User profile synchronization for a vehicle

• US 10,196,021 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2016
• Issued: 02/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Infotechnology Center USA, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Toyota Infotechnology Center USA, Inc.
• Inventors: Rai, Vinuth
• Primary Examiner(s): Camby, Richard M
• Application Number:
  US15/361,274
• Publication Number:
  US 20170072883A1
• Time in Patent Office: 802 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/037 for occupant comfort , e.g. for automatic adjustment of appliances according to personal settings, e.g. seats, mirrors, steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/08 including control of electric propulsion units, e.g. motors or generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/30 including control of auxiliary equipment, e.g. air-conditioning compressors or oil pumps
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0064 using a remote, e.g. cordless, transmitter or receiver unit, e.g. remote keypad or mobile phone
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/043 Identity of occupants
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/08 Electric propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/30 Auxiliary equipments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/00 Output or target parameters relating to overall vehicle dynamics
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0098 Details of control systems ensuring comfort, safety or stability not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/085 Changing the parameters of the control units, e.g. changing limit values, working points by control input
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0645 Rental transactions; Leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• 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 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

The disclosure includes a system and method for reconfiguring a vehicle based on one or more preferences of a first user without the first user directly providing an input to the vehicle to reconfigure the vehicle. The method may include wirelessly receiving first user profile data at a vehicle. The first user profile data may be associated with a first user. The first user profile data may describe how one or more settings of the vehicle should be configured for the first user. Upon receipt of the first user profile data, the vehicle may be configured in accordance with second user profile data describing how the one or more settings of the vehicle should be configured for a second user. The method may include reconfiguring the one or more settings of the vehicle based on the first user profile data so that the vehicle is reconfigured for the first user.

Claims

1. A method for a vehicle, the method comprising:

configuring a vehicle based on one or more settings preferred by a first user;

detecting a presence of a client associated with a second user based on the vehicle pairing with the client via Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE);

providing an indication of a location of the vehicle;

responsive to determining that the client associated with the second user is associated with a reservation for the vehicle, receiving second user profile data at the vehicle, wherein the second user profile data is associated with the second user of the vehicle and describes how the one or more settings of the vehicle should be configured for the second user; and

reconfiguring, by a processor, the one or more settings of the vehicle based on the second user profile data so that the vehicle is reconfigured for the second user and differently than the one or more settings of the vehicle preferred by the first user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the one or more settings of the vehicle preferred by the first user from first user profile data describing how the one or more settings of the vehicle should be configured for the first user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first user profile data includes a first description of one or more first ergonomic settings associated with the first user and the second user profile data incudes a second description of one or more second ergonomic settings associated with the second user, and the method further comprises reconfiguring the vehicle from the one or more first ergonomic settings to the one or more second ergonomic settings responsive to receiving the second user profile data at the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein reconfiguring the vehicle includes activating and controlling an electric motor of the vehicle to reconfigure an element of the vehicle in accordance with the one or more second ergonomic settings included in the second user profile data.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the vehicle was previously configured to pair with one or more first Bluetooth enabled devices which the first user previously paired with the vehicle and not configured to pair with one or more second Bluetooth enabled devices;

the second user profile data includes device pairings data associated with the second user;

the method further comprises reconfiguring the vehicle based on the second user profile data to automatically pair with the one or more second Bluetooth enabled devices which the second user previously paired with the vehicle; and

following reconfiguration, the vehicle is configured to no longer automatically pair with the one or more first Bluetooth enabled devices.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the vehicle was previously configured to stream one or more first network services to the vehicle using first user account information associated with the first user and not configured to stream one or more second network services to the vehicle using second user account information;

the second user profile data includes the second user account information for the one or more second network services associated with the second user;

the method further comprises reconfiguring the vehicle to be able to stream the one or more second network services to the vehicle using the second user account information; and

following reconfiguration, the vehicle is configured to no longer stream the one or more first network services to the vehicle using the first user account information.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the vehicle was previously configured to include one or more first radio station presents associated with the first user and not configured to include one or more second radio station presets associated with the second user;

