Method and apparatus for determining a road usage charge

• US 10,373,215 B2
• Filed: 11/12/2013
• Issued: 08/06/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GeoToll, Inc.
• Original Assignee: GeoToll, Inc.
• Inventors: Borras, Jaime Andres, Geist, Wyatt Drake
• Primary Examiner(s): Epstein, Brian M
• Application Number:
  US14/077,974
• Publication Number:
  US 20150134427A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,093 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0284 Time or distance, e.g. usage of parking meters or taximeters
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/063 using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station identification of vehicles G08G
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 for in-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A method and apparatus for determining a distance traveled by a vehicle for the purpose of assessing and settling a road usage charge allows a mobile device to determine distance traveled with a vehicle while paired with a PAN transceiver of the vehicle by using GPS location information. The mobile device can also capture odometer images that are reported to a system that processes the images to obtain the odometer values and find the difference between the odometer values. Once the actual distance traveled by the vehicle is determined by the system, a road usage charge can be determined. Fuel excise taxes paid by the vehicle operator for fuel used by the vehicle can be subtracted from the road usage charge to determine a road usage settlement amount that can be paid from, or refunded to a financial account associated with the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method for determining a vehicular road usage charge, comprising:

detecting, by a mobile phone, a beacon transmitted over a personal area network (PAN) by a vehicle;

the mobile device pairing with the vehicle over the PAN and determining, based on information received from the vehicle upon pairing with the vehicle that the vehicle is associated with a financial account managed by a remote server and that is further managed by the mobile device, wherein the information include a media access control (MAC) address of the vehicle;

the mobile device, while paired with the vehicle over the PAN, capturing a first image of an odometer of the vehicle indicating a first distance value the vehicle has travelled;

the mobile device determining movement of the vehicle and a distance the vehicle has moved while paired with the vehicle over the PAN at the end of a period of time;

at an end of the period of time, the mobile device capturing a second image of the odometer indicating a second distance value the vehicle has travelled while paired with the vehicle over the PAN, including verifying the MAC address of the vehicle is the same as when the first image was captured;

the mobile device reporting a distance travelled over the period of time by the vehicle to the remote server; and

receiving at the mobile device, from the remote server and responsive to reporting the distance travelled over the period of time, a settlement amount based on a road usage charge for an actual distance travelled as determined by the remote server based on the reported distance.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the mobile device transmitting the first image to the remote server, wherein the remote server processes the image to obtain the first distance value

the mobile device transmitting the second image to the remote server, wherein the remote server processes the second image to obtain the second distance value, and determines a difference value that is the difference between the first distance value and the second distance value; and

wherein the remote server compares the difference value with the distance travelled reported by the mobile device to determine the actual distance travelled.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the remote server determining a fuel tax assessed on fuel used by the vehicle over the actual distance travelled, and determining the settlement amount as a difference between the road usage charge and the fuel tax.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the remote server crediting the financial account by the settlement amount when the fuel tax is greater than the road use charge.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the remote server debiting the financial account by the settlement amount when the fuel tax is less than the road use charge.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising the mobile device prompting a user of the mobile device to photograph the odometer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial account is a vehicular toll account, and the remote server is a toll server operated by a toll service to which the mobile device is subscribed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining movement of the vehicle and the distance the vehicle has moved comprises the mobile device periodically determining a location of the mobile device using a global satellite positioning (GPS) function of the mobile device.

9. A method for determining a vehicular road usage charge, comprising:

a mobile device capturing a first image of a vehicle odometer including a first distance value while the mobile device is paired with a vehicle over a personal area network (PAN) of the vehicle, including determining a media access control address of the vehicle;

the mobile device transmitting the first image to a remote server;

the mobile device capturing a second image of a vehicle odometer including a second distance value while the mobile device is paired with vehicle over the PAN of the vehicle, including verifying that the media access control address of the vehicle is the same as when the first image was captured;

the mobile device transmitting the second image to a remote server;

the mobile device receiving from the remote server a road usage settlement amount that is determined by the remote server based on an actual distance travelled by the vehicle, wherein the actual distance travelled is determined at least in part by processing the first and second images at the remote server to obtain the first and second distance values, the remote server determining a difference between the first and second distance values, and wherein the road usage settlement amount is at least in part based on the actual distance travelled.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

the mobile device, upon pairing with the vehicle over the PAN of the vehicle determining and recording a distance travelled by the vehicle while the mobile device is paired with the vehicle over the PAN; and

the mobile device reporting the distance travelled to the remote server as recorded by the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein determining distance travelled is performed using location information acquired by the mobile device using a global positioning satellite receiver.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein determining distance travelled is performed by the mobile device receiving odometer information of the vehicle over the vehicle PAN.

13. A system, comprising:

a mobile device that detects a beacon transmitted over personal area network (PAN) by a vehicle and pairs with the vehicle over the PAN, the mobile device determines, based on information received from the vehicle upon pairing with the vehicle, that the vehicle is associated with a financial account managed by a remote server and that is further managed by the mobile device, the mobile device further determines movement of the vehicle and a distance the vehicle has travelled while paired with the vehicle over the PAN, wherein the information includes a media access controller (MAC) address of the vehicle;

the mobile device, while paired with the vehicle over the PAN, captures a first image of an odometer of the vehicle that indicates a first distance value the vehicle has travelled and transmits the first image to the remote server, wherein the remote server processes the image to obtain the first distance value;

at an end of a period of time, the mobile device captures a second image of the odometer indicating a second distance value the vehicle has travelled while paired with the vehicle over the PAN, and further at the end of the period of time, the mobile device verifying the MAC address of the vehicle is the same as when the first image was captured;

the mobile device transmitting the second image to the remote server, wherein the remote server processes the second image to obtain the second distance value and determines a difference value that is the difference between the first distance value and the second distance value;

the mobile device reports the distance travelled to the remote server and reports a distance travelled over the period of time by the vehicle to the remote server; and

receiving at the mobile device, from the remote server and responsive to reporting a distance travelled over the period of time, a settlement amount based on a road usage charge for an actual distance travelled as determined by the financial account server based on the reported distance.

14. The system of claim 13,

wherein the remote server compares the difference value with the distance travelled reported by the mobile device to determine the actual distance travelled.

15. The system of claim 13, further wherein the remote server determines a fuel tax assessed on fuel used by the vehicle over the actual distance travelled, and determines the settlement amount as a difference between the road usage charge and the fuel tax.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the remote server credits the financial account by the settlement amount when the fuel tax is greater than the road use charge.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the remote server debits the financial account by the settlement amount when the fuel tax is less than the road use charge.