FR2792092A1 - Method of penalising attempted fraud using a taximeter - Google Patents

Abstract

The method operates with taximeters using an impulse device to record distance travelled, in conjunction with a pulse counter circuit (1,11,18). As soon as the fraud is detected the pulse count indicating distance is no longer incremented, so reducing the indicated fare substantially.

Description

PROCESS FOR PENALIZING ATTEMPTS OF FRAUD

ON A TAXIMETER

  The present invention relates to a method for penalizing fraud attempts on a taximeter. A taximeter is, very generally, a device which aims to indicate the price to pay for a journey made by the taxi, this price depending on several parameters, including among others the distance traveled by the taxi, it is that is to say finally the number of wheel revolutions made by this vehicle

during the race.

  The sensor used to measure this number of wheel turns is then the sensor normally associated with the vehicle dashboard and therefore connected to the speedometer which indicates both the instantaneous speed of this vehicle and the

mileage covered by it.

  Modern vehicles are almost all equipped with an electromagnetic or electronic sensor of the number of wheel revolutions, called "electronic sensor", which is provided at the gearbox, and which is equipped with an output connector on which we just plug in a cable that collects and conveys the electrical impulses representative of the number of wheel turns to the speedometer that equips the dashboard. The dashboard is then conventionally equipped with an auxiliary output, which is electrically connected in parallel on this cable, and to which the corresponding input of the taximeter is connected: the pulses which are carried on this cable

  They therefore simultaneously supply the vehicle speedometer and the taximeter.

  These taximeters are sealed by the Weights and Measures Services, but this is unfortunately not enough to avoid more and more frequent fraud. For example, a form of fraud that has been observed frequently to date consists in connecting a small generator between the sensor and the taximeter.

auxiliary pulse.

  This falsification device can generally be connected at leisure to the taximeter, this connection being made for example using a discreet manual switch accessible to the taxi driver. The driver can thus trigger fraud when he wants, in particular according to the head of the customer he has just loaded. This type of fraud is the most common at present, but it can

many others exist.

  The inventor has been working for many years on devising methods to avoid fraud on an electronic taximeter. As

  of illustration of the result of his research can be cited the documents FR-A-

  2,766,289, FR-A-2,757,663, FR-A-2,757,662, FR-A-2,749.958, FR-A-2,715. 491,

  FR-A-2.700.870, FR-A-2.548.413, and patent application in France no 98. 16061.

  The implementation of these methods ends with the triggering of an anti-fraud action which generally consists of the triggering of a visual and / or audible alarm, possibly followed, at the end of the current race (this is that is to say the next passage in the "FREE" position>), of a blockage of the taximeter. The fact of triggering an alarm, visual and / or audible, upon the detection of a fraud has the disadvantage of not preventing that the current race ends with the fraudulent counting, which unfairly penalizes the customer then transported, this last before, despite the triggering of this alarm, still pay the price displayed at the end of the race, although this price is excessive.

  The invention aims to remedy this drawback.

  It relates to this effect to a method for penalizing fraud on a taximeter upon detection of this fraud, this taximeter being associated with a taxi equipped with a sensor which supplies this taximeter with electrical information, such as a train of 'pulses, which allows the taximeter to perform a kilometer count representative of the distance traveled by the vehicle. According to the invention, the anti-fraud action which is triggered as soon as fraud is detected consists in then no longer taking into account, in order to calculate the price to be paid, said mileage information, so that the taximeter continues to calculate the price to pay, but only on the basis of the elapsed time, as if the vehicle was stopped at a red light, which gives a

  price lower than that calculated when the taxi is driving.

  In any case, the invention will be well understood, and all its advantages and

  different characteristics will emerge more clearly from the following description of a

  nonlimiting example of embodiment, with reference to the single appended figure, which

  is a block diagram of the electrical circuit of the taximeter.

  Referring to the figure, reference I designates the electronic tachometer sensor which is mounted on the vehicle to operate the

taximeter 2.

  A so-called "electronic" tachometer sensor of a motor vehicle is a transducer which tests a rotary mechanical member of the vehicle, the speed of rotation of this mechanical member being representative of the number of wheel revolutions effected by the vehicle, and the generally alternating electrical signal. supplied by this transducer corresponding to electrical pulses representative of this number of wheel turns. Traditionally, this rotary mechanical member is most often one of the gears of the gearbox. However, modern vehicles are now more and more often provided with a so-called "ABS" braking system which employs an electronic sensor for each wheel of the vehicle, and one then uses one of these sensors to also operate the Generally, these vehicles are fitted with disc brakes on all four wheels, and consequently each electronic sensor is a proximity sensor which tests the presence of notches which are used for this purpose on

  the outer edge of the brake disc.

