A rental/car-share (RCS) vehicle access and management system and method, in some embodiments, utilizes barcodes, QR codes (or NFC/RFID), GPS, and a mobile app coupled with a wireless network to enable customers to bypass the reservation desk and pickup and drop off reserved RCS vehicles using a mobile phone, tablet or laptop The QR code, RFID, or NFC communication with the mobile application allows for identification of the vehicle by a mobile application, which, if authorized, can access the vehicle via a temporary access code issued by remote servers The remote servers and/or mobile application communicates with a control module that plugs into the on-board diagnostics module of the rental/car-share (RCS) vehicle and includes a host processing unit with a processor, an accelerometer, data storage, a GPS with internal GPS antenna; a wireless modem with internal antenna, and CAN bus transceivers connected with the processor, and a USB programmable interface

Rental/car-share vehicle access and management system and method

A control of autonomous vehicles, and a method for controlling at least one autonomous ground vehicle configured to adopt two operating modes, including a manual mode in which the driving depends on driving instructions from the driver of the vehicle, and an autonomous mode, in which the driving depends on data received from sensors configured to provide information on surroundings of the vehicle, and on data received by a navigation system, the method including: authorizing the autonomous mode only when the vehicle is within an area determined by defined boundaries; receiving reservation data from a user interface; generating a set message to be transmitted to the vehicle in accordance with the received reservation data; and transmitting the set message to the vehicle such that the vehicle autonomously performs a movement corresponding to the transmitted set message.

Control of the autonomous mode of bimodal vehicles

A vehicle charging and selection system for kiosk operated electrical vehicles. The system includes a utility connected AC charging source, a battery-to-battery DC charging source, a number of vehicle charging stations, a local power bus connectable to both charging sources and each of the charging stations and a system controller connected to each of the charging stations. The system controller evaluates the vehicle battery condition of each electric vehicle connected to one of the charging stations and determines the most efficient method for charging the largest number of vehicle batteries based on current condition of the individual batteries, weather conditions, time of day, status of the utility electrical grid, etc. The system controller also selects one of the connected electric vehicles for customer use by using the battery charging information and additional information about the desired trip provided by the customer and other external data sources monitored by the system controller.

Kiosk vehicle charging and selecting system

A system and method for managing a plurality of electric vehicles with a fleet management portal is described herein. In one embodiment, a machine implemented method for managing one or more fleets of electric vehicles includes monitoring one or more fleets of electric vehicles using a fleet management portal associated with a server. Next, the method includes monitoring a plurality of charge transfer devices using the fleet management portal. Next, the method includes receiving charging information from the charge transfer devices. Next, the method includes determining a charging status for each electric vehicle based on the charging information. Next, the method includes generating one or more reports having the charging status for each electric vehicle.

System and method for managing electric vehicles

A shared vehicle system includes a central facility, at least one vehicle distribution port facility and a plurality or fleet of vehicles, each having a vehicle subsystem. In general, the central station and port facility and the vehicle subsystems communicate in a manner to allow a user to enter information at a port facility. That information is then communicated to the central facility, where the information is processed to select a vehicle from the fleet to allocate to the user at the port facility. Selection of a vehicle for allocation to a user may be based on selecting an available or soon to be available vehicle according to various algorithms that take into account the vehicles state of charge. The central station also communicates with the port facility and the vehicle subsystem to notify the user of the selected vehicle, to provide secure user access to the selected vehicle, to monitor the location and operating status of vehicles in the fleet, to monitor the state of charge of electric vehicles and to provide other functions. The vehicles communicate with the central station to notify the central station of the PIN number of the individual attempting to use the vehicle, and of vehicle parameters such as state of charge and location of the vehicle.

Vehicle sharing system and method for allocating vehicles based on state of charge

Shared vehicle system and method involving reserving vehicles with highest states of charge

A shared vehicle system includes a central facility 12, at least one vehicle distribution port facility 14 and a plurality of fleet of vehicles 16, each having a vehicle subsystem 18. In general, the central facility 12 and port facility 14 and the vehicle subsystems 18 communicate in a manner to allow a user to enter information at a port facility 14. That information is then communicated to the central facility 12, where the information is processed to select a vehicle 16 from the fleet to allocate to the user 20 at the port facility 14. Selection of a vehicle 16 for allocation to a user 20 may be based on selecting an available or soon to be available vehicle according to various algorithms that take into account the vehicles state of charge. For example, the vehicle having the highest, or second highest, state of charge may be allocated to the user, according to a selected mode of operation. The selection of the mode of operation may comprise determining the time of day, or the day within a week, in which the travel request is received. The central station 12 also communicates with the port facility 14 and the vehicle subsystem to notify the user 20 of the selected vehicle 16, to provide secure user access to the selected vehicle 16, to monitor the location and operating status of vehicles in the fleet, to monitor the state of charge of electric vehicles and to provide other functions. The vehicles communicate with the central station to notify the central station of the PIN number of the individual 20 attempting to use the vehicle, and of the vehicle parameters such as state of charge and location of the vehicles.

Shared vehicle system and method involving reserving vehicles with highest states of electrical charge

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase the efficiency of a vehicle sharing system by shortening the waiting time of a user by allocating to the user the vehicle with the highest SOC in a vehicle retrieval group having sufficient SOC complying with user's requests and reducing the frequency of charging. SOLUTION: This method determine the order of allocation of an electric vehicle that a user uses according to the charging quantity of the vehicle. For the purpose, this method includes a stage where the user inputs an estimated distance of a target trip, a stage wherein a vehicle group having a sufficient charging quantity matching the estimated distance is selected, and a stage where the vehicle having the largest charging quantity in the selected vehicle group is allocated.

Michael Donovan Todd

Papers

Shared vehicle system and method involving reserving vehicles with highest states of charge

Shared vehicle system and method involving reserving vehicles with highest states of electrical charge

Vehicle sharing method and system for allocating vehicle in most or second charged state