JP2000099778A - Toll shortage warning device in electronic toll collection system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to immediately cope with the shortage of a balance in an IC card at the time of paying a toll in an electronic toll collection(ETC) system. SOLUTION: A car navigation device 20 storing map data and toll data for toll roads and capable of recognizing the current position information of an automobile has a map data base 27 and a toll data base 32 and can recognize the current position of the automobile by a GPS receiver 21 or the like. An arithmetic unit 34 calculates the utilization charge of a toll road in the driving of the automobile. A comparing/judging device 35 compares the utilization charge with the balance of an IC card to judge whether the balance is in short or not. In the case of a short balance, a user is warned through a speaker 29 or the like before arrival at an interchange generating the shortage of the balance.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an in-vehicle device in an automatic toll collection system, and more particularly to an automatic toll system that includes a navigation device and issues a warning when a fee for automatic toll collection is insufficient. Regarding a charge shortage warning device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art On a toll road such as an expressway, a car must temporarily stop at a toll booth in order to pay a toll, and the suspension of the car is a major cause of traffic congestion. In order to alleviate such traffic congestion and to make the toll booth unmanned and cashless, in recent years, an automatic toll collection system (Electric Toll Collecti) that allows payment of tolls without stopping vehicles at toll booths
on, hereinafter referred to as "ETC system". ) Construction is in progress.

As shown in FIG. 3, an ETC system 100
Includes a road device 110 and an in-vehicle device 120. The road device 110 has a road antenna 111 and a road communication processing device 112. Further, the road communication processing device 112 includes a communication device, a fee processing device,
And a vehicle type discriminating device. Road antenna 1
11 is a notice antenna 111A at the entrance of the toll road
And the entrance antenna 111B, the charging antenna 11 at the exit
1C and a tollgate antenna 111D are provided, and these roadside antennas 111 enable bidirectional wireless communication with the automobile M. Further, a camera device 113 for photographing the running automobile M is provided for use in discriminating a vehicle type.

On the other hand, in the vehicle-mounted device 120, an IC card 121 for authenticating a user is inserted, and an IC card reader 122 for reading and writing information of the IC card 121 is provided.
Are provided, and a monitor 123 and a speaker 124 for notifying various information are provided. Furthermore, I
The information obtained from the C card 121 or the like
1 and an in-vehicle antenna 125 for receiving various information transmitted from the road antenna 111. The in-vehicle device 120 is provided with a main control unit and the like for controlling the in-vehicle device 120 overall.

When the vehicle M equipped with the on-vehicle device 120 uses a toll road as shown by a solid line in FIG. 3, a notice antenna 111A installed at the entrance of the toll road,
The vehicle M is detected by the road device 110 having the entrance antenna 111B, the camera device 113 and the like, and the IC card 1 is detected.
21 is detected, and various kinds of information such as entrance information such as place and time when the vehicle enters a toll road, vehicle type information, and time information are detected. Thus, it is determined whether or not the vehicle M can pass without stopping. Thereafter, when the car M leaves the toll road, the car M shown by the virtual line in FIG.
Charging information obtained from the vehicle type information and the entrance information is detected by the charging antenna 111C, and charging (automatic toll collection) is performed. Then, the billing process information is detected by the tollgate antenna 111D, and as a result, it is determined whether or not the vehicle can pass without stopping. And
Car type discrimination and toll processing are performed by the toll processing device and the vehicle type discriminating device in the roadside device 110, and toll information is transmitted to the central processing center 130. When collecting tolls at the entrance of a toll road, a charging antenna 1 must be installed at the entrance.
11C is provided, charging at the entrance (automatic toll collection)
Will be done.

On the other hand, in the case where the IC card 121 is a postpaid (credit) type card, the central processing center 130 performs processing based on the received charge processing information.
After the user's deposit account registered in the IC card 121 of the affiliated financial institution 140, the fee is deducted afterwards,
Perform processing to pay the toll collector. In addition, IC card 12
If 1 is a prepaid type, the IC card 12
1 is configured so that the toll road fee is paid to the toll collector on the spot by electronically rewriting the amount of money stored electronically.

[0007]

By the way, IC cards used in the ETC system include a prepaid card and a postpaid card. Of these prepaid cards, the balance of the prepaid card is limited. If the usage fee exceeds the balance and becomes insufficient, the ETC system cannot be used as it is.
Therefore, in order to pay the toll road toll using the ETC system, it was necessary to exit at an interchange before the balance became insufficient, or to increase the amount in a service area (or parking area, the same applies hereinafter) in the middle. .

