WO2010008289A1 - Road pricing system - Google Patents
Road pricing system Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- WO2010008289A1 WO2010008289A1 PCT/NL2009/050441 NL2009050441W WO2010008289A1 WO 2010008289 A1 WO2010008289 A1 WO 2010008289A1 NL 2009050441 W NL2009050441 W NL 2009050441W WO 2010008289 A1 WO2010008289 A1 WO 2010008289A1
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- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- vehicle
- data
- pricing
- processing means
- road
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- G—PHYSICS
- G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
- G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
- G07B15/00—Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points
- G07B15/06—Arrangements for road pricing or congestion charging of vehicles or vehicle users, e.g. automatic toll systems
- G07B15/063—Arrangements for road pricing or congestion charging of vehicles or vehicle users, e.g. automatic toll systems using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station
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- G—PHYSICS
- G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
- G07B—TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
- G07B15/00—Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points
- G07B15/06—Arrangements for road pricing or congestion charging of vehicles or vehicle users, e.g. automatic toll systems
Definitions
- An embodiment of a pricing system is known from WP 2007/107001.
- the known pricing system is arranged to generate auditable evidentiary record of the location-history of an asset or person.
- an on-board unit is provided for recording location data after which they are made available to a further unit for calculation of pricing information.
- the method according to the invention comprises the steps of: providing the vehicle with vehicle processing means, arranged for:
- vehicle identification data may also be stored in the vehicle processing means and be used (see last step above), together with the received pricing data, to calculate, declare or pay, by the responsible person or authority the road pricing of his/her/its vehicle.
- vehicle data may be stored and used separately, e.g. within a PC or (via any terminal) within any Internet accessible server.
- the verification authority compares its records regarding the vehicle identification and the actual payments of vehicle's users.
- the vehicle identification data is recorded by means of imaging a licence plate.
- the vehicle identification data may be imaged using optical means, like photo- or video camera's.
- the vehicle processing means communicate in an anonymous way with the price processing means, e.g. akin to the way a prepaid GSM communicates with a GSM provider.
- the price processing means (akin to the provider) only know that 'someone' has paid for an amount of services (in this case: geometrical fitting and pricing services).
- the price processing means receive the motion data however not directly, but via the privacy agent, fulfil after receiving the motion data their service task and send, again via the privacy agent, the resulting data back to the vehicle processing means. So the privacy agent has the task to work as an intermediate party between the vehicle processing means and the price processing means: it receives the motion data of the vehicle processing means in such a way that it can not interpret the motion, only the times of the measurements.
- Figure 1 shows a number of cars 1 driving along a public road system.
- Each car 1 is provided with a rather simple car module 2, arranged for assessing -by means of a position measuring system, e.g. GPS- and transmitting data related to motions of the car along or through the road system, indicated as motion data m in figure 1, and for receiving, and (temporarily) storing, pricing data p related to the car and its motions.
- a position measuring system e.g. GPS- and transmitting data related to motions of the car along or through the road system, indicated as motion data m in figure 1, and for receiving, and (temporarily) storing, pricing data p related to the car and its motions.
- the public road system is provided with a server 3 for storing data related to the public road system and/or sections of it, like individual roads etc., called road data r hereinafter.
- a server 3 may already be in use for other purposes, e.g. for road management and maintenance etc.
- a pricing server 4 is provided for processing the motion data m received from each individual car into individual pricing data p, this embodiment is illustrated in Figure 2.
- the car module 2 transmit the car's motion data m (without its car data like license number etc.) to the pricing server 4.
- the pricing server 4 calculates the pricing data p, using the received motion data m and the related road data r, retrieved from road server 3 using those motion data m, and returns the calculated pricing data p to the car module 2 of the relevant car 1.
- the car module 2 receives the pricing data p and makes them available to a person or authority who/which is responsible for the declaration or payment of the road pricing of the car, the car user or owner.
- the data related to the car and/or its owner/user may or may not be stored in the car module. If stored in the car module 2, it can be used, together with the received pricing data p, to calculate, declare or pay, by the responsible person or authority the road pricing of his/her/its car. If the car data v is not stored in the car module 2 it may be stored in e.g. the owner's or user's PC, which can be used to declare or pay the road pricing to the Tax Authority (not shown in the figure).
