Abstract:
A method for processing road use data. A first moving vehicle has an encounter with vehicles in motion. An apparatus in the first vehicle generates and stores encounter records for the encounters. Each encounter record includes a location of the first moving vehicle and a location and identifier of a corresponding vehicle in motion, and is stored in the apparatus. A first encounter record for an encounter between the first moving vehicle and a second moving vehicle is sent by the first moving vehicle to a charging system of a road use charging authority having a data store. If the charging system determines that the data store includes a second encounter record of the encounter received from the second moving vehicle, then the second encounter record is not used in a charging process and/or is deleted from the data store; otherwise, the first encounter record is stored in the data store.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     The invention relates to the field of traffic management systems and in particular to a method and a system for gathering and processing data for road use charging.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The benefits of road user pricing have been set out in numerous government documents within the UK and other countries. As an alternative to tolls, annual road taxes and fuel duties, road user pricing holds the promise of less traffic congestion, less environmental pollution, greater fairness, safer roads and better use of infrastructure resources.  
         [0003]     Road user pricing may command general support, provided the privacy and fairness issues are solved. Privacy relates to the ability of a driver to choose to pay the proper price for a journey without being identified. Fairness relates to the difficulty of a dishonest driver avoiding payment without detection. Cost and environmental considerations may also be issues, particularly the cost and environmental impact of roadside equipment.  
         [0004]     Known solutions generally fail to address satisfactorily the privacy, fairness, cost and environmental issues. Typically, such solutions are based on the installation in each vehicle of tamper-proof equipment, usually centered on a smart card issued by or on behalf of the highway authority, which records the journey made by each vehicle. Roadside equipment interacts with the onboard equipment to check that the onboard equipment is operating properly. The driver uploads the information on the smart card in order to be invoiced.  
         [0005]     The drawbacks of the above approaches are a) it is not advisable to store data collected from the vehicles under the control of the users of the vehicles and b) the impossibility of tamper-proofing onboard units can lead to fraudulent recording and delayed reporting. A post-paying driver expecting a large bill can “lose” an on board unit smart card. If the charge for losing a card is larger than the maximum cost of the journeys that might have taken place, genuine loss/damage is unfairly penalized.  
         [0006]     The deposit on a pre-payment card must be equally large, as a pre-paid on board unit smart card has no way of knowing when it is overspent, but might switch off after a predetermined amount of time or once a certain distance has been recorded.  
         [0007]     The benefit of privacy-preserving technologies is severely restricted by the need to process the data pertaining to a vehicle&#39;s movement through a charging algorithm in a data centre. Both pre and post-payment methods are affected.  
         [0008]     Expensive and intrusive roadside equipment is necessary for enforcement. Equipment must be deployed pervasively before a non-pilot scheme begins. The effectiveness of this approach in detecting evasion is limited.  
       DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION  
       [0009]     Viewed from a first aspect, the present invention provides a method for the gathering of data from a plurality of vehicles, for use by a road use charging authority, comprising the steps of: periodically broadcasting data indicative of a vehicle and the vehicle&#39;s position for detection by other vehicles in the vehicle&#39;s vicinity; detecting data indicative of other vehicles in the vehicle&#39;s vicinity; and generating a record, the record comprising data gathered from the broadcasting step and the detecting step, which is periodically sent to a controller, at which, a determination is performed, as to whether records from other vehicles which have encountered the vehicle have been sent to the controller.  
         [0010]     The present invention assumes that a road use charging authority imposes a charging tariff which encourages vehicles to record encounters and that a sufficient proportion of vehicles are diligent recording encounters.  
         [0011]     The charging authority computes the charge payable, collects the charge from the owner of the vehicle, takes its percentage and passes the remainder of the revenue to the highway authority. Discounts would encourage early upload/payment. The charging system would also pass the uploaded encounter record to the enforcement system. The invention is self-enforcing to the extent that pricing discounts encourage diligent early uploading.  
         [0012]     Preferably, the invention provides a method wherein the data indicative of the vehicle is determined by communicating with an onboard smart card unit.  
         [0013]     Preferably, the present invention provides a method wherein the positional data is determined by communicating with a location determination device.  
         [0014]     Preferably, the present invention provides a method wherein the gathered data comprises, the registration details, positional data and the time of the vehicle&#39;s encounter and the registration details of the other vehicle within the encounter.  
         [0015]     Preferably, the present invention provides a method wherein the broadcast data comprises a digital signature.  
