# US 12,223,776 B1 · Electric vehicle range detection and processing > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 12,223,776 B1 - Document ID: US12223776B1 - Status: Granted - Kind: B1 - Application number: 18/191,460 - Filed: 2023-03-28 - Granted: 2025-02-11 - Earliest claimed: 2023-03-28 - Applicants: Benjamin J Kwitek; Scott C Harris - Inventors: Benjamin J Kwitek; Scott C Harris - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12223776B1 ## CPC - G07C 5/004: {Indicating the operating range of the engine (economical driving B60R16/0236, F02B77/084; measuring liquid fuel of an engine G01F9/00)} - B60L 58/12: responding to state of charge [SoC] - B60L 2240/62: Vehicle position - B60L 2240/64: Road conditions - B60L 2260/52: drive range estimation, e.g. of estimation of available travel distance - G07C: TIME OR ATTENDANCE REGISTERS; REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE WORKING OF MACHINES; GENERATING RANDOM NUMBERS; VOTING OR LOTTERY APPARATUS; ARRANGEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS FOR CHECKING NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE - 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 ## Abstract A vehicle monitoring system that monitors operation of a first vehicle on a road to determine an amount of fuel actually used by the first vehicle on each of a plurality of stretches of the road, and to use that amount of fuel used by the first vehicle on stretches of the road to determine an estimated range that a vehicle can travel based on a current fuel amount of the vehicle. The fuel is preferably electric charge. An embodiment crowd-shares the data between vehicles, so that a vehicle can get information about the battery consumption on an actual stretch of roadway. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A vehicle system, comprising: a vehicle controller comprising a computer that monitors operation of a first vehicle on a road to determine an amount of fuel used by the first vehicle on each of a plurality of stretches of the road, and to use said amount of fuel used by the first vehicle on stretches of the road to determine an estimated range that a vehicle can travel based on a current fuel amount of the vehicle, wherein the vehicle controller determines a total amount of time that it will take to refuel the vehicle at different locations, the total amount of time including time for exiting the road from the current route, finding a vehicle refueler, and actually refueling at the refueler and providing information about the total amount of time it will take to refuel including the time for exiting the road from the current route, finding the vehicle refueler, and the refueling at different locations to the user, and the vehicle controller providing parameters for the vehicle, to minimize a total time of a trip and the vehicle controller operating the first vehicle according to these parameters to minimize the total time of the trip. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The system as in claim 1, wherein the vehicle controller monitors operation of a first vehicle on a road to determine an amount of fuel actually used by the first vehicle on each of a plurality of stretches of the road, and to use said amount of fuel used by the first vehicle on stretches of the road to determine an estimated range that a vehicle can travel based on a current fuel amount of the vehicle. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The system as in claim 2, wherein the vehicle is a second vehicle, and the first vehicle and the second vehicle are different vehicles, wherein the first vehicle and the second vehicle share information about amounts of fuel used by the first and second vehicles on each of a plurality of stretches of the road and the vehicle controller monitors the operation of the first vehicle at a first time, prior to a time when the second vehicle will travel on the stretches of the road. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The system as in claim 3, wherein the monitoring system operates to obtain data from a first vehicle that is the same model vehicle as the second vehicle. ### Claim 5 (depends on 2) The system as in claim 2, wherein the stretches of roadway are defined between different roadway markers. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The system as in claim 1, wherein the amount of fuel is a level of battery charge, and the vehicle refueler is a vehicle recharger, and the time for actually refueling at the refueler is a time for battery charging. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The system as in claim 1, further comprising the vehicle controller analyzing what parts of power delivered to the vehicle that went to different systems in the vehicle, and the vehicle controller providing an output that indicates how to extend the range of the vehicle by turning off different systems in the vehicle, and the vehicle controller determines whether turning off different systems in the vehicle will reduce a total time of the trip, and the vehicle controller turns off the different systems in the vehicle to reduce the total time of the trip. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The system as in claim 1, wherein the vehicle controller analyzes fuel consumption at different speeds, and determines a total time to an end of a trip at the different speeds including the time to refuel at the different locations. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The system as in claim 8, wherein the vehicle controller indicates to a user a reduction in a total time for a trip including an amount of time take to refuel the first vehicle, the reduction in total time caused by changing a vehicle parameter, and the vehicle controller operating to change the parameter. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The system as in claim 1, wherein the vehicle controller storing information about the amount of fuel used by the first vehicle into a database; the vehicle controller sharing the database with a second vehicle; the vehicle controller receiving information into its database indicating information about an amount of fuel used by a third vehicle on stretches of road that will be traversed by the first vehicle in the future, and using the information from the database about the amount of fuel used by the third vehicle on the stretches of road to determine an estimated range that the first vehicle can travel based on a current fuel amount of the first vehicle. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The system as in claim 1, wherein the refueler is a battery charger, and where the vehicle refueler is a vehicle charger, and the refueling is charging a battery of the vehicle. ### Claim 12 A vehicle system, comprising: a vehicle controller, including a computer, that monitors operation of a first vehicle on a road to determine a total amount of time taken to refuel the first vehicle at a first location including the time for exiting the road from the current route, finding the vehicle refueler, and the refueling; a database that stores the total amount of time taken to refuel the first vehicle at the first location; the database receiving total amounts of time taken to refuel other vehicles at other locations, from the other vehicle, including the time for exiting the road from the current route, finding the vehicle charger, and the charging and the database sharing the amount of time taken to refuel the other vehicle at the other location; and the controller receiving an indication from the vehicle of a desired trip destination and estimates different times to get to the desired trip destination including refueling at the different locations; the controller determining fuel consumption from turning off electrical or mechanical loads in the vehicle, the controller determining if a trip will get shorter in time by turning off the loads in the vehicle, and providing instructions to the user to turn off the loads in the vehicle, responsive to the determining, and turning off the loads to make the trip shorter in time. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The system as in claim 12, wherein the vehicle controller also monitors fuel used by the first vehicle on each of a plurality of stretches of the road, the vehicle controller storing information about the amount of fuel used by the vehicle into the database; the vehicle controller sharing the database with a second vehicle; the vehicle controller receiving information into its database indicating information about amount of fuel used by a third vehicle on stretches of road that will be traversed by the first vehicle in the future, and using the information from the database to determine an estimated range that a vehicle can travel based on a current fuel amount of the vehicle. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The system as in claim 13, wherein the fuel is a level of battery charge, and the vehicle controller using the actual amount of battery charge used by a different vehicle on a same actual stretch of roadway to estimate the estimated range.