- the pricing data p -and optionally the car data v- can be transferred to the user's or owner's PC by means of a USB stick or via wired or wireless (e.g. IR, Bluetooth etc.) communication, if necessary by using authentication tools.
- the car module 2 transmits the car's motion data m to the pricing server 4 in an anonymized way, e.g. by data partitioning and scrambling or any form of data desequencing, causing that individual car trips cannot feasibly be tracked, or by introducing, as described before, a privacy agent in between (not shown in the figure).
- the road section codes may be used for verification codes for verifying, to prevent fraud with the declaration of trips to the Tax Authority.
- the verification authority 5 transmits the verification/section codes to the pricing server 4, which verification codes thus are linked to the sections of the road system in particular those where —for verification reasons— the license plates of passing cars may be recorded, e.g. by photo or video cameras 6.
- the verification authority 5 installs such a "check point" 6 at a certain road section, e.g. at road section WCGq ⁇ nts, during a certain period, e.g. at 2008-11-04 between 09:00 and 10:00, the verification authority 5 adds a (time dependent) code to the code of that road section, e.g.
- the verification authority only needs to check whether or not for the user's license number AA-99-BB, the added section code SUgb Jq6j is present in the user's declaration or payment.
- the other added codes are irrelevant; in fact they need not to be made available to the person or authority responsible for the declaration; the presence of the right added codes in the car module can e.g. be proven by a question-and-answer-application (e.g. "Give me all codes starting with SUg..") or via an intermediate trusted application or party.
- the verification authority will change the added codes of the road segments (not only of the segments where license plates are recorded) frequently —e.g. four times a day at varying times— to prevent interpreting of the codes.
- a step of processing 27 is carried out by the provider for calculating pricing information.
- Such calculation 28 may be carried out based on local pricing data stored in the provider for each sub-trajectory traversed by the vehicle, which is deduced from the GPS positioning information.
- the pricing information is generated by the external provider 26, the pricing information is made available to the vehicle processing means 21. It will be appreciated that the data transmitted between the vehicle processing means 21 and the external provided 26 may be executed in a fully anonymous way.
- This code is made available to the external provider 26, which is arranged to append the calculated pricing data with this code and to forward it to the vehicle processing means 21.
- the vehicle processing means processes the appended payment data in the similar way as is described with reference to Figure 2, however, the verification code is kept on the record.
- the verification authority when the user is executing payment at step 25a pursuant to the appended payment data received at step 23a, he also specifies the code.
- This procedure enables the verification authority to enforce and/or to control the users of the road payment system with regard to payment consistency.
- the verification authority may charge the user for fraud.
- the external provider and the verification authorities may be either government or private entities.
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- Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
- Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
- Finance (AREA)
- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Traffic Control Systems (AREA)
- Devices For Checking Fares Or Tickets At Control Points (AREA)
Abstract
Method for pricing the use of a public road system etc. by vehicles, called road pricing. Each vehicle (1) is provided with vehicle processing means (2), which are arranged for assessing and transmitting data related to motions of the vehicle along or through the road system, called motion data (m). The road system comprises means (3) for storing road data (r). Pricing processing means (4) areprovided for processing the motion data (m) received from each individual vehicle into individual pricing data (p). The vehicle processing means (2) transmit the vehicle's motion data (m) to the pricing processing means (4). The pricing processing means (4) calculate the pricing data (p) using the received motion data (m) and the related road data (r) and return the calculated pricing data (p) to the vehicle processing means (2) of the relevant vehicle (1). The vehicle processing means (2) receive the pricing data (p) and make them available to someone responsible for declaring the road pricing. A verification authority (5) transmits in time changing verification codes (v) to the pricing processing means, which are linked to road sections. Vehicle identifiers, e.g. license plates, of passing vehicles are recorded by cameras, together the time. When the pricing data (p), calculated by the price processing means, are returned to the vehicle processing means (2), the verification codes which correspond to the road sections and times the vehicle moved along, are added to those pricing data.
Description
Title: Road pricing system
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a method for pricing and/or billing for the use of a public road system etc. by vehicles, called road pricing hereinafter. The invention further relates to a method of enabling pricing and/or billing by a public road system provided with means for storing road data for use of the public road system by a vehicle provided with a vehicle processing means.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An embodiment of a pricing system is known from WP 2007/107001. The known pricing system is arranged to generate auditable evidentiary record of the location-history of an asset or person. For this purpose an on-board unit is provided for recording location data after which they are made available to a further unit for calculation of pricing information.
