US 5,504,482 · Granted 1996-04-02
The 1996 Patent That Put GPS, Crash Detection, and Emergency Alerts in Your Car
Imagine a car that knows exactly where it is using GPS satellites, can figure out the safest route in real time by tracking traffic, and automatically calls for help if you crash. That's what this 1996 patent describes—the digital brain behind modern in-car navigation and safety systems.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a complete integrated system combining GPS positioning, digital street maps, traffic monitoring, and inertial sensors that detect crashes or skids. What's protected here is the specific combination of using these multiple data sources together to provide real-time route guidance, detect unstable driving conditions, and trigger automatic emergency notifications with your exact location—not just one piece, but the whole coordinated package working inside a vehicle.
Why it matters
This patent captures the core architecture of what became standard in modern cars: the convergence of GPS navigation, real-time traffic awareness, stability control, and emergency response systems. Filed in 1993 by Rockwell International, it essentially outlined how autonomous safety features and navigation would work together, paving the way for systems now found in millions of vehicles that reduce accidents, improve emergency response times, and help drivers avoid congestion.
Real-world use
When your car's stability control kicks in on wet pavement or your navigation system reroutes you around a traffic jam, you're benefiting from the core ideas in this patent. If your vehicle has automatic crash detection that alerts emergency services, that's this technology in action.
Original USPTO abstract
An automobile is equipped with an inertial measuring unit, an RF GPS satellite navigation unit and a local area digitized street map system for precise electronic positioning and route guidance between departures and arrivals, is equipped with RF receivers to monitor updated traffic condition information for dynamic rerouting guidance with a resulting reduction in travel time, traffic congestion and pollution emissions, is also equipped with vehicular superceding controls substantially activated during unstable vehicular conditions sensed by the inertial measuring unit to improve the safe operation of the automobile so as to reduce vehicular accidents, and is further equipped with telecommunications through which emergency care providers are automatically notified of the precise location of the automobile in the case of an accident so as to improve the response time of road-side emergency care.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 5,504,482
- Filing date
- 1993-06-11
- Grant date
- 1996-04-02
- Assignee
- Rockwell International Corporation
- Inventor(s)
- SCHREDER; KENNETH D.
- CPC class
- G01C21/3697
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