JP2018073364A - Charging processing device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a charging processing device for a vehicle capable of suppressing charging processing from being inexecutable by a center device.SOLUTION: The charging processing device for a vehicle comprises: a transmission position storage area 34b for storing an information transmission position as at least either an entry position to a charging area or an exit position from the charging area; a passage determination part 351 for determining whether or not a current position has passed the information transmission position; a wide area communication part 31; a transmission control part 352 for causing the wide area communication part 31 to transmit charging information necessary for charging processing to a center device on the basis of the determination that the current position has passed the information transmission position; and a charging information storage area 34c for storing charging information which has not been transmitted to the center device. The transmission control part 352 is configured to, when the untransmitted charging information is stored and it becomes able to communicate with the center device, cause the wide area communication part 31 to transmit the untransmitted charging information to the center device.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular charging processing apparatus, and more particularly to a technique for performing charging processing using a wide area communication unit.

  In Patent Document 1, the center distributes information on the chargeable area in advance, and the in-vehicle device receives the information by the wide area communication unit. Then, charging processing is performed by the in-vehicle device in accordance with a predetermined date and time or an instruction from the center device.

Japanese Patent No. 3365296

  In Patent Document 1, billing processing is performed by an in-vehicle device. However, a method is also conceivable in which information necessary for billing processing including the location information (hereinafter billing information) is transmitted from the vehicle to the center device by the wide area communication unit, and the center device performs part or all of the billing processing.

  In the case of this method, the charging information is transmitted from the vehicle to the center device at one or both of the time when the vehicle enters the charging area and the time when the vehicle exits the charging area.

  Note that whether the billing information is transmitted when entering the billing area, whether the billing information is transmitted when leaving the billing area, or whether the billing information is transmitted during both entering and leaving depends on the billing method.

  When a fixed amount is charged regardless of the travel distance of the billing area, billing processing is normally performed when entering the billing area, so billing information is transmitted when entering the billing area. If the billing amount varies depending on the travel distance of the billing area, billing processing is performed when leaving the billing area, so billing information is transmitted when leaving the billing area.

  When a certain amount of billing processing is performed at the time of entering the billing area and billing processing according to the travel distance is also performed, the billing information is displayed both when entering the billing area and when leaving the billing area. Send.

  In a method in which charging information is transmitted from the vehicle to the center device and part or all of the charging processing is performed by the center device, the charging processing cannot be performed if communication with the center device cannot be performed at the timing of transmitting the charging information to the center device. There is a risk that.

  The present invention has been made based on this situation, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular billing processing apparatus that can prevent the billing process from being performed in the center apparatus.

  The above object is achieved by a combination of the features described in the independent claims, and the subclaims define further advantageous embodiments of the invention. Reference numerals in parentheses described in the claims indicate a correspondence relationship with specific means described in the embodiments described later as one aspect, and do not limit the technical scope of the present invention. .

The present invention for achieving the above object is a vehicle billing processing apparatus used in a vehicle,
A position detector (32) for sequentially detecting the current position of the vehicle;
A transmission position storage unit (34b) that stores an information transmission position that is at least one of an entry position to the charging area and a leaving position from the charging area;
A passage determination unit (351) that determines whether or not the current position detected by the position detection unit has passed the information transmission position stored in the transmission position storage unit;
A wide area communication unit (31) that communicates with the center apparatus by wide area communication;
Based on the determination that the current position has passed the information transmission position by the passage determination unit, the charging information necessary for the charging process including the information transmission position through which the vehicle has passed is transmitted from the wide area communication unit to the center device. A transmission control unit (352);
A billing information storage unit (34c) for storing billing information that could not be transmitted to the center device because the wide area communication unit could not communicate with the center device;
The transmission control unit determines whether or not the wide area communication unit can communicate with the center device when the untransmitted charging information is stored in the charging information storage unit, and the wide area communication unit can communicate with the center device. In this case, unsent accounting information stored in the accounting information storage unit is transmitted from the wide area communication unit to the center device.

