Methods and systems for electric vehicle (EV) charging and cloud remote access and user notifications

• US 10,071,643 B2
• Filed: 10/18/2017
• Issued: 09/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emerging Automotive, LLC
• Original Assignee: Emerging Automotive, LLC
• Inventors: Penilla, Angel A., Penilla, Albert S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fantu, Yalkew
• Application Number:
  US15/787,295
• Publication Number:
  US 20180037125A1
• Time in Patent Office: 328 Days
• Field of Search: 320109, 320107, 320104, 180 651, 180 6521, 307 101
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/547 Voltage
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/70 Interactions with external data bases, e.g. traffic centres
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/665 Methods related to measuring, billing or payment
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/80 Exchanging energy storage elements, e.g. removable batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 55/00 Arrangements for supplying energy stored within a vehicle to a power network, i.e. vehicle-to-grid [V2G] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/21 having the same nominal voltage
• 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: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/308 using the Internet of Things
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0265 Vehicular advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/005 dispensed for the electrical charging of vehicles electrical charging as such, B60L50/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 : Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 : Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 : Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 : Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 : for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 : Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• 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 10/72 : Electric energy management in electromobility
• 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 10/126 : the energy generation units being or involving electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV], i.e. power aggregation of EV or HEV, vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 : Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/12 : Billing, invoicing, buying or selling transactions or other related activities, e.g. cost or usage evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/14 : Marketing, i.e. market research and analysis, surveying, promotions, advertising, buyer profiling, customer management or rewards

Abstract

Systems and methods for charging an electric battery of a vehicle are provided. The vehicle includes a battery for powering an electric motor of the vehicle. A controller of the vehicle is provided to interface with a battery and to enable control of charging of the battery. The vehicle includes a communications interface for enabling wireless communication with a server, and the server is configured to manage a plurality of user accounts for users. The server is one of a plurality of servers, and the servers providing access to cloud services regarding vehicle use and metrics.

Claims

1. A system of a vehicle for charging an electric battery of the vehicle, comprising,

a battery of the vehicle;

a controller of the vehicle for interfacing with the battery and controlling an operation of charge transfer to the battery and detecting a level of charge of the battery, the controller is interfaced with electronics of the vehicle; and

a communications interface for enabling wireless communication with a server and is interfaced with said electronics, the server is configured to provide access to a plurality of user accounts for users registered with a cloud service, and said vehicle communicates with said server;

the electronics of the vehicle uses the communications interface, in association with a user account, to send a request, responsive to voice input on a user interface of the vehicle that communicates with the electronics of the vehicle;

the voice input being for selection of at least one control of the user interface to identify a charge unit, the charge unit having at least one charge connector for supplying charge to said battery of the vehicle;

the electronics of the vehicle is configured to identify a geo-location of the vehicle in response to receiving the request;

the electronics of the vehicle is configured to receive information regarding charge units having physical addresses within a proximity location of the vehicle using the identified geo-location of the vehicle;

the user interface is configured to use a speaker of the vehicle to produce audio output identifying one or more charge units located along a path of travel of the vehicle, the one or more charge units being selected as options using preferences associated with the user account.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the user account is managed by the server that is part of the cloud service.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the server manages a database that includes said preferences for the user account and preferences for other user accounts.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said preferences include preferences for types of promotions used for determining said options of one or more charge units.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein a list of one or more charge units is additionally displayed on a screen associated with the vehicle, in addition to being output via said speaker.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice input is associated with voice output, and said voice output is said audio output by said speaker of the vehicle.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronics of the vehicle is configured to enable sending a reservation request to at least one of the charge units.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the preferences is learned based on historical data regarding one or more of past requests to identify charge units, or based on charge obtained at specific charge units, or based on discounts used at the charge units, or a combination of two or more thereof.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the server implements an application programming interface (API) to communicate with charge units or a server that has communication with charge units.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the level of charge is communicated to the user interface of the vehicle.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein a current state or a projected state of charge of other vehicles using one or more of the charge units is provided by the user interface to enable selection of a charge unit from the options.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the options of charge units identifying an availability to reserve one of the charge units for an estimated arrival time.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein a route generator is configured map a path a charge unit upon selection or reservation.

14. A method for selecting a charge unit for charging a battery of an a vehicle, comprising,

interfacing a controller of the vehicle with the battery for controlling an operation of charge transfer to the battery and detecting a level of charge of the battery, the controller is interfaced with electronics of the vehicle;

and

enabling wireless communication with a server using a communications interface, said communications interface exchanges data with said electronics, the server is configured to provide access to a plurality of user accounts for users registered with a cloud service that is associated with said server;

the electronics of the vehicle uses the communications interface, in association with a user account, to send a request, responsive to voice input on a user interface of the vehicle that communicates with the electronics of the vehicle;

the voice input being for selection of at least one control of the user interface to locate a charge unit, the charge unit having at least one charge connector for supplying charge to said battery of the vehicle;

the electronics of the vehicle is configured to request identification of a geo-location of the vehicle in response to receiving the request;

the electronics of the vehicle is configured to receive information regarding charge units having physical addresses within a proximity location of the vehicle using the identified geo-location of the vehicle;

the user interface is configured to use a speaker of the vehicle to produce audio output identifying one or more charge units located along a path of travel of the vehicle, the one or more charge units being selected as options using preferences associated with the user account.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the user account is managed by the server that is part of the cloud service, and the electronics of the vehicle is configured to enable sending a reservation request to at least one of the charge units, the server implements an application programming interface (API) to communicate with charge units or a server that has communication with charge units.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the server manages a database that includes said preferences for the user account and preferences for other user accounts.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said preferences include preferences for types of promotions used for determining said options of one or more charge units.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein a list of one or more charge units is additionally displayed on a screen associated with the vehicle, in addition to being output via said speaker.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the voice input is associated with voice output, and said voice output is said audio output by said speaker of the vehicle.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one of the preferences is learned based on historical data regarding one or more of past requests to identify charge units, or based on charge obtained at specific charge units, or based on discounts used at the charge units, or a combination of two or more thereof.