It is a disadvantage of the known system that a near- anonymity is provided with regard to location data and the person related to said location data. This is not desirable because the fully privacy of a person is not guaranteed.
A further embodiment of the pricing system is known from WO 2006/019363, wherein a vehicle's user is charged based on geographical location data, wherein the known system comprises a control device adapted for controlling an installation of an on-board unit for transmitting geographical location data upon translation of the vehicle.
It is a disadvantage of the known system that an extra device is needed for enabling it's operation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a method and means respectively in which the privacy of each individual (vehicle) user will be
guaranteed. Another aim is to provide a method and means respectively in which as much as possible central processing capacity is used, while the processing capacity in each vehicle is minimal.
To this end, the method according to the invention comprises the steps of: providing the vehicle with vehicle processing means, arranged for:
- assessing and transmitting data related to motions of the vehicle within the public road system, called motion data hereinafter;
- receiving pricing data related to the vehicle motion data, providing the public road system with means for storing road data related to the public road system and/or sections of it; providing pricing processing means or processing the motion data received from the vehicle into individual pricing data; the method further comprising the steps of: transmitting by the vehicle processing means the vehicle's motion data, not vehicle identification data, to the pricing processing means; - calculating by the pricing processing means the pricing data using the received motion data and the related road data and returning by the pricing processing means the calculated pricing data to the vehicle processing means of the vehicle; receiving by the vehicle processing means the pricing data and making them available to a person responsible for handling of the road pricing of the vehicle.
It is found that in the method of the invention there is no need for communication between the vehicle and the road- side equipment. Both these aspects have an advantage that relatively cheap on-board-equipment can be used. In addition, it is found that by separating the data flow regarding the
geographical location of the vehicle from data regarding the identity of the vehicle and/or its owner a full-scale privacy of data handling may be ensured. As a result an external unit issuing the pricing data does not have information about identity of the vehicle or its owner and the person responsible for handling of the data is receiving the pricing data and the identity of the vehicle without receiving information about geographical location of the vehicle causing said handling.
Accordingly, in an embodiment of the method according to the invention, the vehicle identification data is used by the person together with the received pricing data to carryout said handling.
The data related to the vehicle and/or its owner, called vehicle identification data hereinafter, may also be stored in the vehicle processing means and be used (see last step above), together with the received pricing data, to calculate, declare or pay, by the responsible person or authority the road pricing of his/her/its vehicle. The vehicle data, however, may be stored and used separately, e.g. within a PC or (via any terminal) within any Internet accessible server.
In a further embodiment of the method according to the invention the vehicle processing means transmits the vehicle's motion data, to the pricing processing means in an anonymized way.
It is found to be particularly advantageous to anonymize even transmission of the vehicle motion data, as this measure further improves privacy aspects of the method of the invention.
Preferably, data is anonymyzed by data partitioning and scrambling or by data desequencing. However, it is also possible to use a method employed by when a pre-paid GSM communicates with a GSM provider for updating the pre-paid amount. It will be appreciated that such embodiment is known per se to a person skilled in the art and may be effectively used in the method of the invention. Such anonymized data transmission prevents reconstruction of
private or sensitive information from the data exchanged between the vehicle processing means and the price processing means.
In a further embodiment of the method according to any the invention, a verifying authority is provided for verifying and/or for controlling enforcement, the method comprising the steps of: transmitting by a verification authority verification codes to the pricing processing means, which verification codes are linked to sections of the road system where vehicle identification data, are recorded; - appending the pricing data, calculated by the price processing means, with the verification codes yielding appended pricing data and returning to the vehicle processing means of the relevant vehicle the appended pricing data; receiving by the vehicle processing means the appended pricing data and making them available to the person for handling of the road pricing of the vehicle, wherein the person adds the vehicle's identification data and the received verification codes to a handling document; comparing by the verification authority its own records of the verification codes and links to the sections of the road system where the identification of passing vehicles were recorded with the received handling document including the vehicle's identification data and the verification codes.
It is found that by providing a further external authority next to the authority in charge of generating pricing data enforceability of the method of the invention is enabled.
