Parking meter monitoring and payment system

• Main Authors: Toopran, Divya Sai, Nagata, Katsumi
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 27.04.2021
• Subjects: ALARM SYSTEMS; CALCULATING; CHECKING-DEVICES; COMPUTING; CONTROLLING; COUNTING; DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS OR METHODS, SPECIALLY ADAPTED FORADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORYOR FORECASTING PURPOSES; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FRANKING APPARATUS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; PHYSICS; REGULATING; SIGNALLING; SIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS; SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE,COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORY OR FORECASTINGPURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS; WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

Methods and systems for automatically monitoring a parking meter associated with a vehicle. The system includes a transceiver configured to receive location data of a mobile device associated with a user of the vehicle. The system includes an electronic control unit (ECU) of the vehicle configured to receive or determine parking meter data associated with the parking meter. The ECU is configured to determine, based on the parking meter data, whether a time remaining on the parking meter is below a time threshold. The ECU is configured to automatically communicate, to the mobile device, a warning communication indicating the time remaining on the parking meter when the time remaining on the parking meter is below the time threshold and the location data of the mobile device indicates that a location of the mobile device is more than a threshold distance away from a location of the vehicle.