Vehicle sharing system and method for allocating vehicles based on state of charge

• US 6,850,898 B1
• Filed: 07/07/1999
• Issued: 02/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Company), Regents of the University of California (University of California)
• Original Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Company), Regents of the University of California (University of California)
• Inventors: Yano, Shunji, Nakamura, Kazuhiro, Murakami, Hiroshi, Barth, Matthew James, Todd, Michael Donovan
• Primary Examiner(s): Hafiz, Tariq R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Irshadullah, M.
• Application Number:
  US09/348,515
• Time in Patent Office: 2,036 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/7, 705/8, 705/13, 705/5, 340/932.2, 340/636, 455/456, 455/456.6
• US Class Current: 705/13
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2200/26 Rail vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/622 by satellite navigation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/70 Interactions with external data bases, e.g. traffic centres
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2270/32 of electricity
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2270/36 of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• 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: B60L 53/67 Controlling two or more charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• 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 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

A shared vehicle system includes a central facility, at least one vehicle distribution port facility and a plurality or fleet of vehicles, each having a vehicle subsystem. In general, the central station and port facility and the vehicle subsystems communicate in a manner to allow a user to enter information at a port facility. That information is then communicated to the central facility, where the information is processed to select a vehicle from the fleet to allocate to the user at the port facility. Selection of a vehicle for allocation to a user may be based on selecting an available or soon to be available vehicle according to various algorithms that take into account the vehicles state of charge. The central station also communicates with the port facility and the vehicle subsystem to notify the user of the selected vehicle, to provide secure user access to the selected vehicle, to monitor the location and operating status of vehicles in the fleet, to monitor the state of charge of electric vehicles and to provide other functions. The vehicles communicate with the central station to notify the central station of the PIN number of the individual attempting to use the vehicle, and of vehicle parameters such as state of charge and location of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method for allocating electric vehicles, comprising the steps of:

sensing charge levels and location of the vehicles;

transmitting the charge levels and vehicle location information to a computer system at a central station;

tracking the charge levels and the vehicle location information at the computer system;

processing at the computer system the vehicle location information for a vehicle due to arrive at a port to provide an estimated arrival time of the vehicle at the port;

defining a vehicle search group for each port including vehicles at the port, vehicles having estimated arrival times at the port within a predetermined time interval, and including into the vehicle search group of a port vehicles that are located at a charging facility at the port and have ha a charging time period due to expire within a predefined time period;

having a user enter an expected distance of an intended trip;

selecting a group of vehicles from the vehicle search group in response to vehicle charge levels and based on the vehicle location information, each vehicle having a charge level adequate for the expected distance of the intended trip; and

allocating to a user a vehicle having a highest level of charge in the selected group.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the steps of determining a charging order for vehicles at a port in response to the charge levels of the vehicles with vehicles with low charge level being charged before the vehicles with high charge levels.

3. A method for allocating one or more vehicles from a fleet of electrically powered vehicles to one or more users, wherein each vehicle has a state of charge (SOC) at any given time, the method comprising:

sensing the SOC and vehicle location for each vehicle;

transmitting the SOC and vehicle location information to a computer system at a central station;

tracking the SOC and the vehicle location information at the computer system;

processing at the computer system the vehicle location information for a vehicle due to arrive at a port to provide an estimated arrival time of the vehicle at the port;

defining a vehicle search group for each port including vehicles at the port, vehicles having estimated arrival times at the port within a predetermined time interval, and including into the vehicle search group of a port vehicles that are located at a charging facility at the port and have a charging time period due to expire within a predefined time period;

receiving a travel request from a user;

selecting a group of one or more vehicles from the vehicle search group in response to vehicle charge levels and based on the vehicle location information, each selected vehicle having an SOC sufficient to meet the travel request; and

allocating a vehicle having a highest SOC in the group for the user.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein:

receiving a travel request comprises receiving information associated with an expected distance of travel; and

selecting a group comprises selecting one or more vehicles, each with a sufficient SOC to travel the expected distance.

5. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein:

receiving a travel request comprises receiving information associated with an expected time period of use; and

selecting a group comprises selecting one or more vehicles, each with a sufficient SOC to travel for the expected time period.

6. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein:

receiving a travel request comprises receiving information associated with an expected destination port and an expected distance of travel beyond a direct route to the destination port; and

selecting a group comprises selecting one or more vehicles, each with a sufficient SOC to travel the combined distance of the direct route to the destination port and expected distance of travel beyond the direct route.

7. A method as recited in claim 3, further comprising identifying the allocated vehicle to the user.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein identifying the allocated vehicle to the user comprises displaying identification information to the user on a display device.

9. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein receiving a travel request comprises:

displaying a map to the user; and

receiving user selected map locations on the map.

10. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein receiving a travel request from a user includes:

providing a user interface terminal at one or more ports;

receiving the travel request from a user at the user interface terminal; and

communicating the travel request to the computer system;

selecting a group of one or more vehicles from the fleet includes operating the computer system to select the group of one or more vehicles; and

allocating a vehicle having a highest SOC in the group includes operating the computer system to allocate the vehicle for the user.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein:

providing a user interface terminal at one or more ports comprises;

providing a user interface at a plurality of ports disposed at geographically remote locations relative to each other; and

defining each vehicle search group (VSG) to comprise more than one and less than all of the vehicles from the fleet; and

operating the computer system to select a group of one or more vehicles from the fleet comprises selecting the group from the VSG of the port from which travel information is received.

12. A method as recited in claim 3, further comprising determining a charging order for vehicles at a port in response to the charge levels of the vehicles with vehicles with low charge level being charged before the vehicles with high charge levels.

13. A method for allocating one or more vehicles from a fleet of electric powered vehicles to one or more users, each vehicle having a state of charge (SOC) at any given time and a charging rate dependent upon the SOC, wherein a plot of the SOC of the vehicle being charged versus time defines a generally linear region below an SOC level and a nonlinear region above the SOC level, the method comprising:

sensing the SOC and vehicle location for each vehicle;

transmitting the SOC and vehicle location information to a computer system at a central station;

tracking the SOC and the vehicle location information at the computer system;

processing at the computer system the vehicle location information for a vehicle due to arrive at a port to provide an estimated arrival time of the vehicle at the port;

defining a vehicle sere group for each port including vehicles at the port, vehicles having estimated arrival times at the port within a predetermined time interval, and including into the vehicle search group of a port vehicles that are located at a charging facility at the port and have a charging time period due to expire within a predefined time period;

receiving a travel request from a user;

selecting a group of one or more vehicles from the vehicle search group in response to vehicle charge levels and based on the vehicle location information, each selected vehicle having an SOC sufficient to meet the travel request from the user; and

allocating to the user a vehicle within the group having an SOC above the SOC level; and

in response to no vehicles within the group have an SOC above the SOC level, allocating a vehicle within the group having a highs SOC for the user.

14. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein:

receiving a travel request comprises receiving information associated with an expected distance of travel; and

selecting a group comprises selecting one or more vehicles, each with a sufficient SOC to travel the expected distance.

15. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein:

receiving a travel request comprises receiving information associated with an expected time period of use; and

selecting a group comprises selecting one or more vehicles, each with a sufficient SOC to travel for the expected time period.

16. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein:

receiving a travel request comprises receiving information associated with an expected destination port and an expected distance of travel beyond a direct route to the destination port; and

selecting a group comprises selecting one or more vehicles, each with a sufficient SOC to travel the combined distance of the direct route to the destination port and expected distance of travel beyond the direct route.

17. A method as recited in claim 13, further comprising identifying the vehicle allocated to the user.

18. A method as recited in claim 13, further comprising:

determining a charging order for vehicles at a port in response to the charge levels of the vehicles with vehicles with low charge level being charged before the vehicles with high charge levels.

