In-vehicle navigation in collaboration with a server

• US 9,091,563 B2
• Filed: 11/16/2011
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Seino, Kohei
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stroud, James E
• Application Number:
  US13/297,936
• Publication Number:
  US 20120123676A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,350 Days
• Field of Search: 701/22, 701/410
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/36 Input/output arrangements for on-board computers
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• 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 30/12 Remote or cooperative charging

Abstract

An in-vehicle navigation apparatus to support sharing of electric vehicle charging point information such that other electric vehicles can use a charging point where its own electric vehicle is charged. If the in-vehicle navigation apparatus determines that a current position is a charging point on the basis of charge information about an electric vehicle, the navigation apparatus determines whether the charging point has public availability by referring to facility information, such as facility positions in map data stored in a map data storage unit. The in-vehicle navigation apparatus may transmit charging points having public availability to a server apparatus and not transmit the charging points having no public availability to the server apparatus. Vehicles may download charging points uploaded by other vehicles.

Claims

1. An in-vehicle navigation apparatus comprising:

a map data storage unit configured to store map data, the map data comprising facility information;

a current position detecting unit configured to detect a current position of a vehicle associated with the in-vehicle navigation apparatus;

a charging point determining unit configured to determine whether the current position detected by the current position detecting unit is a charging point on the basis of charge information on the vehicle;

a charging point registering unit configured to;

register the charging point determined by the current position detecting unit, the charging point determined by the current position detecting unit as previously not registered as the charging point with the in-vehicle navigation apparatus and

register a server-sourced charging point received from a server apparatus external from the in-vehicle navigation apparatus in the map data storage unit;

a transmission necessity determining unit configured to determine necessity for transmission of the charging point determined by the charging point determining unit to the server apparatus; and

a communicating unit configured to transmit the charging point determined to have the necessity for transmission by the transmission necessity determining unit to the server apparatus and receive the server-sourced charging point from the server apparatus,

wherein the transmission necessity determining unit determines the presence of public availability of the charging point by referring to the facility information in the map data to determine that the charging point has the public availability instead of private availability if a facility exists near the charging point, and the transmission necessity determining unit determines that the charging point having the public availability has the necessity for transmission.

2. The in-vehicle navigation apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the transmission necessity determining unit refers to the facility information in the map data to determine that the charging point does not have the public availability if the facility does not exist near the charging point.

3. The in-vehicle navigation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the charging point is a point for electrically charging an electric vehicle.

4. The in-vehicle navigation apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the charging point registering unit refers to the facility information in the map data to determine that the current position is a public charging point if the facility does exists near the charging point and otherwise determines the current position is a private charging point, and the charging point registering unit registers public charging points in a registry of public charging points and separately registers private charging points in a registry of private charging points.

5. The in-vehicle navigation apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the vehicle is an electric vehicle;

and

wherein the charging point determining unit is configured to compare the current state of charge of the vehicle with a previous state of charge of the vehicle to determine that a current position is the charging point if the current state of charge is greater than the previous state of charge by at least a certain threshold.

6. The in-vehicle navigation apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the charging point determining unit is further configured to determine a charging rate of the charging point by comparing the current state of charge with the previous state of charge and taking into account time passed between the current state of charge and the previous state of charge.

7. A computer program product embodied on computer-readable media, the media comprising computer-readable instructions, the instructions operable to cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

detecting a current position of a vehicle;

determining whether the current position is a fueling point on the basis of fueling information of the vehicle;

determining if the fueling point was not previously registered in a fueling point register associated with map data of the vehicle;

registering the current position as the fueling point in the fueling point register associated with the map data if the current position is determined to be the fueling point and the fueling point is determined to not have been previously registered;

determining if the fueling point is to be categorized as being public or private, wherein the fueling point is categorized as being public instead of being private if the current position is associated with a public location in map data and the current position is determined to be the fueling point; and

transmitting the current position to a server computer if the current position is determined to be categorized as being public.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the fueling point is an electric charging point for electric vehicles.

9. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the operation of determining whether the current position is the fueling point comprises:

determining whether the vehicle has had an increase in fuel;

determining that if the vehicle has had an increase in fuel the current position is the fueling point.

10. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein:

registering the current position as the fueling point in the fueling point register associated with the map data comprises;

registering the current position in a table of public fueling points if the current position is a public fueling point; and

registering the current position in a table of private fueling points if the current position is a private fueling point.

11. The computer program product of claim 7 wherein the operations further comprise:

registering fueling points received from the server computer.

12. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein:

the vehicle is an electric vehicle; and

the operations further comprise;

comparing the current state of charge of the vehicle with a previous state of charge of the vehicle to determine that the current position is the fueling point if the current state of charge is greater than the previous state of charge by at least a certain threshold.