ELECTRIC VEHICLE, MANAGEMENT APPARATUS, AND DRIVE MANAGEMENT METHOD

• US 20110144844A1
• Filed: 10/20/2010
• Published: 06/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: ISHIBASHI, YOSHIHITO
• Granted Patent: US 8,565,950 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/22
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/665 Methods related to measuring, billing or payment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/123 Tax preparation or submission
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/005 dispensed for the electrical charging of vehicles electrical charging as such, B60L50/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00045 Authentication, i.e. circuits for checking compatibility between one component, e.g. a battery or a battery charger, and another component, e.g. a power source
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/007 Regulation of charging or discharging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/04 Regulation of charging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/84 Vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3234 involving additional secure or trusted devices, e.g. TPM, smartcard, USB or software token network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using an additional device in a packet data network H04L63/0853
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3273 for mutual authentication network architectures or network communication protocols for achieving mutual authentication in a packet data network H04L63/0869
• 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 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 30/14 Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

There is provided an electric vehicle including a battery that stores power, a connection unit that is to be connected a charger that communicates with a management device capable of reading identification information specific to each electric vehicle from a security token brought into proximity or in contact, a driving prohibition unit that prohibits operation of a driving mechanism in a case predetermined processing relating to charging of the battery is started after the charger is connected to the connection unit, and a driving permission unit that permits operation of the driving mechanism after the identification information of the electric vehicle is read from the security token by the management device.

Claims

1. An electric vehicle comprising:

a battery that stores power;

a connection unit that is to be connected a charger that communicates with a management device capable of reading identification information specific to each electric vehicle from a security token brought into proximity or in contact;

a driving prohibition unit that prohibits operation of a driving mechanism in a case predetermined processing relating to charging of the battery is started after the charger is connected to the connection unit; and

a driving permission unit that permits operation of the driving mechanism after the identification information of the electric vehicle is read from the security token by the management device.

2. The electric vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the charger starts charging the battery according to a charging permission after the identification information of the electric vehicle is read from the security token and the charging permission for permitting charging is notified based on the identification information from the management device to the charger connected to the connection unit.

3. The electric vehicle according to claim 2, further comprising:

an information transmission unit that transmits, when the battery is to be charged, the identification information of the electric vehicle and information about charged watt-hours to a taxing server that imposes a tax of amount in accordance with charged watt-hours; and

an information reception unit that receives, from the taxing server, a completion notification of taxation processing performed based on the identification information of the electric vehicle and the information about charged watt-hours transmitted by the information transmission unit,

wherein the driving permission unit permits operation of the driving mechanism after the completion notification is received by the information reception unit.

4. The electric vehicle according to claim 3, further comprising:

an authentication processing unit that performs, after authentication information for performing authentication processing with the electric vehicle corresponding to the identification information of the electric vehicle is read from the security token by the management device and the authentication information is provided from the management device to the charger, the authentication processing with the charger based on the authentication information,

wherein the information transmission unit and the driving prohibition unit respectively start processing in a case authentication by the authentication processing unit succeeded.

5. The electric vehicle according to claim 4, wherein the security token controls a time during which reading is possible in such a way that the authentication information is not successively read with a time interval less than a predetermined time.

6. A management apparatus comprising:

a read unit that reads information from a security token brought into proximity or in contact;

an identification information acquisition unit that acquires identification information specific to each electric vehicle by using the read unit; and

a driving permission notification unit that notifies the electric vehicle corresponding to the identification information acquired by the identification information acquisition unit, among the electric vehicles having a function of prohibiting operation of a driving mechanism in a case predetermined processing relating to charging of a battery is started and operation of whose driving mechanisms has been prohibited by the function, of a driving permission for permitting operation of the driving mechanism,

wherein the electric vehicle permits operation of the driving mechanism after the driving permission is notified by the driving permission notification unit.

7. The management apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a charging permission notification unit that notifies a charger for supplying power to a connected electric vehicle of a charging permission for permitting charging of the battery of the electric vehicle corresponding to the identification information acquired by the identification information acquisition unit,

wherein the charger starts charging the battery of the electric vehicle according to the charging permission.

8. A drive management method performed by an electric vehicle including a battery that stores power and a connection unit that is to be connected a charger that communicates with a management device capable of reading identification information specific to each electric vehicle from a security token brought into proximity or in contact, comprising the steps of:

prohibiting operation of a driving mechanism in a case predetermined processing relating to charging of the battery is started after the charger is connected to the connection unit; and

permitting operation of the driving mechanism after the identification information of the electric vehicle is read from the security token by the management device.

9. A drive management method comprising the steps of:

acquiring identification information specific to each electric vehicle by using a read apparatus that reads information from a security token brought into proximity or in contact; and

notifying the electric vehicle corresponding to the identification information acquired in the step of acquiring identification information, among the electric vehicles having a function of prohibiting operation of a driving mechanism in a case predetermined processing relating to charging of a battery is started and operation of whose driving mechanisms has been prohibited by the function, of a driving permission for permitting operation of the driving mechanism.