Automatic Determination of an Emission Value for a Motor Vehicle

• US 20100024521A1
• Filed: 07/28/2009
• Published: 02/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arktik GmbH
• Original Assignee: Arktik GmbH
• Inventors: De Vries, Dominic
• Granted Patent: US 8,047,052 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/23.310
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/063 using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station identification of vehicles G08G
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time

Abstract

The invention concerns the automatic determination of an emission value for a motor vehicle. For this purpose, a system for the automatic determination of an emission value for a motor vehicle 4 is described that comprises the following: a fuel quantity sensor 1, an identification device 3 for registering an account identification, an account database 7 containing at least one account information item for each of a multitude of accounts 8, and a determination device 6, where: the fuel quantity sensor 1 determines a fuel quantity added to the tank and transmits it to the determination device 6; an account identification registered by the identification device 3 is transmitted to the determination device 6 and is associated with the fuel quantity added to the tank; and where the determination device 6 determines the emission value on the basis of the fuel quantity added to the tank and at least one account information item of the account 8 associated with the account identification. This permits a simple and reliable determination of the emission value that also meets with a high degree of acceptance by the users.

Claims

1. Process for the automatic determination of an emission value of a motor vehicle (4), with the following steps:

Determination of the quantity of fuel that has been put into the tank and/or has been consumed,

Determination of an account identification,

Association of the determined account identification with the determined quantity of fuel,

Determination of at least one account information of an account (8) associated with the account identification,

Determination of an emission value on the basis of the determined quantity of fuel and at least the determined account information of the account (8) associated with the account identification.

2. Process according to claim 1 where the determined emission value includes an emission quantity and/or an emission fee.

3. Process according to claim 1 where the determined emission fee is automatically debited to a money account (11), preferably in conjunction with the payment for the quantity of fuel.

4. Process according to claim 1 where the account information comprises an account-specific emission quantity key and/or an account-specific compensation key and/or an account-specific type of compensation.

5. Process according to claim 1 where the type of fuel is determined and taken into account during the determination of the emission value.

6. Process according to claim 1 where the fuel consumption is determined in the motor vehicle (4) and is taken into account during the determination of the emission value.

7. System for the automatic determination of an emission value for a motor vehicle (4), comprising:

a fuel quantity sensor (1),

an identification device (3) for registering an account identification,

an account database (7) containing at least one account information item for each of a multitude of accounts (8),

a determination device (6) where;

the fuel quantity that was added to the tank and/or consumed is determined by the fuel quantity sensor (1) and is transferred to the determination device (6),

an account identification registered by the identification device (3) is transferred to the determination device (6) and is associated with the determined quantity of fuel, and

the determination device (6) determines the emission value on the basis of the determined quantity of fuel and at least one account information item of the account (8) associated with the account identification.

8. System according to claim 7, where the determined emission value includes an emission quantity and/or an emission fee.

9. System according to claim 8, where the determined emission fee is automatically debited to a money account, preferably in conjunction with the payment for the fuel quantity.

10. System according to claim 8 where a fuel type sensor for distinguishing fuel types (15) is provided that determines the type of the fuel and transmits it to the determination device (6).

11. System according to claim 8 where the account identification is provided on an identification element (5), preferably on a machine-readable magnetic card or on a RFID chip.

12. System according to claim 11, where, besides the account identification, the identification element (5) includes at least one account information item (9).

13. System according to claim 8 where a consumption sensor (16) is provided in the vehicle (4) that determines the fuel consumption and transmits the determined fuel consumption data to the determination device (6), with the fuel consumption taken into account during the determination of the emission value.

14. System according to claim 13, where the fuel consumption data is stored on a storage device (17) provided in the motor vehicle (4).

15. System according to claim 13 where the fuel consumption data is transmitted wirelessly to the determination device (6) by means of a transmission device (19) provided in the motor vehicle.