SE544728C2

SE544728C2 - Method and control arrangement for estimating relevance of location-based information of another vehicle

Info

Publication number: SE544728C2
Application number: SE2150181A
Authority: SE
Inventors: Linus Pettersson; Rebecca Isaksson
Original assignee: Scania Cv Ab
Priority date: 2021-02-19
Filing date: 2021-02-19
Publication date: 2022-10-25
Also published as: SE2150181A1; WO2022177495A1

Abstract

A first method (500) and control arrangement (400a, 130) for providing location-based information of a first vehicle (100a), and a second method (600) and control arrangement (400b) of a second vehicle (100b) for obtaining and estimating relevance of location-based information of the first vehicle. The first method (500) comprises detecting (503) location-based information, generating (507) a set of position data (140a) of the first vehicle (100a) and transmitting (508) this information. The second method (600) in the second vehicle (100b) comprises receiving (601) location-based information and an associated set of position data (140a) of the first vehicle (100a), generating (602) a set of position data (140b) of the own / second vehicle (100b), comparing (604) the respective sets of position data (140a, 140b) and determining (610) relevance of the received (601) location-based information of the first vehicle (100a), based on the comparison (604).

Description

METHOD AND CONTROL ARRANGEMENT FOR ESTIMATING RELEVANCE OF LOCA- TION-BASED INFORMATION OF ANOTHER VEHICLE TECHNICAL FIELD This document discloses methods and control arrangements. More particularly, a first method and a first control arrangement are described, for providing location-based infor- mation of a first vehicle, to a second vehicle. Also, a second method and a second control arrangement are described, for obtaining and estimating relevance, for the second vehicle of the location-based information of the first vehicle.

BACKGROUND Autonomous and/ or communicationally connected vehicles form part of a rapidly emerging trend. Via wireless communication, information may be communicated between vehicles concerning imminent driving plans and/ or sensor detections of the environment. The latter may be referred to as location-based information.

For example, in case an ahead vehicle is braking, it is often desired to provide this infor- mation to the behind vehicle as early as possible and synchronise braking between the ve- hicles for avoiding an impact of the rear vehicle into the ahead vehicle.

A known approach to enable the above-described solution is to determine and use current geographical position of the respective vehicles, possibly along with map matching in order to determine which other vehicles that are relevant for wireless communication and infor- mation exchange. lt may be assumed that wireless communication between two closely sit- uated vehicles is more relevant than communication between two more distant vehicles.

However, when sharing location-based information between vehicles, there is a need to know if, or to which extent, the own vehicle is affected by location-based information detected and/ or provided by another vehicle. Information concerning brake-activity from a vehicle driving in an opposite direction of the road may for example be irrelevant, also when the distance between the vehicles is quite short.

On the other hand, sensor detections of a vehicle having passed the same road segment in the same direction as the own vehicle may be most relevant, also when being quite far ahead, i.e., having passed the same road segment quite some time ago, for example several hours ago. This may be the case when the location-based information comprises detection of a cavity in the road surface due to thermal stress of the asphalt, for example.

At least some information from a vehicle driving on another, although closely positioned, road than the own vehicle may be completely irrelevant, as well as information from a vehicle driving on a bridge over the road, and/ or in a tunnel under the road, although the vehicles have corresponding or even identical geographical positions. However, some location-based information such as road temperature, icy road surface, sight conditions etc., may however anyway be relevant. lt would be desired to find a methodology to the above-described problems, to distinguish between relevant and non-relevant vehicles to obtain, provide and/ or exchange relevant information with.

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According to a ïi:_»š~:~æzi»aspect of the invention, this objective is achieved by a second method, to be performed in a second vehicle for obtaining and estimating relevance of location-based in- formation of a first vehicle. The method comprises receiving location-based information and an associated set of position data of the first vehicle, wherein the set of position data com- prises a number of past geographical positions of the first vehicle, indicating a passed trai| of the first vehicle. The method also comprises generating a set of position data of the second vehicle, comprising a number of past geographical positions of the second vehicle. Further- more, the method also comprises comparing the received set of position data of the first vehicle with the generated set of position data of the second vehicle. ln addition, the method also comprises determining that the received location-based information of the first vehicle is relevant for the second vehicle when the generated set of position data of the second vehicle and the received set of position data of the first vehicle forms an overlap exceeding a threshold length.

According to a of the invention, this objective is achieved by a first control arrangement of a second vehicle for obtaining and estimating relevance of location-based information of a first vehicle. The control arrangement is configured to receive a set of posi- tion data of the first vehicle, via a wireless communication device, wherein the set of position data comprises a number of past geographical positions of the first vehicle indicating a passed trai| of the first vehicle. The control arrangement is also configured to generate a set of position data of the second vehicle, comprising a number of past geographical positions of the second vehicle determined by and obtained from a positioning unit of the second ve- hicle. ln addition, the control arrangement is configured to compare the received set of posi- tion data of the first vehicle with the generated set of position data of the second vehicle. The control arrangement is furthermore configured to determine that location-based information of the first vehicle is relevant for the second vehicle when the generated set of position data of the second vehicle and the received set of position data of the first vehicle (1 OOb) forms an overlap exceeding a threshold length.

Thanks to the described aspects, it could be determined at a vehicle, which obtained loca- tion-based information of other vehicles that are relevant also for the own vehicle. Less rel- evant/ irrelevant location-based information could be filtered out, thereby disallowing them to disturb attendance to the location-based information considered relevant. The disclosed algorithm is robust and functions in various traffic environments, yet requiring few computa- tional resources, why it may be implemented also on a vehicle with limited computational _. _ . .Tçwmaw¿~za:z.\.\_. _.ï._.\\~,.\.\=. , tas, ,. Wš. “Mwä-.txst « 'W :__ . .w NaN-aa; _-»-~ï.-\-«=.^ w, 'e « .g- .- _ .. . . a .\\x:~\-§\.:» \ VN . .Nasa .N f. u: _ se... _. .N “A . ._ ._ . _ \c.,\\.\. . . _. _ . .a \\\.. _ . t.. t. A resources. Integrity issues concerning general identity of the involved vehicles, planned des- tination and/ or driving history except for the provided set of position data/ position tail are not revealed. Thus, increased traffic safety is achieved, without requiring large resources, being dependent on vehicle external equipment and/ or compromising vehicle integrity.

Other advantages and additional novel features will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description.

FIGURES Embodiments of the invention will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying figures, in which: Figure 1A illustrates an example of two vehicles driving on a road segment, as regarded from a side view.

Figure 1B illustrates an example of two vehicles driving on a road segment, as regarded from a top view.

Figure 1C illustrates an example of two vehicles driving on a road segment, as regarded from a top view.

Figure 1D illustrates an example of two vehicles driving on a road segment, as regarded from a top view.

Figure 2 illustrates an example of vehicles driving in different driving directions on a road segment, as regarded from a top view.

Figure 3A illustrates an example of vehicles driving in different driving directions at a road intersection.

Figure 3B illustrates an example of vehicles driving in the same driving direction at a road intersection.

Figure 4A illustrates an example of an animal appearing ahead of a vehicle.

Figure 4B illustrates an example of an ahead vehicle, as regarded from within a following vehicle.

Figure 4C illustrates an example of a vehicle approaching a road intersection as re- garded from within an approaching vehicle, according to an embodiment. Figures 5A-B is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a first method.

Figures 6A-B is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a first method.

Figure 7 is an illustration depicting a system according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Embodiments of the invention described herein are defined as methods and control arrange- ments, which may be put into practice in the embodiments described below. These embod- iments may, however, be exemplified and realised in many different forms and are not to be limited to the examples set forth herein; rather, these illustrative examples of embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete.

Still other objects and features may become apparent from the following detailed description, considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. lt is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the herein disclosed embodiments, for which reference is to be made to the appended claims. Further, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and, unless oth- en/vise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and pro- cedures described herein.

Figure 1A illustrates a scenario with a first vehicle 100a driving in a driving direction 105 on a road 110, ahead of a second vehicle 100b, driving in the same driving direction 105, as regarded from a side view.

The vehicles 100a, 100b may be of the same or different kinds, and comprise a means for transportation in broad sense such as e.g., a truck, a car, a motorcycle, a trailer, a bus, a bike, or other similar manned or unmanned means of conveyance. The vehicles 100a, 100b, or any one of them may be completely or to some extent autonomous. ln other embodiments, the vehicles 100a, 100b or any one of them may have an active driver present.

The vehicles 100a, 100b may comprise a respective wireless communication device 120a, 120b for wireless communication of various information, for example location-based infor- mation, with each other; either directly with each other via a peer-to-peer communication model, or via an intermediate communication network 130, 135. Information sent by the first vehicle 100a may be received by the intermediate communication network 130, 135 and be stored in a vehicle external database 131 in some embodiments. The intermediate commu- nication network 130, 135 may at a later point extract the received information of the first vehicle 100a from the database 131 and retransmit it, to be received by the wireless com- munication device 120b of the second vehicle 100b, in some embodiments.

Communication between the respective wireless communication devices 120a, 120b of the vehicles 100a, 100b may be made over a wireless communication interface, such as e.g. Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication, or Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2|) communication. The common term Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) is sometimes used. The communication may be made using e.g., Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) devices. DSFIC works in 5.9 GHz band with bandwidth of 75 I\/|Hz and approximate range of 1000 m in some em- bodiments.