However, in the conventional ETC system, it was not possible to immediately determine whether or not the balance was insufficient. For this reason, the user may notice that the balance is insufficient just before the interchange to be exited. In such a case, the user intends to use the IC card but pays the usage fee by cash or a highway card. There must be. Therefore, the user prepares cash and a highway card in a hurry, and there is an increased risk of inconvenience to preparing cash and the like, which may lead to an accident. In addition, despite the fact that the driver is about to pass through a gate dedicated to the ETC system, the course must be changed to a gate corresponding to cash or the like, which increases the danger.

Further, even if the IC card is a postpaid card, for example, if an upper limit is set for the amount that can be paid by the postpaid card, the same as when the IC card is a prepaid card is used. Problem arises.

[0010] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the problem even when the balance of the IC card is insufficient when trying to pay the toll on the toll road using the ETC system.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a charge shortage warning device for giving a warning so that an appropriate action can be taken immediately.

[0011]

A toll warning system in a toll collection system according to the present invention which solves the above-mentioned problem is a two-way wireless communication between a road system installed on a road and an on-vehicle system installed in an automobile. A navigation device that stores map data and toll road toll data and recognizes current vehicle position information in an on-vehicle device in an automatic toll collection system that electronically performs toll collection processing in a commercial transaction using an IC card; Calculation for calculating a toll on a toll road on which the vehicle is traveling, based on the map data, the toll road toll data, entrance information when the vehicle enters a toll road, and current position information of the vehicle. Means and a ratio between the usage fee calculated by the calculating means and the payable amount of the IC card. A comparison determining means for determining whether the usage fee exceeds the payable amount of the IC card and a balance shortage; and a charge for the balance shortage when the comparison determination means determines that the balance is insufficient. Warning means for giving a warning just before the position.

According to the present invention, a usage fee when a car travels on a toll road is calculated using a navigation device. Then, the usage fee is compared with the payable amount of the IC card, and if the balance becomes insufficient in this state, the fact is notified to the occupant before the balance becomes insufficient, thereby prompting the occupant to take appropriate action. be able to. Therefore, the user can accumulate additional money without panic or prepare cash or a highway card to complete payment of the toll road usage fee.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the first aspect, the navigation device stores revision information transmitted from the road system when the toll road fee is revised. And a writing device for writing the toll road toll data.

[0014] Tolls on toll roads are appropriately revised according to social conditions and the like. If the in-vehicle device does not recognize the revised fee, a reliable comparison cannot be made. In this regard, according to the present invention, since the on-vehicle system can obtain the toll road revision information, it is possible to reliably compare the usage fee of the toll road with the balance of the IC card.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a system block diagram of an in-vehicle device including a fee warning device according to the present invention. The in-vehicle device 1 includes a main body device 10 and a navigation device 20 serving as a fee shortage warning device according to the present invention.

The main unit 10 includes an automatic toll collection unit 1
1 and an automatic toll collection antenna 12, and the automatic toll collection unit 11 is provided with an IC card reader for reading and writing data on the IC card C, a communication device for performing two-way wireless communication with roadside devices, and the like. Have been. And
From the automatic toll collection unit 11, the billing information and the like are transmitted to the navigation device 20 by a navigation E described later.
It is transmitted to the CU 25.

In the automobile equipped with the main body device 10, after inserting the IC card C into an IC card reader (not shown), for example, a personal identification number or a keyword input by an operation unit 30 of the navigation device 20, which will be described later, is input. Perform authentication. By this authentication, IC by impersonating unauthorized user, so-called "spoofing"
Eliminate unauthorized use of the card C. In addition to those using these passwords, those using the physical characteristics of the user, for example, fingerprints, voiceprints, and iris spots are also conceivable. This authentication is normally performed when the IC card C is inserted into the IC card reader.

Further, a toll road toll collection process is performed via the automatic toll collection antenna 12, and the automatic toll collection antenna 12 performs bidirectional wireless communication with the road antenna 111 shown in FIG. You. This billing information is displayed on a display 28 of the navigation device 20, which will be described later. Further, when the toll road usage fee is automatically paid, the toll collection antenna 12 is used.
Is transmitted to the road antenna 111 shown in FIG.
Information is provided to the affiliated financial institution 140. further,
The result is written into the IC card C by the IC card reader, and the accounting process is performed.

The navigation device 20 is of a so-called hybrid type, and includes a GPS receiver 21, a vehicle speed sensor 2
2. Yaw rate sensor 23, database reading device 24, and navigation EC that controls them
U25 is provided. In the GPS receiver 21, a radio wave transmitted from a GPS satellite (not shown) is received by the GPS antenna 21 </ b> A and transmitted to the navigation ECU 25. Then, the navigation ECU 25 calculates the absolute position of the vehicle.