  According to the present invention, when the billing information cannot be transmitted to the center device because the wide area communication unit cannot communicate with the center device, the billing information is stored in the billing information storage unit. When the wide area communication unit becomes communicable with the center device, the charging information stored in the charging information storage unit is transmitted from the wide area communication unit to the center device. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the billing process from being performed in the center device.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a vehicle billing system 1 according to a first embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the vehicle equipment 3 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the process which the control part 35 of FIG. 2 performs. It is a flowchart which shows the vehicle side charge process performed by S60 and S80 of FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the vehicle equipment 103 of 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process which the control part 135 of FIG. 2 performs. It is a flowchart which shows the vehicle side charge process performed by S60A and S80A of FIG.

[System overall configuration]
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration diagram of the vehicle billing system 1. The vehicle billing system 1 includes an in-vehicle device 3 used in the vehicle 2 and a center device 4. The vehicle 2 is not particularly limited as long as it is a vehicle traveling on a road. Four-wheeled vehicles, motorcycles, etc. are included in the vehicle.

  Although FIG. 1 shows one vehicle 2 and one vehicle-mounted device 3, the vehicle billing system 1 may include a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices 3. The plurality of in-vehicle devices 3 are used in different vehicles 2. The in-vehicle device 3 corresponds to the vehicle billing processing device in the claims.

  The in-vehicle device 3 and the center device 4 perform wide area communication via the wide area communication network 5. The wide area communication network 5 is, for example, a telephone line network. The center device 4 is a server device and receives billing information transmitted by wide-area communication with the in-vehicle device 3. In order to receive the billing information, the center device 4 includes a wide area communication device. The billing information is information that needs to be acquired from the in-vehicle device 3 when the center device 4 performs billing processing. Specific contents of the billing information will be described later. The center device 4 performs processing for charging a fee generated when the vehicle 2 travels on a road to be charged based on the charging information. In order to perform this processing, the center device 4 includes a calculation unit.

[Configuration of in-vehicle device 3]
Next, the configuration of the in-vehicle device 3 will be described. In a state where the in-vehicle device 3 is mounted on the vehicle 2, the in-vehicle device 3 may be fixed to a member included in the vehicle 2 by bolts, adhesion, or the like, or may be held by a holder.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the in-vehicle device 3 includes a wide area communication unit 31, a position detection unit 32, a card reader / writer 33, a storage unit 34, and a control unit 35.

  The wide area communication unit 31 is connected to the wide area communication network 5 and communicates with the outside of the vehicle 2, for example, the center device 4. The wide area communication unit 31 demodulates a signal received via the wide area communication network 5 and outputs the demodulated signal to the control unit 35, modulates the baseband signal input from the control unit 35, and transmits the modulated baseband signal to the center device 4.

  The position detection unit 32 includes a GNSS receiver used in a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), and sequentially detects the current position of the vehicle 2 based on the positioning signal received from the positioning satellite. The current position is represented by coordinates including latitude and longitude. The coordinates may include altitude. The position detection unit 32 outputs the detected current position to the control unit 35 sequentially (for example, every 100 milliseconds).

  The card reader / writer 33 includes a card slot 33a, and writes and reads information to and from the IC card 6 inserted into the card slot 33a. The IC card 6 is a card that performs communication according to the NFC communication standard, for example. In this case, the card reader / writer 33 has an NFC communication function. The IC card 6 may be a magnetic card.

  The IC card 6 stores a part of information necessary for the billing process. The information necessary for the billing process stored in the IC card 6 is, for example, payment information indicating where the user pays the toll. Here, the payment information is a card number. The IC card 6 has either a credit card function or a prepaid card function. When the card number is notified to the center device 4 together with the fee, the center device 4 performs processing for debiting the fee from the account associated with the card number if the IC card 6 is a credit card type. If the IC card 6 is a prepaid type, a process of subtracting the charge from the charge balance associated with the card number is performed.

