SHARED VEHICLE MANAGEMENT DEVICE

• US 20170098176A1
• Filed: 01/29/2015
• Published: 04/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Hirose, Satoru, Chinomi, Satoshi, Nagai, Yukiko, Kuno, Masaki
• Granted Patent: US 10,360,518 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083

Abstract

A shared vehicle management device for managing shared vehicles used by users, including a rental request acquisition unit configured to acquire a rental request by the user, a vehicle state acquisition unit configured to acquire state information of the shared vehicle, a rental determination unit configured to determine a necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle on a basis of the state information of the shared vehicle, and determine whether to prohibit or permit a rental of the shared vehicle with the state information of the shared vehicle and the rental request by the user, and a recommended destination selection unit configured to determine that the shared vehicle needs maintenance upon a determination that the necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle is higher than a predetermined reference value when the rental determination unit determines whether to prohibit or permit the rental of the shared vehicle.

Claims

1. A shared vehicle management device for managing shared vehicles used by users, comprising:

a rental request acquisition unit configured to acquire a rental request by the user;

a vehicle state acquisition unit configured to acquire state information of the shared vehicle;

a rental determination unit configured to;

determine a necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle on a basis of the state information of the shared vehicle, and

determine whether to prohibit or permit a rental of the shared vehicle with the state information of the shared vehicle and the rental request by the user;

a recommended destination selection unit configured to

determine that the shared vehicle needs maintenance upon a determination that the necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle is higher than a predetermined reference value when the rental determination unit determines whether to prohibit or permit the rental of the shared vehicle; and

a recommended destination presentation unit configured to present the recommended destination selected by the recommended destination selection unit to the user.

2. The shared vehicle management device according to claim 1,

wherein the rental determination unit permits the rental of the shared vehicle when the user accepts the presented, recommended destination as a destination for the shared vehicle.

3. The shared vehicle management device according to claim 1,

wherein the state information includes a remaining amount of energy that is used to drive the shared vehicle;

wherein the rental determination unit determines that the necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle is higher than the predetermined reference value when the remaining amount of energy of the shared vehicle is less than a predetermined remaining amount threshold; and

wherein the recommended destination selection unit selects an energy supply facility for supplying energy to the shared vehicle as the recommended destination when a determination is made that the necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle is higher than the predetermined reference value.

4. The shared vehicle management device according to claim 1,

wherein the state information includes condition information of the shared vehicle;

wherein the rental determination unit determines that the necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle is higher than the predetermined reference value when the condition information of the shared vehicle is not within a predefined appropriate range; and

wherein the recommended destination selection unit selects a maintenance facility for restoring the condition of the shared vehicle so that the condition information falls within the appropriate range as the recommended destination when a determination is made that the necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle is higher than the predetermined reference value.

5. The shared vehicle management device according to claim 1,

wherein the state information includes a remaining amount of energy that is used to drive the shared vehicle;

wherein the rental determination unit estimates the remaining amount of energy at a time of returning the shared vehicle on a basis of the remaining amount of energy at a time of renting the shared vehicle and determines that the necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle at the time of returning is higher than the predetermined reference value when the estimated remaining amount of energy at the time of returning is less than a predete mined remaining amount threshold; and

wherein the recommended destination selection unit selects an energy supply facility for supplying energy to the shared vehicle as the recommended destination when a determination is made that the necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle at the time of returning is higher than the predetermined reference value.

6. The shared vehicle management device according to claim 1,

wherein the state information includes condition information of the shared vehicle;

wherein the rental determination unit estimates the condition information at a time of returning the shared vehicle on a basis of the condition information at a time of renting the shared vehicle and determines that the necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle at the time of returning is higher than the predetermined reference value when the estimated condition information at the time of returning is not within a predefined appropriate range; and

wherein the recommended destination selection unit selects a maintenance facility for restoring the condition of the shared vehicle so that the condition information falls within the appropriate range as the recommended destination when a determination is made that the necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle at the time of returning is higher than the predetermined reference value.

7. The shared vehicle management device according to claim 1,

wherein the recommended destination is a point other than a point that is predetermined as a return space for the shared vehicle and is able to be designated as a destination for the shared vehicle.

8. The shared vehicle management device according to claim 1,

wherein the recommended destination selection unit refers to management information and selects a location of the facility that is available as the recommended destination, the management information including an operation state of the facility that is the recommended destination.

9. The shared vehicle management device according to claim 8,

wherein the recommended destination selection unit configured to:

refer to the management information; and

select the location of the facility as the recommended destination when an available time for using the facility is before an estimated arrival time at which the shared vehicle is estimated to arrive at the recommended destination or a time difference between the available time for using the facility and the estimated arrival time at which the shared vehicle is estimated to arrive at the recommended destination is within a predetermined time period.

10. The shared vehicle management device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a transporting work management unit configured to, when the user does not accept the selected, recommended destination presentation unit as a destination for the shared vehicle;

refer to management information that includes a schedule for an operator who transports the shared vehicle;

select the operator capable of transportation work for the shared vehicle; and

transmit a command to transport the shared vehicle to a terminal device carried by the operator.

11. The shared vehicle management device according to claim 10,

wherein the transporting work management unit refers to the management information and determines whether or not the operator starts to transport the shared vehicle;

wherein the recommended destination selection unit selects the recommended destination in accordance with the state information of the shared vehicle before the transporting work management unit determines that the operator starts to transport the shared vehicle; and

wherein the recommended destination presentation unit presents the recommended destination to the user who desires to use the shared vehicle.

12. The shared vehicle management device according to claim 10 or 11,

wherein the management information includes an operation rate of the shared vehicle allocated to each station, and

wherein the transporting work management unit:

refers to the management information and

transmits a command to make the operator preferentially transport the shared vehicle of which the operation rate is high, to the terminal device carried by the operator.

13. The shared vehicle management device according to claim 1,

wherein the management information includes an operation state of the facility as the recommended destination, and

wherein, when the recommended destination selection unit refers to the management information and determines that the facility as the selected, recommended destination is not available for a predetermined time period or more:

the recommended destination selection unit selects a station within a predetermined distance from the recommended destination as a second recommended destination.

14. (canceled)

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a computer to perform a method of managing shared vehicles, comprising:

acquiring a rental request by the user;

acquiring state information of the shared vehicle;

determining a necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle on a basis of the state information of the shared vehicle;

determining whether to prohibit or permit a rental of the shared vehicle on the basis of the state information of the shared vehicle and the rental request by the user;

selecting a facility comprising necessary equipment for maintenance of the shared vehicle as a recommended destination when the necessity level of maintenance of the shared vehicle is higher than a predetermined reference value; and

presenting the recommended destination to the user.