EV Charging Billing via Vehicle Identifier Matching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Charging electric vehicles presents challenges in flexible and fraud-proof billing of energy costs, particularly when charging devices lack the necessary technical equipment to recognize the vehicle and require secure billing mechanisms.
Innovation Solution
A device and method that obtain a vehicle identifier and match it with a stored identifier to provide billing information, ensuring that energy costs are billed only to authorized vehicles, thereby preventing fraudulent billing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If vehicle recognition is implemented at the charging device, then billing accuracy and fraud prevention are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary device (separate from the charging device) that performs vehicle recognition and billing functions. This intermediary acts as a mediator between the charging device and the billing system, extracting vehicle identifiers from charging information and matching them against stored identifiers to determine billing eligibility. This resolves the contradiction by offloading the complex recognition functionality from the charging device to a specialized intermediary system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the vehicle recognition and billing determination functionality from the charging device itself. The charging device simply provides charging information, while the separate intermediary device extracts the vehicle identifier from this information and performs the matching operation. This separation removes the complexity burden from the charging device while maintaining billing accuracy.
2Adaptability or versatility
If flexible billing based on vehicle identification is implemented, then billing flexibility is improved, but security requirements and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The intermediary device serves multiple functions: it processes charging information, extracts vehicle identifiers, performs matching operations, determines billing eligibility, and prevents fraud. By consolidating these diverse functions into a single multi-functional system, the patent achieves billing flexibility without proportionally increasing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service billing determination through automated vehicle identifier extraction and matching. The intermediary device automatically processes charging information, identifies vehicles, matches them against stored identifiers, and determines billing eligibility without manual intervention, providing flexible billing while keeping operational complexity manageable.
3Reliability
If vehicle identification is performed to prevent fraud, then billing security is improved, but measurement and detection difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex mechanical or hardware-based vehicle recognition systems with an information-processing approach. Instead of using sensors, cameras, or physical identification mechanisms, the system extracts vehicle identifiers directly from charging information data and performs digital matching operations. This substitution simplifies the detection process while maintaining security.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses a copy of the vehicle identifier that is already present in the charging information provided by the charging device. Rather than creating a new identification mechanism, the intermediary device extracts and uses the identifier that already exists in the charging data, making detection straightforward while ensuring security through matching against stored identifiers.
Data Source
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AI summary
Among other things, a device is disclosed, the device comprising means for: - obtaining charging information, wherein the charging information indicates electrical energy transmitted from a charging device to a vehicle; - obtaining a first vehicle identifier which identifies the vehicle; - providing billing information if it is determined that the first vehicle identifier matches a second vehicle identifier, wherein the billing information represents at least the electrical energy transmitted to the vehicle.