Ford Patent for Privacy-Preserving Road Usage Charging Reports

ChangeBridge: Patent Grants - Business Methods (G06Q)

Published March 24th, 2026

Detected March 25th, 2026

Summary

The USPTO has granted Ford Global Technologies, LLC a patent for a system that generates privacy-preserving road usage charging reports. The system allows for charging vehicles based on usage without revealing specific routes taken, enhancing user privacy.

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What changed

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted patent US12586105B2 to Ford Global Technologies, LLC for a "Privacy-preserving road usage charging reports" system. This patent describes a method for generating sum reports for individual vehicles indicating amounts owed, and aggregate reports for charger domains without disclosing vehicle routes. The system aims to enable charging for road usage while protecting user privacy by obscuring the specific routes taken.

This patent grant is primarily informational and does not impose new regulatory obligations on companies. However, it signifies a technological advancement in privacy-preserving data handling for potential future applications in road usage charging services. Companies operating in the automotive and transportation sectors, particularly those involved in telematics or usage-based insurance, may consider this technology in their product development and privacy strategies.

Source document (simplified)

← USPTO Patent Grants

Privacy-preserving road usage charging reports

Grant US12586105B2 Kind: B2 Mar 24, 2026

Assignee

FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC

Inventors

Ivan Vukovic, Krishna Bandi, Sathyanarayana Chary Palakonda, Syed Amaar Ahmad, Joseph Zane

Abstract

A sum report is generated for each vehicle of a plurality of vehicles, the respective sum report indicating an account of the vehicle to be charged and a total sum owed by the vehicle. An aggregate report is generated indicating total amounts owed to each of a plurality of charger domains across the plurality of vehicles without indicating the accounts of the vehicles. The sum reports and the aggregate report are sent to a RUC service provider, the RUC service provider being configured to charge the vehicles using the sum reports and credit the charger domains using the aggregate report, while being unable to determine which routes were taken by the vehicles.