Determining vehicle occupancy using sensors

A method of determining occupancy of a vehicle during a trip travelled upon a fee based roadway, comprising:

• executing software upon at least one computer server, the software stored on non-transitory media, the at least one server configured by the software to:
• receive information from each of a first and second smartphone, each of the first and second smartphone associated with a person, the information including a unique identification of the vehicle and a unique identification of at least one of the smartphone and the person associated with the smartphone;
• receive data that was generated, during a time interval of the trip, by a plurality of electronic sensors selected from the group consisting of a magnetometer, gyroscope, accelerometer, and microphone, within each of the first and second smartphones, the data corresponding to local ambient environmental conditions inside the vehicle of the smartphone generating the data;
• compare the received data by comparing the raw data of the electronic sensors without analyzing the underlying meaning of the sensor data, to determine if the data obtained from the first and second smartphones mutually correspond within predetermined limits, to determine if both of the uniquely identified smartphones are within the vehicle during the time interval of the trip;
• and
• assess fees to the person associated with each of the first and second smartphone based upon the compared data.

A method of determining occupancy of a vehicle during a trip travelled upon a fee based roadway, comprising:

• executing a software app upon first and second mobile computing devices travelling in the vehicle during the trip, the app configured to enable each of the first and second mobile computing devices to:
• a) receive identification information pertaining to an identification of the vehicle;
• b) generate data during a time interval of the trip, by at least one electronic sensor selected from the group consisting of a magnetometer, gyroscope, altimeter, accelerometer, and microphone, within the mobile computing device, the data corresponding to local ambient environmental conditions inside the vehicle of the mobile computing device;
• and
• c) communicate the identification information of the vehicle, the generated data, and identification information relating to the mobile computing device, to at least one server, using a long range wireless communication protocol;
• and
• executing software upon at least one computer server, the software stored on non-transitory media, the at least one server configured by the software to:
• receive the communicated information from each of the plurality of mobile computing devices;
• compare the received data that was generated by comparing the raw data of the electronic sensors of the first and second mobile computing devices, without analyzing the underlying meaning of the sensor data, to determine if the data obtained from each of the first and second mobile computing devices mutually correspond within predetermined limits, to determine if both the first and second mobile computing devices were present in the vehicle during the time interval of the trip;
• and
• calculate, using the compared data, fees for use of the fee based roadway.