# US 12,214,797 B2 · Vehicle information providing system > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 12,214,797 B2 - Document ID: US12214797B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 18/307,797 - Filed: 2023-04-27 - Published: 2024-03-07 - Granted: 2025-02-04 - Earliest claimed: 2022-04-28 - Assignees: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha - Applicants: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha - Inventors: Kentaro Hamada; Kotaro Hoshihara - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12214797B2 ## CPC - B60W 50/14: Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention - B60K 35/10: Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor - B60K 35/22: Display screens - B60K 35/50: Instruments characterised by their means of attachment to or integration in the vehicle (B60K35/231 takes precedence) - B60K 35/80: Arrangements for controlling instruments - B60K 35/90: Calibration of instruments, e.g. setting initial or reference parameters; Testing of instruments, e.g. detecting malfunction - B60L 53/65: involving identification of vehicles or their battery types - B60Q 1/543: {for indicating other states or conditions of the vehicle (indicating taxis' state of hire or fare G07B13/045)} - G06Q 30/0283: Price estimation or determination - G06Q 30/04: Billing or invoicing - G06Q 30/06: Buying, selling or leasing transactions - G06Q 50/06: Energy or water supply - G06Q 50/40: Business processes related to the transportation industry (shipping G06Q10/083) - G06V 20/52: Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects (recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69) - G16Y 10/40: Transportation - G16Y 20/20: relating to the thing itself - G16Y 20/30: relating to resources, e.g. consumed power - G16Y 40/10: Detection; Monitoring - G16Y 40/30: Control - B60K 35/28: characterised by the type of the output information, e.g. video entertainment or vehicle dynamics information; characterised by the purpose of the output information, e.g. for attracting the attention of the driver - B60K 35/29: Instruments characterised by the way in which information is handled, e.g. showing information on plural displays or prioritising information according to driving conditions - B60K 35/60: Instruments characterised by their location or relative disposition in or on vehicles (arrangements of lighting devices on dashboards B60Q3/10) - B60K 2360/169: Remaining operating distance or charge - B60K 2360/188: Displaying information using colour changes - B60K 2360/797: at the vehicle exterior - B60L 2270/12: of exhaust - B60Q 2400/20: Multi-color single source or LED matrix, e.g. yellow blinker and red brake lamp generated by single lamp - B60W 2050/146: {Display means} - B60W 2510/244: Charge state - B60W 2530/209: Fuel quantity remaining in tank - B60W: CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT - B60K: ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PROPULSION UNITS OR OF TRANSMISSIONS IN VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF PLURAL DIVERSE PRIME-MOVERS IN VEHICLES; AUXILIARY DRIVES FOR VEHICLES; INSTRUMENTATION OR DASHBOARDS FOR VEHICLES; ARRANGEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH COOLING, AIR INTAKE, GAS EXHAUST OR FUEL SUPPLY OF PROPULSION UNITS IN VEHICLES - B60L: PROPULSION OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES (arrangements or mounting of electrical propulsion units or of plural diverse prime-movers for mutual or common propulsion in vehicles B60K1/00, B60K6/20; arrangements or mounting of electrical gearing in vehicles B60K17/12, B60K17/14; preventing wheel slip by reducing power in rail vehicles B61C15/08; dynamo-electric machines H02K; control or regulation of electric motors H02P); SUPPLYING ELECTRIC POWER FOR AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES (electric coupling devices combined with mechanical couplings of vehicles B60D1/64; electric heating for vehicles B60H1/00); ELECTRODYNAMIC BRAKE SYSTEMS FOR VEHICLES IN GENERAL (control or regulation of electric motors H02P); MAGNETIC SUSPENSION OR LEVITATION FOR VEHICLES; MONITORING OPERATING VARIABLES OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES; ELECTRIC SAFETY DEVICES FOR ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES - B60Q: ARRANGEMENT OF SIGNALLING OR LIGHTING DEVICES, THE MOUNTING OR SUPPORTING THEREOF OR CIRCUITS THEREFOR, FOR VEHICLES IN GENERAL - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR - G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING - G16Y: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE INTERNET OF THINGS [IoT] ## Abstract A vehicle information providing system is realized, which is capable of providing appropriate vehicle information depending on a used driving energy source. The kind of fuel used when refueling a vehicle is identified based on image information from a camera provided in a service station, and/or payment information for the refueling. The magnitude of the environmental burden caused by the identified fuel is specified so as to change, according thereto, a background color of an instrument panel of the vehicle. Also, a turn-on/turn-off state and a lighting color of an eco-lamp provided on a rear surface of the vehicle is changed. Thus, the appropriate vehicle information is provided in consideration of differences in the environmental burden depending on the used fuel even when the vehicle model is the same. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A vehicle information providing system for providing information on a vehicle having a driving force source capable of selecting and using a plurality of kinds of driving energy sources, the vehicle information providing system comprising: a driving energy source information identifying section that identifies information on a driving energy source stored in a driving energy source storage part; an instruction information generating section that generates instruction information to instruct a providing state of vehicle information according to the information on the driving energy source identified by the driving energy source information identifying section; and an information providing section that changes the providing state of the vehicle information according to the instruction information generated by the instruction information generating section, wherein the information providing section is a vehicle body color changing section capable of changing a color of a body of the vehicle, and the change in the providing state of the vehicle information is a change in the color of the body of the vehicle by the vehicle body color changing section. