Device for recording information on a vehicle's itinerary

Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle diagnosis or maintenance indication

Patent

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Details

701207, 340995, G07C 508

Patent

active

061416096

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a device installed in a vehicle for recording information on the vehicle's itinerary.
In the unpublished patent application DE-P 43 10 099.6 of the applicant, a device for a utilization calculation system is proposed that is especially suited for calculating the charges for a road network that requires the payment of fees (e.g., calculating Autobahn tolls), This device is distinguished from other known calculation systems primarily by the fact that the charges are calculated practically exclusively within the vehicle itself and that no information about the toll roads taken by the vehicle leaves the vehicle. This is possible because each vehicle carries a calculation device that continually deducts the proper charge, based on the applicable tariff for the section of road just taken, from a credit balance, which is maintained on a mobile credit balance memory device (e.g., a chip card) and which has been purchased in advance by the driver at any desired payment point (e.g., an automatic chip card dispenser). For this purpose, tariff information is available from a memory unit of the device. In order to supply the calculation device with the information needed to identify the section of toll road just used, the device has a receiver system, with which information can be received from a satellite navigation system or a radio direction finding system, for example, which indicates the current geographical position of the vehicle or allows this position to be determined with the help of a computer unit of the device. Furthermore, the calculation device has a memory unit, in which geographical information concerning so-called "identification points" is stored, which allows the unambiguous identification of the individual toll segments of the road network. Via the receiver system, data are determined at short, regular intervals (e.g., every second) for the current geographical vehicle position at that moment with high accuracy (e.g., 100 m). If the determined position data are sufficiently close to consecutive identification points, it is possible to conclude from them that the associated toll road section has been traversed, and an appropriate deduction can automatically be made from the positive credit balance on the chip card. Although this device determines the geographical positions passed by the vehicle in a very accurate manner, the device is not meant or designed to store this type of position data permanently.
In FR 26 12 319, a device installed in a vehicle is described that makes it possible to also record, along with vehicle-specific data (e.g., motor speed, fuel consumption), data that identify the route, on an exchangeable data carrier designed, for example, as a chip card, for the purpose of cost computation taking into account the intensity of the utilization of a vehicle. In this connection, only the possibility of recording the route travelled is mentioned. However, no suggestions are given for collecting and storing in a manner protected against overwriting data that allow a reliable statement to be made concerning the location at which the vehicle was located during a trip at a particular given time.
Data can already be stored on the exchangeable data memory device that identify the driver, so that these data can be entered by means of a data reading device. In addition, it is possible for the purposes of checking to enter additional data identifying the driver via a keyboard attached to the device, in order to prevent misuse of the data carrier by an unauthorized person. After calculation has been carried out, the recorded data can again be written over with the data of the next trip.
EP-A 0 508 405 describes a system for determining the position of a vehicle, which preferably is based on the use of a system for satellite navigation. In order to be able to record the daily travel performance of a commercial vehicle (e.g., a taxi) as accurately as possible and with the lowest possible device-related expense, this system calls for a simple de

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Article from Elektronik Informationen Nr. 10-1992 entitled "Chips fur Smartcard-Anwedungen" by Antony Watts, SGS-Thomson, Agrate, 3 pp.
P. 81 of "Elektronik Informationen Nr. 10-1992".
Sabounghi, "Intelligent Vehicle Highway System--The Universal Close-Range Road/Vehicle Communication System Concept--The Enhanced AVI and Itso CVO Application", IEEE, pp. 957-967, Oct. 1991.

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