The vehicle speed sensor 22 detects vehicle speed data, and the yaw rate sensor 23 detects vehicle direction data. Thereafter, the navigation ECU 25 maps the speed data and the azimuth data and the map data read from the map database 27 by the database reading device 24 to calculate the relative position of the vehicle.

The navigation ECU 25 determines the position of the vehicle while appropriately considering the absolute position information and the relative position information. Then, the result is appropriately displayed on the display 28 or is notified as sound information by the speaker 29 via the sound decoder 29A. Various operations such as an operation of turning on the power of the navigation device 20 and an operation of changing the display screen of the display 28 can be performed by the operation unit 30.

The voice information is supplied to a microphone 31 connected to the navigation ECU 25 via a voice encoder 31A.
Can be entered. Further, the navigation device 20 has a road toll database 32 in which usage fees of various toll roads are stored, and the database reader 24 can read toll road toll data. When the toll data stored in the road toll database 32 is revised, the writing device 3
3, the revised fee data can be written.

Further, the navigation ECU 25 includes:
An arithmetic unit 34 and a comparison judgment unit 35 are provided. The arithmetic unit 34 determines the toll road on which the car is traveling based on the map data obtained from the map database 27, the toll data obtained from the road toll database 32, and the current position information of the car obtained from the GPS receiver 21 and the like. The usage fee is calculated. In addition, the comparison judgment device 35
The usage fee is compared with the payable amount of the IC card C, and it is determined whether the usage fee exceeds the payable amount and the balance becomes insufficient. The navigation ECU 25 includes:
A mobile phone 36 is connected to the navigation ECU.
The information in 25 can be appropriately transmitted to, for example, another automobile. Reference numeral 37
Is a mobile phone communication antenna.

In the on-vehicle apparatus 1 according to the present invention, the usage fee of the toll road on which the car is traveling is compared with the payable amount of the IC card C.
It has a function of issuing a warning just before the charging position. Less than,
The control at that time will be described taking a case where the vehicle runs on a toll road shown in FIG. 2 as an example.

In this example, the interchange X1
At the time of entering the vehicle M
In IC card C inserted in, the balance will not be insufficient if the usage fee is up to interchange X3,
It is assumed that the fee information that the balance becomes insufficient when traveling to the interchange X4 is stored. The interchanges X2, X3, and X4 are the charging positions.

Now, an automobile M equipped with the vehicle-mounted device 1 enters the toll road R from the interchange X1. Toll road R
The car M that has entered receives the entrance information via the automatic toll collection antenna 12 from the roadside communication processing device 112 (see FIG. 3) installed at the interchange X1. This entrance information is transmitted to the automatic toll collection unit 11, and is used to calculate a billing amount later. Further, the entrance information is transmitted to the navigation E in the navigation device 20.
It is transmitted to the CU 25. The current position of the car M is
It is always recognized by the current position information of the vehicle obtained from the GPS receiver 21 or the like. Navigation ECU2
In step 5, the arithmetic unit 34 calculates the usage fee to be paid at the interchange based on the entrance information and the current position information of the vehicle M, the map data and the road toll data read by the database reading device 24.

When the vehicle M1 running on the route R1 between the interchanges X1 and X2 exits at one of the interchanges X2 and X3, it is determined whether or not the balance is insufficient. This determination is based on the interchange X2 calculated by the arithmetic unit 34,
This is performed by comparing the usage fee up to X3 with the balance of the IC card C obtained from the automatic fee collection unit 11. That is, when the usage fee of the interchanges X2 and X3 exceeds the balance of the IC card C, it is determined that the fee is insufficient. Subsequent determination as to whether the fee is insufficient is made in the same manner.

Now, in this example, interchange X2,
The payable amount that will not cause the balance to run short when driving up to X3 is I
It is loaded on C card C. Therefore, when such a determination is made, it is not determined that the balance of the automobile M traveling on the route R1 is insufficient, and the fee can be paid by the ETC system. Therefore, no warning or the like is issued.

Eventually, in the car M2 that travels along the route R2 after passing through the interchange X2, the balance will not be insufficient until the interchange X3. It is determined that the balance is insufficient. Therefore, in the vehicle M2 traveling on the route R2, a warning is issued to the effect that "the balance will be insufficient when passing the next interchange." Such a warning may be a sound or an image. The speaker 29 is used for giving a warning by voice, and the display 28 is used for displaying an image. Based on the warning, the user can select whether to exit at the interchange X3 or to continue traveling on the toll road R after passing through the interchange X3.

When exiting at the interchange X3, the toll road usage fee can be paid by the IC card C as it is. Conversely, the car M3, which continues to travel to the route R3 without selecting to exit at the interchange X3, cannot pay the toll road use fee by the ETC system as it is because the balance is insufficient. Therefore, for the car M3 running on the route R3, a warning saying "You can accumulate fares in the next service area. If you do not accumulate, you will not be able to pay automatically at the next interchange." I do. In the service area SA / PA, a stacking device (not shown) for the IC card C is installed. Therefore, a user who wants to accumulate can select to stop at the next service area SA / PA, and accumulate at that service area SA / PA.

