Patent US 10311730 B2; publ. 07/09/2019], providing a mechanism for detecting and reducing discrepancies in the position of the vehicle. A set of dynamic boundaries is generated around a prescribed vehicle pick-up location agreed upon with the next vehicle lessee within a prescribed pick-up time. Based on the location of the vehicle, a boundary is established in a set of dynamic boundaries to which the vehicle is associated. One state from a set of states is identified based on the location of the vehicle and the identified boundary within which the vehicle is located. An appropriate action is taken based on the identified state.

Known software application and method for changing the configuration of an autonomous vehicle [US Patent 10334050 B2; publ. 06/25/2019], including identifying the location of the user device associated with the user, sending a command to the autonomous vehicle system associated with the autonomous vehicle service to go to the location and providing information associated with the user device to the autonomous vehicle system, where the information includes configuration data for adapting one or more autonomous vehicle subsystems. Autonomous vehicle subsystems can include interior lighting, ambient sound, road control, seating configuration, communication timing, and temperature control systems.

Known systems and methods of fleet management [US Patent 10223655 B2; publ. 03/05/2019], including the receipt by the computer of a deposit from the owner of at least one personal vehicle for use in the fleet, and the task has a predetermined duration; the computer assignment of each vehicle in the fleet of vehicles to an emission classification based on at least one of the following: vehicle capacity, vehicle efficiency and emission profile, in particular carbon and NOx emissions; storing and indexing by a computer an emission classification associated with at least one personal vehicle; Track actual vehicle emissions data in real time and fuel efficiency data as well as fleet-generated emissions data based on excess emissions power provided when the fleet computer receives a ride request from a non-owner traveler; and the computer designating a personal vehicle for use by the traveler for at least a portion of a predetermined duration based on the ride request, actual vehicle real-time emissions and fuel efficiency, emission credits obtained from the vehicle fleet, and emission classification to reduce the park's emissions and maximize the resulting emission allowances.

The closest in technical essence to the claimed method and selected as a prototype is a method of joint use [US Patent 10311730 B2; publ. 07/09/2019], which consists in registering clients of the car sharing service on the reservation server, using a client device communicating with the car reservation server via a wireless network, forming a client profile for the driver and data for booking a car, simulating the driving experience for the virtual version vehicle, based on the safety functions for the vehicle selected by the driver, provide the driver with information about the possibility of renting a car, if the driver agrees, they confirm the car rental and carry out the trip.

The disadvantage of the known methods is the impossibility of sharing a car (ridesharing) by several clients of the car sharing service at the same time.

Despite the significant number of cars in car-sharing companies, situations may arise in which service users do not get access to a car in the right place at the right time. In such situations, it is possible to apply the concept of car sharing (ridesharing) by several customers of the car sharing service. The essence of this concept is to divide the trip by several users with a dynamic determination of the route that is most convenient for all participants in a joint trip - a slight deviation from the shortest path for the driver and an acceptable path to the meeting points for pedestrians. The cost of renting a car is divided between all participants in a joint trip in proportion to the length of the route.

The technical problem to be solved by the invention is to ensure the possibility of sharing a car by several clients of the car sharing service simultaneously by comparing the path of the client who has already rented a car and started moving along his route (driver), with the point of location and point of travel of the client, who ended up without a car (passenger).

In the claimed method, this technical problem is solved by the fact that in the method of sharing a car by clients of car-sharing services, which consists in registering clients of the car-sharing service on the reservation server, using a client device communicating with the car reservation server via a wireless network, a client profile is formed for the driver and data for booking a car, provide the driver with information about the possibility of renting a car, in case of the driver's consent, confirming the car rental, carrying out a trip, additionally, after forming a client profile for the driver, forming a client profile for the passenger. After confirming the car rental, the driver is offered to participate in car sharing. If the driver agrees to share the car, information about the driver's profile and his route is entered into the ridesharing infrastructure. The information about the profile and the route of the passenger is loaded into the ridesharing infrastructure. Search for matching paths and meeting points and provide search results to the passenger. A potential driver is selected, a request for a joint trip is formed for a potential driver. If the driver agrees to ride together, they change the route of the car in the navigation application on the client device. If the driver does not agree to a joint ride, the potential driver is selected again and a request for a joint ride is generated. After changing the route of the car, they meet with the passenger, after which they carry out the trip.

Thanks to the new set of essential features, it is possible to share the car by several clients (driver and passengers) of the car-sharing service simultaneously by comparing the path of the client who has already rented a car and started moving along his route (driver), with the point of location and point of travel of the client, who ended up without a car (passenger).

The analysis of the prior art made it possible to establish that analogues characterized by a set of features that are identical to all features of the claimed technical solution are absent, which indicates that the claimed method meets the "novelty" condition of patentability.

