Driver Trip Performance Assessment Across Vehicle Types

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing methods for assessing driving performance are inadequate as they rely on blunt measures like fuel consumption, which vary with vehicle type and conditions, and lack reliable data for many vehicles, making it difficult to compare drivers accurately.

Innovation Solution

A method and system that automatically assess driver performance by reading current-trip driving data sets every few seconds, mapping them to historic groups based on similarity and conformity, and calculating performance parameters using previous-trip data from multiple drivers and vehicles, without considering instantaneous energy consumption.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If fuel consumption is used to measure driving performance, then environmental impact can be tracked, but the measure is blunt and varies with vehicle type and conditions

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedriving performance measurement reliabilityVSAvoiddriving performance measurement precision
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent changes the measurement parameters from fuel consumption to multiple driving behavior parameters (acceleration, deceleration, speed, time) that can be precisely measured by vehicle sensors. This allows for more precise measurement of driving performance while accounting for different vehicle types and conditions through normalized evaluation criteria.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Solution Approach 2:

The patent creates a universal assessment system that works across different vehicle types (cars, trucks, buses) by using standardized driving parameters and normalized evaluation methods. The system can be applied to various vehicle categories while maintaining consistent measurement principles through the use of comparable behavioral metrics.

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

2Quantity of substance

If fuel consumption data is collected for all vehicles, then aggregate environmental impact can be calculated, but reliable data is not readily available for many vehicle types

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedriving data availabilityVSAvoiddriving data reliability
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent utilizes the vehicle's own existing sensors and onboard systems to collect driving data, eliminating the need for external fuel consumption monitoring equipment. The vehicle self-provides the necessary data through its standard sensor suite, ensuring both availability and reliability across all vehicle types.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces a centralized server as an intermediary that collects, normalizes, and processes driving data from multiple vehicles. This intermediary system standardizes the data format and quality across different vehicle types, ensuring reliable aggregation of driving performance information.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Measurement precision

If driving data is collected frequently to capture real-time performance, then assessment accuracy improves, but data processing complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveperformance assessment accuracyVSAvoiddata processing system complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the continuous driving data into discrete evaluation intervals (e.g., per trip or per driving event). This segmentation reduces the complexity of processing continuous streams of data while maintaining sufficient accuracy for performance assessment by focusing on meaningful discrete units of driving behavior.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent extracts only the essential driving parameters needed for performance assessment (acceleration, deceleration, speed, time) from the full set of available vehicle data. This extraction approach reduces data processing complexity by focusing on the most relevant metrics while maintaining assessment accuracy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentEP3391306B1Method and system for assessing the trip performance of a driver
Publication Date: 2025.11.05 GREATER THAN SA
  • EP3391306B1 patent drawingFigure 1a
  • EP3391306B1 patent drawingFigure 1b
  • EP3391306B1 patent drawingFigure 1c

AI summary

Method for automatically assessing performance of a driver (110) of a vehicle (100) for a particular trip, wherein current driving data sets, comprising basic driving data are repeatedly read from the vehicle, which method comprises the steps a) collecting previous-trip driving data sets, comprising instantaneous vehicle energy consumption, for different previous trips, different drivers and different vehicles; b) for each of said current-trip driving data sets, selecting a corresponding previous-trip data set; c) calculating the value of said second trip performance parameter based upon the respective values of a first trip performance parameter for each of said selected previous-trip driving data sets, which first trip performance parameter is calculated for the previous-trip data set in question as a relative trip performance of the previous-trip data set in question in relation to the trip during which the previous-trip data set was observed. The invention also relates to a system.