ROAD TOLL SYSTEM

• US 20100070349A1
• Filed: 11/29/2007
• Published: 03/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NXP B.V. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: NXP B.V. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Inventors: Daems, Frank C. H.
• Application Number:
  US12/517,260
• Publication Number:
  US 20100070349A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/13
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/063 using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station identification of vehicles G08G
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

A road toll system comprises a vehicle-mounted unit comprising a satellite navigation receiver implementing a position tracking function, a memory device storing toll payment information and means for determining the routes taken by the vehicle based on the position tracking information. A disabling system is provided for disabling the vehicle operation based on the toll payment information. This system uses a satellite navigation receiver to enable infrastructure-free road tolling to be implemented. The system includes a function disabling the vehicle if the road toll fees have not been paid. This saves effort in tracking down users that do not pay their tolls.

Claims

1. A road toll system including a vehicle-mounted unit, comprising:

a satellite navigation receiver implementing a position tracking function;

a memory device storing toll payment information;

means for determining the routes taken by the vehicle based on the position tracking information,

where the system further comprises a disabling system for disabling the vehicle operation based on the toll payment information.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory device is removable from the vehicle-mounted unit.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory device is part of a vehicle ignition control system, wherein the disabling system cooperates with the vehicle ignition control system to implement the disabling of the vehicle operation.

4. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the vehicle ignition control system comprises an electronic key enabling the driver to start the vehicle, the electronic key including the memory device.

5. The system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the memory device comprises a smart card.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a mobile telephony receiver.

7. The system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the mobile telephony receiver implements a position tracking function, and wherein the system further comprises means for verifying correspondence between the position tracking information of the mobile telephony receiver and of the satellite navigation receiver.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory device stores toll values for post-billing.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory device stores prepaid toll values.

10. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory device stores road pricing data.

11. The system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the memory device stores road pricing data for a region of less than 100 km radius.

12. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the disabling system is implemented only when the vehicle ignition is off or only when the vehicle is at a specified home location.

13. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory device is adapted to store satellite navigation data before processing to derive position data.