The wireless communication may be made according to any IEEE standard for wireless ve- hicular communication like e.g., a special mode of operation of IEEE 802.11 for vehicu|ar networks called Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE). IEEE 802.11p is an extension to 802.11 Wireless LAN medium access layer (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) specification.

Such wireless communication interface may comprise, or be at least somewhat inspired by wireless communication technology such as Wi-Fi, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Ultra Mobile Broadband (Ul\/IB), Bluetooth (BT), Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID), etc.

The communication may alternatively be made over a wireless interface comprising, or at least being inspired by radio access technologies such as e.g., 3GPP LTE, UMTS, GSM networks, or similar, just to mention some few options, via the wireless communication net- work 130, The second vehicle 100b may want to receive location-based information from the first vehi- cle 100a, such as for example hazard light active, harsh brake and/ or detection of slippery/ icy road, obstacles and/ or potholes in the road 110, animals appearing on the road 110, road work, vehicle accident, etc. ln some embodiments, the disclosed method may be applied with different levels having different time of relevance using different categories of location-based information. For ex- ample, location-based information of the first vehicle 100a comprising a harsh brake is very relevant for the vehicle 100b right behind but is irrelevant for a vehicle passing the same spot in the same driving direction 105 an hour later. Location-based information of the first vehicle 100a comprising, for example, detected ice on the road segment 110 may be relevant sev- eral hours later, for any other passing vehicles.

Figure 1B illustrates the scenario of Figure 1A as regarded from above.

The vehicles 100a, 100b are generating a respective set of position data, or position tail, 140a, 140b during the transportation. The set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a comprises a number of past geographical positions of the first vehicle 100a while the set of position data 140b of the second vehicle 100b comprises a number of past positions of the second vehicle 100b indicating a passed trai| of the second vehicle 100b. The set of position data 140a, 140b could also be referred to as a “geo tail", and could be illustrated or imagined as a longer or shorter tail following the vehicle 100a, 100b as it moves fon/vard.

The geographical positions of the respective sets of position data 140a, 140b, may be deter- mined by a respective on-board positioning device. For example, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) position, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) position of the respec- tive vehicles 100a, 100b may be determined repeatedly by an onboard navigator at a prede- termined or configurable time interval and stored in a memory. The set of position data 140a, 140b may then be composed by extracting a number of the latest sampled vehicle positions, for example the 10 latest or the 100 latest vehicle positions (or some other predetermined or configurable number of latest vehicle positions) from the memory.

Each position comprised in the set of position data 140a, 140b may comprise an absolute geographical position of an infinitely small geographical point determined by the onboard navigator, or the determined geographical position with an added margin around the deter- mined geographical point in different embodiments. The added margin around the deter- mined geographical point may be circular, rectangular, ellipsoid, etc. The position of the set of position data 140a, 140b may comprise an approximate vehicle width, a road file, a road width, several road files etc., in different embodiments.

After having received location-based information and an associated set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a, a comparison is made between the set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a and the set of position data 140b of the second/ own vehicle 100b. ln the illustrated example, an overlap 150 between the set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a and the set of position data 140b of the second/ own vehicle 100b is detected. ln case the overlap 150 exceeds a threshold length 160, it may be determined that location-based information of the first vehicle 100a is relevant for the second/ own vehicle 100b, at least for some categories of location-based information.

An advantage with using only a narrow width of positions comprised in the sets of position data 140a, 140b, for example the width of the vehicle 100a, 100b, or the width of the driving lane is that a location-based information of a vehicle driving in another, parallel driving lane is not considered relevant for the own vehicle 100b. However, an advantage with using a wider width of positions comprised in the sets of position data 140a, 140b, for example the width of a plurality of driving lanes in the same direction, all driving lanes in the same direction of the road 110, or all driving lanes of the road 110 independently of driving direction is that location-based information of another overtaking vehicle 100a which has been swapping driving lanes still may be considered relevant, although the vehicles 100a, 100b have been driving in different driving lanes.

By making the comparison of the sets of position data 140a, 140b during transportation, the therewith associated location-based information may be thrown without being additionally analysed when the sets of position data 140a, 140b do not match, i.e., when the set of posi- tion data 140a of the first vehicle 100a does not form an overlap 150 exceeding the threshold length 160, with the set of position data 140b of the second/ own vehicle 100b. ln the opposite case, when the sets of position data 140a, 140b match, the obtained location- based information associated with the set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a, it could be concluded that the second/ own vehicle 100b is driving on the same road segment 110 as the first vehicle 100a and that location-based information of the first vehicle 100a is relevant also for the second/ own vehicle 100b, as it probably drives behind the first vehicle 100a.

Hereby, time is saved in a time-critical traffic situation. Risks of adapting to location-based information emitted by irrelevant other vehicles, not driving on the same road segment 110 or driving behind the own vehicle 100b for example is eliminated, or at least reduced, which adds to traffic safety.

Also, or alternatively, location-based information such as for example sensor detections of the first vehicle 100a may be relevant for the second vehicle 100b several hours later. Direct communication between the vehicle transceivers 120a, 120b may then not be possible. How- ever, the communication network 130, 135 may receive the transmitted location-based infor- mation either associated with positions of the first vehicle 100a, or the set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a. The communication network 130, 135 may store this infor- mation in the vehicle external database 131 and repeatedly transmit the location-based in- formation associated with the set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a. This latter approach may be applied for location-based information estimated to have a permanency exceeding some few seconds such as for example detected icy/ slippery road, detected cav- ities in the road surface, obstacles in the driving lane, etc., especially for road sections 110 that are not so frequentiy used.

The second vehicle 100b may then adapt the driving upon arriva| to the road section 110 in question, for example by reducing vehicle speed while avoid harsh braking in case of a slip- pery road scenario. Again, traffic safety is enhanced.

Figure 1C illustrates the scenario of Figure 1A as regarded from above. The scenario is similar to the scenario illustrated in Figure 1B but wherein the comparison between the re- spective sets of position data 140a, 140b is made within a comparison window The shape (rectangular, circular, parallelepipedal, etc.) and/ or dimensions (length, width, area, etc.) of the comparison window 170 may be set to a predetermined or configurable shape and/ or dimension. However, the shape of the comparison window 170 may be re- garded as rectangular as illustrated in figure 1C, thereby reflecting the approximate shape of the vehicle 100a, 100b. ln some embodiments, the placement of the comparison window 170 may be set, for exam- ple in relation to a point P of the second vehicle 100b. The placement of the comparison window 170 may be set in longitudinal and/ or lateral position, in relation to the driving direc- tion 105 of the second vehicle 100b, for example to determine a distance 180 between the point P of the second vehicle 100b and a reference point on or associated with the compar- ison window By adjusting shape, dimensions and/ or placement of the comparison window 170 in relation to the reference point P of the second vehicle 100b, the overlap 150 and the comparison with the threshold length 160 may be further restricted or conditioned, for example depending on environmental traffic conditions, road infrastructure and/ or possibly information categori- sation.

Figure 1D illustrates a scenario identical with the situation in Figure 1C, but wherein the comparison window 170 has been displaced in the driving direction 105 of the vehicles 100a, 100b, i.e., been displaced partly in front of the second vehicle 100b in relation to the refer- ence point P with a distance As the second vehicle 100b never will generate any positions in the set of position data 140b in front of the vehicle 100b, against the driving direction 105, a dispiacement of the compar- ison window 170 fon/vard in the driving direction 105 of the second vehicle 100b will have the same effect as shortening the lengthwise extension of the comparison window 170 in the driving direction 105, or to at least temporarily inhibit any comparisons between the set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a and the set of position data 140b of the second vehicle 100b. ln some embodiments, the comparison between the set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a and the set of position data 140b of the second vehicle 100b may only be made in the comparison window 170. By modifying the dispiacement 180 of the comparison win- dow 170, and/ or shortening lengthwise extension of the comparison window 170, overlap 150 outside the comparison window 170 may be disregarded.

An advantage therewith is that at least some of the situations that may occur in a crossing, as illustrated and further discussed in Figure 3A and 3B respectively, may be handled; i.e., it may be avoided to react to location-based information emitted by another vehicle in a crossing driving direction. Also, location-based information emitted by another vehicle, turn- ing into the same driving direction 105 as the second vehicle 100b in the crossing, but coming from another driving direction may be considered relevant, possibly together with a (tem- poral) shortening of the threshold length Figure 2 illustrates a highway with two driving lanes in each direction 105a, 105b in a right- hand traffic scenario.

The own vehicle 100b is situated in very close distance from a number of other vehicles 100a, 100c, 100d, 100e, yet all location-based information provided by them is not equally relevant. By obtaining information concerning the respective set of position data, or position tail, 140a, 140c. 140d, 140e of the other vehicles 100a, 100c, 100d, 100e, comparing them with the set of position data 140b of the own vehicle 100b and locate an overlap 150, it may be determined that location-based information provided by the first vehicle 100a in front of the own vehicle 100b is relevant (or most relevant), without requirements of additional esti- mations of the location-based information per se. This may be applied for any category and/ or permanency of the location-based information.

