IBM Seeks Patent On Retailer-Rigged Driving Routes

theodp writes "On IBM's Smarter Planet, you may drive further than need be to get to your destination. Big Blue's pending patent for Determining Travel Routes by Using Fee-Based Location Preferences calls for the likes of Walmart, Starbucks, and Best Buy pay a fee in return for having your route calculation service de-optimize driving instructions to make you do a drive-by of their stores, and an additional fee if GPS tracking of your car indicates you actually took the suboptimal route. The same IBM inventors also have a patent pending for Environmental Stewardship Based on Driving Behavior, which calls for yet another fee to be assessed when a retailer-friendly-but-suboptimal route causes your vehicle to enter a congested area and produce more pollution."

Comments

Yes or No

[RichMan]

IBM gets bonus points if they patent these then sit on them, thus disallowing anyone from actually implementing them.
Of course they could turn "Evil"

How many other evil things can we thing of to patent to prevent people from actually doing them?

No doubt, there will be a user fee as well

[EmagGeek]

I would bet that there is also going to be a way for the user to pay a fee not to be sent on the suboptimal route.

Re:No doubt, there will be a user fee as well

[cynyr]

there are times i'd like to be able to get one of these sub optimal routes...

for example:
Driving to my Uncles new home for a house warming thing, I'd like to stop at Target(for those that don't know www.target.com), a hardware store for something, and a ATM for cash for the week, somewhere between here and there, and go out of my as little as possible. I know the nearest target to my house is in the wrong direction, as is the hardware store, so i'd like googlemaps/etc to find the best route between my place and my uncles while getting to the other locations I need to go to.

Anyways, there have been a few times where I have wanted directions like that.

Re:No doubt, there will be a user fee as well

[QuasiSteve]

Yeah, that's called "the traveling salesman problem"

Odd - I call it 'Itinerary' - but that's only because my TomTom labels it as such. It's not entirely automated in that I can't specify a destination and then say 'along the route to the destination, find me X, Y and Z' - but I can look at the route it's already plotted for me and find said X, Y and Z on the map and add them as waypoints.

And if you really wanted to do a traveling salesman problem thing..
http://www.google.com/search?q=traveling+salesman+google+maps ..plenty of options to choose from for a limited number of destinations.

Of course the question becomes what is more efficient.. shortest? fastest? least turns? most highways? least highways? most traffic congestion avoidance? etc.

Re:No doubt, there will be a user fee as well

[bzipitidoo]

Sub optimal for one purpose does not make it sub optimal. You're not asking for a sub optimal route, you're asking for the best route that satisfies some additional constraints.

Anyway, this kind of garbage is why the US inaugurated the numbered highway system in 1926. Before that, roads were promoted by private organizations that were not above directing travelers on sub optimal routes, in order to increase business at favored towns, which of course paid for the privelege. An example is the Bee Line Highway (now US 31) between Nashville and Birmingham. The original boosters lost control of the group that promoted the highway, and the new people tried to run the route through Gadsden, adding about 50 miles to the trip.

Re:No doubt, there will be a user fee as well

[Teancum]

Actually the highway system was designed with one thing in mind: the US military. It was built to efficiently move tanks from one half of the country to the other and to also provide backup runways in the event of a war.

I think you are mistaking the Interstate Highway System to the much older Federal Highway System. There are also so many fallacies in what you are talking about here I don't know where to begin, most especially the runway issue. For WW II era planes, they might have been able to use something like an interstate highway, but modern jet fighters have a few more problems. The rocks and "foreign object" problems on these highways alone would make merely landing on most interstates a one-way trip where the military aircraft would never be flying again without massive repairs... and that is presuming law enforcement or other agencies even bothered to shut the highway down for the exercise.

There is a story about how then General Dwight Eisenhower had the dubious responsibility of moving a division overland across the continental United States in the 1930's without the railroads, as instead his division used the federal highway system. It took nearly two months simply because they had to stop at every small town along the route, deal with local law enforcement, and became such a massive headache that he argued they would have gone faster had they been fighting the German Army the whole way. When he arrived in Germany at the end of WWII, he saw the Autobahn and compared his experience in logistical advantages of that highway compared to what he went through prior to the war.

Still, the grandparent post is talking about something quite a bit different, and pointing out that the federal numbered highway system was a huge improvement over the highway system that existed earlier. That certainly wasn't built for military purposes.... unless you consider the Overland Trail to be a military highway. That cavalry units in the U.S. Army may have patrolled that trail may be true, but neither that route nor successive highways which followed that route were necessarily intended for the military.

The real purpose for declaring the Interstate Highway System as a "military project" was as a means to justify its creation as one of the enumerated powers under the U.S. Constitution.... back when the U.S. Congress at least gave lip service to the concept that they had to actually pay attention to the idea as if their legislation followed that document.