  The sensor 1, which is therefore in practice placed either at the level of the gearbox or at the level of one of the wheels of the vehicle, therefore delivers on its output terminals 3, 4 pulses representative of the number of wheel turns performed

by the vehicle.

  These pulses are applied on the one hand, by connections 5, 6 to the taximeter 2, and on the other hand, by connections 7, 8 to the speedometer and mileage totalization circuits which are part of the vehicle dashboard. , as well as possibly to the <"ABS" braking circuits of this vehicle. In the taximeter 2, the pulses coming from the sensor I are firstly applied to a separation amplifier 9, for example of gain substantially equal to 1, whose output signals are applied to one of the inputs 10 of a microprocessor 11 which constitutes the central logical unit, or

<"C.P.U.", of this taximeter.

  In particular, the microprocessor 11 receives, by pressures exerted on push buttons 12-15 placed on the front face of the taximeter, control signals which are for example either tariff or operating signals of the taximeter, or signals from configuration of the taximeter, i.e.

code signals.

  Anyway, when the microprocessor 11 receives pulses from the sensor I on its input 10, it transmits in response, on an output 16, pulses whose frequency is representative, taking into account the

  parameters previously introduced into the microprocessor 11 by the keyboard 12-

  , the number of wheel revolutions performed, since the last start-up of the taximeter using the keypad 12-15, by the vehicle. This number of wheel revolutions is also expressed in distance traveled since the start of the current race. These pulses are applied to an electronic circuit 18 for calculation and display which performs the odometer reading of the distance traveled.

since the start of the race.

  The microprocessor 1 1 also supplies circuit 18, by a link 17,

  elapsed time measurement information.

  Using these two pieces of information - mileage received by link 16 and time received by link 17 - circuit 18 calculates and displays the price to be paid. The circuit 18 is, which allows the implementation of the present invention, intended not only to calculate the instantaneous speed at the time of each sampling, but also to calculate the average speed - calculated using this series of instantaneous speeds - over successive periods of

one to two seconds.

  A possible fraud consists in connecting in series on the tachometric output line of the sensor 1, for example between the terminals 3, 4 or the terminals 19, 20 for bypassing the connections 5 and 6, an auxiliary pulse generator. The fraud detection method, which is used here by way of nonlimiting example, is based on the observation that the introduction of lightning pulses into the odometer circuit of the taximeter leads, at the time of this introduction, to a sudden jump in average speed, around 10 to km / hour to fix ideas, in the measurement carried out by the electronic circuit of the taximeter, this speed jump being immediately followed by a relative stability of this average speed thus measured, this relative stability for about twenty seconds. However, such a phenomenon "sudden jump in speed immediately followed by a stability thereof for approximately 20 seconds" does not exist in the normal driving of a vehicle: when a driver accelerates or decelerates very suddenly , during a time interval of the order of a second, we observe that it never follows this sudden acceleration or deceleration of a relative stability of the speed of its vehicle

for about 20 seconds.

  When the electronic circuit 18 detects, in its measurement of the average speed that it performs for example every second, a sudden variation in average speed from one measurement to the next, this speed jump being greater than a certain threshold, for example from 10 to 20 km / h, it then observes the variation of this average speed measured during the following 20 seconds. If, during these 20 seconds, this average speed remains relatively constant (that is to say: constant to within a few percent), it triggers an anti-fraud action which, according to the present invention, consists in no longer taking into account account, to calculate the price to pay, the odometer information. It then continues to calculate the price, but only on the basis of the elapsed time, as if the vehicle was stopped at a red light, which gives a price

  lower than what is calculated when the taxi is driving.

  The current race can therefore end without inconvenience to the customer. Then, either, according to a first form of the process, nothing more passes, and the fraudulent driver can continue to use his taximeter with the disadvantage, for him alone, that the latter calculates the price to be paid solely according to the time elapsed and not also the distance traveled, that is to say, following fraud detection information which was given by the circuit 18 to the microprocessor 1111 via a link 21 at the time of the detection of the fraud, the microprocessor 11 also blocks the operation of the taximeter at the time of the next change to position

  (<FREE ", that is, at the end of the current race.

Claims (4)

  1. Method for penalizing fraud on a taximeter (2) as soon as this fraud is detected, this taximeter being associated with a taxi equipped with a sensor (1) which supplies this taximeter (2) with electrical information (16), such as a pulse train, which allows the taximeter to carry out a kilometer count (17) representative of the distance traveled by the vehicle, characterized in that the anti-fraud action then consists of no longer incrementing the price paid displayed only on the basis of elapsed time,   regardless of the distance traveled by the taxi.   2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that this action   anti-fraud is triggered upon detection of fraud.   3. Method according to claim I or claim 2, characterized in that one further blocks the operation of the taximeter   when the current race is over.   4. Taximeter, characterized in that it is equipped with electronic means (1, 18) for implementing the method according to one of claims 1 to 3.