Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Paige Wong

Jeremy Lerner

Scott Huggins

Jason Joseph Woo

Daniel Sullivan

Taylor Hawley

Xingping Chen

The disclosure generally pertains to systems and methods to predict a vehicle preference of a customer of a rental vehicle agency. An example method to do so involves a computer executing a prediction procedure to obtain and evaluate information associated with a customer. The information can include vehicle ownership history and/or monitoring data obtained from vehicles used by the customer (a personal vehicle, a taxi, and/or a ride share service vehicle, for example). The information may be evaluated by the computer to determine a personal profile of the customer. The personal profile can include items such as physical attributes of the customer, family size, driving characteristics, and/or past vehicle ownership. The personal profile of the customer may then be used by the computer to predict a type of vehicle preferred by the customer and to select, from a vehicle fleet, a vehicle that matches the preferred type of vehicle.

Systems and methods to predict rental vehicle preference of a customer

Example embodiments described in this disclosure are generally directed to using a vehicle to identify a status of a garage door, such as, for identifying whether the garage door is fully closed, fully open, or partially open. The identification may be carried out in response to an inquiry from an individual, such as, a driver of the vehicle that has exited through the garage door. A detection apparatus such as an image capture system or an ultrasonic sensor that can be a part of a vehicle security system may be used for identifying the status of the garage door. The image capture system may capture and store an image of the garage door when the vehicle is exiting the garage. Upon receiving an inquiry from the driver, the garage door status detection system may display the image on a smartphone of the driver or an infotainment system in the vehicle.

Using a vehicle to identify a status of a garage door

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Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America

Paige Wong