  The storage unit 34 is a writable storage unit, and includes a road map storage area 34a, a transmission position storage area 34b, and a charging information storage area 34c. The transmission location storage area 34b corresponds to the transmission location storage section of the claims, and the accounting information storage area 34c corresponds to the accounting information storage section of the claims.

  Road map data is stored in the road map storage area 34a. In this road map data, in addition to data representing the road shape, billing area data representing which range of the road is the billing area is also stored.

  Note that the billing area data may be data other than the road map data, not the partial data of the road map data. Further, the latest billing area data and road map data may be sequentially distributed from the center device 4, and the billing area data and road map data stored in the storage unit 34 may be sequentially updated. .

  The transmission position storage area 34b stores an information transmission position that is a position where billing information needs to be transmitted from the in-vehicle device 3. The information transmission position is one or both of an entry position to the charging area and a leaving position from the charging area.

  For example, when a certain billing area is a billing area that is charged when entering the billing area, the entry position to the billing area is the information transmission position. Further, if the charging area is charged when leaving the charging area, the exit position of the charging area is the information transmission position. In addition, when a certain amount is charged when entering the charging area and charging according to the travel distance is performed, both the entry position to the charging area and the exit position from the charging area are information transmission positions. .

  In many roads, the vehicle can travel in both directions in which the road extends. In this case, the entrance position and the exit position in the billing area may be the same in the road longitudinal direction. When the entry position of the charging area and the exit position in the longitudinal direction of the road are the same, whether the entry position or the exit position of the charging area may be distinguished according to the traveling direction of the vehicle 2.

  As with the billing area data and road map data, the latest information transmission position is sequentially distributed from the center device 4 and the information transmission position stored in the transmission position storage area 34b is updated. It may be.

  The billing information storage area 34c is charged when billing information to be transmitted at the information transmission position cannot be transmitted to the center device 4 because the wide area communication unit 31 and the center device 4 cannot communicate with each other. This is an area for temporarily storing information.

  The control unit 35 is a normal computer that includes a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like. A control program is stored in the ROM, and the control unit 35 executes the control program stored in the ROM using the temporary storage function of the RAM, so that the control unit 35 includes the passage determination unit 351 and the transmission control unit 352. The function as the storage processing unit 353 is executed. The processes of these units will be described later with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. Executing the control program by the control unit 35 also means that a method corresponding to the control program is executed.

  Note that the above-described control program only needs to be stored in a non-transitory tangible storage medium, and the specific storage medium is not limited to the ROM. For example, the control program may be stored in a flash memory. Note that some or all of the functions executed by the control unit 35 may be configured by hardware using one or a plurality of ICs.

[Processing of control unit 35]
The control unit 35 repeatedly executes the process shown in FIG. 3 at a constant period when the power is turned on. In step (hereinafter, step is omitted) S10, it is determined whether or not untransmitted charging information is stored in the charging information storage area 34c of the storage unit 34. In the present embodiment, the billing information stored in the billing information storage area 34 c of the storage unit 34 is deleted after the billing information is transmitted to the center device 4. Therefore, if charging information is stored in the charging information storage area 34c of the storage unit 34, there is untransmitted charging information. If judgment of S10 is NO, it will progress to S50, and if it is YES, it will progress to S20.

  In S20, it is determined whether wide area communication is possible. Specifically, the wide-area communication unit 31 is controlled to communicate with the center device 4 to determine whether or not the connection between the wide-area communication unit 31 and the center device 4 can be established. If the connection can be established, it is determined that wide area communication is possible, and if the connection cannot be established, it is determined that wide area communication is not possible. If the determination result in S20 is YES, the process proceeds to S30, and if NO, the process proceeds to S50.

  In S <b> 30, unsent accounting information is read from the accounting information storage area 34 c of the storage unit 34, and the accounting information is transmitted from the wide area communication unit 31 to the center device 4.

