US Patent 10013877 Traffic obstruction notification system based on wireless vehicle data

The disclosure includes implementations for estimating a presence of an obstruction in a roadway using wireless vehicle data. A method may include receiving a Dedicated Short Range Communication (“DSRC”) message that includes path history data describing a path of a first DSRC-equipped vehicle with lane-level accuracy over a plurality of different times while the first DSRC-equipped vehicle is traveling on a roadway. The method may include determining a presence of an obstruction in a specific lane of the roadway based on the path history data. The obstruction may be indicated by the path history data because the path history data indicates that the obstruction affected the path of the first DSRC-equipped vehicle while traveling in the specific lane of the roadway. The method may include providing a recommendation to a driver of a second DSRC-equipped vehicle. The recommendation may describe the presence of the obstruction in the specific lane.