Just what we need get off hiway and get back onm

[Joe_Dragon]

Just what we need get off highway and get back on for each small town you pass by.

In the past I use to get stuff like that with on line maps where they keep having you get on off the same road but may of been a bug or just poor weighting.

best buy GPS "ask geek suard for map updates"

[Joe_Dragon]

How long before it the gps says

"Go in to best buy and ask for geek suard for map update service Only $49.99"

Remote Control is Next

[qualityassurancedept]

Well if they are going to make you drive all over just to go past stores that have paid a fee to jack around with your GPS then why not do the same thing to the remote control for your TV... you push the button on your remote control on your TV to go to NBC or HBO and instead you are immediately redirected to a brief ad from whatever giant conglomerate paid to hijack your remote control after which you go directly to the tv station you requested by pushing the button in the first place. Moreover, they can sell an ad free version of the remote control for an additional $40. I MEAN WHY THE HECK NOT... it would be a goldmine.

Re:Remote Control is Next

[dietdew7]

Have you patented this idea?

Random thoughts

[cloudmaster]

So, everything someone thinks of while high on pot is now eligible for patenting? This crap doesn't make any sense to me, but I'm not currently high.

Re:Random thoughts

[makubesu]

I'm starting to think my patent on having patent office employees smoke weed during the work day is being violated.

Re:Random thoughts

[kermidge]

Ok. I scanned the patent submission - scanned, because I found the entire proposal odious. From the first paragraph my first reaction was "this is a scam." Everything I read - scanned/quick read/slowed down to read/tried to analyze - only reinforced my first impression. This entire thing is, to my mind, a wondrous new way to screw people: business owners, for ostensible fame and fortune; travellers to get sucked into paying the higher prices for goods or services due to costs of doing business being passed on to them - not to mention a thorough-going perversion of the utility of GPS trip planning and a great way of increasing the personal and societal BTU cost of motoring. This thing is a mental goatse. It can't be unread.

The only profit I can see accrues to the amoral scalliwag who sells this "service."

(Btw, way back when, during the ten years I partook of marijuana, I never got high seeking, nor whilst high sought, ways to screw over anyone. It's certainly not that I'm some paragon of virtue, it's simply that fucking with people was not part of the fabric of "high.")

To submit this proposal to a fellow human is at best pathologically arrogant. It's too much to hope, but perhaps IBM will pull their head out from where the Sun doesn't shine, maybe slough it off to Watson having a bad-voltage moment.

I've seen some damn-fool stuff so far, the past sixty-some years, including looking in the mirror, but this pretty much takes the cake.

Very convenient

[lucm]

This is awesome because now you don't need to look for a wal-mart, strabucks, best buy and other when you want to go shopping, you just put your home address as the destination and you'll have a route all setup for you.

Re:GPS craze

[JimMcc]

I got a gps with voice prompting for my company van because I was afraid I was going to get in, or cause, a wreck trying to read the Thomas Guide. My short term memory isn't that great, especially if I'm thinking through my next job before I get to it. Having a gps system voice prompt me around a major metropolitan area is, for me, a significantly safer option. But then again, I don't blindly drive off the road into a river/ravine/building just because my gps told me to.

Re:GPS craze

[phorm]

Let's see...

Pick up map. Look up destination. Try to find the street on the legend, correspond to a bunch of X/Y grid entries, and get there. Try to determine the best way through all the various highways, one-way streets, etc on the way. Get partway there and run into construction. End up taking a different route. Stop, and re-read map. Plot alternate route. End up discovering that street stops and starts in multiple sections and require a roundabout route to your destination. Arrive at destination, only to discover that it doesn't exist and that you should have been on 1st Ave East and not just 1st ave. (and yes, I've had this experience before).

OR

Turn on location services. Type in "Bob's Market" in your GPS-enabled device. Click "directions." Follow the route given and spoken aloud... which is auto-corrected whenever you are diverted or have to make an unexpected turnoff to pee.

I don't need my GPS when going places in town, but when you're travelling 200+km to a destination you've never visited before, it's sure a nice thing to have...

Most convenient is if you're in an unfamiliar location, and you want to find "Store X." Pop the name into maps, and a few of the most nearby locations pops up for easy navigation.

Re:GPS craze

[93 Escort Wagon]

But then again, I don't blindly drive off the road into a river/ravine/building just because my gps told me to.

Wish I'd read your post five minutes earlier...

- Sent from under water

This is how IBM actually works:

[FooAtWFU]

1. The head of a project takes his bunch of interns into a meeting room to brainstorm random things you could do which have any sort of tenuous tangential connection to the project.
2. Lawyers!!!
3. IBM pays dude a few thousand dollars bonus.
(4. Interns are eligible for bonus if they join IBM, but seek less-dysfunctional workplaces where they don't have to use Lotus Notes.)