  In S <b> 40, the billing information transmitted to the center device 4 is deleted from the billing information storage area 34 c of the storage unit 34.

  In S50, it is determined whether or not the vehicle 2 has entered the charging area, that is, whether or not the vehicle 2 has passed the entry position of the charging area. This determination is made by acquiring the current position from the position detection unit 32 and comparing the current position with the billing area data stored in the storage unit 34. If judgment of S50 is NO, it will return to S10. Therefore, the above S10 to S40 are processes performed outside the billing area.

  If the determination in S50 is YES, the process proceeds to S60. In S60, vehicle-side charging processing is performed. Details of the vehicle-side billing process are shown in FIG.

  In S101 of FIG. 4, it is determined whether or not the approach position determined to have passed in S50 is the information transmission position stored in the transmission position storage area 34b. If the determination in S101 is NO, there is no need to generate billing information, so the process of FIG. 4 is terminated and the process returns to the process of FIG.

  If judgment of S101 is YES, it will progress to S102. In S102, billing information is generated. As described above, the billing information is information that needs to be acquired from the in-vehicle device 3 when the center device 4 performs billing processing, and specifically, the type of necessary information is set in advance. The billing information includes information representing the information transmission position through which the vehicle 2 has passed as specific information. In addition, the payment information stored in the IC card 6 and the time when the information transmission position is passed are included. In addition, for billing areas where the billing amount varies depending on the vehicle classification, such as ordinary passenger cars and trucks, the vehicle classification is also included in the billing information.

  In S103, it is determined whether wide area communication is possible. The processing executed in S103 is the same as S20. If judgment of S103 is NO, it will progress to S104. In S104, the charging information generated in S102 is stored in the charging information storage area 34c of the storage unit 34. When S104 is executed, the process of FIG. 4 is terminated and the process returns to the process of FIG.

  If judgment of S103 is YES, it will progress to S105. In S105, the billing information generated in S102 is transmitted from the wide area communication unit 31 to the center device 4. In S <b> 106, it is determined whether untransmitted charging information is stored in the charging information storage area 34 c of the storage unit 34. The process of S106 is the same as S10. If judgment of S106 is NO, the process of FIG. 4 will be complete | finished and it will return to the process of FIG. If judgment of S106 is YES, it will progress to S107.

  S107 and S108 are the same as S30 and S40, respectively. In S <b> 107, the untransmitted charging information stored in the charging information storage area 34 c of the storage unit 34 is transmitted from the wide area communication unit 31 to the center device 4. In S108, the charging information transmitted to the center apparatus 4 in S107 is deleted from the charging information storage area 34c of the storage unit 34. When S108 is executed, the process of FIG. 4 is terminated and the process returns to the process of FIG.

  Returning to FIG. After executing S60, the process proceeds to S70. In S70, it is determined whether or not the vehicle 2 has left the charging area, that is, whether or not the vehicle 2 has passed the exit position of the charging area. Similarly to S50, this determination is made by acquiring the current position from the position detection unit 32 and comparing the current position with the billing area data stored in the storage unit 34. If the determination in S70 is NO, S70 is repeatedly executed. If judgment of S70 is YES, it will progress to S80.

  Also in S80, the vehicle side charging process shown in FIG. 4 is executed. However, in S101, it is determined whether or not the exit position determined to have passed in S70 is a transmission position. The other processes are the same as those executed when the determination in S50 is YES.

  Therefore, if it is determined that the user has left the charging area and there is untransmitted charging information, the untransmitted charging information is transmitted to the center device 4. When S80 is executed, the processing in FIG. 3 is terminated. When the process of FIG. 3 is terminated, the process of FIG. 3 is started again from the beginning after a certain period has elapsed.

  3 and 4, the passage determining unit 351 executes S50 and S101, the transmission control unit 352 executes S10, S20, S30, S102, S103, S105, S106, and S107, and S40, S104, and S108. Is executed by the storage processing unit 353.