         [0016]     Viewed from a second aspect the present invention provides a method for detecting anomalies in data gathered from a plurality of vehicles, by a road use charging authority, comprising the steps of: receiving a record from a vehicle, the record comprising data indicative of the vehicle and its position and data indicative of other vehicles which have encountered the vehicle within the vehicle&#39;s vicinity; and determining if records from other vehicles which have encountered the vehicle have been received by the controller.  
         [0017]     Preferably, the present invention provides a method wherein on determining records from other vehicles which have encountered the vehicle and have been received by the controller, the vehicle&#39;s record and the other vehicles&#39; records are deleted from a data store.  
         [0018]     Preferably, the present invention provides a method wherein on determining records from other vehicles which have encountered the vehicle and have been received by the controller, the vehicle&#39;s record and the other vehicle&#39;s records are excluded from the charging process.  
         [0019]     Preferably, the present invention provides a method wherein the determining step further comprises storing the vehicle&#39;s record in a second data store, if records from other vehicles which have encountered the vehicle have not been received by the controller.  
         [0020]     Preferably, the present invention provides a method further comprising analyzing the vehicle&#39;s record, stored in the second data store, to obtain information pertaining to the other vehicle, involved in an encounter, whose record has not been received by the controller.  
         [0021]     Preferably, the present invention provides a method wherein the identifying step is performed after a time period has lapsed.  
         [0022]     Preferably, the present invention provides a method wherein the identified information comprises the other vehicle&#39;s registration details.  
         [0023]     Preferably, the present invention provides a method wherein a notification is communicated to an entity of the other vehicle as determined by the other vehicle&#39;s registration details.  
         [0024]     Viewed from a third aspect the present invention provides a computer program product loadable into the internal memory of a digital computer, comprising software code portions for performing, when said product is run on a computer, to carry out the invention of claims  1  to  13 .  
         [0025]     Viewed from a forth aspect the present invention provides a road use charging service for detecting anomalies in data gathered from a plurality of vehicles, the service comprising the steps of: receiving a record from a vehicle, the record comprising data indicative of the vehicle and its position and data indicative of other vehicles claiming to have encountered the vehicle within the vehicle&#39;s vicinity; determining if records from other vehicles which have encountered the vehicle have been received by the controller; and on detection of records not being received from other vehicles, asserting a charge on the detected vehicles.  
         [0026]     Preferably, the present invention provides a service, wherein the asserted charge is a higher charge for the detected vehicles and a lower charge for the vehicle&#39;s for which records have been received.  
         [0027]     Viewed from a fifth aspect, the present invention provides a system for the gathering of data from a plurality of vehicles, for use by a road use charging authority, the system comprising: a broadcasting component for periodically broadcasting data indicative of a vehicle and the vehicle&#39;s position for detection by other vehicles in the vehicle&#39;s vicinity; a detector component for detecting data indicative of other vehicles in the vehicle&#39;s vicinity; and a generator for generating a record, the record comprising data gathered from the broadcasting step and the detecting step, which is periodically sent to a controller, at which, a determination is performed, as to whether records from other vehicles which have encountered the vehicle have been sent to the controller.  
         [0028]     Preferably, the present invention provides a system wherein the data indicative of the vehicle is determined by means for communicating with an onboard smart card unit.  
         [0029]     Preferably, the present invention provides a system wherein the positional data is determined by means for communicating with a location determination device.  
         [0030]     Preferably, the present invention provides a system wherein the gathered data comprises, the registration details, positional data and the time of the vehicle&#39;s encounter and the other vehicle&#39;s registration details.  
         [0031]     Preferably, the present invention provides a system wherein the broadcast data comprises a digital signature.  
         [0032]     Viewed from a sixth aspect the present invention provides a system for detecting anomalies in data gathered from a plurality of vehicles, by a charging authority, comprising: a receiver, for receiving a record from a vehicle, the record comprising data indicative of the vehicle and its position and data indicative of other vehicles claiming to have encountered the vehicle within the vehicle&#39;s vicinity; and a determiner, for determining if records from other vehicles which have encountered the vehicle have been received by the controller.  
         [0033]     Preferably, the present invention provides a system wherein on determining if records from other vehicles which have encountered the vehicle have been received by the controller, comprises means for the vehicle&#39;s record and the other vehicles&#39; records being deleted from a data store.  
         [0034]     Preferably, the present invention provides a system wherein the determiner further comprises means for storing the vehicle&#39;s record in a second data store, if the records from other vehicles which have encountered the vehicle have not been received by the controller.  
