Emergency Vehicle Alert Zoning for Timely Driver Warnings

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Solution Overview

Problem

Emergency vehicles pose a heightened risk of collisions due to their urgent travel and the failure of drivers to timely notice visual and auditory alerts, primarily due to distraction, leading to increased collision risks with other vehicles.

Innovation Solution

A system comprising an emergency vehicle transmitter, an alert management computing device, and a passenger vehicle user computing device that identifies alert zones based on the emergency vehicle's location and trajectory, transmitting targeted warnings to passenger vehicles within these zones via their user devices, thereby enhancing alert effectiveness.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If emergency vehicles use visual and auditory alerts (lights and sirens), then the risk of collision is mitigated, but drivers may still fail to notice the alerts in a timely manner due to distraction

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecollision risk mitigationVSAvoidalert noticeability

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a third-party alert management computing device that acts as an intermediary between the emergency vehicle and passenger vehicles. This mediator receives trajectory data from the emergency vehicle, identifies alert zones, and sends targeted warnings to passenger vehicles within those zones, ensuring alerts are delivered effectively even when traditional sirens and lights are not noticed by distracted drivers

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary actions by identifying alert zones based on the emergency vehicle's current location and trajectory before the emergency vehicle actually reaches those zones. Warnings are sent to passenger vehicles in advance, allowing them to prepare and take evasive action before the emergency vehicle arrives, rather than relying on reactive alerts

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Speed

If emergency vehicles travel at accelerated speeds to reach emergency incident locations, then timely arrival is ensured, but the risk of collision with other vehicles increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveemergency vehicle speedVSAvoidcollision risk

Core Design Contradiction:

SpeedVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system calculates alert zones based on the emergency vehicle's current trajectory and sends warnings to passenger vehicles before the emergency vehicle reaches their locations. This preliminary warning allows passenger vehicles to slow down or change position, reducing collision risk while enabling the emergency vehicle to maintain high speed

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system receives real-time trajectory data from the emergency vehicle and continuously updates alert zones. Passenger vehicle responses (such as slowing down or moving out of the path) provide feedback that reduces the emergency vehicle's collision risk, allowing it to maintain accelerated speeds safely

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

3Object-affected harmful factors

If targeted warnings are sent only to passenger vehicles within alert zones, then unnecessary noise and distraction are minimized, but the system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveunnecessary noise and distractionVSAvoidalert system complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-affected harmful factorsVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

Instead of sending alerts to all passenger vehicles uniformly, the system applies local quality by targeting warnings only to specific passenger vehicles located within calculated alert zones. This selective approach minimizes unnecessary noise and distraction for vehicles not in the emergency path while maintaining system effectiveness

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The system segments the overall alert population into relevant and irrelevant groups based on geographic location and trajectory analysis. By dividing passenger vehicles into those within alert zones and those outside, the system sends alerts only to the relevant segment, reducing overall noise while managing complexity through structured data processing

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS12573294B2Systems and methods for alerting persons of approaching vehicles

Publication Date: 2026.03.10 INVENT F&W LLC

AI summary

A computer-implemented method for alerting passenger vehicles of approaching emergency vehicles is implemented by an alert management computing device. The method includes receiving an emergency vehicle alert request message from an emergency vehicle transmitter, receiving passenger vehicle location data from a plurality of passenger vehicle user computing devices located in a plurality of passenger vehicles, wherein the passenger vehicle location data includes a present passenger vehicle location and a present passenger vehicle trajectory, identifying an alert zone for the emergency vehicle based on the present emergency vehicle location and the present emergency vehicle trajectory, identifying a vehicle zone for each of the plurality of passenger vehicles, identifying a subset of the passenger vehicles within the alert zone by comparing each vehicle zone to the alert zone, and transmitting a warning to the subset of passenger vehicles via the passenger vehicle user computing devices.