[Summary of First Embodiment]
In the first embodiment, when the wide area communication unit 31 cannot communicate with the center apparatus 4 because the charging information cannot be transmitted to the center apparatus 4, the charging information is stored in the charging information storage area 34c. When the wide area communication unit 31 can communicate with the center device 4, the charging information stored in the charging information storage area 34 c is transmitted from the wide area communication unit 31 to the center device 4. Therefore, it is suppressed that the billing process cannot be performed in the center device 4.

Second Embodiment
Next, a second embodiment will be described. In the following description of the second embodiment, elements having the same reference numerals as those used so far are the same as elements having the same reference numerals in the previous embodiments unless otherwise specified. Further, when only a part of the configuration is described, the above-described embodiment can be applied to the other parts of the configuration.

  FIG. 5 shows a configuration diagram of the in-vehicle device 103 of the second embodiment. The in-vehicle device 103 includes a control unit 135 having a function different from that of the control unit 35 in place of the control unit 35. A display unit 36, a speaker 37, and an operation unit 38 are also provided.

  The control unit 135 includes the same passage determination unit 351, transmission control unit 352, and storage processing unit 353 as the control unit 35 of the first embodiment. In addition, the control unit 135 also includes a transmitted notification processing unit 354, an untransmitted notification processing unit 355, and a detail display processing unit 356. The processes of the transmitted notification processing unit 354, the untransmitted notification processing unit 355, and the detail display processing unit 356 will be described later.

  The display unit 36 corresponds to a notification unit, and displays a symbol indicating that charging information has been transmitted and an untransmitted symbol indicating that there is untransmitted charging information. The speaker 37 also corresponds to a notification unit, and when billing information is transmitted, a sound indicating that is output.

  The operation unit 38 is operated by a vehicle occupant to select an untransmitted symbol displayed on the display unit 36. As the operation unit 38, for example, a touch panel superimposed on the display surface of the display unit 36 can be used.

  Of the processes executed by the control unit 135, those other than the detail display processing unit 356 will be described with reference to FIGS. The detailed display processing unit 356 will be described after the description of FIGS. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing processing to be executed instead of FIG. 3 of the first embodiment.

  In the process shown in FIG. 6, S40 is executed, and after the charging information transmitted to the center apparatus 4 is deleted from the charging information storage area 34c of the storage unit 34, S41 is executed. In S41, the display unit 36 displays that the accounting information that has not been transmitted has been transmitted. Instead of or in addition to that, a sound indicating that the accounting information that has not been transmitted has been transmitted or a predetermined sound is output from the speaker 37.

  In the present embodiment, as will be described later, when there is unsent accounting information, an unsent symbol indicating that fact is displayed on the display unit 36. Therefore, when untransmitted billing information is transmitted in S30, the untransmitted symbols are deleted from the display unit 36 in S42.

  In addition to the addition of the processes of S41 and S42, in FIG. 6, S60A is executed instead of S60 of FIG. 3, and S80A is executed instead of S80. The processes in S60A and S80A are shown in FIG.

  In the process shown in FIG. 7, S104A, S109, and S110 are added to the process shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, S104 is executed to store the charging information in the charging information storage area 34c of the storage unit 34, and then S104A is executed. In S104A, an untransmitted symbol indicating that there is untransmitted billing information is displayed on the display unit 36. Thereby, the occupant of the vehicle 2 can recognize that there is untransmitted billing information by looking at the display unit 36.

  S109 and S110 are the same as S41 and S42 described above, respectively. In S109, the occupant is notified using one or both of the display unit 36 and the speaker 37 that the accounting information that has not been transmitted has been transmitted. In S110, the untransmitted symbols displayed on the display unit 36 are deleted.

  Next, the detailed display processing unit 356 shown in FIG. 5 will be described. The detail display processing unit 356 displays details of unsent accounting information when the unsent symbol is displayed on the display unit 36 and the unsent symbol is selected by the operation of the operation unit 38. 36. Thereby, the occupant can know what kind of billing is originally performed.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, The following modification is also contained in the technical scope of this invention, Furthermore, the summary other than the following is also included. Various modifications can be made without departing from the scope.