However, location-based information in the context of the currently disclosed solutions may have a variety of permanency and extension in the room.The location-based information may be categorised, in some embodiments, based on differ- ent permanency and/ or extension in the room, i.e., being of different level importance for vehicles on different distances in different driving directions.

The categories of the location-based information may for example be A: time-critical vehicle- related information (braking, turning, changing driving lanes, having spinning wheels, de- tected sensor or vehicle error, etc.). This category A of information is relevant for a following vehicle 100d of the own vehicle 100b, sharing the overlap 150, but not other vehicles 100a, 100c,100e.

Another category may be B: trail specific information which is long term valid or at least not very short time valid (holes in/ obstacles on the road 110; road work; vehicle accidents; and similar detected features). Category B information may be relevant for following vehicles on the same track, i.e., sharing the overlap 150 but with an extended life-time of the information before it becomes obsolete. ln these cases, the communication network 130, 135 may re- ceive wireless signalling comprising the location-based information, associated with either the set of position data 140b of the vehicle 100b, or passed positions of the vehicle 100b, possibly also with a time reference. This information may be stored in the road-side database 131 and later retransmitted, repeatedly, to be received by another vehicle 100d passing on the road 110 considerably later, for example 10 minutes later, an hour later, a day later, etc.

Yet a category may be C: location-based information which is not trail specific but may be relevant also for other vehicles 100b, 100c, 100d, 100e passing the road segment 110, also in a meeting driving direction; such as for example sight conditions (fog; heavy rain/ snow which affect sight but also sensor detections), temperature, detected wild animals on the road 110 (the animals when scared may quickly move in an unpredictable way into another driving path), etc.

Also this information of the C category may be stored in the road side database 131 and later repeatedly retransmitted, to be received by other vehicles 100a, 100c, 100d, 100e passing on the road 110 considerably later, for example 10 minutes later, an hour later, a day later, etc; for the time period that the location-based information may be regarded as relevant.

An advantage is that time and computational capacity is saved, as non-relevant/ less relevant information could be filtered out, enabling early and fast processing of the relevant infor- mation.The herein discussed solution comprising comparison between sets of position data 140a, 140b, 140c, 140d, 140e is primarily intended for application in a highway scenario. The ve- hicles 100a, 100b, 100c, 100d, 100e typically are driving straight ahead without turns and there are relatively few, if any, crossings. There is typically little interaction with unreliable/ unpredictable traffic users, such as children or other pedestrians (who may suffer from im- paired perception and/ or cognitive disability/ stress, and/ or have reduced environmental perception due to weather conditions, etc.) crossing the road 110, bicyclists who may not necessarily always follow commonly accepted traffic rules, animals, etc.

When the vehicles 100a, 100b, 100c, 100d, 100e instead are driving for example in a city environment, the vehicles 100a, 100b, 100c, 100d, 100e will pass crossings continuously and it will also be more likely to turn in crossings; or the ahead vehicle may turn in the cross- ing. Some embodiments in which the provided solution may be applied are illustrated in Fig- ures 3A and 3B.

Figure 3A illustrates a scenario wherein a vehicle 100a is passing a road crossing, in which another vehicle 100c just has passed in a crossing driving direction 105c, approximately perpendicular to, or at least deviating from, the driving direction 105a of the first vehicle 100a.

Although the respective sets of positions 140a, 140c will cross each other and thereby form an overlap 150, the location-based information of the crossing vehicle 100c most likely is irrelevant for the own vehicle 100a.

By obtaining the set of position data, or position tail 140c of the other vehicle 100c and com- pare it with the set of position data 140a of the own vehicle 100a, the overlap 150 may be detected. By determining that the overlap 150 is smaller than a threshold limit 160, it may be concluded that location-based information of the other vehicle 100c is irrelevant for the own vehicle 100a. lt is thereby avoided that the own vehicle 100a reacts to emitted location-based information such as a hard braking of the other vehicle 100c driving in the crossing direction 105c.

Figure 3B illustrates a crossing similar to or even identical with the already discussed cross- ing illustrated in Figure 3A. However, in the illustrated scenario, the first vehicle 100a has been turning into the road segment 110 and turned into the same driving direction 105a, 105b of the own vehicle 100b, in front of the own vehicle 100b.Thus, the location-based information detected by or relevant for the first vehicle 100a, after the turn, becomes relevant for the second vehicle 100b. lt may then, as the turning vehicle 100a will not have any overlap 150 of the position data 140a with the second vehicle 100b, to require only a short overlap 150, i.e., reducing the threshold limit 160, within or right after the crossing in some embodiments.

Thus, returning to the illustration in Figure 3A; when situated right in the crossing, for avoiding the vehicle 100a to consider location-based information of the vehicle 100c passing the crossing in another driving direction 105c than the own driving direction 105a, longer seg- ments of the respective sets of position data 140a, 140c may be compared; and/ or the threshold length 160 required for the overlap 150 may be extended (in comparison with a normality or straight-ahead road value). lt is thereby avoided that location-based information of a crossing or passing vehicle 100c is considered relevant for the own vehicle 100a.

On the other hand, it is desired to attend to location-based information of a turning vehicle 100a, turning into the same driving direction 105a, 105b in front of the own vehicle 100b. This may be achieved by, right after having passed the crossing, generate/ compare shorter segments of the respective sets of position data 140a, 140c; and/ or the threshold length 160 required for the overlap 150 may be reduced (in comparison with a normality or straight- ahead road value).

Figure 4A illustrates an example of how the previously scenario in Figures 1A-1 D, and/ or possibly Figure 2 may be perceived by a driver (if any) of the first vehicle 100a.

The first vehicle 100a comprises a control unit 400a, configured for assisting the (driver of the) vehicle 100a in obtaining relevant location-based information from various onboard and/ or road-side sensors 460a. ln the illustrated arbitrary example, the sensor 460a may detect an animal 405 appearing on the road segment 110 right ahead of the first vehicle 100a.

The sensor 460a (one or several) may be of the same or different types such as for example a camera, an infrared camera, a video sensor, a lidar, a radar, an ultrasonic sensor, a mi- crowave sensor, etc., for the purpose of detecting an object or anomaly of the road segment 110, which may be referred to as location-based information.

The sensor 460a may also, or alternatively comprise for example an accelerometer, a speed-ometer, wheel speed sensors, and/ or similar sensor 460a for detecting location-based in- formation related to the vehicle 100a.

The sensor 460a may also, or alternatively comprise for example a temperature sensor, a visibility sensor (visibility and/ or sensor capacity of at least some types of sensors may be reduced due to fog, darkness, rain, sandstorm, blizzard, etc.), thereby detecting location- based information in form of environmental impact at the road segment The sensor 460a may also in some embodiments wherein the vehicle 100a has a human driver, be configured to detect a discrepancy or irregularity in driver behaviour, which may be dangerous for environmental traffic users, such as for example an alcometer, a camera detecting that the driver's eyes are open and directed at the windscreen, a sensor detecting that the driver has not stopped the vehicle 100a and paused for at least 15 minutes during the latest 2 hours (arbitrary time periods mentioned merely as examples). Hereby, location- based information related to and/ or caused by the driver of the vehicle 100a may be detected and other vehicles/ road users may be alerted.

The geographical position of the first vehicle 100a may be determined by a positioning unit 420a in the vehicle 100a, which may be based on, or using, a satellite navigation system (GNSS) such as the Navigation Signal Timing and Flanging (Navstar) Global Positioning System (GPS), Differential GPS (DGPS), Galileo, GLONASS, or the like.

The geographical position of the positioning unit 420a, (and thereby also of the vehicle 100a) may be made continuously with a certain predetermined or configurable time intervals ac- cording to various embodiments.

Positioning by satellite navigation is using distance measurement using triangulation from a number of satellites 430a, 430b, 430c, 430d with known positions. Wireless signals are transmitted by the respective satellites 430a, 430b, 430c, 430d to be received by the appro- priately adapted positioning unit 420a comprised in the vehicle 100a.

Distance measurement can according to some embodiments comprise measuring the differ- ence in the time it takes for each respective satellite signal transmitted by the respective satellites 430a, 430b, 430c, 430d to reach the positioning unit 420. As the radio signals travel at the speed of light, the distance to the respective satellite 430a, 430b, 430c, 430d may be computed by measuring the signal propagation time.

Thereby the geographical position, i.e., latitude and longitude, of the first vehicle 100a may be calculated by determining the distance to at least three satellites 430a, 430b, 430c, 430d through triangulation.

However, the position of the first vehicle 100a may alternatively, or additionally be deter- mined e.g. by having transponders positioned at known positions around the road 110 and a dedicated sensor in the vehicle 100a, for recognising the transponders and thereby deter- mining the position; by detecting and recognising WiFi networks (WiFi net\Norks along the route may be mapped with certain respective geographical positions in a database); by re- ceiving a Bluetooth beaconing signal from a road side wireless beacon having a known ge- ographical position, or other signal signatures of wireless signals such as e.g. by triangulation of signals emitted by a plurality of fixed base stations with known geographical positions.

Having determined the geographical position of the positioning unit 420a, it may be stored in a database 450a in the vehicle 100a, or possibly a database 131 outside the vehicle 100a. The geographical position may be stored associated with a time related reference such as a generation time, in some embodiments.