If a sufficient amount of money is accumulated in the service area SA / PA, the car M4 running on the route R4
Is in a state in which the usage fee can be paid by the IC card C at the interchange X4, so that no warning is issued (however, if only the amount of money for which the balance becomes insufficient at the next interchange X5 not shown is added, You will be warned that you will run out of balance after the next interchange.)

On the other hand, if the charge is not made in the service area SA / PA or the charge is not sufficient, the car M4 running on the route R4 pays the fee by the ETC system in the interchange X4. Can not do. Therefore, a warning is issued, stating, "Automatic payment is not possible at the next interchange. If you leave at the next interchange, please prepare cash or a highway card." According to this warning, the user has to make a choice between paying a cash or a highway card at the interchange X4 or accumulating a fee at a subsequent service area (parking area) without leaving the interchange X4. Can be. You can also choose to pay by cash or highway card at a later interchange.

Thereafter, each time the vehicle passes through the interchange, the above operation is repeated.

On the other hand, toll road usage fees are appropriately revised depending on social conditions and the like. If the toll data stored in the toll database 32 is not revised even though the toll road usage fee has been revised, a warning is issued when it is unnecessary, or a warning is issued when it is necessary. It is assumed that such a situation will occur. Therefore, in the present invention, when the toll road usage fee is revised, the writing device 33 writes the revised fee data (hereinafter, referred to as “revised toll data”) to the road toll database 32. it can.

The writing of the revised fee data is performed as follows. The revised toll data is transmitted from the on-road communication processing device 112 (see FIG. 3) on the toll road, received by the automatic toll collection antenna 12, and transmitted to the navigation ECU 25 via the automatic toll collection unit 11. The navigation ECU 25 transmits the revised toll data to the writing device 33, and the writing device 33 can write the revised toll data to the road toll database 32. Therefore, the vehicle M traveling on the toll road can perform the above-mentioned warning process based on the revised toll data. If the usage fee of the toll road is revised, at the entrance of the toll road, the fact shall be communicated to the automobile M using the ETC system, and displayed on the display 28 or voiced by the speaker 29. Can also.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the above-described means and methods, and achieves the object of the present invention.
The present invention can be appropriately changed and implemented within a range having the effects of the present invention. For example, the writing device 33 may not be provided, and the road toll database 32 itself may be replaced to cope with toll road toll revision.

On the other hand, VI expected to develop in the future
If the revised toll data is provided by a road traffic information communication system such as CS, measures such as receiving the revised toll data from the information communication system by a VICS receiver (not shown) and writing the data into the toll database 32, etc. Can also be taken.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention, ETC
Even when the balance of the IC card is insufficient when paying the toll road usage fee using the system, an appropriate action can be taken immediately. Therefore, the user can accumulate additional money without panic or prepare cash or a highway card to pay the toll road usage fee.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an in-vehicle device including a fee shortage warning device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a traveling path when an automobile travels on a toll road.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of an ETC system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 In-vehicle apparatus 10 Main body apparatus 11 Automatic toll collection unit 12 Automatic toll collection antenna 20 Navigation apparatus 21 GPS receiver 21A GPS antenna 22 Vehicle speed sensor 23 Yaw rate sensor 24 Database reading device 25 Navigation ECU 27 Map database 28 Display 29 Speaker 30 Operation part 31 Microphone 32 Road toll database 33 Writing device 34 Computing device 35 Comparison / judgment device C IC card M Car R Toll road X1-X4 Interchange

Claims (2)

[Claims] An in-vehicle device in an automatic toll collection system in which a toll collection process in a commercial transaction is electronically performed with an IC card by two-way wireless communication between a on-street device installed on a road and an in-vehicle device installed in a vehicle. A navigation device for storing map data and toll road toll data, and recognizing the current position information of the vehicle; the map data, the toll road toll data, entrance information when the vehicle enters a toll road, Calculating means for calculating a toll on a toll road on which the car is traveling, based on current position information of the car, and the toll calculated by the calculating means and the IC
Compare the payable amount of the card with the charge
A comparing and judging means for judging whether or not the balance becomes insufficient due to exceeding the payable amount of the C card;
A warning means for giving a warning in front of a charging position at which the balance becomes insufficient. 2. A writing device for writing revision information transmitted from the road device when the toll on the toll road is revised to the toll road toll data stored in the navigation device. A charge shortage warning device in the automatic charge collection system according to claim 1.