<Modification 1-3>
In the above-described embodiment, in addition to displaying the unsent symbol, a symbol indicating that the vehicle is traveling in the billing area may also be displayed on the display unit 36 (Modification 1). Further, even when the billing information can be transmitted, this may be notified to the occupant (Modification 2). Further, as a result of the charging process performed in the center device 4, the amount to be charged may be received from the center device 4 and the amount of money may be notified to the occupant (Modification 3). This notification is also made when untransmitted billing information is transmitted.

<Modification 4>
In the above-described embodiment, processing for transmitting untransmitted charging information during traveling in the charging area is not performed. However, it is possible to determine whether or not wide area communication is possible while traveling in the charging area, and if wide area communication is possible and there is untransmitted charging information, untransmitted charging information may be transmitted by wide area communication.

<Modification 5>
If a narrow-area communication unit capable of road-to-vehicle communication with a roadside machine is provided, wide-area communication is not possible. May be transmitted to the center apparatus 4 via the roadside unit using the unit.

1: Vehicle charging system 2: Vehicle 3: In-vehicle device 4: Center device 5: Wide area communication network 6: IC card 31: Wide area communication unit 32: Position detection unit 33: Card reader / writer 33a: Card slot 34: Storage unit 34a: Road map storage area 34b: transmission position storage area (transmission position storage section) 34c: billing information storage area (billing information storage section) 35: control section 36: display section 37: speaker 38: operation section 103: in-vehicle device 135: control Unit 351: passage determination unit 352: transmission control unit 353: storage processing unit 354: transmitted notification processing unit 355: untransmitted notification processing unit 356: detail display processing unit

Claims (4)

A vehicular billing processing apparatus used in a vehicle,
A position detector (32) for sequentially detecting the current position of the vehicle;
A transmission position storage unit (34b) that stores an information transmission position that is at least one of an entry position to the charging area and a leaving position from the charging area;
A passage determination unit (351) for determining whether the current position detected by the position detection unit has passed the information transmission position stored in the transmission position storage unit;
A wide area communication unit (31) that communicates with the center apparatus by wide area communication;
Based on the fact that the current position has passed the information transmission position by the passage determination unit, the wide area communication unit includes the charging information necessary for the charging process including the information transmission position through which the vehicle has passed. A transmission control unit (352) for transmitting to the center device from
A billing information storage unit (34c) for storing the billing information that could not be transmitted to the center device because the wide area communication unit could not communicate with the center device;
The transmission control unit determines whether or not the wide area communication unit can communicate with the center device when the untransmitted charging information is stored in the charging information storage unit, and the wide area communication unit A vehicular billing processing apparatus that transmits unbilled billing information stored in the billing information storage unit to the center device from the wide area communication unit when communication with a center device becomes possible. In claim 1,
When the untransmitted billing information stored in the billing information storage unit is transmitted to the center device, a transmitted notification processing unit (354) is provided for performing processing to notify the vehicle occupant of the fact. Billing processing device for vehicles. In claim 1 or 2,
An unsent notification processing unit (355) that performs processing of notifying the occupant of the vehicle using the notification unit when the accounting information not transmitted to the center device is stored in the accounting information storage unit A vehicle billing apparatus comprising: In claim 3,
A display unit (36) as the notification unit;
The unsent notification processing unit displays an unsent symbol that is a symbol indicating that there is unsent accounting information on the display unit, whereby the unsent accounting information is stored in the accounting information storage unit. That you are
The vehicular charging processing device further includes:
An operation unit (38) operated by an occupant of the vehicle to select the untransmitted symbol;
A vehicular billing processing apparatus including a detail display processing unit (356) that displays details of the unsent billing information on the display unit when the unsent symbol is selected by the operation unit.

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