Ride Sharing Broker Algorithm for Privacy-Preserving Allocation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing demand for ride sharing services poses challenges in managing competition among multiple transportation service providers while ensuring optimal vehicle allocation, privacy protection, and fairness, as existing systems struggle to balance service quality with the need to limit vehicle numbers and protect proprietary information.
Innovation Solution
A distributed auction algorithm is implemented to assign ride sharing requests among multiple transportation service providers, allowing each provider to communicate only their best bids without disclosing full pricing strategies, ensuring fair competition and optimal vehicle allocation while protecting proprietary information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a centralized assignment system is used to optimize vehicle allocation, then service quality and allocation efficiency are improved, but proprietary information of transportation service providers is exposed and competition fairness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a transportation service broker as an intermediary between users and multiple transportation service providers. The broker receives service requests, collects bid information from providers, determines the winning bid, and assigns the request without exposing proprietary algorithms. This mediator architecture enables optimized allocation while protecting provider information through controlled information flow.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the assignment process into distinct functional modules: request reception, bid collection, bid evaluation, and assignment notification. Each module handles specific tasks with controlled information access, allowing the broker to optimize allocation through structured processing while limiting information exposure to only what is necessary for each processing stage.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple transportation service providers compete for ride sharing requests, then service quality and competition fairness are improved, but system complexity and coordination difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The transportation service broker implements a universal interface that handles multiple providers' bid submissions, evaluations, and assignments through a single standardized process. This multi-functional broker manages diverse providers uniformly, enabling fair competition among multiple entities while centralizing coordination logic to reduce overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of information exchange by requiring providers to submit only bid prices and vehicle identifiers rather than full proprietary algorithms. This parameter modification simplifies the data structure and coordination requirements while maintaining competitive fairness, as providers compete on standardized parameters without exposing complex internal systems.
3Measurement precision
If proprietary pricing strategies are fully disclosed for assignment optimization, then allocation precision is improved, but competitive advantage is lost and market fairness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The broker implements partial information collection by gathering only the essential bid price and vehicle identifier from each provider, rather than requiring full pricing strategies or algorithms. This partial action provides sufficient precision for optimal assignment while preserving providers' competitive advantages by not demanding excessive information disclosure.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates simplified copies of bid information (price and vehicle ID) that are sufficient for assignment optimization without replicating the complex proprietary pricing mechanisms. These copied data elements enable precise allocation decisions while being innocuous enough to protect providers' intellectual property and competitive positioning.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments for providing intelligent transportation service management in a transportation system by a processor. Transportation service requests may be assigned amongst multiple transportation service providers according to one or more transportation service request distribution models and various parameters and preferences for each user. The transportation service request distribution models may protect information relation to each of the transportation service providers and suggests a selected order for distributing the plurality of transportation service requests.