Computerized dispatching system

Claim 1

An automatic dispatching system for a fleet of independently driver-operated vehicles serving a predetermined area with a multiplicity of potential stops for said vehicles at fixed locations, comprising: centralized computer means; station equipment at each of said locations linked by a telecommunication channel with said computer means, said equipment including a destination selector operable by prospective passengers; and information means aboard each vehicle in communication with said computer means, said information means including a register for the entry of stop identifications representing the destinations of passengers boarding the vehicle and station-indicating means for giving routing instructions to the driver of the vehicle, said computer means including logical circuitry and decision stages of a general-purpose computer programmed to evaluate data from the destination selectors at all said locations and from the registers aboard all said vehicles for operating said station-indicating means to route each vehicle to stops requiring service, while skipping stops not entered in the register thereof unless the destination selector at such stop is operated to report a prospective passenger, by the steps of (a) determining whether any passenger aboard a given vehicle has the next stop as a destination, (b) determining whether passengers are waiting at said next stop with destinations along the route traveled by said given vehicle, (c) determining, upon a positive determination in step (b), whether said next stop is being served by another vehicle traveling the same route and having available space for said waiting passengers, (d) upon a negative determination in step (a), and either a negative determination in step (b) or a positive determination in step (c), instructing the driver of said given vehicle to bypass said next stop.