When the location-based information related to the road segment 110 related to the vehicle 100a is detected by the sensor 460a, or possibly in another manner, the control unit 400a in the vehicle 100a, or possibly a vehicle external control unit 130, may extract the stored geo- graphical positions of the first vehicle 100a and compose a set of position data 140a com- prising a number of the geographical positions. This set of position data 140a may then be associated with the location-based information, in this case information concerning the de- tected animal 405, and transmitted. ln some embodiments, information concerning various environmental potential impact as detected by the sensor 460a may be output on a display 41 Oa.

The information related to the location-based information may optionally be output to the driver, e.g., by a text message on the display 41 Oa in the driver area in the vehicle 100a, an acoustic message from a loudspeaker in the driver area of the vehicle 100a, a haptic signal or tactile feedback in the steering wheel, driver seat or similar.

Figure 4B illustrates an example of how the previously scenario in Figure 4A may be re- garded from a second vehicle 100b driving behind the first vehicle 100a in the same driving directionThe second vehicle 100b may comprise corresponding, similar or even identical equipment as the first vehicle 100a, such as for example a control unit 400b, a database 450b, a sensor 460b, a transceiver 120b, a positioning unit 420b, a map database 440b and/ or a display 410b, which equipment may function in the manner already discussed in relation to the first vehicle 100a in the segment of the disclosure related to Figure 4A.

The animal 405 appearing on the road segment 110 in front of the first vehicle 100a may be obscured for the own vehicle sensor 460b by the first vehicle 100a itself, which may cause a dangerous situation or incident.

The transceiver 120b of the second vehicle 100b may receive the location-based information and an associated set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a, indicating a passed trail of the first vehicle 100a. The control unit 400b may then generate a set of position data 140b of the own, second vehicle 100b, comprising a number of past geographical positions of the second vehicle 100b.

These respective sets of position data 140a, 140b may then be compared. ln case an overlap 150 (exceeding a threshold length 160) between the sets of position data 140a, 140b is detected by the control unit 400b, the location-based information of the first vehicle 100a may be considered relevant for the second vehicle 100b. Otherwise, the location-based in- formation of the first vehicle 100a may be disregarded, as it probably is irrelevant for the second vehicle 100b.

Figure 4C illustrates an example of a first vehicle 100a approaching an intersecting bridge 470 crossing the road 110 on which the first vehicle 100a is driving. The scenario of Figure 4C may for example illustrate the scenario of Figure 3A, as regarded from within the own vehicle 100a. ln case another vehicle is passing the bridge 470 while the first vehicle 100a is passing under the bridge 470, the vehicles may be situated on the same (or at least similar/ very close) geographical position/s; yet, location-based information of the other vehicle passing the bridge 470 may be rather irrelevant. By detecting the road infrastructure 470 at or around the own vehicle 100a that may cause this situation, such as a bridge, a crossroad, a tunnel, a road junction, a roundabout, a parking house, etc., settings of required threshold length 160 of the overlap 150, and/ or length and/ or placement of the comparison window 170 may be temporarily changed while passing the road infrastructureThe required threshold length 160 of the overlap 150 may be set, at least temporarily into an intersection value while passing the road infrastructure 470, which may be longer than a default normal or straight way value, for example twice as long. ln case the normal required threshold length 160 of the overlap 150 is set to 50 meters, a default intersection value while passing the road infrastructure 470 may be set to 100 meters.

The risk of estimating emitted location-based information of another vehicle 100c driving in the crossing direction 105c on the road infrastructure 470 as relevant is reduced.

Correspondingly, the length of the comparison window 170 may be shortened, at least tem- porarily while passing the road infrastructure 470 in order to reduce the risk of estimating emitted location-based information of another vehicle 100c driving in the crossing direction 105c on the road infrastructure 470 as relevant.

Also, or alternatively in some embodiments, the comparison window 170 may be displaced, at least temporarily while passing the road infrastructure 470, in relation to the own vehicle 100a, in order to reduce the risk of estimating emitted location-based information of another vehicle 100c driving in the crossing direction 105c on the road infrastructure 470 as relevant.

A control arrangement 400a of the first vehicle 100a may determine the position of the inter- secting bridge 470, for example using map data stored in a database 440a in combination with knowledge of the geographical position and driving direction 105 of the vehicle 100a, as determined by the positioning unit 420a for example by the methodology illustrated in Figure 4A and being discussed in the corresponding section of the description.

Also, or alternatively, the intersecting bridge 470 may be detected by a sensor 460a of the first vehicle 100a.

The sensor 460a may be fon/vardly directed in the driving direction 105 of the first vehicle 100a. ln the illustrated embodiment, which is merely an arbitrary example, the fon/vardly di- rected sensor 460a may be situated e.g., at the front section of the vehicle 100a, for example behind the windscreen, as an example.

The sensor 460a may comprise e.g., a camera, a stereo camera, an infrared camera, a video camera, a radar, a lidar, an ultrasound device, a time-of-flight camera, or similar device, indifferent embodiments. The sensor 460a may be dedicated to detecting various road infra- structure 470 at or around the own vehicle 100a, such as intersections, bridges, cross-roads, etc. However, the sensor 460a may also, or alternatively, be used for a variety of other tasks, such as detecting a rear side of an ahead vehicle or an obstacle on the road, for example, as illustrated in Figure 4A.

The sensor 460a comprises, or may be connected, wired or wirelessly for example via the vehicle bus, to the control arrangement 400a, which may be configured for image recogni- tion/ computer vision and object recognition.

Thereby the process of detecting the road infrastructure 470 may be automated. The image understanding can be seen as the disentangling of symbolic information from image data using models constructed with the aid of geometry, physics, statistics, and learning theory.

The image data of the sensor 460a may take many forms, such as e.g., images, video se- quences, views from multiple cameras, or multi-dimensional data from a scanner. ln some embodiments, also other information detected road-side sensors such as camera, thermometer, etc.; or alternatively information received from an external service concerning for example traffic situation, accidents, traffic congestion, road works, temperature, weather forecast, etc., which may influence settings of required threshold length 160 of the overlap 150, and/ or the length and/ or placement of the comparison window Figures 5A and 5B illustrate an example of a first method 500 according to an embodiment. The flow chart in Figures 5A and 5B shows the method 500 for providing location-based information related to and relevant for a first vehicle 100a, to be received by another vehicle 100b. The method 500 may be performed only within the first vehicle 100a in some embod- iments. ln other embodiments, some method steps may be performed within the first vehicle 100a and some other steps performed by a communication network 130, ln order to correctly provide the location-based information, the method 500 may comprise a number of steps 501-508. However, some of these steps 501-508 may be performed in different alternative embodiments manners, for example steps 504-506 may be performed only in some embodiments. Further, the described steps 501-508 may be performed in a somewhat different chronological order than the numbering suggests. The method 500 may comprise the subsequent steps:Step 501 comprises determining geographical position of the first vehicle 100a at a time interval. This method step 501 may be performed repeatedly and continuously during driving.

The geographical position as determined by the positioning unit 420a on-board the own/ first vehicle 100a using satellite-based positioning. The geographical positions of the first vehicle 100a may be sampled at a predetermined or configurable time interval, associated with a time related reference such as a time of generation, enumeration reference (i.e., indirectly time related) or similar.

Hereby, aging of the position data comprised in a set of position data 140a is enabled, al- lowing the respective individual position markings of the set of position data 140a to vanish after a passed time period which may be predetermined or configurable, for example 15 seconds, 2 minutes, 5 hours, etc., or a time period in-between. Alternatively, individual posi- tion markings of the set of position data 140a may be set to vanish after for example 10 sequent enumerated individual position markings of the set of position data 140a have been output. The enumeration of the individual position markings thereby forms an indirect time related reference, also allowing for aging and automatic deletion after a predetermined or configurable time-period.

Step 501 may be performed within the first vehicle 100a, for example by the navigator 420a and/ or the control unit 400a.

Step 502 comprises storing the determined 501 geographical position in a memory 450a, 131. Also this step 502 may be performed repeatedly and continuously during driving.

Step 502 may be performed within the first vehicle 100a, for example by the control arrange- ment 400a and the memory 450a in some embodiments. ln other embodiments, the trans- ceiver 120a of the first vehicle 100a may transmit the determined 501 geographical position of the first vehicle 100a to be received by the communication network 130, 135 and stored in a vehicle external memory Step 503 comprises detecting location-based information having potential to affect another/ second vehicle 100b.

The location-based information may be detected by a sensor 460a onboard the first vehicle 100a, or possibly external to the first vehicle 100a.

The detected 503 location-based information may be associated with a time related refer- ence, such as the time of detection of the location-based information.

Step 503 may be performed within the first vehicle 100a, for example by the control arrange- ment 400a based on sensor measurements of the onboard sensor/s 460a and/ or other de- vices of the first vehicle 100a. ln other embodiments, step 503 may be performed by the communication network 130, 135, either based on sensor measurements made by the sen- sor/s 460a of the first vehicle 100a, and/ or possibly vehicle external/ road-side sensors de- tecting location-based information of the road segment 110 affecting the first vehicle 100a, such as a vehicle accident involving the first vehicle 100a.