The results of the search for known solutions in this and related fields of technology in order to identify features that match the distinctive features of the prototype of the features of the claimed object, have shown that they do not follow explicitly from the prior art. The prior art also did not reveal the awareness of the distinctive essential features that determine the same technical result that is achieved in the claimed method. Therefore, the claimed invention meets the "inventive step" requirement of patentability.

The claimed method is illustrated by drawings, which show:

fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a method for sharing a car with car sharing clients;

fig. 2 is a conceptual diagram of car sharing by customers of car sharing services;

fig. 3 - the general principle of finding a matching path;

fig. 4 - selection of meeting points for the passenger;

fig. 5 is a diagram for one point on the driver's path;

fig. 6 is a diagram for two points on the driver's path;

fig. 7 is a diagram of the application of the second heuristic;

fig. 8 - adding a new point to the driver's path;

To implement the claimed method perform the following operations (Fig. 1).

Customers of the car sharing service are registered (block 101). Using a client device communicating with the car reservation server via a wireless network, a client profile for the driver (block 102), for a passenger (block 103) and data for car reservation (block 104) are generated.

All customers registered in the car sharing service (Fig. 2) have profiles containing the following information:

information about the user (name, user type - driver or passenger);

departure point coordinates;

arrival point coordinates;

departure time;

maximum delay;

maximum deviation from the minimum distance;

music preferences;

preferences for air temperature in the cabin.

Block 105 provides the driver with information on the possibility of renting a car and, if he agrees (block 106), confirms the car rental (block 107).

The mobile application of the car sharing service installed on the client device invites the driver who rented a car to participate in car sharing (block 108).

If the driver agrees to share the car, information about the driver's profile and his route is entered into the ridesharing infrastructure (block 109).

The service client who failed to rent a car due to a shortage of them, using the mobile application installed on the client device, uploads information about its route and its profile to the ridesharing infrastructure (block 110).

Then, the trip matching service on the reservation server searches for matching paths and meeting points, and thus available drivers (block 111), based on the algorithm presented below, and provides the search results to the passenger (block 112).

In block 113, the passenger selects a potential driver using an application installed on his client device. The car reservation server automatically generates a request for a joint trip for it (block 114).

If the driver agrees to share a ride (block 115), the car reservation server changes the route of the car in the navigation application on the client device (block 116), the driver meets the passenger (block 117) and they continue the trip together (block 118).

If the driver does not agree to a ride together (block 115), the next potential driver is selected (block 113) and a request is generated for him for a ride together (block 114).

The general principle of searching for matching paths and meeting points (block 111) based on comparing the lists of drivers and passengers, searching for matches for each pair, and selecting the pair that most satisfies the criteria set by the clients of the car sharing service is discussed in FIG. 3.

Let A, B be the starting and ending points of the passenger's path, C, D the starting and ending points of the driver's path. The solid line in FIG. 3 shows the shortest path of the driver, obtained using GIS. As can be seen from the figure, the driver and the passenger move in almost the same direction, and with some adjustment of the driver's path, he can give a lift to the passenger, which is indicated in the figure by the dotted line (CABD path).

The considered case is the simplest, since the meeting points in it coincide with the start and end points of the passenger's path. More difficult options are to find meeting points that satisfy both driver and passenger, but are not necessarily part of their shortest route. FIG. 3, one of the possible options is indicated by a dash-dotted line, and the meeting points are indicated by the letters E, F (CEFD path). The choice of these points must meet the following basic conditions:

the distance from the passenger's starting point to the meeting point should not exceed the maximum path that the passenger agrees to travel (in Fig. 3, this area is indicated by a dotted circle);

the deviation of the new driver's path from the shortest one should not exceed the maximum permissible deviation set by the driver.

The general problem of finding matching paths has a sufficiently large dimension, so it is necessary to apply heuristics to reduce the dimension of the problem.

The work of the algorithm, the search for matching paths and meeting points, begins with determining the possibility of transporting a passenger by the selected driver. To do this, the following conditions must be met:

, (1)

, (1)

(2)

(2)

where pp ₁ , pp ₂ are the starting and ending points of the passenger's path; dp _i - driver's waypoint; PDetour , DDetour - deviation from the minimum distance of the passenger and driver.

If the driver's path does not satisfy conditions (1), (2), then it is considered that the driver cannot give a lift to the passenger and the algorithm stops, otherwise lists of driver's path points corresponding to the conditions are compiled and the transition to the next step is made, at which all possible meeting points.

The next step is to select all points to which the passenger can reach. These points belong to a circle of radius PDetour and are selected according to the following rule:

(3)

(3)

where pp _A is a point belonging to the passenger's path, p _i is a point on the map.

If p _i satisfies condition (3), then it is marked as a possible meeting point. FIG. 4 points satisfying condition (3) are designated by the letters L, M, N, K.

