Systems and methods for remote vehicle rental with remote vehicle access

• US 8,671,063 B2
• Filed: 02/04/2013
• Issued: 03/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Id Systems Incorporated (PowerFleet, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Id Systems Incorporated (PowerFleet, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ehrman, Kenneth S., Ehrman, Michael L., Jagid, Jeffrey M., Loosmore, Nathan H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender, Ryan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wilder, Hunter
• Application Number:
  US13/758,604
• Publication Number:
  US 20130144667A1
• Time in Patent Office: 400 Days
• Field of Search: 705/22, 705/26, 705/28, 705/307, 701/213, 340/932.2, 364/401, 364/423.098
• US Class Current: 705/307
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/00 Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points handling coins or valuable papers, e.g. banknotes, G07D; apparatus for vending or hiring articles or services activated by coins, credit cards, paper currency or the like G07F7/00, G07F17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/127 to a central station ; Indicators in a central station
• 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

An automated vehicle rental system with individual vehicle transmitting sensors for keeping track of vehicle mileage, fill state of vehicle fuel tank, and localized position status in a rental lot. Sensors are linked to the vehicle odometer reading and to the vehicle fuel tank float sensor with compensation for types of driving and fuel fill-ups which affect float level readings. The sensors are integrated with or are linked with communicating tags operable in a defined site for ultimate communication of stored vehicle related sensor data, vehicle location and type to a central data base for automatically completely effecting check out, charges and state of vehicle readiness for renewed rental. The transmitting sensors are adapted to avoid interference between sensors of other vehicles during multiple transmissions. Also included is an in-vehicle check out and payment device operatively linkable to the transmitting sensor of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method for renting a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving a request for reservation at a central control system from a user'"'"'s device for a desired rental vehicle type and a desired rental time;

sending an inquiry from the central control system to a plurality of on-board devices in a plurality of rental vehicles in response to the request;

automatically communicating data from the plurality of on-board devices in the plurality of rental vehicles of the desired vehicle type to the central control system in response to the inquiry;

determining an availability of each of the plurality of rental vehicles based on the communicated data and the desired rental time;

displaying to a user one or more rental vehicle options and the one or more rental vehicle options'"'"' locations based on the determined availability of each of the plurality of rental vehicles;

activating an interlock after activation of a rental agreement from a device within one of the one or more rental vehicle options selected by the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data from the plurality of on-board devices in the plurality of rental vehicles comprises one or more selected from the group consisting of fuel level, battery voltage, location, and door lock status.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the availability of each of the plurality of rental vehicles further comprises:

determining that a fuel level of one of the plurality of rental vehicles is above a predetermined threshold.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the availability of each of the plurality of rental vehicles further comprises:

determining a respective location of each of the plurality of rental vehicles.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of rental vehicles are determined to be available if a respective rental vehicle is in a predetermined location;

and each of the plurality of rental vehicles is determined to be unavailable if a respective rental vehicle is not in the predetermined location.