Step 504, which may be performed only in some embodiments, comprises obtaining infor- mation concerning road infrastructure 470 at or about the determined 501 geographical po- sition of the first vehicle 100a.

The information concerning the road infrastructure 470 may be obtained by using map data in combination with positioning of the first vehicle 100a e.g., by a positioning unit 420a. ln- formation concerning the road infrastructure 470 may also, or alternatively be obtained using sensor detections made by an onboard sensor 460a comprising e.g., a camera, a stereo camera, an infrared camera, a video camera, a radar, a lidar, an ultrasound device, a time- of-flight camera, or a combination thereof. ln some embodiments, the road infrastructure 470 at or around of the own/ first vehicle 100a may be determined for example by detecting short-distance wireless signals (for example Bluetooth) emitted by a road-side beacon situated in relative vicinity of the road infrastructure 470. The wireless signals may be detected by a wireless communication device 120a onboard the own/ first vehicle 100a.

The detection of the road infrastructure 470 may be used for adjusting length of the set of position data 140a to be generated. Typically, the length of the set of position data 140a may be extended for avoiding a false positive overlap.

Step 504 may be performed within the vehicle 100a by the control arrangement 400a of the first vehicle 100a, or alternatively by the communication network 130, 135, based on the obtained position data of the first vehicle 100a in comparison with map data; and/ or sensor detections made by the sensor 460a of the vehicle 100a, in different embodiments.Step 505, which may be performed only in some embodiments, comprises estimating a speed of the first vehicle 100a, for example by a speedometer.

The speed may be determined by the on-board speedometer of the first vehicle 100a, or alternatively by, or using positioning made by positioning unit 420a on-board the own/ first vehicle 100a using satellite-based positioning.

The vehicle speed may then be used for adjusting the length of the set of position data 140a to be transmitted. Low or no speed may cause generation of a short length of the set of position data 140a, for avoiding that the receiving vehicle becomes spammed with location- based information of various different vehicles just because they are situated in front of the own vehicle. ln a highway speed driving scenario, the intravehicular distance between vehicles becomes extended (“three seconds rule”) due to the high speed. For this reason, it may be appropriate to extend the length of the set of position data 140a.

Step 505 may be performed within the first vehicle 100a by the control arrangement 400a or alternatively by the communication network 130, 135 in different embodiments.

Step 506, which may be performed only in some embodiments wherein step 504 has been performed, comprises setting a length of the set of position data 140a to be generated based on the obtained 504 information.

The length of the set of position data 140a to be generated may be set 506 to a default intersection value when the obtained 504 information relates to a crossing road 470, an in- tersection, or another road situated within a proximity distance limit from the road 110 on which the first vehicle 100a is driving.

The length of the set of position data 140a to be generated may in some embodiments be set to a default traffic congestion value when the estimated 505 speed of the first vehicle 100a is lower than a threshold speed limit.

Permanency of the detected 503 location-based information is estimated, and wherein the time related reference and/ or the length of the set of position data 140a to be generated may be set based on the estimated permanency.Step 506 may be performed within the vehicle 100a by the control arrangement 400a or alternatively by the communication network 130, 135 in different embodiments.

Step 507 comprises generating a set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a, compris- ing a number of stored 502 geographical positions of the first vehicle 100a, retrieved from the memory 450b, The set of position data 140a may be referred to as a position tail of the first vehicle 100a.

The number of stored 502 geographical positions to be used when generating the set of position data 140a may be predetermined and constant in some embodiments, and/ or adaptable depending on the nature or category of the location-based information and/ or the environmental situation of the road segment The set of position data 140a may comprise passed and current geographical positions of the first vehicle 100a, sampled at a predetermined or configurable time interval by a posi- tioning unit 420a on board the first vehicle 100a using satellite-based positioning. The re- spective geographical positions may comprise for example an absolute geographical posi- tion comprising a latitude/ longitude and/ or possibly altitude determination in some embod- iments; map coordinates projected onto the plane, an earth-centred, earth-fixed (ECEF) Car- tesian coordinates in 3-space; a geocode or other unique identifier of the respective geo- graphical position; or alternatively a relative geographical position (for example: road E4, 1 492 meters south of a starting point in Södertälje, Sweden, in south driving direction).

The geographical positions comprised in the set of position data 140a may be associated with a time related reference. The time related reference may for example comprise a time of generation of the geographical position comprised in the set of position data 140a and/ or a validity time/ time-to-live of the respective positions within the set of position data 140a, and/ or an enumeration reference or similar, which may be regarded as an indirect time related reference. The time-to-live time may be set to a time period before the position is discarded from the set of position data, or not considered valid and/ or before the set of position data is discarded or considered invalid. The time-to-live time may be set to e.g.,seconds in some embodiments (non-limiting example).

By associating a time related reference with the set of position data 140a, aging and auto- mated deletion of the set of position data 140a is enabled.Step 507 may be performed within the first vehicle 100a by the control arrangement 400a or alternatively by the communication network 130, 135 in different embodiments.

Step 508 comprises transmitting the detected 503 location-based information associated with the generated 507 set of position data 140a.

The association between the detected 503 location-based information and the generated 507 set of position data 140a may be made by transmitting them in the same message, by providing them with a same reference number, or similar unique, common identity reference.

The transmission may be made wirelessly by a transceiver 120a of the first vehicle 100a, or alternatively by the communication network 130, 135 in different embodiments.

The transmission enables another/ second vehicle 100b, or a control arrangement 400b therein, to react on the location-based information when considered relevant as estimated based on comparison and overlap detection of the respective sets of position data 140a, 140b.

The reaction time to the location-based information of the other/ second vehicle 100b is thereby decreased, which may reduce risks of an accident. However, the location-based information may alternatively be transmitted concurrently with the information comprising the set of position data 140a.

Figures 6A and 6B illustrate an example of a second method 600 according to an embodi- ment. The flow chart in Figures 6A and 6B shows the method 600 to be performed or used in a second vehicle 100b, by a control arrangement 400b of the second vehicle 100b, for estimating relevance of location-based information of another/ first vehicle 100a. Relevance of any location-based information of the first vehicle 100a may thereby be determined by the second vehicle 100b. The location-based information could thereby be reacted upon imme- diately when received, thus shortening reaction time. ln order to correctly make the estimation of relevance, the method 600 may comprise a num- ber of steps 601-611. However, some of these steps 601-611 may be performed in different alternative embodiments manners, for example step 603 and/ or steps 605-609 may be per- formed only in some embodiments. Further, the described steps 601-611 may be performed in a somewhat different chronological order than the numbering suggests. The method 600 may comprise the subsequent steps:Step 601 comprises receiving location-based information and a therewith associated set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a, wherein the set of position data 140a comprises a number of past geographical positions of the first vehicle 100a, indicating a recently passed trail segment of the first vehicle 100a.

The set of position data 140a may be referred to as a position tail of the other/ first vehicle 100a.

The set of position data 140a may comprise passed and current geographical positions of the other/ first vehicle 100a, sampled at a predetermined or configurable time interval by a positioning device 420a on-board the other/ first vehicle 100a using satellite-based position- ing. The respective geographical positions may comprise for example an absolute geograph- ical position comprising a latitude/ longitude and/ or possibly altitude determination in some embodiments; map coordinates projected onto the plane, an earth-centred, earth-fixed (ECEF) Cartesian coordinates in 3-space; a geocode or other unique identifier of the respec- tive geographical position; or alternatively a relative geographical position (for example: road E4, 1 492 meters south of a starting point in Södertälje, Sweden, in south driving direction).

The geographical positions comprised in the set of position data 140a, and/ or the location- based information may be associated with a (respective) time related reference. The time related reference may for example comprise a time of generation of the geographical position comprised in the set of position data 140a and/ or a validity time/ time-to-live of the respective positions within the set of position data 140a, and/ or an enumeration reference or similar, which may be regarded as an indirect time related reference. The time-to-live time may be set to a time period before the position is discarded from the set of position data, or not considered valid and/ or before the set of position data is discarded or considered invalid. The time-to-live time may be set to e.g., 5 seconds in some embodiments (non-limiting ex- ample).

Step 602 comprises generating a set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b, which set of position data 140b comprises a number of past geographical positions of the own/ second vehicle 100b.

The set of position data 140b may comprise geographical positions of the own vehicle 100b, as determined by the positioning unit 420b on-board the own/ second vehicle 100b using satellite-based positioning. The geographical positions of the set of position data 140b may be sampled at a predetermined or configurable time interval, associated with a time related reference such as a time of generation, enumeration reference or similar.

Step 603, which may be performed only in some embodiments, comprises determining a current moment in time. The time may be determined by the control arrangement 400b based on chronographic measurements.

Step 604 comprises comparing the received 601 set of position data 140a of the other/ first vehicle 100a, with the generated 602 set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b.

The comparison may result in a detection/ confirmation of an overlap 150 between the re- ceived 601 set of position data 140a of the other/ first vehicle 100a and the generated 602 set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b. Alternatively, the comparison may provide the opposite result, i.e., that the received 601 set of position data 140a does not overlap the generated 602 set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b; at least not with an overlap 150 exceeding a threshold length The threshold length 160 may for example be expressed as a number of meters (for example 10 meters; 50 meters etc.); or alternatively a percentage of the length of the own/ second vehicle 100b (for example 50%, 250%, etc.); or alternatively a time period based on speed of the second vehicle 100b.

