System for accurately determining the mileage traveled by a vehicle within a state without human intervention

• US 5,359,528 A
• Filed: 02/19/1993
• Issued: 10/25/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: MiX Telematics North America, Inc. (MiX Telematics Limited)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell International Corporation
• Inventors: Haendel, Richard S., Neisch, James C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Gary
• Application Number:
  US08/019,714
• Time in Patent Office: 613 Days
• Field of Search: 364/424.01, 364/424.03, 364/424.04, 364/449, 73/178 R, 340/438, 340/439, 340/988, 340/990, 340/995
• US Class Current: 701/35
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

A system and method for monitoring and recording the mileage a truck travels within a particular state including a GPS receiver, an odometer, and a memory device which contains state boundary information and a processor for determining on a continual basis whether the positioned information received from the GPS receiver is in a particular state boundary and for recording mileage of the truck when the position and state boundary comparison determines that a change in state boundaries has occurred. Additionally, a storage device for storing the data output by the processor which includes the desired mileage within a particular state information is included.

Claims

1. A system for reporting the mileage that a vehicle travels within a state boundary comprising:

a positioning system for generating present position information including latitude and longitude information of said vehicle;

an odometer for providing a signal representative of the mileage said vehicle has traveled since some predetermined event;

a memory device containing geographic information of the latitudes and longitudes of the boundaries of numerous states;

a recording device for receiving and recording information; and

,

a processor, coupled with said positioning system, said odometer, said memory and said recording device for comparing the present position information for said vehicle with the geographic information regarding latitudes and longitudes of state boundaries and recording a signal representative of the mileage the vehicle has traveled if the present position information represents that the vehicle has traveled across a state boundary, the recording of the signal representative of the vehicle mileage is done on the recording device.

2. A system of claim 1 wherein said positioning system is a global positioning system receiver.

3. A system of claim 1 wherein said positioning system is a Loran receiver.

4. A system of claim 2 wherein said memory device is a read only memory.

5. A system of claim 4 wherein the recording device recorders current time, date, odometer mileage, and said present position information when the vehicle crosses said state boundary.

6. A system of claim 5 further comprising an output port coupled with said recording device for downloading recorded information which can be used by state taxing authorities and vehicle owners.

7. A method of determining the mileage driven within a state by a vehicle comprising the steps of:

determining geographical coordinates representing the present position of said vehicle;

comparing the geographical coordinates representative of the present position of the vehicle with stored boundary coordinates representing the boundaries of states;

determining what state the vehicle is in;

comparing the current state the vehicle is in with a previous state determination;

repeating the above steps when the vehicle is in the same state and recording the vehicle present location, odometer mileage, time, and date in a nonvolitale memory when the vehicle is in a different state; and

,

downloading the recorded information to an end user.

8. A system for monitoring, recording and reporting the mileage driven by a state comprising;

a global positioning system receiver for receiving signals from a plurality of global positioning systems satellites, in earth orbit, and generating an electronic signal representative of the present position of the vehicle;

a read only memory having stored therein geographical information relating to the boundaries of the plurality of states;

a processor coupled to said GPS receiver and said read only memory for comparing the present position of the vehicle with the stored boundary information and further determining the state the vehicle is presently in and further determining if the vehicle has entered a different state;

an odometer which generates an electrical signal representative of the mileage the vehicle has traveled since some predetermined event; and

,

said processor for recording the present position, the odometer mileage, and the current time and date when said vehicle crosses a state boundary.