Privacy-preserving road usage charging reports

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12586105-B2
Application number	US-202217932906-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2022
Priority date	Sep 16, 2022
Publication date	Mar 24, 2026
Grant date	Mar 24, 2026

Abstract

A sum report is generated for each vehicle of a plurality of vehicles, the respective sum report indicating an account of the vehicle to be charged and a total sum owed by the vehicle. An aggregate report is generated indicating total amounts owed to each of a plurality of charger domains across the plurality of vehicles without indicating the accounts of the vehicles. The sum reports and the aggregate report are sent to a RUC service provider, the RUC service provider being configured to charge the vehicles using the sum reports and credit the charger domains using the aggregate report, while being unable to determine which routes were taken by the vehicles.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for privacy-preserving road usage charging (RUC) comprising:
a secure application cloud comprising one or more hardware devices, programmed to execute a RUC application cloud part of a RUC application to perform operations including to:
generate a sum report for each vehicle of a plurality of vehicles, the respective sum report indicating an account of the vehicle to be charged and a total sum owed by the vehicle;
generate an aggregate report, the aggregate report indicating total amounts owed to each of a plurality of charger domains across the plurality of vehicles without indicating the accounts of the vehicles;
randomize timing and/or interval of transmission of the sum reports and the aggregate report, such that the sum reports and the aggregate report are sent at different times and cover different times, and the total sums owed by the plurality of vehicles from the sum reports and the total amounts owed to each of a plurality of charger domains from the aggregate report cover different time intervals that do not line up temporally to preserve vehicle privacy; and
send the sum reports and the aggregate report over a wide-area network to a RUC service provider, the RUC service provider being configured to charge the vehicles using the sum reports and credit the charger domains using the aggregate report, while being unable to determine which routes were taken by the vehicles.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the secure application cloud is further programmed to perform operations including to:
receive, from each vehicle of the plurality of vehicles, the account of the vehicle to be charged, and for each of the plurality of charger domains, a distance traveled along roadways within a respective one of the plurality of charger domains and an amount owed by the vehicle to the respective one of the plurality of charger domains.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the secure application cloud is further programmed to perform operations including to:
determine the total sum owed by each vehicle by totaling, for each vehicle, the amounts owed to each of the plurality of charger domains; and determine the total amounts owed to each charger domain of the plurality of charger domains by totaling the amounts owed by all vehicles to the respective charger domain.

4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein information received from each of the plurality of vehicles includes a RUC report, each RUC report specifying the account of the vehicle to be charged, and for each of the plurality of charger domains, the distance traveled within the respective one of the plurality of charger domains and the amount owed by the vehicle to the respective one of the plurality of charger domains.

5 . The system of claim 2 , wherein information received from each of the plurality of vehicles includes:
an anonymized report, indicating amounts owed to each of the charger domains for the vehicle without an identifier of the account of the vehicle; and a sum report, indicative a total amount owed by the vehicle to plurality of charger domains and the identifier of the account of the vehicle.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the secure application cloud is further programmed to perform operations including to:
receive, from the RUC service provider, map and fees information, the map and fees information being descriptive of road geometry and fee tables for traversal of roads within each of the plurality of charger domains; and send the map and fees information to the plurality of vehicles.

7 . A system for privacy-preserving road usage charging (RUC) comprising:
a vehicle comprising one or more hardware devices, programmed to execute a RUC application to perform operations including to, per periodic billing cycle:
generate a sum report indicating an account of the vehicle to be charged and a total sum owed by the vehicle;
generate an anonymized report indicating total amounts owed to each of a plurality of charger domains by the vehicle without indicating the account of the vehicle;
randomize timing and/or interval of transmission of the sum reports and the aggregate report, such that the sum reports and the aggregate report are sent at different times and cover different times, and the total sums owed by the plurality of vehicles from the sum reports and the total amounts owed to each of a plurality of charger domains from the aggregate report cover different time intervals that do not line up temporally to preserve vehicle privacy; and
send the sum report and the anonymized report over a wide-area network to a RUC service provider, the RUC service provider being configured to charge the vehicle using the sum reports and credit the charger domains using the anonymized report.

8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the vehicle is further programmed to perform operations including to:
receive, from the RUC service provider, map and fees information, the map and fees information being descriptive of road geometry and fee tables for traversal of roads within each of the plurality of charger domains.

9 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the RUC service provider is configured to periodically reconcile the sum reports and the anonymized reports, including to, for each period:
utilize the sum reports to collect value to be distributed to RUC chargers corresponding to the charger domains; and distribute the collected value to the RUC chargers according to the anonymized report.

10 . A method for privacy-preserving road usage charging (RUC) comprising:
by a secure application cloud comprising one or more hardware devices executing a RUC application cloud part of a RUC application,
generating a sum report for each vehicle of a plurality of vehicles, the respective sum report indicating an account of the vehicle to be charged and a total sum owed by the vehicle;
generating an aggregate report, the aggregate report indicating total amounts owed to each of a plurality of charger domains across the plurality of vehicles without indicating the accounts of the vehicles;
randomizing timing and/or interval of transmission of the sum reports and the aggregate report, such that the sum reports and the aggregate report are sent at different times and cover different times, and the total sums owed by the plurality of vehicles from the sum reports and the total amounts owed to each of a plurality of charger domains from the aggregate report cover different time intervals that do not line up temporally to preserve vehicle privacy; and
sending the sum reports and the aggregate report over a wide-area network to a RUC service provider, the RUC service provider being configured to charge the vehicles using the sum reports and credit the charger domains using the aggregate report, while being unable to determine which routes were taken by the vehicles.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising receiving, from each vehicle of the plurality of vehicles, information including the account of the vehicle to be charged, and for each of the plurality of charger domains, a distance traveled within a respective one of the plurality of charger domains and an amount owed by the vehicle to the respective one of the plurality of charger domains.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
determining the total sum owed by each vehicle by totaling, for each vehicle, the amounts owed to each of the plurality of charger domains; and determining the total amounts owed to each charger domain of the plurality of charger domains by totaling the amounts owed by all vehicles to the respective charger domain.

13 . The method of claim 11 ,

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Vukovic Ivan
• Bandi Krishna
• Palakonda Sathyanarayana Chary
• Ahmad Syed Amaar
• Zane Joseph

Classifications

• Y02T90/12

  Electric charging stations · CPC title

• G06Q30/0284 Primary

  Time or distance, e.g. usage of parking meters or taximeters · CPC title