Step 605, which may be performed only in some embodiments, comprises estimating a speed of the own/ second vehicle 100b.

The speed may be determined by the on-board speedometer of the own/ second vehicle 100b, or alternatively by, or using positioning made by positioning unit 420b on-board the own/ second vehicle 100b using satellite-based positioning.

The vehicle speed may then be used for adjusting any one or all of the length and/ or place- ment of the comparison window 170; and/ or the threshold length 160 of the overlap For example, when the second vehicle 100b is situated in a traffic congestion, the vehicle speed is typically very low or non-existent. By adjusting placement of the comparison window 170 in relation to the own/ second vehicle 100b by placing it far back from the own vehicle 100b in the driving direction 105b, the most relevant vehicles/ location-based informationmay be identified (i.e., primarily the first vehicle 100a situated just in front). The same result may be achieved by reducing the length of the comparison window 170; and/ or the threshold length 160 of the overlap 150, in different embodiments.

Another way of reducing the length of the comparison window 170 may be to truncate the received 601 set of position data 140a of the other vehicle 100a and/ or to truncate the gen- erated 602 set of position data140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b.

Hereby, redundant or excess information may be filtered out, saving processing capacity of the control arrangement 400b.

Step 606, which may be performed only in some embodiments, comprises obtaining infor- mation concerning road infrastructure 470 at or about the geographical position of the own/ second vehicle 100b.

The information concerning the road infrastructure 470 may be obtained by using map data in combination with positioning of the vehicle 100b e.g., by a positioning unit 420b. lnfor- mation concerning the road infrastructure 470 may also, or alternatively be obtained using sensor detections made by an onboard sensor 460b comprising e.g., a camera, a stereo camera, an infrared camera, a video camera, a radar, a lidar, an ultrasound device, a time- of-flight camera, or a combination thereof. ln some embodiments, the road infrastructure 470 ahead of the own/ second vehicle 100b may be determined for example by detecting short-distance wireless signals (for example Bluetooth) emitted by a road-side beacon situated in relative vicinity of the road infrastructure 470. The wireless signals may be detected by a wireless communication device 120b onboard the own/ second vehicle 100b.

Step 607, which may be performed in some embodiments wherein step 606 has been per- formed and wherein the received 601 set of position data 140a of the other/ first vehicle 100a and the generated 602 set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b are com- pared 604 in a comparison window 170, comprises setting a length and/ or placement of the comparison window 170 based on/ using the obtained 606 information.

The placement of the comparison window 170 may be adjusted in relation to a reference part P of the own/ second vehicle 100b, for example longitudinal in the driving direction 105a of the vehicles 100a, 100b.The length of the comparison window 170 may be set to a default intersection value when the obtained 606 information comprises a crossing road 470, an intersection, or another road situated within a proximity distance limit from the road 110 on which the own/ second vehicle 100b is driving. The default intersection value of the comparison window 170 may be shorter, such as for example half as long, as the default normal value, and may be set temporarily while passing a central segment of the crossing road lmmediately after having passed the crossing road 470, the length of the comparison window 170 may be set to a default post intersection value when the second vehicle 100b just has passed the crossing road 470. The default post intersection value may be identical with the default normal value, or somewhat longer, for example twice as long. ln a non-limiting, arbitrary example, the default normal value may be set to 30 meters and the default intersection value may be set to 15 meters. The default post intersection value may be set to 30 meters, or for example 45 meters. ln other embodiments, the default inter- section value may be set to 0 meters. The influence of the second method 600 due to an incorrect matching of sets of position data 140a, 140b while passing the intersection 470 is thereby eliminated or at least reduced, at least temporarily during the passage. lt is thereby avoided that location-based information of another vehicle 100c driving on a crossroad, on a bridge, on another road close to the own road 110, etc., in another driving direction 105c than the driving direction 105a of the own/ second vehicle 100b is considered relevant, also when the geographical distance between the vehicles 100b, 100c is very low or when they are situated on the same geographical position (at different altitudes/ levels). ln some embodiments, the length and/ or placement of the comparison window 170 may be set to a default traffic congestion value when the estimated 605 speed of the own/ second vehicle 100b is lower than a threshold speed limit.

The threshold speed limit may be set to for example 10 km/h (non-limiting example). The default traffic congestion value of the length of the comparison window 170 may then be set to a subset (such as e.g., 50%) of the default normal value of the length of the comparison window 170. ln case the default normal value is set to 30 meters, the default traffic conges- tion value may be set to 15 meters (non-limiting arbitrary example).

By using the vehicle speed for adjusting any, some or all of the above parameters, i.e., thelength and/ or placement of the comparison window 170, the second method 600 is adjusted to the environmental traffic situation. For example; in case of a traffic congestion, the vehicle speed will be very low (or even zero) and there may be an excessive number of other vehi- cles 100a ahead of the own/ second vehicle 100b, for which localisation-based information may not be very relevant. lt may rather be desired to obtain the position-based information of the closest vehicle ahead, which may be made by reducing length of the comparison win- dow ln the opposite case, when driving at high speed (i.e., at highway speed), the intravehicular distance may be extended, and it may be appropriate to also extend any/ some/ all of the discussed parameters to enable inclusion of the closest other vehicle 100a ahead into the category of location-based information providers to follow. When driving at high speed, for example 90-120 km/h, the required braking distance is longer than when driving at low speed, such as below 30 km/h. Also, difference in brake capacity due to differences in tyre quality, brake configurations, vehicle type, vehicle weight, etc., will influence the braking co- ordination more at high speed than at low speed. For these reasons, it may be appropriate to also extend the intravehicular distance and the length of the received 601 set of position data 140a of the other/ first vehicle 100a and/ or the length of the generated 602 set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b. Also, the length and/ or placement of the comparison window 170 may be adjusted to the high-speed situation by extending the length of the comparison window 170 and/ or place the comparison window 170 for enabling evaluation for an as long segment of the received 601 set of position data 140a of the other/ first vehicle 100a where an overlap 150 with the generated 502 set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b may be expected.

Step 608, which may be performed only in some embodiments wherein any one of step 605 and/ or step 606 has/ have been performed, comprises setting the minimum threshold length 160 of the overlap 150, based on or using the obtained 606 information (in case step 606 has been performed), and/ or based on or using the estimated 605 speed of the own/ second vehicle 100b (in case step 605 has been performed).

The length the threshold length 160 of the overlap 150 may be set to a default intersection value when the obtained 606 information comprises a crossing road 470, an intersection, or another road situated within a proximity distance limit from the road 110 on which the own/ second vehicle 100b is driving.ln a non-limiting, arbitrary example, the default normal value of the threshold length 160 of the overlap 150 may be set to 30 meters and the default crossroad value may be set to 60 meters. lt is thereby avoided that location-based information of another vehicle 100c driving on a crossroad 470, on a bridge, on another road close to the own road 110, etc., is considered relevant.

However, the post crossroad value may be set to the default normal value, i.e., 30 meters; or a shorter value, such as for example 10 meters. lt is thereby avoided that location-based information of another vehicle 100a turning into the same driving direction 105 as the own/ second vehicle 100b in the crossing, is disregarded by the own/ second vehicle 100b. ln some embodiments, the length of the threshold length 160 of the overlap 150 may be set to a default traffic congestion value when the estimated 605 speed of the own/ second vehi- cle 100b is lower than a threshold speed limit. ln a non-limiting, arbitrary example, the default normal value of the threshold length 160 of the overlap 150 may be set to 30 meters and the default traffic congestion value may be set to 10 meters. Non-limiting examples.

By using the vehicle speed for adjusting the minimum threshold length 160 of the required overlap 150, the method 600 is adjusted to the environmental traffic situation. For example; in case of a traffic congestion, the vehicle speed will be very low, such as for example 10km/h (or even 0 km/h) and there may be an excessive number of other/ first vehicles 100a ahead of the own/ second vehicle 100b, for which localisation-based information may not be very relevant (or even completely irrelevant). lt may rather be desired to obtain the position-based information of the closest vehicle ahead, which may be made by reducing length of the threshold length 160 of the overlap Thereby, localisation-based information from fewer number of in-front vehicles is considered relevant. ln some embodiments, only localisation-based information from the closest in-front vehicle 100a is considered relevant, which filters out a lot of irrelevant localisation-based information. ln the opposite case, when driving at high speed (i.e., at highway speed), the intravehicular distance may be extended, and it may be appropriate to also extend any/ some/ all of the discussed parameters to enable inclusion of the closest other vehicle 100a ahead into the category of location-based information providers to follow. ln a non-limiting, arbitrary example, the default normal value of the threshold length 160 of the overlap 150 may be set to 30 meters and the default highway speed threshold length 160 may be set to 90 meters.

Step 609, which may be performed only in some embodiments, comprises extracting a time related reference from the received 601 location-based information and an associated set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a. One respective time related reference may be associated with each, or at least some geographical positions of the received 601 set of position data 140a.