         [0035]     Preferably, the present invention provides a system further comprising analyzing the vehicle&#39;s record, stored in the second data store, to extract information pertaining to the other vehicle, involved in an encounter, whose record has not been received by the controller.  
         [0036]     Preferably, the present invention provides a system, wherein the identifying step is performed after a time period has lapsed.  
         [0037]     Preferably, the present invention provides a system wherein the identified information comprises the other vehicle&#39;s registration details.  
         [0038]     Preferably, the present invention provides a system wherein a notification is communicated to a responsible entity of the other vehicle as determined by the other vehicle&#39;s registration details. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0039]     Embodiments of the invention are described below in detail, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:  
         [0040]      FIGS. 1   a  and  1   b,  illustrates a number of prior art road charging mechanisms;  
         [0041]      FIG. 2 , illustrates the road use charging system of the present invention;  
         [0042]      FIG. 3 , illustrates the sub components of the road use charging system located within a vehicle;  
         [0043]      FIG. 4 , illustrates the sub components of the road use charging system of the charging authority;  
         [0044]      FIG. 5 , illustrates the operational steps of the road use charging system located within a vehicle; and  
         [0045]      FIG. 6 , illustrates the operational steps of the road use charging system of the charging authority. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0046]      FIGS. 1   a  and  1   b  show a number of prior art road charging mechanisms. In  FIG. 1   a,  two vehicles  100 ,  105  are traveling along a road  120  towards an area of vehicle congestion. As the vehicles&#39; enter into the area of vehicle congestion, a camera  125  is located along the side of the road, in order to take a photograph of the vehicle&#39;s  100 ,  105  registration plate. On receipt of the photograph, the registration plate details are extracted and a query is performed in a database to locate the registered owner of the vehicle  100 ,  105 . Once the registered owner is located, a bill for the amount of the congestion charge is sent to the registered owner. Alternatively, an owner of a vehicle  100 ,  105  can pay in advance to the charging authority. Each time the vehicle  100 ,  105  enters into the congestion charging area, the amount of the congestion charge is debited from the amount of money that was paid in advance to the charging authority.  
         [0047]      FIG. 1   b  shows two vehicles  110 ,  115  traveling along a road  120  towards a toll booth  130 . Toll booths  130  are often found along roads where a charging authority feels that is appropriate to charge for the use of the road. This may be because the charging authority wishes to gain back revenue that was spent on building the road  120 , or where, by applying a charge to the use of the road  120 , traffic congestion will be reduced. Toll booths require an infrastructure to be placed across a road  120 , in order to stop vehicles  110 ,  115  traveling along a road  120  until the vehicles  110 ,  115  have paid a fee.  
         [0048]     In each of the examples above, the charging authority provide no provision for the privacy of the information pertaining to the registered owner of a vehicle. Further, particularly with reference to  FIG. 1   a,  vehicle owners are extremely unhappy and wary of having their private details, for example, the location of a vehicle at a particular time, captured, stored and used without any personal control over the use of the information.  
         [0049]     A charging system  200  is shown in  FIG. 2 , which provides a method and system for road use charging. As is shown in  FIG. 2 , the charging system  200  does not require any installation of roadside equipment or tamper-proof onboard equipment, apart from, preferably, a smartcard.  
         [0050]     As is shown in  FIG. 2 , each vehicle  100  to  115  is required to broadcast  205  periodically, by for example, short range radio, its position and registration details. Preferably, the broadcast comprises a digital signature, for digitally signing the broadcast, in such a manner that the digital signature provides assurance that the driver or owner of the vehicle may be identified.  
         [0051]     The vehicle  110 - 115  may broadcast  205  other information indicative of itself, for example, the vehicle&#39;s speed, direction and the time of the day. Alternatively, when operating in a road use charging environment, a charging band may also be broadcast  205 . A charging band may comprise banding vehicles  100 - 115  according to their emission type.  
         [0052]     In order to determine the position, speed, bearing and a time of day for a vehicle  100 - 115 , an onboard processing device, for example, a smart card, communicates with a GPS system for determining the speed, the date and time of the vehicle  100 - 115 .  
         [0053]     The road use charging system  200  may broadcast  205  a radio signal over a predetermined time period. Over what time period the radio signal may be broadcasted and when, may be determined by, the distance traveled by the vehicle, how long the vehicle has been traveling for, or alternatively, when the vehicle travels into a zone. For example, a geographical region may be divided into areas, each area measuring, for example, 200 meters square. As a vehicle enters a zone, the vehicle may broadcast its data. As a vehicle leaves one zone and moves into another zone, the vehicle, once again, may broadcast its data.  
