Dockless Vehicle Parking Verification via Sensor Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Dockless personal transport vehicle services face limitations due to consumers often parking vehicles in undesirable locations, which reduces their availability and desirability, as there are no docking stations to ensure proper parking and maintenance.
Innovation Solution
A usage tracking system that uses sensors, such as cameras on smartphones or integrated in vehicles, to obtain location data, compute parked location attributes, and determine if they meet acceptance criteria, allowing for lock control data to be communicated to lock the vehicle in a desirable location, thereby encouraging proper parking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If dockless personal transport vehicles allow free parking without docking stations, then consumer convenience is improved, but vehicle parking location control deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by using sensors (cameras, GPS) to monitor vehicle parking locations and conditions, then providing this information back to consumers through mobile applications. This allows real-time verification of proper parking and enables the system to enforce parking rules while maintaining dockless convenience.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary monitoring system that acts between the consumer and the vehicle parking environment. This intermediary uses sensors and communication networks to verify parking locations and conditions, enabling control without physical docking stations.
2Reliability
If docking stations are installed to ensure proper parking, then vehicle parking location control is improved, but system complexity and expense increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential parking control function from the physical docking station infrastructure. By removing the need for complex docking stations while retaining location verification capabilities through sensors and communication systems, the solution simplifies the overall system while maintaining control.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical docking station system with an electronic/sensor-based monitoring system. Instead of physical docks that vehicles must return to, the system uses cameras, GPS, and mobile communication to verify and control parking locations, eliminating complex mechanical infrastructure.
3Reliability
If sensors and monitoring systems are added to track vehicle usage, then parking location control is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies multi-functionality by using consumer mobile devices to perform multiple roles: communication, location verification, and control interface. This universal approach reduces the need for dedicated specialized equipment, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity while maintaining effective monitoring and control capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
Novel techniques are described for usage tracking for shared dockless personal transport vehicles (PTVs) over one or more communications networks. Features encourage desired interactions between consumers and PTVs, such as by encouraging consumers to park the PTVs in a desirable condition and in desirable locations. For example, embodiments obtain location data from at least one sensor (e.g., a camera of a smart phone) indicating a parked location of a PTV of a fleet of shared PTVs. A set of parked location attributes is computed in accordance with the obtained location data, and an arbitration determination is computed indicating whether the set of parked location attributes meets a stored set of acceptance criteria. In accordance with a favorable computed arbitration determination, embodiments can output lock control data for a vehicle lock of the PTV (e.g., to lock the PTV in its parked location).