Global stolen vehicles tracking

• US 10,124,769 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2017
• Issued: 11/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Sandhu, Harminder, Gersabeck, David Marvin, Porter, Sr., Derek Louis
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tai T
• Application Number:
  US15/415,148
• Publication Number:
  US 20180208156A1
• Time in Patent Office: 657 Days
• Field of Search: 340993, 340988, 340989, 34053913, 34053922, 340933, 340935
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/33 of global position, e.g. by providing GPS coordinates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]

Abstract

A vehicle information server maps a unique identifier of a stolen vehicle to a network identifier of the vehicle. Responsive to receiving the network identifier of the stolen vehicle and identifying access of the network identifier to a component of the network, a service provider server of a service provider network indicates a physical location of the component and a time of access of the component to a vehicle theft system.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a vehicle information server mapping a unique identifier of a stolen vehicle to a network identifier of the stolen vehicle; and

a service provider server of a service provider network, programmed to, responsive to receiving a message from a vehicle theft system initiating monitoring for the network identifier and identifying access of the network identifier to a network device of the network, indicate a physical location of the network device and a time of access of the vehicle to the network device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the service provider server maintains a mapping of network locations to physical locations, and the service provider server is programmed to utilize the mapping to translate a network address of the network device to the physical location of the network device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the service provider server maintains a log of historical network usage, and the service provider server is further programmed to access the log of historical network usage to identify a second network device of the network to which the stolen vehicle was previously connected, and indicate a physical location of the second network device and a time of the access to a vehicle theft system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the network identifier is an integrated circuit card identifier (ICCID) of a subscriber identity module (SIM) of an embedded modem utilized by a telematics control unit of the vehicle to communicate over the network.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the network identifier is a media access control (MAC) address network identifier of an accessory protocol interface module controller utilized by the vehicle to communicate over the network through use of a mobile device connected to the accessory protocol interface module controller over a local area connection.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the service provider server is further programmed to:

initiate monitoring for the network identifier responsive to receiving a message from a vehicle theft system requesting initiation of the monitoring; and

indicate the physical location and the time of access to the vehicle theft system.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the service provider server is further programmed to discontinue monitoring for the network identifier responsive to receiving a message from the vehicle theft system requesting termination of the monitoring.

8. A method comprising:

responsive to receiving a message from a vehicle theft system, initiating monitoring for a network identifier corresponding to a unique vehicle identifier of a stolen vehicle;

identifying access of the network identifier to a network device of the network; and

utilizing a mapping of network locations to physical locations to translate a network location of the network device to the physical location of the network device.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining the network identifier according to a mapping of unique vehicle identifiers to network identifiers maintained by a vehicle information server.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising updating the vehicle theft system with the physical location of the network device to indicate an approximate location of the stolen vehicle.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

continuing the monitoring for the network identifier;

identifying a second access of the network identifier to a second network device of the network;

utilizing the mapping of network locations to physical locations to translate a network location of the second network device to a physical location of the second network device; and

updating the vehicle theft system with the physical location of the second network device.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the network identifier is an integrated circuit card identifier (ICCID) of a subscriber identity module (SIM) of an embedded modem utilized by a telematics control unit of the vehicle to communicate over the network.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the network identifier is a media access control (MAC) address network identifier of an accessory protocol interface module controller utilized by the vehicle to communicate over the network through use of a mobile device connected to the accessory protocol interface module controller over a local area connection.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising discontinuing monitoring for the network identifier responsive to receiving a second message from a vehicle theft system.

15. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving an indication including the unique vehicle identifier indicating that the stolen vehicle is to be monitored; and

receiving the network identifier from a vehicle information server responsive to sending the unique vehicle identifier to the vehicle information server.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive an indication including a unique vehicle identifier from a vehicle theft system, the indication specifying that a stolen vehicle corresponding to the unique vehicle identifier is to be monitored;

map the unique vehicle identifier to one or more network identifiers using a vehicle information server storing an association of unique identifiers of vehicles to network identifiers of vehicles;

identify one or more of the network identifiers as having accessed a communications network; and

utilize a mapping of network locations to physical locations to translate network locations of the network accesses to physical locations of the stolen vehicle.

17. The medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to discontinue monitoring for the network identifier responsive to receiving a stop message from the vehicle theft system.

18. The medium of claim 16, wherein the one or more network identifiers include an integrated circuit card identifier (ICCID) of a subscriber identity module (SIM) of an embedded modem utilized by a telematics control unit of the vehicle to communicate over the network.

19. The medium of claim 16, wherein the one or more network identifiers include a media access control (MAC) address network identifier of an accessory protocol interface module controller utilized by the vehicle to communicate over the network though use of a mobile device connected to the accessory protocol interface module controller over a local area connection.