DSRC Queue Wait Time Estimation via Path History
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current technologies lack effective solutions to provide accurate estimates of wait times for roadside services at drive-through businesses, leading to uncertainty for drivers and potential missed opportunities due to time constraints.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) messages, including path history data, to estimate the delay time for receiving roadside services by transmitting and receiving data between DSRC-equipped vehicles and roadside units, allowing drivers to make informed decisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If drivers wait in queue at drive-through businesses without information, then they may miss time-sensitive opportunities, but they gain no visibility into actual wait times to make informed decisions
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by collecting path history data from vehicles before they reach the drive-through queue, processing this data to estimate wait times in advance, and making this information available to approaching drivers before they commit to waiting, enabling informed decisions about whether to join the queue
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring the positions and movements of vehicles in the queue using DSRC communications, updating wait time estimates based on real-time queue progression, and providing this updated information back to drivers to reflect current queue conditions
2Measurement precision
If the system collects detailed path history data from vehicles, then it can provide accurate wait time estimates, but it increases data processing requirements and system complexity
Solution Approach 1:
Vehicles equipped with DSRC capabilities self-generate and transmit their own path history data without requiring external data collection infrastructure, reducing system complexity by leveraging the vehicles' own communication and positioning systems to provide the necessary data
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses DSRC messages as an intermediary mechanism to efficiently transfer path history data between vehicles and the wait time estimation system, enabling accurate data collection through a standardized communication protocol that reduces processing overhead
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosure includes implementations for providing a recommendation to a driver of a second DSRC-equipped vehicle. The recommendation may describe an estimate of how long it would take the second DSRC-equipped vehicle to receive a roadside service from a drive-through business. A method according to some implementations may include receiving, by the second DSRC-equipped vehicle, a Dedicated Short Range Communication message (“DSRC message”) that includes path history data. The path history data may describe a path of a first DSRC-equipped vehicle over a plurality of different times while the first DSRC-equipped vehicle is located in a queue of the drive-through business. The method may include determining delay time data for the second DSRC-equipped vehicle based on the path history data for the first DSRC-equipped vehicle. The delay time data may describe the estimate. The method may include providing the recommendation to the driver. The recommendation may include the estimate.