The time related reference may be an absolute or relative time reference, or an enumeration number in different embodiments. Hereby, aging and automatic deletion after a predeter- mined or configurable time period of the received location-based information and/ or set of position data 140a is enabled, allowing the respective individual position markings of the set of position data 140a to vanish after a passed time period which may be predetermined or configurable, for example 15 seconds, 2 minutes, 5 hours, etc., or a time period in-between.

Step 610 comprises determining that location-based information of the other/ first vehicle 100a is relevant when the generated 602 set of position data 140b of the own vehicle 100b and the received 601 set of position data 140a of the other vehicle 100a creates an overlap 150 exceeding the threshold length ln some embodiments wherein step 609 has been performed, the relevance of location- based information of the other/ first vehicle 100a may be determined by a comparison be- tvveen the extracted 609 generation time reference and current time, and/ or enumeration number associated with the position of the set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b.

The location-based information may be categorised to be of different importance level, and/ or be associated with different time-to-live restrictions. For example, time critical location- based information (example: ignited brake lights or detected deflation of a pneumatic tire of the vehicle 100a) may have a short time-to-live (some seconds or a minute, for example),whereafter the location-based information becomes obsolete and vanish. Other location- based information may have a considerably longer time-to-live (some hours, some days or even some weeks, for example). This kind of location-based information may concern de- tected deteriorated road infrastructure, such as ho|es in the road surface, obstacle on the road, etc.

The method 600 may with advantage be applied within the area of connected safety. An ahead other/ first vehicle 100a may turn on hazard lights, make a harsh brake and/ or detect a slippery road for example by detecting unexpected spinning of one/ several wheels and the second vehicle 100b behind may be notified immediately and is thereby enabled to react instantly. Traffic safety is thereby enhanced.

Step 611, which may be performed only in some embodiments, comprises ignoring the re- ceived 601 location-based information emitted by the other/ first vehicle 100a when the over- lap 150 between the generated 602 set of position data 140a of the own/ second vehicle 100b and the received 601 set of position data 140a of the other/ first vehicle 100a is shorter than the threshold length By disregarding location-based information emitted by other vehicles 100c, 100d, 100e which are not very relevant for the own/ second vehicle 100b, as they drive on another road, on a crossroad, in another driving direction etc., computational power is saved which instead could be allocated for processing location-based information obtained from relevant vehicles, thus reducing reaction time to the obtained information.

Figure 7 illustrates an embodiment of a system 700 for estimating relevance, for a second vehicle 100b, of location-based information of another, first vehicle 100a. The system 700 comprises a first control arrangement 400a of the first vehicle 100a. The first control arrange- ment 400a is configured to perform at least some of the method steps 501-508, of the previ- ously described first method 500 for providing location-based information.

The control arrangement 400a is configured to determine geographical position of a first vehicle 100a at a time interval, based on measurements of a positioning unit 420a in the first vehicle 100a. The control arrangement 400a is also configured to store the determined geo- graphical position in a memory 450a. ln addition, the control arrangement 400a is configured to detect location-based information having potential to affect another vehicle 100b via a sensor 460a. Also, the control arrangement 400a is configured to generate a set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a, comprising a number of stored geographical positions ofthe first vehicle 100a, retrieved from the memory 450a. The control arrangement 400a is configured to transmit the detected location-based information associated with the generated set of position data 140a via a wireless communication device 120a.

The system 700 may in some embodiments comprise a vehicle external communication net- work 130, 135 on which various method steps 501-508 of the first method 500 for providing location-based information in conjunction and close cooperation with the control arrange- ment 400a of the first vehicle 100a.

The control arrangement 400a may thereby be configured to determine geographical posi- tion of the first vehicle 100a at the time interval, based on measurements of the positioning unit 420a in the first vehicle 100a. These determined geographical positions of the first vehi- cle 100a may be provided via the wireless communication device 120a to the communication network 130, 135 and be stored in a memory 131 thereof, associated with a reference of the vehicle 100a. The control arrangement 400a of the first vehicle 100a may then detect loca- tion-based information having potential to affect another vehicle 100b, via the sensor 460a. Again, this information may be provided via the wireless communication device 120a to the communication network 130, 135. Upon receiving the information, the communication net- work 130, 135 may be triggered to generate the set of position data 140a of the first vehicle 100a, comprising a number of stored geographical positions of the first vehicle 100a, re- trieved from the memory 131. The location-based information associated with the generated set of position data 140a may then be transmitted via the wireless communication device ln some embodiments, the control arrangement 400a may be configured to obtain infor- mation concerning road infrastructure 470 at or about the determined geographical position of the first vehicle 100a, either from map data or from the sensor 460a. The control arrange- ment 400a may be configured to set a length of the set of position data 140a to be generated based on the obtained information.

Also the control arrangement 400a may be configured to set the set of position data 140a to be generated, to a default intersection value when the obtained information relates to a cross- ing road 470, an intersection, or another road situated within a proximity distance limit from the road 110 on which the first vehicle 100a is driving.

The control arrangement 400a may furthermore be configured to estimate a speed of the first vehicle 100a. Also, the control arrangement 400a may be configured to set, at leasttemporarily the length of the set of position data 140a to be generated to a default traffic congestion value when the estimated speed of the first vehicle 100a is lower than a threshold speed limit.

The control arrangement 400a and/ or the communication network 130, 135 may, in different embodiments also be configured to associate the detected location-based information with a time related reference. ln some embodiments, the control arrangement 400a and/ or the communication network 130, 135 may be configured to estimate permanency of the detected location-based infor- mation. Also, the control arrangement 400a and/ or the communication network 130, 135 may be configured to set the time related reference and/ or the length of the set of position data 140a to be generated, based on the estimated permanency.

The system 700 may also comprise a control arrangement 400a of a second vehicle 100b. The control arrangement 400b is configured to perform at least some of the method steps 601-611, of the previously described second method 600 for obtaining and estimating rele- vance of location-based information of another vehicle 100a.

The control arrangement 400b of the second vehicle 100b is configured to receive location- based information and an associated set of position data 140a of the other/ first vehicle 100a, via a wireless communication device 120b, wherein the set of position data 140a comprises a number of past geographical positions of the other/ first vehicle 100a, indicating a passed trail of the other/ first vehicle 100a. The control arrangement 400b is also configured to gen- erate a set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b, which set of position data 140b comprises a number of past geographical positions of the own/ second vehicle 100b determined by and obtained from a positioning unit 420b of the own/ second vehicle 100b. ln addition, the control arrangement 400b is configured to compare the received set of posi- tion data 140a of the other/ first vehicle 100a with the generated set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b. The control arrangement 400b is also configured to determine that location-based information of the other/ first vehicle 100a is relevant when the generated set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b and the received set of position data 140a of the other/ first vehicle 100a forms an overlap 150 exceeding a threshold length ln some embodiments, the control arrangement 400b may be configured to obtain infor- mation concerning a road infrastructure 470 at or about the own/ second vehicle 100b, forexample via sensor detections of an onboard sensor 460b, and/ or using map data in a database 440b in combination of positioning information determined by a positioning unit 420b. ln some embodiments, the control arrangement 400b may also be configured to set the required minimum threshold length 160 of the overlap 150 between the sets of position data 140a, 140b, based on/ using the obtained information.

The control arrangement 400b may also be configured to compare the received set of posi- tion data 140a of the other vehicle 100a and the generated set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b in a comparison window 170. Also, the control arrangement 400b may be configured to obtain information concerning the road infrastructure 470 at or about the own/ second vehicle 100b and to set a length and/ or placement of the comparison win- dow 170, based on/ using the obtained information.

The control arrangement 400b may also be configured to set the length and/ or placement of the comparison window 170, if any, and/ or the threshold length 160 of the overlap 150 to a default intersection value when the obtained information comprises a crossing road 470, an intersection, or another road situated within a proximity distance limit from the road 110 on which the own vehicle 100b is driving.

The control arrangement 400b may in further addition be configured to estimate speed of the own/ second vehicle 100b for example via a speedometer; and to set the length and/ or placement of the comparison window 170 and/ or the threshold length 160 of the overlap 150 to a default traffic congestion value when the estimated speed of the own/ second vehi- cle 100b is lower than a threshold speed limit.

The control arrangement 400b may in some embodiments be configured to associate the generated set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b with a time related reference such as generation time, time-to-live time period, etc.

Furthermore, the control arrangement 400b may be configured to determine a current mo- ment in time. The control arrangement 400b may also be configured to extract a time related reference from the received set of position data 140a of the other/ first vehicle 100a. The control arrangement 400b may also be configured to determine the relevance of location- based information of the other/ first vehicle 100a using a comparison between the extracted time related reference and the determined current moment in time.

The control arrangement 400b may also be configured to ignore location-based information emitted by/ received from the other/ first vehicle 100a when the overlap 150 between the generated set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b and the received set of position data 140a of the other/ first vehicle 100a is shorter than the threshold length The control arrangement 400b may comprise a receiving circuit 710 configured for receiving wireless and/ or wired signals from the receiver/ transceiver 120b and/ or the positioning device 420b.

The control arrangement 400b may also comprise a processing circuitry 720 configured for performing at least some of the calculating or computing of the control arrangement 400b. Thus, the processing circuitry 720 may be configured for estimating relevance of location- based information of another/ first vehicle 100a.

