Vehicle-centric road usage application using vehicle sensors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12373865-B2
Application number	US-202318160408-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 27, 2023
Priority date	Jan 27, 2023
Publication date	Jul 29, 2025
Grant date	Jul 29, 2025

Abstract

Computing vehicle-centric road usage without high definition (HD) road maps is performed. Road usage charging (RUC) charge geometry rules defining a zone in which RUC are charged are received via a V2X transceiver of a vehicle. The vehicle determines a roadway type based on captured sensor data indicative of the surroundings of the vehicle, the roadway type being selected from a plurality of roadway types including a first roadway type where RUC charge is incurred and a second roadway type where RUC charge is not incurred. The vehicle identifies applicable rules of the RUC charge geometry rules according to a current location of the vehicle, the applicable rules specifying how tariffs are computed for the determined roadway type. The vehicle accumulates, by the vehicle, vehicle RUC charge using vehicle bus data indicative of progress of the vehicle within the zone and the determined roadway type.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle for computing vehicle-centric road usage without high definition (HD) road maps, comprising:
a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) transceiver;
a memory maintaining a vehicle-based road usage charge application; and
a processor programmed to execute the vehicle-based road usage charge application to perform operations including to
receive, via the V2X transceiver, road usage charging (RUC) charge geometry rules defining a zone in which RUC are charged,
determine a roadway type based on captured sensor data indicative of the surroundings of the vehicle, the roadway type being selected from a plurality of roadway types including a first roadway type where RUC charge is incurred and a second roadway type where RUC charge is not incurred, the determination including to perform a semantic segmentation of the captured sensor data, to create an output labeling different elements in the captured sensor data, and infer the determined roadway type according to the labeling of the elements, based on a quantity and/or total area of pixels of the captured sensor data being consistent with the determined roadway type,
identify applicable rules of the RUC charge geometry rules according to a current location of the vehicle, the applicable rules specifying how tariffs are computed for the determined roadway type,
utilize a state machine to accumulate vehicle RUC charge using vehicle bus data indicative of progress of the vehicle within the zone and the determined roadway type, the state machine including a plurality of states, the plurality of states including a first state in which the vehicle is traversing the first roadway type where RUC charge is incurred and a second state in which the vehicle is traversing the second roadway type where RUC charge is not incurred;
transition from the first state to the second state responsive to the current location being indicative of the vehicle traveling down the second roadway type within the zone; and
transition from the second state to the first state responsive to the current location being indicative of the vehicle traveling down the first roadway type within the zone; and
provide, via the V2X transceiver, a message indicative of the vehicle RUC charge.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the elements include trees and/or a gravel roadway, and the determined roadway type is a private roadway for which RUC charge is not incurred.

3. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the elements include traffic controls and/or a paved roadway, and the determined roadway type is a public roadway for which RUC charge is incurred.

4. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further programmed to infer the determined roadway type according to a count of the different elements in the captured sensor data.

5. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further programmed to infer the determined roadway type according to an overall area of the different elements in the captured sensor data.

6. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the applicable rules specify how the tariffs are computed for factors including one or more of vehicle type, duration of travel, distance of travel, time of day.

7. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the current location is determined using a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) controller of the vehicle.

8. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the RUC charge geometry rules are received from one or more of:
a roadside unit in proximity to the vehicle;
a RUC service provider cloud over a communications network; or
via an access point name (APN) connection through a original equipment manufacturer (OEM) cloud to provide secure communication to the RUC service provider cloud.

9. A method for computing vehicle-centric road usage without high definition (HD) road maps, comprising:
receiving, via a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) transceiver of a vehicle, road usage charging (RUC) charge geometry rules defining a zone in which RUC are charged;
determining, by the vehicle, a roadway type based on captured sensor data indicative of the surroundings of the vehicle, the roadway type being selected from a plurality of roadway types including a first roadway type where RUC charge is incurred and a second roadway type where RUC charge is not incurred, the determining including to perform a semantic segmentation of the captured sensor data, to create an output labeling different elements in the captured sensor data, and infer the determined roadway type according to the labeling of the elements, based on a quantity and/or total area of pixels of the captured sensor data being consistent with the determined roadway type;
identifying, by the vehicle, applicable rules of the RUC charge geometry rules according to a current location of the vehicle, the applicable rules specifying how tariffs are computed for the determined roadway type;
utilizing a state machine to accumulate, by the vehicle, vehicle RUC charge using vehicle bus data indicative of progress of the vehicle within the zone and the determined roadway type, the state machine including a plurality of states, the plurality of states including a first state in which the vehicle is traversing the first roadway type where RUC charge is incurred and a second state in which the vehicle is traversing the second roadway type where RUC charge is not incurred;
transitioning from the first state to the second state responsive to the current location being indicative of the vehicle traveling down the second roadway type within the zone; and
transitioning from the second state to the first state responsive to the current location being indicative of the vehicle traveling down the first roadway type within the zone; and
providing, via the V2X transceiver, a message indicative of the vehicle RUC charge.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the elements include trees and/or a gravel roadway, and the determined roadway type is a private roadway for which RUC charge is not incurred.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the elements include traffic controls and/or a paved roadway, and the determined roadway type is a public roadway for which RUC charge is incurred.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising inferring the determined roadway type according to a count of the different elements in the captured sensor data.

13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising inferring the determined roadway type according to an overall area of the different elements in the captured sensor data.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the applicable rules specify how the tariffs are computed for factors including one or more of vehicle type, duration of travel, distance of travel, time of day.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the RUC charge geometry rules are received from one or more of:
a roadside unit in proximity to the vehicle;
a RUC service provider cloud over a communications network; or
via an access point name (APN) connection through a original equipment manufacturer (OEM) cloud to provide secure communication to the RUC service provider cloud.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions for computing vehicle-centric road usage without high definition (HD) road maps that, when executed by one or more controllers of a vehicle, cause the vehicle to perform operations including to:
receive, via a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) transceiver of a vehicle, road usage charging (RUC) charge geometry rules defining a zone in which RUC are charged;
determine, by the vehicle, a roadway type based on captured sensor data indicative of the surroundings of the vehicle, the roadway

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Bandi Krishna
• Palakonda Sathyanarayana Chary
• Hamilton Brennan
• Vukovic Ivan
• Shailendra Swetha

Classifications

• G06Q20/325

  using wireless networks · CPC title

• H04W4/44

  for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H] · CPC title

• G07B15/063 Primary

  using wireless information transmission between the vehicle and a fixed station (identification of vehicles G08G) · CPC title

• G06Q20/145

  Payments according to the detected use or quantity · CPC title

• G06Q50/40

  Business processes related to the transportation industry (shipping G06Q10/083) · CPC title