Spanish inventor offers a conventional vehicle management service platform aimed at vehicle fleet owners to identify those less efficient and more polluting vehicles through networked digital media.

Short summary A Spanish telecommunications expert has devised an innovative platform for the management of fossil fuel-powered vehicles (i.e. cars, motorcycles, coaches, trucks...) that will allow owners of vehicle fleets to: (1) identify those less efficient vehicles, (2) determine user driving benefits, (3) account for/record user distractions and irresponsibility behind the wheel (4) control vehicle access and parking in certain areas of the city. The inventor seeks partners capable of using the invention.

Full description The Spanish inventor is a specialist in systems and applications for the telecommunications and energy industry, affiliated with universities and institutes, and supported by a wide range of academic resources. The platform will entail an automated system that allows determining: (1) those vehicles that pollute the most, (2) those vehicles that carry out traffic violations either due to distractions or speeding, and (3) lengthen the life cycle useful life of the vehicle and (4) increase road safety. The idea is to provide digital means for estimating the mileage travelled by the vehicle, litres of fuel available in the fuel tank, instantaneous speed, vehicle positioning, level of engagement/distraction of the user behind the wheel, current state of the mechanics of the vehicle together with its factory technical specifications. All this information would be recorded in a private Blockchain 2.0 distributed ledger, optionally provided with connectivity to the public Ethereum network, so that the information could be digitally processed by algorithms from a cloud computing centre. The objective is for the application itself to be able to generate notifications or messages for the vehicle user, as well as for the platform systems technicians to be able to generate useful information, by way of statistics, for the owners of the vehicle fleet. The vehicle efficiency management platform proposes a network between vehicles and servers at the Edge and/or in the cloud, owned/rented by the platform management company, through a private Blockchain backbone network. The platform will instantly manage in an unattended and automated manner which vehicles are authorized/enabled to access, circulate and park in the different streets or areas of the city, either due to emissions issues and/or business issues as would be the case of public and private transport (buses, taxis), in addition to having digital means to notify the user and the company managing the platform. The invention would add an additional step for those entities that own a fleet of vehicles (e.g. companies, rental companies) to be able to determine both the driving performance of the person driving the vehicle and the condition of the vehicle's mechanics. The platform includes connectivity to a Blockchain 2.0 backbone network, in order to record information through user transactions as a social network to enhance road safety and help drivers of vehicles attached to the platform. In this way, the managing entity and potentially the administrator of the platform can visualize and inform the companies that own the vehicle fleet about the operation and operation statistics of their vehicle fleet. The planned cooperation is based on supporting the development of the prototype and licensing the platform by the company that provides its services to a public or private company/entity with a fleet of vehicles. To do this, the vehicles in the fleet would be equipped with technology (standard and/or additional) to capture data in an automated manner and/or formulas so that the user can enter relevant information, in a semi-automated manner. The platform services company would process the information through algorithms with artificial intelligence techniques to provide statistics to the owner of the vehicle fleet. The commercial part, and therefore the benefits, will be different for the target partner/customer based on the size of the vehicle fleet. The boards of directors of the vehicle fleet companies would analyse the tax schemes, the policies and patterns of use of the platform and would parameterize their needs. The service provider company would have the means to estimate and evaluate the return on investment of the company to which the service is offered, that is, the companies that own fleets of vehicles adhered to the platform. The cooperation type is research cooperation agreement in order to further research and develop the platform.

Advantages and innovations The objective is to obtain savings in the maintenance of the vehicle fleet, savings in primary resources in terms of fossil fuels, a reduction in levels of carbon emissions and noise pollution, an increase in road safety, and to have objective means for a variable pricing based on the use that is given to e.g. rental vehicles (rent a car), and, finally, to have objective means to reward or admonish or even penalise, based on their behaviour. Vehicle companies, whether for hire or public or private companies, do not have telecommunications methods and infrastructures that allow them to reward those efficient and responsible users while driving and identify those vehicles with pollution levels above a threshold or that commit offenses unjustifiably. Currently, the control of whether a vehicle is likely (or not) to enter a city area is fundamentally based on its CO2 emissions, by the year of registration of the vehicle. However, vehicle fleet business lines may restrict transit through certain areas; either due to emissions issues and/or in order to decongest cities during peak hours or for reasons of pricing supplements in fleets of rental vehicles and/or taxis. For all these reasons, the service company that would administer the platform would provide relevant information on how a certain fleet of vehicles work, for the fleet company properly manage the fleet. The service provider company could have agreements with oil companies to adjust the fuel price discount based on the status of the vehicle fleet and driving style. The oil companies, by adhering to the platform, could launch vehicle fleet loyalty campaigns adjusting bonuses/discounts. The amounts of the bonuses/discounts would be objectively quantified by government agencies. Additionally, the platform will generate intangible benefits that are difficult to quantify for the fleets of vehicles of the platform, such as: image, marketing, environment, extension of the life cycle of the vehicle fleet, etc.
Contact / source: NEXT EEN Widgets (europa.eu)