System and Method for Wirelessly Rostering a Vehicle

Abstract

A system and method for wirelessly generating a roster of drivers and passengers in transportation vehicles. A driver's or passenger's smartphone can communicate using short-range communications with the vehicle, or a smartphone in the vehicle, so that the ID associated with the phone can be linked to a vehicle ID, date and time stamped, and stored in a log or database. Any unauthorized person can be refused admittance (by not permitting the vehicle to start or otherwise being denied the right to be a driver or passenger). A downloaded application is used for this purpose. The invention also can include a secure, remote database as well as a mobile device such as a smartphone running the application, a wireless receiver/transmitter in the vehicle, and a wireless communication network such as a cellular network.

1 . A method of automatically generating a roster of drivers and passengers for a particular vehicle comprising:
 a) determining an identification associated with a first person occupying a vehicle by at least one of:
 establishing communication between an occupant recognition module and a mobile device of the first person, in response to which the identification is provided by the mobile device to the occupant recognition module, and 
 detecting biometric data of the first person by the occupant recognition module, the biometric data corresponding to the identification; 
   b) making a first record comprising the identification in a memory of the occupant recognition module, the first record further comprising a timestamp;   c) repeating steps a) and b) at predetermined times;   whereby a roster of occupants for the vehicle comprises the first records.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the predetermined times comprise when any person enters the vehicle. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the predetermined times comprise when any person exits the vehicle.