Accordingly, when a vehicle is travelling along a public road, its licence plate may be recorded and may be made available for such further external authority. In order to check whether the vehicle was travelling with the vehicle processing means switched on and/or whether the vehicle's owner
has paid in time, the verification authority compares its records regarding the vehicle identification and the actual payments of vehicle's users.
Preferably, the vehicle identification data is recorded by means of imaging a licence plate. For example, the vehicle identification data may be imaged using optical means, like photo- or video camera's.
The pricing means preferably comprise two components to ensure, in collaboration with the vehicle processing means, the privacy aspect. The price processing means processes, in a first step, the motion data, using the especially geometrical road data, into a trajectory, i.e. a set of pairs (ti, xi) where the Xi is the best fitting point on a geometrically described road element and i is an index. In a second step it processes the trajectory into the prices for driving on the respective road elements (sections). It is preferred to use a privacy agent to ensure the impossibility for the price processing means to derive information related to the privacy or sensitive aspects of the vehicle's motions. The three parties, i.e. the vehicle processing means, the price processing means and the privacy agent are able to guarantee the privacy aspect for the user. The vehicle processing means communicate in an anonymous way with the price processing means, e.g. akin to the way a prepaid GSM communicates with a GSM provider. The price processing means (akin to the provider) only know that 'someone' has paid for an amount of services (in this case: geometrical fitting and pricing services). The price processing means receive the motion data however not directly, but via the privacy agent, fulfil after receiving the motion data their service task and send, again via the privacy agent, the resulting data back to the vehicle processing means. So the privacy agent has the task to work as an intermediate party between the vehicle processing means and the price processing means: it receives the motion data of the vehicle processing means in such a way that it can not interpret the motion, only the times of the measurements. It sends packets of the motion data (e.g. in parts of five minutes) to the price processing means, gets back data on the road segments
plus the price of the driving on the road segments plus verification codes —all in a unintelligible way—, pastes the packets of the motion in the right (predefined) way and sends the information to the vehicle processing means. In this way it is secured that only the vehicle processing means know the complete motion of the car. The price processing means only know that
"someone drove at a certain road segment". The privacy agent only knows that the car drove, but not where.
A method of enabling pricing and/or billing by a public road system provided with means (3) for storing road data (r) for use of the public road system by a vehicle provided with a vehicle processing means (2), which is arranged for: assessing and transmitting data related to motions of the vehicle within the road system, called motion data (m) hereinafter; receiving pricing data (p) related to the vehicle motion data, wherein pricing processing means (4) are provided for processing the motion data (m) received from each individual vehicle into individual pricing data (p), comprises the steps of: transmitting by the vehicle processing means (2) the vehicle's motion data (m), not its vehicle identification data (v), to the pricing processing means (4); calculating by the pricing processing means (4) the pricing data (p) using the received motion data (m) and the related road data (r) and returning by the pricing processing means the calculated pricing data (p) to the vehicle processing means (2) of the vehicle (1); receiving by the vehicle processing means (2) the pricing data (p) and making them available to a person responsible for handling of the road pricing of the vehicle.
The method for enabling due pricing according to the invention has an advantage that substantially simple hardware may be installed in the vehicle, which provides a low threshold for the public for using such system. Additional advantages of the system, for example, related to privacy of data handling and enforcement have been described with reference to the foregoing. These and other aspects of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings wherein like reference numerals relate to like items. It will be appreciated, however, that the drawings are provided for illustrative purposes only and may not be used for limiting the scope of the appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1, presents a schematic view of an embodiment of a system arranged to carry-out the method according to the invention.
Figure 2 presents a schematic view of an embodiment of a communication between a public road system and a vehicle processing means.
Figure 3 presents a schematic view of an embodiment of an enforcement method according to an aspect of the invention.
Figure 1 shows a number of cars 1 driving along a public road system. Each car 1 is provided with a rather simple car module 2, arranged for assessing -by means of a position measuring system, e.g. GPS- and transmitting data related to motions of the car along or through the road system, indicated as motion data m in figure 1, and for receiving, and (temporarily) storing, pricing data p related to the car and its motions.
The public road system is provided with a server 3 for storing data related to the public road system and/or sections of it, like individual roads etc., called road data r hereinafter. Such a server 3 may already be in use for other purposes, e.g. for road management and maintenance etc. A pricing server 4 is provided for processing the motion data m received from each individual car into individual pricing data p, this embodiment is illustrated in Figure 2.