Such processing circuitry 720 may comprise one or more instances of a processing circuit, i.e. a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a processing unit, a processing circuit, a processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a microprocessor, or other processing logic that may interpret and execute instructions. The herein utilised expression “processing cir- cuitry” may thus represent a processing device comprising a plurality of processing circuits, such as, e.g., any, some or all of the ones enumerated above.

Furthermore, the control arrangement 400b may comprise a memory 725 in some embodi- ments. The optional memory 725 may comprise a physical device utilised to store data or programs, i.e., sequences of instructions, on a temporary or permanent basis. According to some embodiments, the memory 725 may comprise integrated circuits comprising silicon- based transistors. The memory 725 may comprise e.g., a memory card, a flash memory, a USB memory, a hard disc, or another similar volatile or non-volatile storage unit for storing data such as e.g., ROIVI (Read-Only l\/lemory), PROIVI (Programmable Read-Only Memory), EPROIVI (Erasable PROIVI), EEPROIVI (Electrically Erasable PROIVI), etc. in different embod- iments.

Further, the control arrangement 400b may comprise a signal transmitter 730. The signal transmitter 730 may be configured for transmitting a wireless signal comprising determined geographical positions, detected location-based information and/ or a set of position data 140b of the own/ second vehicle 100b, to be received by another vehicle 100a and/ or the communication network 130,The above-described method steps 501-508 to be performed in the control arrangement 400a of the first vehicle 100a and/ or method steps 601-611 to be performed in the control arrangement 400b of the second vehicle 100b may be implemented through the one or more processing circuits 720 within the control arrangement 400a, 400b, together with computer program product for performing at least some of the functions of the respective method steps 501-508, 601-611. Thus, a computer program product, comprising instructions for perform- ing the method steps 501 -508, 601 -611 in the control arrangement 400a, 400b may perform the first method 500, or the second method 600 for providing respectively estimating rele- vance of location-based information of another vehicle 100a.

The computer program product mentioned above may be provided for instance in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing at least some of the method steps 501-508, 601-611 according to some embodiments when being loaded into the one or more processing circuits 720 of the control arrangement 400a, 400b. The data carrier may be, e.g., a hard disk, a CD ROIVI disc, a memory stick, an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device or any other appropriate medium such as a disk or tape that may hold ma- chine readable data in a non-transitory manner. The computer program product may further- more be provided as computer program code on a server and downloaded to the control arrangement 400a, 400b remotely, e.g., over an Internet or an intranet connection.

The terminology used in the description of the embodiments as illustrated in the accompa- nying drawings is not intended to be limiting of the described methods 500, 600; the control arrangements 400a, 400b; the computer program; the system 700 and/ or the vehicles 100a, 100b. Various changes, substitutions and/ or alterations may be made, without departing from invention embodiments as defined by the appended claims.

As used herein, the term “and/ or” comprises any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. The term “or” as used herein, is to be interpreted as a mathematical OR, i.e., as an inclusive disjunction; not as a mathematical exclusive OR (XOR), unless ex- pressly stated othen/vise. ln addition, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are to be inter- preted as “at least one”, thus also possibly comprising a plurality of entities of the same kind, unless expressly stated othen/vise. lt will be further understood that the terms “includes”, “comprises”, “including” and/ or “comprising”, specifies the presence of stated features, ac- tions, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/ or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, actions, integers, steps, operations, ele- ments, components, and/ or groups thereof. A single unit such as e.g., a processor may fulfil the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures arerecited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage. A computer program may be stored/ distributed on a suitable medium, such as an optical storage medium or a solid-state medium supplied together with or as part of other hardware, but may also be distributed in other forms such as via Internet or other wired or wireless communication system.

Claims

1. A method (600) to be performed in a second vehicle (100b) for obtaining and esti- mating relevance of location-based information of a first vehicle (100a), which method (600) comprises: receiving (601) location-based information and an associated set of position data (140a) of the first vehicle (100a), wherein the set of position data (140a) comprises a number of past geographical positions of the first vehicle (100a), indicating a passed trai| of the first vehicle (100a); generating (602) a set of position data (140b) of the second vehicle (100b), com- prising a number of past geographical positions of the second vehicle (100b); comparing (604) the received (601) set of position data (140a) of the first vehicle (100a) with the generated (602) set of position data (140b) of the second vehicle (100b); and determining (610) that the received (601) location-based information of the first ve- hicle (100a) is relevant for the second vehicle (100b) when the generated (602) set of posi- tion data (140b) of the second vehicle (100b) and the received (601) set of position data (140a) of the first vehicle (100a) forms an overlap (150) exceeding a threshold length (160). The method (600) according to claim further comprising: obtaining (606) information concerning road infrastructure (470) at or about the ge- ographical position of the second vehicle (100b); and setting (608) the threshold length (160) of the overlap (150), based on the obtained (606) information. The method (600) according to any one of claim claim wherein the received (601) set of position data (140a) of the first vehicle (100a) and the generated (602) set of position data (140b) of the second vehicle (100b) are compared (604) in a comparison window (170); and the method (600) further comprises: obtaining (606) information concerning road infrastructure (470) at or about the ge- ographical position of the second vehicle (100a); and setting (607) a length and/ or placement of the comparison window (170) based on the obtained (606) information. The method (600) according to any one of claims The method (600) according to any one of claim claim wherein the length and/ or placement of the comparison window (170); and/ or the threshold length (160) of the overlap (150) is set (607, 608) to a default intersection value when the obtained (606) information relates to a crossing road (470), an intersection, or another road situated within a proximity distance limit from the road (110) on which the second vehicle (100b) is driving. further comprising: estimating (605) a speed of the second vehicle (100b); and wherein the length and/ or placement of the comparison window (170); and/ or the threshold length (160) of the over- lap (150) is set (607, 608) to a default traffic congestion value when the estimated (605) speed of the second vehicle (100b) is lower than a threshold speed limit. The method (600) according to any one of claims further comprising: determining (603) a current moment in time; extracting (609) a time related reference from the received (601) location-based information and the associated set of position data (140a) of the first vehicle (100a); and wherein the relevance of location-based information of the first vehicle (100a) is determined (610) using a comparison between the extracted (609) time related reference and the deter- mined (603) current moment in time. The method (600) according to any one of claims further comprising: ignoring (611) the received (601) location-based information of the first vehicle (100a) when the overlap (150) between the generated (602) set of position data (140b) of the second vehicle (100b) and the received (601) set of position data (140a) of the first ve- hicle (100a) is shorter than the threshold length (160). A control arrangement (400b) of a second vehicle (100b) for obtaining and estimat- ing relevance of location-based information of a first vehicle (100a), which control arrange- ment (400b) is configured to: receive location-based information and an associated set of position data (140a) of the first vehicle (100a), via a wireless communication device (120b), wherein the set of po- sition data (140a) comprises a number of past geographical positions of the first vehicle (100a) indicating a passed trail of the first vehicle (100a); generate a set of position data (140b) of the second vehicle (100b), comprising a number of past geographical positions of the second vehicle (100b) determined by and ob- tained from a positioning unit (420b) of the second vehicle (100b); compare the received set of position data (140a) of the first vehicle (100a) with the generated set of position data (140b) of the second vehicle (100b); and determine that location-based information of the first vehicle (100a) is relevant for the second vehicle (100b) when the generated set of position data (140b) of the second vehicle (100b) and the received set of position data (140a) of the first vehicle (100a) forms an overlap (150) exceeding a threshold length (160). The control arrangement (400b) according to claim further configured to: obtain information concerning a road infrastructure (470) at or about the second vehicle (100b), either from map data or from a sensor (460b); and set the threshold length (160) of the overlap (150), based on the obtained infor- mation. \\ * The control arrangement (400b) according to any one of claims configured compare the received set of position data (140a) of the first vehicle (100a) with the generated set of position data (140b) of the second vehicle (100b) in a comparison window (170); obtain information concerning the road infrastructure (470) at or about the second vehicle (100b), either from map data or from the sensor (460b); and set a length and/ or placement of the comparison window (170), based on the ob- tained information. .'\:\ ~ »å >;~:\-:~\“= s. The control arrangement (400b) according to any one of claim claim con-figured to: set the length and/ or placement of the comparison window (1 70); and/ or the thresh- old length (160) of the overlap (150) to a default intersection value when the obtained infor- mation comprises a crossing road (470), an intersection, or another road situated within a proximity distance limit from the road (110) on which the second vehicle (100b) is driving. :âlñš Éi, The control arrangement (400b) according to any one of claims estimate a speed of the second vehicle (100b); and set the length and/ or placement of the comparison window (1 70); and/ or the thresh- old length (160) of the overlap (150) to a default traffic congestion value when the estimated speed of the second vehicle (100b) is lower than a threshold speed limit. The control arrangement (400b) according to any one of claims ured to: determine a current moment in time; extract a time related reference from the received location-based information and the associated set of position data (140a) of the first vehicle (100a); and determine the relevance of the received location-based information of the first vehi- cle (100a) using a comparison between the extracted time related reference and the deter- mined current moment in time. config- The control arrangement (400b) according to any one of claims ured to: ignore the received location-based information of the first vehicle (100a) when the overlap (150) between the generated set of position data (140b) of the second vehicle (1 OOb) and the received set of position data (140a) of the first vehicle (100a) is shorter than the threshold length (160).