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The vehicle information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the driving force source is an internal combustion engine, and the driving energy source is a fuel used for driving the internal combustion engine. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The vehicle information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the driving force source is an electric motor, and the driving energy source is electric power used for driving the electric motor. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The vehicle information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the information on the driving energy source is any one of: information on magnitude of an environmental burden when the driving energy source is used; information correlated with the magnitude of the environmental burden when the driving energy source is used; information on the magnitude of the environmental burden when the driving energy source is generated; and information correlated with the magnitude of the environmental burden when the driving energy source is generated. ### Claim 5 A vehicle information providing system for providing information on a vehicle having a driving force source capable of selecting and using a plurality of kinds of driving energy sources, the vehicle information providing system comprising: a driving energy source information identifying section that identifies information on a driving energy source stored in a driving energy source storage part; an instruction information generating section that generates instruction information to instruct a providing state of vehicle information according to the information on the driving energy source identified by the driving energy source information identifying section; and an information providing section that changes the providing state of the vehicle information according to the instruction information generated by the instruction information generating section, wherein the driving energy source information identifying section identifies the information on the driving energy source when the driving energy source storage part of the vehicle is refueled with the driving energy source in a service station, the service station is provided with a camera that takes images of a refueling operation to refuel the driving energy source storage part of the vehicle with the driving energy source, and the driving energy source information identifying section receives information on the images of the refueling operation taken by the camera, and identifies the information on the driving energy source stored in the driving energy source storage part based on the received information on the taken images. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The vehicle information providing system according to claim 5, wherein the driving force source is an internal combustion engine, and the driving energy source is a fuel used for driving the internal combustion engine. ### Claim 7 (depends on 5) The vehicle information providing system according to claim 5, wherein the driving force source is an electric motor, and the driving energy source is electric power used for driving the electric motor. ### Claim 8 (depends on 5) The vehicle information providing system according to claim 5, wherein the information on the driving energy source is any one of: information on magnitude of an environmental burden when the driving energy source is used; information correlated with the magnitude of the environmental burden when the driving energy source is used; information on the magnitude of the environmental burden when the driving energy source is generated; and information correlated with the magnitude of the environmental burden when the driving energy source is generated. ### Claim 9 A vehicle information providing system for providing information on a vehicle having a driving force source capable of selecting and using a plurality of kinds of driving energy sources, the vehicle information providing system comprising: a driving energy source information identifying section that identifies information on a driving energy source stored in a driving energy source storage part; an instruction information generating section that generates instruction information to instruct a providing state of vehicle information according to the information on the driving energy source identified by the driving energy source information identifying section; and an information providing section that changes the providing state of the vehicle information according to the instruction information generated by the instruction information generating section, wherein the driving energy source information identifying section identifies the information on the driving energy source when the driving energy source storage part of the vehicle is refueled with the driving energy source in a service station, and the driving energy source information identifying section receives payment information after completion of refueling of the driving energy source storage part of the vehicle with the driving energy source so as to calculate a unit price of the driving energy source by the payment information, and identifies the information on the driving energy source stored in the driving energy source storage part based on the unit price. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The vehicle information providing system according to claim 9, wherein the driving force source is an internal combustion engine, and the driving energy source is a fuel used for driving the internal combustion engine. ### Claim 11 (depends on 9) The vehicle information providing system according to claim 9, wherein the driving force source is an electric motor, and the driving energy source is electric power used for driving the electric motor. ### Claim 12 (depends on 9) The vehicle information providing system according to claim 9, wherein the information on the driving energy source is any one of: information on magnitude of an environmental burden when the driving energy source is used; information correlated with the magnitude of the environmental burden when the driving energy source is used; information on the magnitude of the environmental burden when the driving energy source is generated; and information correlated with the magnitude of the environmental burden when the driving energy source is generated.