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US 8,949,009 B2Granted
Driver display of energy consumption as a monetary rate
AssigneeGM Global Technology Operations LLC
InventorsChristopher J. Twarog, Goro Tamai, Anthony J. Corsetti
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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.
Claims17
A system, comprising:
- a computer processor embedded in a vehicle;
- a communications component in the vehicle, the communications component communicatively coupled to the computer processor via a vehicle communication bus in the vehicle, the communications component configured to enable communications between the vehicle and information sources, at least one of the information sources is external to the vehicle;
- a display device embedded in the vehicle and communicatively coupled to the computer processor over the communication bus;
- and
- logic executable by the computer processor, the logic configured to implement:
- determining, via global positioning system coordinates, a location of the vehicle;
- in response to determining, via the global positioning system coordinates, that the vehicle is located at an energy provider:
- prompting a vehicle occupant, via an option on the display device, to select the at least one of the information sources to acquire a price per unit of energy offered by the energy provider;
- and
- in response to receiving a selection from the vehicle occupant of the at least one of the information sources, accessing the at least one of the information sources via the communications component and acquiring the price per unit of energy offered by the energy provider;
- 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 of energy 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.
11 more elements
A method, comprising:
- determining, via global positioning system coordinates, a location of the vehicle;
- in response to determining, via the global positioning system coordinates, that the vehicle is located at an energy provider:
- prompting, with a computer processor, a vehicle occupant, via an option on a display device of the vehicle, to select one of a plurality of information sources to acquire a price per unit of energy offered by the energy provider;
- and
- in response to receiving a selection from the vehicle occupant of the one of the plurality of information sources, accessing the one of the plurality of information sources via a communications component coupled to the computer processor via a vehicle communication bus in the vehicle, and acquiring the price per unit of energy offered by the energy provider;
- computing, with the computer processor, 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, with the computer processor, the price per unit of energy 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.
6 more elements
A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon, which when executed by a computer embedded in a vehicle causes the computer to implement:
- determining, via global positioning system coordinates, a location of the vehicle;
- in response to determining, via the global positioning system coordinates, that the vehicle is located at an energy provider:
- prompting, with a computer processor, a vehicle occupant, via an option on a display device of the vehicle, to select one of a plurality of information sources to acquire a price per unit of energy offered by the energy provider;
- and
- in response to receiving a selection of the one of the plurality of information sources, accessing the one of the plurality of information sources via a communications component coupled to the computer processor via a vehicle communication bus in the vehicle, and acquiring the price per unit of energy offered by the energy provider;
- computing, with a computer processor, 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, with the computer processor, the price per unit of energy 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.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.