Customized Safe Speeds for Vehicles

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing methods for determining safe vehicular speeds are inadequate as they fail to account for individual driver and road condition variations, leading to inaccurate speed limits and difficulty in identifying dangerous speeding behaviors.

Innovation Solution

Collect and analyze data from multiple trips and drivers across various road segments, incorporating factors like driver, time, weather, and road conditions to determine customized speed limits and risk scores for individual drivers.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of manufacture

If a single official speed limit is set for a road segment, then the speed limit can be easily established and enforced, but it fails to account for individual driver and road condition variations, leading to inaccurate safety assessment

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveease of establishing speed limitVSAvoidaccuracy of safe speed determination
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of manufactureVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the single speed limit concept into multiple customized speed limits based on different road segments, drivers, and conditions. Each driver receives personalized speed recommendations for specific road segments based on their driving behavior patterns and the particular conditions of each segment, replacing the universal speed limit with granular, context-specific limits.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies local quality by making speed limits specific to local conditions rather than uniform. Speed limits are customized for each road segment based on local characteristics such as geometry, traffic patterns, and environmental factors, and are further personalized for each driver based on their individual behavior, creating a locally adapted speed recommendation system.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

2Reliability

If speed limits are based on 85th percentile of historical speed data, then the speed limit reflects typical driving behavior, but it cannot identify dangerous speeding behavior or provide fine-grained safety comparison across different road segments

Engineering Contradiction:
Improverepresentation of typical driving behaviorVSAvoiddifficulty in identifying dangerous speeding
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDifficulty of detecting and measuring

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements feedback by comparing each driver's actual speed against their personalized safe speed recommendations and providing feedback on their speeding behavior. The system monitors whether drivers exceed their customized speed limits and uses this information to assess risk, encouraging drivers to modify their behavior to become safer while providing municipalities with data on actual speeding patterns.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The patent transitions from static, fixed speed limits to dynamic, adaptive speed recommendations. Safe speeds are not fixed but are dynamically determined based on varying factors including road segment characteristics, weather conditions, time of day, and individual driver behavior patterns, allowing the system to adapt to changing conditions and provide context-appropriate speed guidance.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

3Measurement precision

If multiple factors (driver, weather, road conditions) are considered for customized speed limits, then safety assessment accuracy improves, but data collection and processing complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveaccuracy of safe speed assessmentVSAvoidcomplexity of data collection system
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies universality by using a multi-functional data collection system that gathers various types of data (speed, location, weather, road conditions, driver behavior) through a single integrated platform. The system performs multiple functions including data collection, processing, analysis, and customization of speed recommendations, reducing the need for separate specialized systems for each data type.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentEP3559926B1Determining customized safe speeds for vehicles
Publication Date: 2025.07.02 CAMBRIDGE MOBILE TELEMATICS INC
  • EP3559926B1 patent drawingFigure 1
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AI summary

Customize safe speeds for vehicles are determined from information that is collected from multiple trips and multiple drivers across many road segments. The information collected includes the speed traveled along the road segment, possibly along with additional information, such as (for example) driver, time of day, day of week, weather and road conditions, angle of the sun or other factors. Given information from a new trip, the driver's speed can be compared on each road segment with relevant data from previous trips (from e.g., similar roads, weather conditions, drivers). The comparison yields a score representing the safety of the driver's speed.