In operation, the car module 2 transmit the car's motion data m (without its car data like license number etc.) to the pricing server 4. The pricing server 4 calculates the pricing data p, using the received motion data m and the related road data r, retrieved from road server 3 using those motion data m, and returns the calculated pricing data p to the car module 2 of the relevant car 1. The car module 2 receives the pricing data p and makes them available to a person or authority who/which is responsible for the declaration or payment of the road pricing of the car, the car user or owner.
The data related to the car and/or its owner/user, called car data v hereinafter, may or may not be stored in the car module. If stored in the car module 2, it can be used, together with the received pricing data p, to calculate, declare or pay, by the responsible person or authority the road pricing of his/her/its car. If the car data v is not stored in the car module 2 it may be stored in e.g. the owner's or user's PC, which can be used to declare or pay the road pricing to the Tax Authority (not shown in the figure). The pricing data p -and optionally the car data v- can be transferred to the user's or owner's PC by means of a USB stick or via wired or wireless (e.g. IR, Bluetooth etc.) communication, if necessary by using authentication tools.
It is preferred that the car module 2 transmits the car's motion data m to the pricing server 4 in an anonymized way, e.g. by data partitioning and scrambling or any form of data desequencing, causing that individual car trips cannot feasibly be tracked, or by introducing, as described before, a privacy agent in between (not shown in the figure).
For verifying or enforcement, to prevent fraud with the declaration of trips to the Tax Authority, a verification authority 5 transmits verification codes to the pricing server 4, which verification codes are linked to sections of the road system at certain times (hence not linked with the cars on it). These verification codes are not intelligible for the vehicle processing means, nor for his owner or any other than the verification authority (for instance by encryption). Using standard encryption techniques the verification codes can
be made specific for the relation between the vehicle processing means and the price processing means, thus preventing the use of the verification codes by unintended persons ("selling the codes"). Along the road system car identifiers, e.g. license plates, of passing cars are recorded, e.g. by photo or video cameras 6. When the pricing data p, calculated by the pricing server, are returned to the car module 2 of the relevant car 1, the verification codes which correspond to the road sections at the time the car moved along or through them, are added to those pricing data. The data are stored in the car module 2 in a secure way as long as necessary. After the car module 2 receives the pricing data p and the relevant verification codes both are made available to the person or authority responsible for the declaration or payment of the road pricing of the car, which person or authority adds the car's identifier, e.g. license number, and —for instance on explicit demand of the verification authority- the received verification codes to his/her/its declaration or payment of the road pricing of the car. The verification authority checks the received declaration or payment, including the car's identifier and the presence of the right (see also the example below) verification codes with its own records of verification codes and links to the sections of the road system where the identifiers of passing cars were recorded.
Suppose a vehicle having license number AA-99-BB, drives from A to B. The vehicle's car module 2 detects the vehicle's motion (in fact outcomes of measurements of time and coordinates) along its path A-B and transmit the car's motion data m (without its license number) to the pricing server 4. The road server 3 has subdivided the road network into rather short road sections which are coded by the verification authority (e.g. several times a day) into section codes. The pricing server 4 calculates the pricing data p, using the received motion data m and the related road data r, retrieved from road server 3 using those motion data m. The pricing data in server 4 e.g. includes a dataset like (besides of course a column with for instance the price per section):
The road section codes may be used for verification codes for verifying, to prevent fraud with the declaration of trips to the Tax Authority. To that end the verification authority 5 transmits the verification/section codes to the pricing server 4, which verification codes thus are linked to the sections of the road system in particular those where —for verification reasons— the license plates of passing cars may be recorded, e.g. by photo or video cameras 6. When the verification authority 5 installs such a "check point" 6 at a certain road section, e.g. at road section WCGqβnts, during a certain period, e.g. at 2008-11-04 between 09:00 and 10:00, the verification authority 5 adds a (time dependent) code to the code of that road section, e.g. he adds between 09:00 and 10:00 to WCGqβnts the code Sugb Jq6j and moreover 'fake' (time dependent) codes (of the same type) to the other road section codes. The pricing server adds in a new column these codes to the pricing data. Due to that added code the data set should have look like:
Date/time Section Code Added code
4-11-2008 09:00 FeuZiyfp jkWn5i21
4-11-2008 09:02 8AhFhSvu Yw8JW0bd
4-11-2008 09:03 G7CiD4gw Wlk429NN
4-11-2008 09:05 RZNdGe9G Iau73MNw
4-11-2008 09:09 anx7NpSJ 39wvUC6X
4-11-2008 09:10 EG7ffTRV uWi30ZRd
4-11-2008 09:14 vecdoawQ Lwq82KSR
4-11-2008 09:16 iδwtPvbk mSR201KV
4-11-2008 09:17 RP9vpBFe 3JE0v8Bt
4-11-2008 09:20 nAzP4w7R sIeu38LP
4-11-2008 09:22 WCGq6nts SUgbJq6j
4-11-2008 09:25 7ao2uRKK QW948Lce
4-11-2008 09:27 x7NDcudX Wo20IV72
4-11-2008 09:29 5LPFiFRK UpwO27cY
4-11-2008 09:32 axMδeRdR 0NCTes27
4-11-2008 09:35 mEQZgδAb vnuy64LU
4-11-2008 09:37 cedYZhLq wira82RE
4-11-2008 09:39 wNCNfnrM Tzuw26DO
Etc. Etc. Etc.
