US-12620272-B2 - Information processing apparatus

US12620272B2US 12620272 B2US12620272 B2US 12620272B2US-12620272-B2

Abstract

The controller of the information processing apparatus obtains a first evaluation amount that is an evaluation amount of the first vehicle in a case that the body color of the first vehicle is assumed to be the color of the first paint coating film. The controller obtains a second evaluation amount that is an evaluation amount of the first vehicle in case that the body color of the first vehicle is assumed to be the color of the second paint coating film. The controller determines whether the second paint coating film should be removed from the first vehicle based on the first evaluation amount and the second evaluation amount. The controller outputs the above determination result.

Inventors

Kenji Yamaguchi
Yohei Nakanishi
Yu Hamada

Assignees

TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20231016
Priority Date: 20221027

Claims (4)

1 . An information processing apparatus for performing processing related to a first vehicle in which a second paint coating film including a removable layer is configured to be removed by applying a force is overcoated on a first paint coating film, comprising a database that stores information associated with a body color and an evaluation amount, the evaluation amount being a price in a market for a lease vehicle or a price in a market for a used car, and a controller including at least one processor, wherein the controller is configured to execute processing of: receiving, from a terminal, vehicle information of the first vehicle including a vehicle type identifier and a grade; obtaining a first evaluation amount that is the evaluation amount of the first vehicle as the price in the market for the leased vehicle or the price in the market for the used car in case that a body color of the first vehicle is assumed to be a color of the first paint coating film by accessing the database using the vehicle type identifier, the grade, and the assumed color as arguments to identify an evaluation amount record; obtaining a second evaluation amount that is the evaluation amount of the first vehicle as the price in the market for the leased vehicle or the price in the market for the used car in case that a body color of the first vehicle is assumed to be a color of the second paint coating film by accessing the database using the vehicle type identifier, the grade, and the assumed color as arguments to identify the evaluation amount record; in a case where the first evaluation amount is larger than the second evaluation amount, determining to remove the second paint coating film; in a case where the first evaluation amount is equal to or less than the second evaluation amount, obtaining a first number of years that is a remaining number of years of a service life of the second paint coating film, determining not to removed the second paint coating film when the first number of years is equal to or longer than a lease period length assuming a secondary lease, and determining to remove the second paint coating film when the first number of years is shorter than the lease period length; and generating a web page indicating a result of the determination and causing the web page to be displayed on the terminal.
2 . The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein in the case where the first evaluation amount is larger than the second evaluation amount, the controller is configured to execute processing of: calculating a difference by subtracting the second evaluation amount from the first evaluation amount; determining to remove the second paint coating film, in a case where the difference is not less than a first threshold; and determining not to remove the second paint coating film, in a case where the difference is less than the first threshold.
3 . The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, before receiving, from the terminal, the vehicle information of the first vehicle including the vehicle type identifier and the grade, the controller is configured to execute processing of: causing the terminal to display a first web page in which the vehicle type identifier and the grade are input by an operator associated with the terminal.
4 . The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to execute processing of: based on the result of the determination being to remove the second paint coating film, generating and displaying the web page to propose to remove the second paint coating film to an operator of the terminal and causing the operator to change the body color of the first vehicle by removing the second paint coating film from the first vehicle.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO THE RELATED APPLICATION This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-172749, filed on Oct. 27, 2022, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. BACKGROUND Technical Field The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus. Description of the Related Art There is a known technology of applying removable coating including an easily removable layer to a vehicle (for example, see Patent Literature 1 in the citation list below). CITATION LIST Patent Literature Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2022-59901 SUMMARY An object of the present disclosure is to provide a technology that can contribute to improving the convenience of a business operator handling a vehicle to which a paint coating film including an easily removable layer is applied. The present disclosure can be regarded an information processing apparatus for performing processing related to a first vehicle in which a second paint coating film including an easily removable layer is overcoated on a first paint coating film. For example, the information processing apparatus may comprise a controller including at least one processor, and the controller is configured to execute processing of: obtaining a first evaluation amount that is an evaluation amount of the first vehicle in case that a body color of the first vehicle is assumed to be a color of the first paint coating film;obtaining a second evaluation amount that is an evaluation amount of the first vehicle in case that a body color of the first vehicle is assumed to be a color of the second paint coating film;determining whether the second paint coating film should be removed from the first vehicle based on the first evaluation amount and the second evaluation amount; andoutputting the result of the determination. The present disclosure can also be regarded as an information processing method in which a computer executes the processing of the information processing apparatus. Further, the present disclosure can also be regarded as a program for causing a computer to execute the information processing method described above, or as a non-transitory storage medium for storing the program. According to the present disclosure, it is possible to provide a technology that can contribute to improving the convenience of a business operator handling a vehicle to which a paint coating film including an easily removable layer is applied. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a configuration example of a leasing system. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of information stored in an evaluation information DB. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of processing executed by a server according to the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of processing performed in a determination processing according to the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of processing performed in a determination processing according to the first modification. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of processing performed in a determination processing according to the second modification. DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS A technology for applying paint to a vehicle body using a paint coating film (a second paint coating film) including an easily removable layer has been developed. The second paint coating film is a paint coating film that can be remove afterwards, which is applied in a form of being overcoated on an original paint coating film (first paint coating film) applied to the vehicle body at the time of manufacture, etc. of the vehicle. Since the first paint coating film needs to be removed using a dedicated solvent such as a release agent, it is difficult to remove it easily. On the other hand, the second paint coating film can be easily removed without using the dedicated solvent. The second paint coating film may be one in which the paint coating film itself can be removed (easy removal g paint). A leasing company that accepts the return of a vehicle in which the second paint coating film has been overcoated on the first paint coating film, or a used car sales company that purchases a similar vehicle, or the like, needs to determine whether the second paint coating film should be removed before next lending or selling of the vehicle. If the leasing company or used car sales company, etc. (hereinafter, may be simply referred to as “business operator”) does not have detailed knowledge of the second paint coating film, it is difficult to properly make the above determination. Therefore, a technology capable of presenting an index for making the above determination to a business operator is desired. In view of the above, a controller of an information processing apparatus according to the present disclosure obtains an evaluation amount (first evaluation amount) of the first vehicle in case that a body color of the first veh