TECHNICAL FIELD
The present disclosure relates to autonomous  self-learning technologies and  more particularly  embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods and systems for providing personalized and context-based suggestions to a user. Potential applications of the disclosed subject matter include  for example  providing personalized and context-based suggestions to the user via personal digital companions  such as navigation systems.
BACKGROUND
Many vehicles today include navigation systems that typically employ position data from the Global Positioning System (GPS) to determine a vehicle or user""s location. As an example  commonly known navigation systems combine the ability to locate one’s position  using maps stored on a hard drive or CD-ROM. In operation  a user inputs a destination name  and the system determines the route to the destination’s location from the position of the vehicle that it has calculated. Finally  the determined route is displayed to the user through a display device. Often  such navigation systems can provide route instructions or directions  as well as identify various points of interest (POIs)  such as hotels  hospitals  service stations  retail stores  restaurants  recreational areas  and landmarks.
With the advent of social networking  email applications  ubiquitous computing  and mobile technology  users including drivers like to stay in touch with friends  colleagues  or others. Drivers also prefer to have quick access to information. While driving  however  it is not possible for the user to connect with friends or to access the information quickly. For example  a driver may become hungry. If located on an unknown route  the driver faces difficulty in locating a nearby restaurant. Even if a restaurant is nearby  a difficulty remains in matching restaurant choices to the driver’s preferences. Without access to information  a driver remains unaware of an opportunity to visit a preferred restaurant on his route. Many other scenarios can be imagined in which a driver misses an opportunity to take advantage of a sales opportunity  meet a friend  or avoid traffic.
While existing GPS systems can provide excellent information about the general characteristics of a route  existing technology does not allow for real-time updates  such as an accident that may have occurred on the planned route. Moreover  existing technology is likewise not able to tailor responses to changing preferences of a user. Some route information is available on GPS systems  such as locations along the route  but the system cannot take the user""s preferences into account in evaluating those locations  nor can the system take recent user behavior into consideration. Present technology lacks the ability not only to recognize that the driver prefers Indian cuisine  but also to remember that the driver recently dined in an Indian restaurant and  thus  might prefer her second choice: Italian.
Additionally  the existing systems can learn frequently driven routes  but those systems are not sufficiently adaptive to draw inferences from a user""s personal history or preferences when learning those routes. In other words  existing systems do not build customized driver profiles through self-awareness and self-learning. Thus  there is a need for improved systems and methods capable of better addressing the inconveniences faced by the user while driving.