GRANTING ELECTRIC VEHICLE OBJECT USE TO A THIRD PARTY ORGANIZATION

• US 20170129349A1
• Filed: 08/19/2016
• Published: 05/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chargepoint, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Chargepoint, Inc.
• Inventors: Solomon, James
• Granted Patent: US 10,647,214 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/00 Methods of charging batteries, specially adapted for electric vehicles; Charging stations or on-board charging equipment therefor; Exchange of energy storage elements in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/21 having a variable access code
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/27 with central registration
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

An electric vehicle operator group that includes multiple access identifiers associated with multiple EV operators of a first organization is created. Use of that group is granted to a second organization. The second organization adds the EV operator group to an access policy and applies the access policies to one or more electric vehicle charging stations owned or managed by the second organization. The first organization manages membership of the EV operator group.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

creating an electric vehicle operator group that includes a plurality of access identifiers associated with a plurality of electric vehicle operators of a first organization;

granting use of the created electric vehicle operator group to a second organization, wherein the first organization and the second organization are different;

adding the electric vehicle operator group to an access policy;

applying the access policy to one or more electric vehicle charging stations owned or managed by the second organization to allow charging service at the one or more electric vehicle charging stations to the plurality of electric vehicle operators of the first organization; and

wherein the first organization manages membership of the electric vehicle operator group.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second organization does not have access to view the plurality of access identifiers.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

receiving a request to use one of the one or more electric vehicle charging stations, wherein the request includes an access identifier; and

determining, using the access policy, whether to authorize charging based on the access identifier included in the request.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to creating the electric vehicle operator group, performing the following:

receiving, from a first one of the plurality of electric vehicle operators, a secret affiliation code;

responsive to determining that the secret affiliation code is valid and corresponds with an affiliation offer, extending that affiliation offer to the first electric vehicle operator;

receiving, from the first electric vehicle operator, an acceptance of the affiliation offer,

responsive to verifying that the first electric vehicle operator is allowed to be affiliated with the first organization, associating the first electric vehicle operator with the first organization.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein associating the first electric vehicle operator with the first organization includes adding an access identifier associated with the first electric vehicle operator to the electric vehicle operator group.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause said processor to perform the following operations;

creating an electric vehicle operator group that includes a plurality of access identifiers associated with a plurality of electric vehicle operators of a first organization;

granting use of the created electric vehicle operator group to a second organization, wherein the first organization and the second organization are different;

adding the electric vehicle operator group to an access policy;

applying the access policy to one or more electric vehicle charging stations owned or managed by the second organization to allow charging service at the one or more electric vehicle charging stations to the plurality of electric vehicle operators of the first organization; and

wherein the first organization manages membership of the electric vehicle operator group.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the second organization does not have access to view the plurality of access identifiers.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 that further stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause said processor to perform further the operations:

receiving a request to use one of the one or more electric vehicle charging stations, wherein the request includes an access identifier; and

determining, using the access policy, whether to authorize charging based on the access identifier included in the request.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 that further stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause said processor to perform further the operations prior to creating the electric vehicle operator group:

receiving, from a first one of the plurality of electric vehicle operators, a secret affiliation code;

responsive to determining that the secret affiliation code is valid and corresponds with an affiliation offer, extending that affiliation offer to the first electric vehicle operator;

receiving, from the first electric vehicle operator, an acceptance of the affiliation offer,

responsive to verifying that the first electric vehicle operator is allowed to be affiliated with the first organization, associating the first electric vehicle operator with the first organization.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein associating the first electric vehicle operator with the first organization includes adding an access identifier associated with the first electric vehicle operator to the electric vehicle operator group.

11. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium coupled with the processor that stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause said apparatus to;

create an electric vehicle operator group that includes a plurality of access identifiers associated with a plurality of electric vehicle operators of a first organization;

grant use of the created electric vehicle operator group to a second organization, wherein the first organization and the second organization are different;

add the electric vehicle operator group to an access policy;

apply the access policy to one or more electric vehicle charging stations owned or managed by the second organization to allow charging service at the one or more electric vehicle charging stations to the plurality of electric vehicle operators of the first organization; and

wherein the first organization manages membership of the electric vehicle operator group.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the second organization does not have access to view the plurality of access identifiers.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage further stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause said apparatus to:

receive a request to use one of the one or more electric vehicle charging stations, wherein the request includes an access identifier; and

determine, using the access policy, whether to authorize charging based on the access identifier included in the request.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage further stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause said apparatus to perform the following prior to creation of the electric vehicle operator group:

receive, from a first one of the plurality of electric vehicle operators, a secret affiliation code;

responsive to a determination that the secret affiliation code is valid and corresponds with an affiliation offer, extend that affiliation offer to the first electric vehicle operator;

receive, from the first electric vehicle operator, an acceptance of the affiliation offer,

responsive to a verification that the first electric vehicle operator is allowed to be affiliated with the first organization, associate the first electric vehicle operator with the first organization.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein association of the first electric vehicle operator with the first organization includes an addition of an access identifier associated with the first electric vehicle operator to the electric vehicle operator group.