# US 2014/0195140 A1 · Driver display of energy consumption as a monetary rate

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- Number: US 2014/0195140 A1
- Document ID: US20140195140A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 13/736,350
- Filed: 2013-01-08
- Published: 2014-07-10
- Earliest claimed: 2013-01-08
- Assignees: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
- Applicants: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
- Inventors: Christopher J. Twarog; Goro Tamai; Anthony J. Corsetti
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140195140A1

## CPC

- G06F 17/00: Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions (information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00)
- G06Q 30/04: Billing or invoicing
- G07B 13/00: Taximeters (measuring distance travelled G01C; measuring time G04)
- G07C 5/0825: {using optical means}
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- 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
- G07B: TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS
- 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

## Abstract

A computer processor is embedded in a vehicle and a display device embedded in the vehicle is communicatively coupled to the computer processor. The computer executes logic to receive a price per unit of energy that is stored in the vehicle, compute an energy consumption rate of the vehicle over a time period, multiply the price per unit by the energy consumption rate to determine a cost of the energy consumption rate over the time period, and display the cost of the energy consumption rate for the time period on the display device in the vehicle.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A system, comprising:
a computer processor embedded in a vehicle;
a display device embedded in the vehicle and communicatively coupled to the computer processor; and
logic executable by the computer processor, the logic configured to implement a method, the method comprising:
receiving a price per unit of energy, the energy stored in the vehicle;
computing, during a drive cycle and as a function of operator driving behavior, an energy consumption rate of the vehicle over a time period, the computing comprising determining, from an energy gauge in the vehicle, an amount of energy consumed for the time period;
multiplying the price per unit by the energy consumption rate to determine a cost of the energy consumption rate over the time period; and
displaying the cost of the energy consumption rate for the time period on the display device in the vehicle.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the receiving a price per unit of energy includes connecting with an information source over a network and acquiring the price per unit from the information source.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The system of claim 2, wherein the information source is a user interface, the network is a vehicle communication bus, and the price per unit from the information source is received from input by a vehicle occupant through the user interface over the vehicle communication bus.

### Claim 4 (depends on 2)

The system of claim 2, wherein the information source is a telematics service provider and the price per unit is transmitted from an energy provider to the telematics server and received by the vehicle over the network.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, further comprising monitoring replenishment of the energy by the energy gauge, wherein the logic is further configured to implement:
updating the price per unit of the energy responsive to the replenishment.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the unit is at least one of a gallon of fuel, a liter of fuel, and a kilowatt hour, and wherein the time period is one hour.

### Claim 7

(canceled)

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the time period is defined by input received from a vehicle occupant.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the cost is configured in a monetary unit that is received from input by a vehicle occupant.

### Claim 10

A method, comprising:
receiving, via a computer processor embedded in a vehicle, a price per unit of energy, the energy stored in the vehicle;
computing, during a drive cycle and as a function of operator driving behavior, an energy consumption rate of the vehicle over a time period, the computing comprising determining, from an energy gauge in the vehicle, an amount of energy consumed for the time period;
multiplying the price per unit by the energy consumption rate to determine a cost of the energy consumption rate over the time period; and
displaying the cost of the energy consumption rate for the time period on a display device in the vehicle.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein the receiving a price per unit of energy includes connecting with an information source over a network and acquiring the price per unit from the information source.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The method of claim 11, wherein the information source is a user interface, the network is a vehicle communication bus, and the price per unit from the information source is received from input by a vehicle occupant through the user interface over the vehicle communication bus.

### Claim 13 (depends on 11)

The method of claim 11, wherein the information source is a telematics service provider and the price per unit is transmitted from an energy provider to the telematics server and received by the vehicle over the network.

### Claim 14 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising updating the price per unit of the energy responsive to replenishment of the energy as determined by the energy gauge, the energy gauge communicatively coupled to the computer processor.

### Claim 15 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein the unit is at least one of a gallon of fuel, a liter of fuel, and a kilowatt hour, and wherein the time period is one hour.

### Claim 16

(canceled)

### Claim 17 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein the time period is defined by input received from a vehicle occupant.

### Claim 18 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein the cost is configured in a monetary unit that is received from input by a vehicle occupant.

### Claim 19

A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon, which when executed by a computer embedded in a vehicle causes the computer to implement a method, the method comprises:
receiving a price per unit of energy, the energy stored in the vehicle;
computing, during a drive cycle and as a function of operator driving behavior an energy consumption rate of the vehicle over a time period, the computing comprising determining, from an energy gauge in the vehicle, an amount of energy consumed for the time period;
multiplying the price per unit by the energy consumption rate to determine a cost of the energy consumption rate over the time period; and
displaying the cost of the energy consumption rate for the time period on a display device in the vehicle.

### Claim 20 (depends on 19)

The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the receiving a price per unit of energy includes connecting with an information source over a network and acquiring the price per unit from the information source.

### Claim 21 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the computing the energy consumption rate includes computing the energy consumption rate for a fuel powered vehicle, comprising:
determining, from the fuel gauge, a number of grams of fuel consumed per second, multiplying a result of the determining by a value representing the time period, and dividing a result of the multiplying by a weight of a measure of the fuel.

### Claim 22 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1 wherein the computing the energy consumption rate includes computing the energy consumption rate for an electric powered vehicle, comprising:
multiplying a value representing a high voltage battery pack voltage by a value representing a high voltage battery pack current divided by 1000.