Seriously, that's the reason I have my name on a patent which basically says "you could have a weight sensor on a bus, guess the number of passengers, and use that for capacity planning somehow." For bonus points, check out the flowchart.

Re:This is how IBM actually works:

[Samantha Wright]

I can't tell if I like prefer figure 1 for its irrelevance or figure 2 for its obtuseness. When I grow up, I want to write patents like that.

Useful under user control

[erice]

Under advertiser control it is pretty ugly, of course. But it would actually be nice if I could map a route and say "along the way, I need to find cheap gas, an Asian grocer, and try to get me to a Walmart or Target (don't care which) if it is it not *too* much deviation.

Re:Useful under user control

[jackbird]

...but it can't handle an open-ended stopover request like "the closest Target to the highway between here and my brother's house 2 states over so we can get a toy for our niece"

Re:Useful under user control

[green1]

my 2 year old tomtom can handle that "waypoint along route" and it will list the target stores that are on your route, with each one listed as to how much of a detour it is, you then select the one you want.

Re:New Patent Laws

[whoever57]

As long as there is nothing on file, IBM no long has to invent anything. Anything they see and think "that is clever" or "I wonder if there is a patent on that?" will be quickly written up as a new patent. By reading scientific research, watching for new apps, looking at every business process, etc., IBM can find things others haven't patented.

Pure FUD. First to file does NOT mean that prior art is ignored. Prior art will invalidate a patent now just as it did before. The rest of the world has been "first to file" for, like, forever. If someone has published it, then no-one can patent it.

This might explain ...

[PPH]

... all those octogenarian driving their Cadillacs thought the front walls of various businesses. Well, you paid to aim them your way.

Re:Bad summary

[theodp]

It's the first patent that points to the second patent:

"The additional fee is charged for proposing routes for any additional vehicles to travel through the congested area, thereby promoting environmental stewardship by potentially reducing the number of additional vehicles entering the congested area."

Also, check out the listed inventors - same team of five on both patent applications.

Prior art

[yelvington]

Bangkok Tuk-Tuk drivers.
New Delhi motorcycle taxis.

Re:or why you should never buy a GPS system by IBM

[mysidia]

Or why you should never buy a GPS system made by IBM.

IBM doesn't usually sell GPS navigation software directly to consumers; instead what will happen is other companies OEM IBM's software in their consumer products, and people will have the software without ever knowing that their shiny new nav unit is actually a piece of hardware running an application written by IBM.

OF course.... the days of shiny new nav units are numbered, as Smart phones such as Android/iPhone, are obsoleting dedicated nav devices by having apps that perform the function.

Solution? Opt-out

[bogidu]

Remember the good ole days? http://www.thomasguidebooks.com/

Privacy

[tgeek]

I'm surprised nobody has brought up the subject of privacy yet. I'm pretty sure that any business paying to be routed this way is going to want some kind of statistics or metrics for their money. At the very least they're going to want to know how many times their locations were included in routes. And potentially much more - such as time of day, endpoints of the overall route, etc. So somehow the device is going to have to be able to communicate back to some central server - either in realtime or possibly in batch when maps are updated. Sounds like the old smartphone tracking mess all over again.

Nah, IBM just wants to remind everyone who is boss

[SmallFurryCreature]

This is just a polite cought from IBM to remind Apple, MS, Google, HP, Samsung and the likes who invented original evil. This is classy stuff, forget about silly lawsuits and threathening to sue your customers. Control their every move like the drones they are. THAT is CLASS. That is pure unadulterated evil.

Basically they are saying, "Look out, we are still here and we are still the masters of darkness. Any of you whippersnappers forget that and we will have your headquarters surrounded by a thousand sheep following our GPS to their slaughter."

I have taken the hint and re-labelled my PC as an IBM-compatible to pay homage to the master.

Re:Mindboggling

[KahabutDieDrake]

These devices aren't going to be sold to consumers as if they were in any way different than the GPS unit that doesn't calculate routes based on advertising income. In fact, if we are all very very lucky, Garmin and TomTom won't buy into this, and it'll only be in phones and built in navigation for cars.

Yeah, your phone. Did you think that high end processing device that came to you absolutely LOADED with crap-ware / ad-ware wouldn't JUMP at the chance to implement this sort of thing? Why not? The deal is entirely opaque to the consumer. In the EULA is a tiny section that reads "We might sell your data to other people, especially partners, we might also reroute your trips based on how much our partners (we sold them your info) pay us" You'll never notice, and more importantly neither will anyone else. The rest of the deal happens behind your back between companies, and doesn't take you or your concerns into account at all. If they ever get called on it (hahahahaha), they can say it was to improve service and competition. At which point it all goes under the rug and a retroactive law immunizes the telcos against lawsuits over it. (deja vu?)