Vehicle management system

• US 6,684,155 B1
• Filed: 02/04/2003
• Issued: 01/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SIN ETKE Technology Company Limited
• Original Assignee: SIN ETKE Technology Company Limited
• Inventors: Huang, Cheng-Hung, Chen, Kuo-Rong, Lee, Chun-Chung
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuchlinski, Jr., William A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hernandez, Olga
• Application Number:
  US10/357,366
• Time in Patent Office: 357 Days
• Field of Search: 701/117, 701/200, 701/206, 701/207, 701/209, 701/211, 701/213, 701/214, 701/26, 731/78.R, 340/988, 340/995.13, 340/995.19, 340/995.2, 340/995.22, 340/995.23, 340/995.24, 340/995.25, 455/456.1, 455/404.2
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2325/101 Bluetooth
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/102 a signal being sent to a remote location, e.g. a radio signal being transmitted to a police station, a security company or the owner
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/33 of global position, e.g. by providing GPS coordinates
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/02 taking into account a variable factor such as distance or time, e.g. for passenger transport, parking systems or car rental systems G07B15/06 takes precedence; taximeters G07B13/00; parking meters per se G07F17/24; car rental systems per se G07B15/00
• 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 vehicle management system is disclosed to have GPS coordinates of a plurality of checkpoints of entrance gateways and exit gateways of a freeway stored in the memory of a vehicle. When a driver drives in an entrance gateway (or out of an exit gateway) of the freeway and an on-vehicle processor of the vehicle compares the current GPS coordinates of the vehicle to be matched with GPS coordinates of one entrance (exit) checkpoint stored in the memory, the on-vehicle processor controls a wireless communication device to wirelessly send the code number of the corresponding entrance (exit) and the license number of the vehicle to a remote control center for log-in (log-out). According to the log-in/log-out data, the control center can control the traffic volume, electronic toll collection, stolen car tracking, or motorcade, . . . and etc. of the freeway.

Claims

1. A vehicle management system installed in a vehicle being defined with an unique identification code and to be running on at least one specific road for receiving management control by a remote control center, said at least one specific road each including at least one entrance and at least one exit, said at least one entrance each having at least one entrance checkpoint representing the corresponding entrance, said at least one entrance checkpoint each providing a global position information, said at least one exit each having at least one exit checkpoint representing the corresponding exit, said at least one exit checkpoint each providing a global position information;

wherein the vehicle management system comprising;

a global positioning module adapted to compute a current position information of said vehicle;

wireless communication means;

memory means, said memory means having stored therein the global position information of said at least one entrance checkpoint and said at least one exit checkpoint; and

processor means adapted to compare the current position information of said vehicle to the global position information of said at least one entrance checkpoint and to control said wireless communication means to send an entrance information representing a matched entrance checkpoint and the identification code of said vehicle wirelessly to said remote control center for log-in when the comparison matched, said processor means also being adapted to compare the current position information of said vehicle to the global position information of said at least one exit checkpoint and to control said wireless communication means to send an exit information representing a matched entrance checkpoint and the identification code of said vehicle wirelessly to said remote control center for log-out when the comparison matched.

2. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said memory means further has stored therein the corresponding relationships between said at least one entrance checkpoint and said entrance information, and the corresponding relationships between said at least one exit checkpoint and said exit information.

3. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said remote control center further comprises a vehicle information database, said vehicle information database having stored therein the identification codes of multiple vehicles and the related vehicle information of said multiple vehicles.

4. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said remote control center further comprises a schedule rating database, said schedule rating database having stored therein a toll collection rating defining the toll fee required for driving in one of said at least one entrance and driving out of one of said at least one exit.

5. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 4 wherein said toll collection rating is a schedule rating table.

6. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 4 wherein said toll collection rating is a rating formula to collect a toll subject to mileage.

7. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said at least one specific road each further comprises at least one checkpoint along the road each providing a global position information, said memory means further storing therein the global position information of said at least one checkpoint along the road, such that when said vehicle running on one of said at least one specific road without log-in and said processor means compared the current position information of said vehicle to be matched with one of the global position information of said at least one checkpoint along the road, said processor means controls said wireless communication means to send a previous entrance information representing a previous entrance behind the matched checkpoint along the road and the identification code of said vehicle wirelessly to said remote control center for supplemented log-in.

8. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 7 wherein said memory means further has stored therein the corresponding relationships between said at least one checkpoint along the road and the corresponding previous entrance information.

9. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the global position information of each checkpoint includes a longitude coordinate and an latitude coordinate.

10. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 9 wherein the global position information of each checkpoint further includes an altitude coordinate.

11. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) receiver adapted to receive DGPS differential data wirelessly from a DGPS reference station.

12. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said wireless communication means is capable of receiving differential global position data.

13. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 12 wherein said differential global position data is transmitted to said wireless communication means wirelessly from said remote control center.

14. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 12 wherein said differential global position data is DGPS differential data.

15. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the identification code of said vehicle is the license number of said vehicle.

16. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said entrance information is the code number of each entrance, and said exit information is the code number of each exit.

17. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said specific road is a freeway.

18. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said global positioning module is a GPS (global positioning system) module.

19. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said wireless communication means is a GPRS (General Pack et Radio Service) module.

20. The vehicle management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said memory means is a high-capacity IC memory card.