The choice from the possible meeting points of the pair that most satisfies the criteria specified by the passenger involves enumerating all pairs of points with the calculation of all parameters required for the selection. This operation is extremely costly and requires the reduction of many possible meeting points. To solve this problem, heuristics have been developed that make it possible to reduce sets based on the available data.

The first heuristic involves the selection of points from the sector of the circle from which the driver will drive. FIG. 5 shows a heuristic model for a situation in which the driver found only one point (point C) that satisfies condition (1) or (2), depending on the considered point of the passenger's path.

The angle is calculated to determine potential meeting points

(4)

(4)

. На фиг. 6 это точки L и M. and points are selected that fall into the region

... FIG. 6 are points L and M.

Point A, which is the starting point for the passenger, will always be included in the set of possible meeting points. If two or more points are found that satisfy condition (1), then the range of points selection expands.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of the application of the heuristic derived from the diagram of FIG. 6 by adding a second point satisfying condition (1) or (2). It can be seen that point N now enters the extended area together with points L and M. The use of such a heuristic allows considering only points located on the side of the driver's movement. However, it has significant disadvantages:

selection of points located further than the maximum deviation of the driver from the shortest path;

selection area limited to a certain angle. Potential meeting points may be lost due to incorrect angle selection.

The second heuristic is built taking into account the shortcomings identified in the analysis of the first. Its essence lies in the fact that the selection of points located at the intersection of the circles of the radii PDetour and DDetour is carried out . As a result, all points are potentially reachable for both the driver and the passenger, thereby eliminating the need to determine the angle limiting the selection area. In this case, as in the first heuristic, the area under consideration can be expanded by increasing the number of driver's path points that satisfy condition (1) or (2).

For both heuristics to work effectively, a number of constraints must be taken into account:

a large number of drivers. If there are few drivers, then, due to a hard dropout, the search for points will rarely give a positive result;

low value of DDetour . For large values of DDetour, the heuristic is useless;

even distribution of roads on the map. Uneven distribution (the presence of rivers, lakes, factories, etc.) leads to the absence of roads in some sectors, which can lead to the loss of possible meeting points associated with the need to avoid obstacles and drive behind a pedestrian on the other side at high DDetour values.

After applying the heuristics, the parameters of the new path are calculated for all pairs of points. These parameters are the driver's new path length, the distance traveled by the passenger to the meeting point, the driver's and passenger's waiting times.

Calculation of the parameters of the new path begins with checking whether the meeting point does not coincide with one of the points of the driver's existing path. If there is no match, then the position of the meeting point relative to the existing points is calculated. For this, two adjacent points of the existing path are taken and the distance from the new point to the selected ones is found. The new point will be located between the pair giving the shortest distance. As in the case of addition, and in case of coincidence, it is necessary to save the indices of the position of the points for further calculations. FIG. 8 shows a variant of recalculating the driver's path, in which the meeting point F does not coincide with the reference points of the driver's path C _i and C _{i +1} . Pivot points are the meeting points with passengers whom the selected driver agreed to give a lift. Point A in the figure represents the passenger's waypoint.

After receiving the position of the meeting points in the list, it is necessary to check the driver's availability in the segment between these points. The algorithm stops if there is no free space. If there are free seats, then the new driver's path length, the distance covered by the passenger to the meeting point and the waiting time of the driver and passenger are calculated.

Also, for the entire path, the time stamps are recalculated for each point, taking into account the waiting time and the time spent on reaching the meeting points. Based on the results of these calculations, a decision will be made on choosing the best path. The criteria by which the decision is made are determined by the users themselves when transferring information to the intellectual space. These criteria can be:

the minimum length of the total path (relevant for the driver);

minimum waiting time at the meeting point;

minimum distance to meeting points (relevant for a passenger).

After choosing the path that most satisfies the specified criteria, the parameters of all points located between the start and end points of the matching path are changed

The results of the experimental studies carried out indicate that the claimed method of car sharing by customers of car sharing services has new properties that cause a positive effect, which indicates the possibility of solving the formulated technical problem.

Claims (1)

A method of car sharing by car sharing service clients, which consists in registering car sharing service clients on a reservation server, using a client device communicating with the car reservation server via a wireless network, forming a client profile for the driver and data for car reservation, providing the driver with information about the possibility of renting a car, if the driver agrees to confirm the car rental, carry out a trip, characterized in that they form a client profile for the passenger, after confirming the car rental, offer the driver to participate in car sharing, in case the driver agrees to share the car, they make information about the driver's profile and his route to the ridesharing infrastructure, then the information about the profile and the passenger's route is loaded into the ridesharing infrastructure, searching for matching paths and points of the tracks, provide search results to the passenger, select a potential driver, form a request for a joint ride for a potential driver, change the route of the car in the navigation application on the client device if the driver agrees to a joint ride, if the driver does not agree to a joint ride, re-select the potential the driver and form a request for a joint trip, after changing the route of the car, meet with the passenger, and then continue the trip.

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