19. A vehicle allocation system for allocating one or more vehicles from a fleet of electrically powered vehicles to one or more users, wherein each vehicle has a state of charge (SOC) at any given time, the vehicle allocation system comprising:

one or more ports at geographically remote locations relative to each other, each port having a user interface terminal for receiving a travel request from a user;

a computer system in communication with at least one user interface terminal and programmed

for processing the SOC information;

for including vehicles at a port and vehicles having estimated arrival time at the port with in predetermined time interval in a vehicle search group of a port;

for including vehicles in the vehicle search group of a port vehicles that are located at a charging facility at the port and have a charging time period due to expire within a predefined time period; and

in response to a travel request received from a user at a port, for selecting a group of one or more vehicles from the vehicle search group of the port based on vehicle location information, where each selected vehicle has an SOC sufficient to meet the travel request from the user, and for allocating a vehicle having a highest SOC in the group for the user;

wherein said computer system includes a tracking system that provides said vehicle location information and the SOC information corresponding to the location of each vehicle;

a sensor associated with and installed on each vehicle for sensing the state of charge of the associated vehicle; and

a wireless communication unit associated with and installed on each vehicle and operatively coupled to the sensor on the associated vehicle for transmitting state of charge information corresponding to a state of charge sensed by the sensor.

20. A system as recited in claim 19, wherein said computer system comprises a central station computer system in communication with a plurality of user interface terminals at said one or more ports.

21. A system as recited in claim 19, wherein:

said user interface terminal is configured to receive the travel request including information associated with an expected distance of travel; and

said computer system is programmed for selecting the group of one or more vehicles, each with a sufficient SOC to travel the expected distance.

22. A system as recited in claim 19, wherein:

said user interface terminal is configured to receive the travel request including information associated with an expected time period of use; and

said computer system is programmed for selecting the poup of one or more vehicles, each with a sufficient SOC to travel for the expected time period.

23. A system as recited in claim 19, wherein:

said user interface terminal is configured to receive the travel request including information associated with an expected destination port and an expected distance of travel beyond a direct route to the destination port; and

said computer system is programmed for selecting the group of one or more vehicles, each with a sufficient SOC to travel the combined distance of the direct route to the destination port and expected distance of travel beyond the direct route.

24. A system as recited in claim 19, wherein each of one or more ports includes a display device for displaying identification information of the allocated vehicle to the user.

25. A system as recited in claim 19, wherein each of user interface terminals comprises:

a display device for displaying a map to the user; and

an interface for receiving user-selected map locations corresponding to locations on the displayed map from the user.

26. A system as recited in claim 19, wherein said computer system is further programmed for:

allocating a vehicle within the group having an SOC above a predetermined SOC level; and

in response to no vehicles within the group have an SOC above the predetermined SOC level, allocating a vehicle within the group having the highest SOC for the user.

27. A system as recited in claim 19, further comprising a plurality of vehicle subsystems associated on a one-to-one basis with the vehicles from the fleet, each vehicle subsystem including:

a status sensor configured for detecting the SOC of the vehicle; and

a data transmitter configured for transmitting information corresponding to the detected SOC to the computer system.

28. A system as recited in claim 19, wherein:

said user interface terminal is configured to receive the request including user identification information; and

said computer system is programmed for allocating the vehicle further in response to the user identification information.

29. A system as recited in claim 28, wherein said computer system includes a storage of vehicle preference information associated with each user identification and is programmed for allocating the vehicle in accordance with the user identification information and the vehicle preference information.

30. A system as recited in claim 29, wherein the vehicle preference information comprises information number of vehicle wheels, number of vehicle doors, preferred minimal SOC or range of SOCs, distance usually traveled, or usual duration of vehicle use.

31. A system as recited in claim 19, wherein said computer system is further programmed for determining a charging order for vehicles at a port in response to the charge levels of the vehicles with vehicles with low charge level being charged before the vehicles with high charge levels.