U.S. Patent 9,949,682
This invention appears to be directed to safe driving and more particularly to prevent a previous drunk driver from operating his or her motor vehicle and causing an accident. Drunk driving can cause injuries necessitating a car accident attorney.
On April 24, 2018, Week 17, Number 1449-4, the United States Patent and Trademark Office published issued U.S. Patent Number 9,949,682. The patent describes a method for determining a target of alcohol test, including: determining whether a motor vehicle satisfies a preset condition; and determining, as a target vehicle, a motor vehicle that satisfies at least one preset condition. The preset condition includes at least one of the following conditions: Condition 1, a parking duration in an area, in which a distance from a place selling alcoholic drinks does not exceed a predetermined distance, has a value within a predetermined range; Condition 2, alcohol content in a body of a driver of the motor vehicle exceeds a predetermined value; and Condition 3, schedule of a driver of the motor vehicle on that driving day includes having a meal and/or a dinner party.
Figure 1 describes that:
when a vehicle is started again after being parked over a period of time, whether a period of time during which the driver has left the vehicle is within a predetermined range (i.e., whether the period of time is within 0.5 hour to 6 hours is determined. When the result from the determination is “YES”, the information on the vehicle is transmitted to the server, and the server determines whether there is a place selling alcohol drinks such as a restaurant or a pub within a predetermined distance (e.g., 100 meters) from the position of the motor vehicle. If any of the results from the above two determinations is “NO”, no operation will be performed. If both of the results from the above two determinations are “YES”, information on the vehicle is transmitted to the server, and the nearby traffic police is notified of performing a check on the motor vehicle.
Claim 1 of the patent provides:
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A method for determining a target of alcohol test, comprising:
acquiring, by a condition determination module of a driving safety device, information on a schedule of a driver through a first communication module of the driving safety device;
determining, by the condition determination module, whether a motor vehicle satisfies a preset condition; and
determining, by a second control module of a server, as a target vehicle, a motor vehicle that satisfies at least one preset condition, wherein
the preset condition comprises at least one of the following conditions:
Condition 1, a parking duration in an area, in which a distance from a place selling alcoholic drinks does not exceed a predetermined distance, has a value within a predetermined range;
Condition 2, alcohol content in a body of a driver of the motor vehicle exceeds a predetermined value; and
Condition 3, schedule of the driver of the motor vehicle on that driving day comprises having a meal and/or a dinner party.
The claims itself do not appear to be strong as drafted. The conditions would make it difficult if not impossible to enforce because it requires the system to check the schedule of the driver.
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