So when the pricing data p, calculated by the pricing server, are returned to the car module 2 of the relevant car 1, the verification codes which correspond to the road sections at the time the car moved along or through them, including the added codes, are added to those pricing data, this embodiment is explained in more detail with reference to Figure 3.
After the car module 2 receives the pricing data p and the relevant verification code(s) both are made available to the person or authority responsible for the declaration or payment of the road pricing of the car, which person or authority adds the car's identifier, e.g. license number, and -for instance at explicit demand of the verification authority— the received verification codes to his/her/its declaration or payment of the road pricing of the car. The verification authority compares the received declaration or payment, including the car's identifier (AA-99-BB) and the verification codes with its own records of verification codes and links to the sections of the road
system where the identifiers of passing cars were checked. So in this exemplary case the verification authority only needs to check whether or not for the user's license number AA-99-BB, the added section code SUgb Jq6j is present in the user's declaration or payment. The other added codes are irrelevant; in fact they need not to be made available to the person or authority responsible for the declaration; the presence of the right added codes in the car module can e.g. be proven by a question-and-answer-application (e.g. "Give me all codes starting with SUg..") or via an intermediate trusted application or party. If that code should not be present in the dataset the submitted declaration proves to be fraudulent (after all car AA-99-BB was gatsoed in the relevant time segment driving over road section WCGqβnts), after which the Tax Authority can take measures in consequence of that.
In fact the verification authority will change the added codes of the road segments (not only of the segments where license plates are recorded) frequently —e.g. four times a day at varying times— to prevent interpreting of the codes.
It is noted that in the preceding the right road section code only has been printed in bold for reason of intelligibility; of course in practice this will not be done within the dataset sent to the vehicle processing means. In this way a method has been disclosed which provides a sophisticated road pricing for the real use of vehicles, using modern means. Direct communication between (verification authority at) the road side and the vehicle processing means is not necessary. After sending the data with the declaration or payment and the (short) phase of checking the codes by the verification authority, all data (e.g. in the vehicle processing means) can be discarded, hence preserving privacy.
It is noted that in the above a method and system is described for road pricing. In fact method and system apply for a set of sensors (here called vehicle processing means) in a region (here: a traffic system) generating measurement data (here: motion data) about a process (here: driving) in which
something is consumed (here: length of road driven). The method implies that the consumption of the goods (e.g. energy) can be charged by a central authority preventing reconstruction of private or sensitive information from the exchanged data between sensors ("smart meters") and price processing means.
Figure 2 presents a schematic view of an embodiment of a communication between a public road system and a vehicle processing means. The communication chart 20 schematically depicts a vehicle processing means 21 comprising a GPS module 22 which is arranged to record positioning information about the vehicle. This positioning information may be uploaded to an external provided 20 using during a permissible number of events x, which may be pre- determined, like it is done for the pre-paid GSM telephones. It will be appreciated that the vehicle processing means 21 is arranged to upload only information about the vehicle coordinates, not the vehicle identification.
