Method and apparatus for determining a road usage charge

A system for determining a road usage charge for a distance drive by a vehicle, comprising:

• a mobile device that is co-located with the vehicle;
• a server that is located remotely from the mobile device;
• the mobile device being configured to acquire a first odometer value of the vehicle at a first time, and to subsequently acquire a second odometer value of the vehicle at a second time;
• the mobile device being further configured to transmit the first odometer value to the server, and to subsequently transmit the second odometer value to the server;
• the server being configured to receive the first odometer value and the second odometer value and determine a distance driven based on a difference between the second odometer value and the first odometer value;
• and
• the server being further configured to determine a road usage charge based on the distance driven.

A method for determining a road usage charge for a distance driven by a vehicle, comprising:

• at a mobile device that is co-located with the vehicle, identifying the vehicle based on receiving at the mobile device a transmission from a personal area network transceiver of the vehicle;
• the mobile device, responsive to receiving the transmission, using a camera of the mobile device to capture a first odometer image of an odometer of the vehicle;
• the mobile device transmitting the first odometer image to a remotely located server via a cellular infrastructure;
• subsequent to capturing the first image, and further responsive to receiving the transmission, the mobile device using the camera to capture a second odometer image of the odometer of the vehicle;
• the mobile device transmitting the second odometer image to the server via the cellular infrastructure;
• the server processing the first odometer image to obtain a first odometer value, and processing the second odometer image to obtain a second odometer value;
• the server determining a distance driven by the vehicle based on a difference between the second odometer value and the first odometer value;
• and
• the server determining a road usage charge based in the distance driven.