         [0054]     A vehicle  100 - 115  not broadcasting  205  the correct information, or not broadcasting  205  at all, will be deterred by the possibility of detection by police or other vehicles  100  to  115  and of consequent prosecution for a road traffic or tax evasion offence.  
         [0055]     As well as broadcasting  205  information, each vehicle  110 - 115  is required to detect and receive information broadcasted  205  from other vehicles. Each vehicle  100 - 115  is required to detect and receive broadcasted information  205  periodically. Preferably, each vehicle  110 - 115  is required to negotiate with other vehicles  110 - 115  within its vicinity. Preferably, a vehicle ‘pairs’ with the vehicle broadcasting immediately before it, in its vicinity in order to establish an encounter.  
         [0056]     The vicinity may be defined by a charging authority, for example by using grid references to denote charging areas. Each vehicle  110 - 115  negotiates with a nearby vehicle  110 - 115  to establish an “encounter”. Failure to participate, or not to attempt to participate, in this interaction may be considered as a road traffic or tax evasion offence. A vehicle  110 - 115  may refuse to establish an encounter with another vehicle  110 - 115  whose position co-ordinates are not credible, for example, another vehicle that is not within a few tens of metres of its own vehicle. Once an encounter has been determined, preferably, a record is generated. The record may be stored for a number or days, weeks or months before uploading to the charging authority  200 . The record may comprise the broadcasted data and the data received from other vehicles for transmitting to the charging authority  210 . On receipt of the data, the charging authority  200  calculates the road use charge for the vehicle from which the data that was uploaded, accumulates journey information for the vehicles, which the uploading vehicle claims to have encountered, so that they too can in due course be charged and detects anomalies within the uploaded records. For example, a Vehicle A may establish an encounter with a Vehicle B. Vehicle A uploads its record so that Vehicle A is charged, but also, so that Vehicle B is charged.  
         [0057]     The record may comprise data indicative of a series of encounters recorded throughout a journey, time period or a zone, or alternatively, just one encounter. A part of a record may be uploaded, for example, data indicative of a few encounters, or all of a record may be uploaded. The record may be uploaded by the owner of the vehicle, the driver or anyone else. The record may be uploaded via a smartcard.  
         [0058]     Moving on to  FIG. 3 , the components that form the charging system  200  as located within a vehicle  100 - 115  are shown. The components comprise a broadcast component  305  for broadcasting information indicative of the vehicle&#39;s  100  position, speed, direction and charging band etc, a detector component  310  for detecting information broadcasted  205  from other vehicles  105 , 110 , 115  in the vehicle&#39;s  100  vicinity, a processing component  315  for processing the encounter record between two vehicles  110 ,  115 , and a generator component  320  for generating a record pertaining to the encounter.  
         [0059]     The broadcast  305  component broadcasts information indicative of the vehicle&#39;s position and, for example, its speed, direction, charging band and a digital signature etc. The broadcasted information can be any information that a charging authority  210  requires to ensure a fair charging policy. The broadcasting component  305  receives data from a GPS system for receiving a set of GPS coordinates pertaining to the vehicle&#39;s ( 100 ) speed and position. The broadcast component  305  further communicates with a vehicle&#39;s GPS system, for requesting and receiving information pertaining to the current date and time. Once the information has been gathered the broadcast component  305  packages the received information into a payload for broadcasting via a radio wave mechanism for receiving by another vehicle  105 ,  110 ,  115  in its vicinity. The detector component  310  detects other payloads from other vehicles  105 , 110 , 115  within its vicinity. On receipt of a payload from another vehicle  105 , 110   115 , the detector component  310  communicates to the processing component  315  to signal that a payload, (signifying an encounter) has been received.  
         [0060]     The generator component  320  records the time of the encounter, the positional co-ordinates of both vehicles  110 ,  115  and the registration details and/or the digital signature of the other vehicle  110 . In another embodiment, the charging band of the other vehicle  110 , and the speed and bearing of both vehicles  110 ,  115  may also be recorded.  
         [0061]     At a convenient time, for example, when the vehicle  100  is being refueled, the vehicle driver will upload the encounter record to a charging system. Such an upload could be anonymous, for example, when paying cash at a refueling station. All encounter records may be uploaded or just a subset of encounter records may be uploaded.  