When the GPS positioning information is uploaded into the external provider 26 a step of processing 27 is carried out by the provider for calculating pricing information. Such calculation 28 may be carried out based on local pricing data stored in the provider for each sub-trajectory traversed by the vehicle, which is deduced from the GPS positioning information.
When the pricing information is generated by the external provider 26, the pricing information is made available to the vehicle processing means 21. It will be appreciated that the data transmitted between the vehicle processing means 21 and the external provided 26 may be executed in a fully anonymous way.
Upon arrival of the pricing information into the vehicle processing means 21 the payment data 23 is couples with the vehicle identification data at step 24, wherein the vehicle identification data may be provided by a suitable input, like a touch screen, or using a suitable data input device, like an USB stick.
When the coupling is effectuated the payment may be executed by the user at step 25. For example, the vehicle processing means 21 may be arranged to execute the payment wirelessly. Alternatively, a hardcopy invoice may be generated. Figure 3 presents a schematic view of an embodiment of an enforcement method according to an aspect of the invention. In this embodiment the system is supplemented with a verification authority 32 which is arranged to generate specific individual verification codes based on knowledge of the vehicle dwelling. This code is made available to the external provider 26, which is arranged to append the calculated pricing data with this code and to forward it to the vehicle processing means 21. The vehicle processing means processes the appended payment data in the similar way as is described with reference to Figure 2, however, the verification code is kept on the record. As a result, when the user is executing payment at step 25a pursuant to the appended payment data received at step 23a, he also specifies the code. This procedure enables the verification authority to enforce and/or to control the users of the road payment system with regard to payment consistency. When a code has been generated and it is not found on user's payments, the verification authority may charge the user for fraud. It will be appreciated that the external provider and the verification authorities may be either government or private entities.
It will be appreciated that the embodiments described herein above are illustrative not limiting. Various modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the appended claims.
Claims
1. Method for pricing and/or billing for the use of a public road system by a vehicle, comprising the steps of: providing the vehicle (1) with vehicle processing means (2), arranged for: - assessing and transmitting data related to motions of the vehicle within the public road system, called motion data (m) hereinafter;
- receiving pricing data (p) related to the vehicle motion data, providing the public road system with means (3) for storing road data (r) related to the public road system and/or sections of it; providing pricing processing means (4) for processing the motion data (m) received from the vehicle into individual pricing data (p); the method further comprising the steps of: transmitting by the vehicle processing means (2) the vehicle's motion data (m), not vehicle identification data (v), to the pricing processing means (4); calculating by the pricing processing means (4) the pricing data (p) using the received motion data (m) and the related road data (r) and returning by the pricing processing means (4) the calculated pricing data (p) to the vehicle processing means (2) of the vehicle (1); receiving by the vehicle processing means (2) the pricing data (p) and making them available to a person responsible for handling of the road pricing of the vehicle.
2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle identification data (v) is stored in the vehicle processing means (2).
3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the vehicle identification data is used by the person together with the received pricing data (p) to carryout said handling.
4. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the vehicle processing means (2) transmits the vehicle's motion data (m), to the pricing processing means (4) in an anonymized way.
5. A method according to claim 4, wherein data is anonomyzed by data partitioning and scrambling or by data desequencing.
6. Method according to any one of the preceding claim, wherein a verifying authority is provided for verifying and/or for controlling enforcement, the method comprising the steps of: transmitting by a verification authority (5) verification codes to the pricing processing means (4), which verification codes are linked to sections of the road system where vehicle identification data (v), are recorded,; appending the pricing data (p), calculated by the price processing means (4), with the verification codes yielding appended pricing data and returning to the vehicle processing means (2) of the relevant vehicle (1) the appended pricing data,; receiving by the vehicle processing means (2) the appended pricing data (p) and making them available to the person for handling of the road pricing of the vehicle, wherein the person adds the vehicle's identification data (v), and the received verification codes to a handling document; comparing by the verification authority (5) its own records of the verification codes and links to the sections of the road system where the identification of passing vehicles were recorded with the received handling document including the vehicle's identification data and the verification codes.
7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the vehicle identification data (v) is recorded by means of imaging a licence plate.
8. A method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the vehicle identification data is imaged using optical means.
