System and method for vehicle routing using monetary cost

摘要

A vehicle routing system and method in which routing is based in part on the monetary cost of various candidate routes. The candidate route that has a monetary cost less than a user determined cost parameter is selected as the route to be presented to the user.

主权项

1. A vehicle routing system comprising:
a) a user interface operable to collect from a user
i. a start point and end point for which a route is requested; andii. a cost parameter for said user, said cost parameter comprising monetary value of the user's time as a currency amount per a unit of time; andiii. a time category for varying the cost parameter of said user according to the user's valuation of their time in different circumstances; b) a routing database comprising toll information for routes in a territory; and c) a routing engine operable to
i. determine one or more candidate routes between the start point and the end point by varying the usage of toll routes, each candidate route having a toll cost and a time savings compared to a fastest no-cost route having no tolls;ii. compute for each candidate route a monetary cost per the unit of time from its time savings and toll cost; andiii. select for output the candidate route having the highest time savings and a monetary cost per the unit of time that is lower than the cost parameter varied by the time category.