         [0062]     The charging authority  210  receives the uploaded encounter records and processes each encounter record to detect any anomalies. These steps are explained with reference to  FIG. 4 , which illustrates the individual components of the charging system of the charging authority  210 . A receiver component  400  receives the uploaded encounter records and performs a check to ensure that the uploaded encounter records comprise the correct information. For example, that the positional co-ordinates are valid co-ordinates etc. The uploaded encounter records are communicated to a collator component  405  for queuing for communicating to a recorder component  415  for storing in a temporary data store  420 . A determiner component  410  examines each encounter record.  
         [0063]     For each encounter, the determination component  410  determines whether another vehicle  110  has already uploaded its appropriate encounter record. If the appropriate encounter record is determined to have already been uploaded the corresponding encounter record is discounted from the charging process and preferably deleted irrevocably, in order to preserve privacy. If the determiner component  410  determines that the corresponding encounter record has not been previously uploaded, the encounter record is stored in a temporary database  420 . The privacy properties derive from the temporary nature of the data in the temporary database, and the irrevocable deletion of entries.  
         [0064]     It will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that the above components may function in any order and the order is not limited to the order as disclosed above.  
         [0065]     After a designated period of time, the determiner component  410  performs a query in the temporary database  420  to determine a set of records that have, over the designated period of time, not had a corresponding encounter record uploaded i.e. an earlier paid broadcast uploaded. For example, encounter record A from vehicle  100  is uploaded to the charging authority  210 . The encounter record states that an encounter was recorded between vehicle B  110 . The encounter record can be used to identify and thus contact the driver or the registered owner of vehicle B  110 . The determiner component  410  determines after a period of time that no corresponding encounter record was uploaded for vehicle B  110 . In another embodiment owners of vehicles  110 - 115  who promptly upload their encounter records are rewarded by being given a discounted rate of road charge. Conversely, owners of vehicles who are not diligent in uploading their encounter records may be penalized by being charged at an undiscounted rate.  
         [0066]     The operational steps of the charging system will now be explained with reference to  FIGS. 5 and 6 .  
         [0067]     As a vehicle  110  travels along a route  120 , the broadcast component  305 , gathers information indicative of the vehicle and its position. The broadcast component  305  broadcasts  205  the information to other vehicles  105 , 110 , 115  within its vicinity over a predetermined amount of time, at step  500 . A detector component  310  detects other vehicles  105 , 110 , 115  broadcasting  205  information within the vehicle&#39;s  100  vicinity, at step  505 . The detector component  310  receives the broadcasted information pertaining to the detected vehicle, at step  510  and signals to the processing component  315  to process the encounter record.  
         [0068]     An example of an encounter records is as follows:  
         [0069]     Encounter Record  
                                                       Vehicle A (ref numeral 100)               Date and time   15/10/2008 12:00:01           Positional coordinates   UK 413000 241550           Charging band   A 154 gm/km           Vehicle B (reference numeral 110)           Date and time   15/10/2008 12:00:00           Positional coordinates   UK 413200 241590           Digital signature   x′A123456789 . . .                      
 
         [0070]     An encounter record comprises data pertaining to two vehicles  100 ,  110  which have broadcasted information about themselves. The first line of the encounter record comprises data pertaining to the vehicle  100  that has generated the encounter record. This is always the vehicle  100  that broadcasted information indicative of itself and in response detected broadcasted data from other vehicles  110 . The encounter record may comprise the date and time of the encounter between vehicle  100  and the vehicle  110 , the positional coordinates of the vehicle  100  and the charging band of the vehicle  100 , if appropriate. Following these details, are the details broadcasted from another vehicle  110 , in this example vehicle B  110 . The details pertaining to vehicle B  110  may comprise the date and time of the encounter, the positional coordinates of the vehicle at the date and time of the encounter and the digital signature of vehicle B&#39;s broadcasted data. It will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art the other information may be recorded in an encounter record.  
         [0071]     The encounter record is uploaded to the charging authority  210 . With reference to  FIG. 6 , the receiver component  400  receives the encounter record at step  600  and passes the encounter record to the collator component  405  for checking whether the information is correct, in the appropriate format and for extracting the details about the entity that should be charged for road use. Control moves to control  610  and the determiner component  410  determines whether a corresponding encounter record has been stored in the temporary data store  420 . If the determination is positive (i.e. an encounter record has been located), control passes to step  615  and the encounter record is either excluded from the charging process or deleted from the temporary data store  420 . If the determination is negative (i.e. an encounter record has not been located), control moves to step  620  and the encounter record is stored in a temporary data store  420 .  
         [0072]     After a predetermined amount of time has passed, the determination component  410  performs a query on the temporary data store  420  and identifies which encounter records have not had a corresponding encounter record uploaded to the charging authority  210 , at step  625 .