9. A method of enabling pricing and/or billing by a public road system provided with means (3) for storing road data (r) for use of the public road system by a vehicle provided with a vehicle processing means (2), which is arranged for: assessing and transmitting data related to motions of the vehicle within the road system, called motion data (m) hereinafter; - receiving pricing data (p) related to the vehicle motion data, wherein pricing processing means (4) are provided for processing the motion data (m) received from each individual vehicle into individual pricing data (p), the method comprising the steps of: - transmitting by the vehicle processing means (2) the vehicle's motion data (m), not its vehicle identification data (v), to the pricing processing means (4); calculating by the pricing processing means (4) the pricing data (p) using the received motion data (m) and the related road data (r) and returning by the pricing processing means the calculated pricing data (p) to the vehicle processing means (2) of the vehicle (1); receiving by the vehicle processing means (2) the pricing data (p) and making them available to a person responsible for handling of the road pricing of the vehicle.
10. A system for enabling pricing and/or billing by a public road system, comprising: means (3) for storing road data (r) for use of the public road system by a vehicle; a vehicle processing means (2) adapted to be installed in the vehicle, arranged for: assessing and transmitting data related to motions of the vehicle within the road system, called motion data (m) hereinafter; - receiving pricing data (p) related to the vehicle motion data,
- pricing processing means (4) for processing the motion data (m) received from each individual vehicle into individual pricing data (p), wherein - the vehicle processing means (2) is adapted to transmit the vehicle's motion data (m), not its vehicle identification data (v), to the pricing processing means (4); the pricing processing means (4) is adapted to calculate the pricing data (p) using the received motion data (m) and the related road data (r) and to return the calculated pricing data
(p) to the vehicle processing means (2) of the vehicle (1); the vehicle processing means (2) being further arranged to receive the pricing data (p) and to make them available to a person responsible for handling of the road pricing of the vehicle.
11. A system according to claim 10, further comprising: a verifying authority for verifying and/or for controlling enforcement, wherein - the verification authority (5) is arranged to send verification codes to the pricing processing means (4), which verification codes are linked to sections of the road system where vehicle identification data (v), are recorded,; the price processing means (4) is further arranged to append the pricing data (p), with the verification codes yielding appended pricing data and to returning to the vehicle processing means (2) of the relevant vehicle (1) the appended pricing data,; the vehicle processing means (2) is further arranged to receive the appended pricing data (p) and to make them available to the person for handling of the road pricing of the vehicle.
12. A system according to claim 11, wherein the verification authority (5) is further arranged to compare its own records of the verification codes where the identification of passing vehicles were recorded with the received handling document including the vehicle's identification data and the verification codes.
13. A vehicle processing means (2) for enabling pricing and/or billing by a public road system provided with means (3) for storing road data (r) for use of the public road system by a vehicle provided with the vehicle processing means (2), which is arranged for: assessing and transmitting data related to motions of the vehicle within the road system, called motion data (m) hereinafter; receiving pricing data (p) related to the vehicle motion data, said vehicle processing means being adapted: to transmit the motion data (m) not vehicle identification data (v) to a pricing processing means (4) for enabling processing of the motion data (m) into individual pricing data (p) using road data (r); to receive the pricing data (p) from the pricing processing means (4) to make them available to a person responsible for handling of the road pricing of the vehicle.
14. A system according to claim 13, wherein the pricing data are appended with verification codes.
Applications Claiming Priority (4)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| EP08160551 | 2008-07-16 | ||
| EP08160551.1 | 2008-07-16 | ||
| EP08168829A EP2184715A1 (en) | 2008-11-11 | 2008-11-11 | Road pricing system |
| EP08168829.3 | 2008-11-11 |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| WO2010008289A1 true WO2010008289A1 (en) | 2010-01-21 |
Family
ID=41130247
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/NL2009/050441 Ceased WO2010008289A1 (en) | 2008-07-16 | 2009-07-16 | Road pricing system |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| WO (1) | WO2010008289A1 (en) |
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| CN111145369A (en) * | 2019-12-31 | 2020-05-12 | 深圳市金溢科技股份有限公司 | Switch scheduling method, vehicle charging method, industrial personal computer and vehicle charging system |
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| CN111145369A (en) * | 2019-12-31 | 2020-05-12 | 深圳市金溢科技股份有限公司 | Switch scheduling method, vehicle charging method, industrial personal computer and vehicle charging system |
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