the second user profile data includes a description of the one or more second radio station presets associated with the second user;

the method further comprises reconfiguring an infotainment system of the vehicle to include the one or more second radio station presets; and

following reconfiguration, the infotainment system is configured to no longer include the one or more first radio station presets associated with the first user.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the vehicle was previously configured to include one or more first settings for a navigation system associated with the first user and not configured to include one or more second settings associated with the second user;

the second user profile data includes one or more second settings for the navigation system of the vehicle;

the method further comprises reconfiguring the navigation system of the vehicle based on the one or more second settings for the navigation system; and

following reconfiguration, the navigation system is configured to no longer include the one or more first settings associated with the first user.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the vehicle was previously configured to include first electronic calendar data for one or more first electronic calendars associated with the first user and not configured to include second electronic calendar data for one or more second electronic calendars associated with the second user;

the second user profile data includes second electronic calendar data for one or more second electronic calendars associated with the second user;

the method further comprises reconfiguring the vehicle so that the second user can access the one or more second electronic calendars from a display of the vehicle; and

following reconfiguration, the vehicle is configured to no longer include the first electronic calendar data associated with the first user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second user profile data is received at the vehicle from the client via Bluetooth LE.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of the location of the vehicle includes flashing the vehicle'"'"'s lights.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of the location of the vehicle includes displaying a personalized message for the second user on an outward facing panel of a heads-up display unit of the vehicle.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer instructions stored thereon that are executable by a processing device to perform or control performance of operations, the operations comprising:

determining one or more settings of a vehicle preferred by a first user from first user profile data describing how the one or more settings of the vehicle should be configured for the first user;

configuring the vehicle based on the one or more settings preferred by the first user, wherein the vehicle is configured to stream one or more first network services to the vehicle using first user account information associated with the first user and not configured to stream one or more second network services to the vehicle using second user account information;

receiving second user profile data at the vehicle, wherein the second user profile data is associated with a second user of the vehicle and describes how one or more settings of the vehicle should be configured for the second user including the second user account information for the one or more second network services associated with the second user;

reconfiguring, by a processor, the one or more settings of the vehicle based on the second user profile data so that the vehicle is reconfigured for the second user and differently than the one or more settings of the vehicle preferred by the first user; and

reconfiguring the vehicle to be able to stream the one or more second network services to the vehicle using the second user account information, wherein following reconfiguration, the vehicle is configured to no longer stream the one or more first network services to the vehicle using the first user account information.

14. The non-transitory medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining the one or more settings of the vehicle preferred by the first user from first user profile data describing how the one or more settings of the vehicle should be configured for the first user.

15. The non-transitory medium of claim 14, wherein the first user profile data includes a first description of one or more first ergonomic settings associated with the first user and the second user profile data incudes a second description of one or more second ergonomic settings associated with the second user, and the operations further comprise reconfiguring the vehicle from the one or more first ergonomic settings to the one or more second ergonomic settings responsive to receiving the second user profile data at the vehicle.

16. The non-transitory medium of claim 15, wherein reconfiguring the vehicle includes activating and controlling an electric motor of the vehicle to reconfigure an element of the vehicle in accordance with the one or more second ergonomic settings included in the second user profile data.

17. The non-transitory medium of claim 14, wherein:

the vehicle was previously configured to pair with one or more first Bluetooth enabled devices which the first user previously paired with the vehicle and not configured to pair with second Bluetooth enabled devices;

the second user profile data includes device pairings data associated with the second user;

the operations further comprise reconfiguring the vehicle based on the second user profile data to automatically pair with the one or more first Bluetooth enabled devices which the second user previously paired with the vehicle; and

following reconfiguration, the vehicle is configured to no longer automatically pair with the one or more first Bluetooth enabled devices.

18. The non-transitory medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting a presence of a client associated with a second user based on the vehicle pairing with the client via Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE);

providing an indication of a location of the vehicle.

19. The non-transitory medium of claim 14, wherein:

the vehicle was previously configured to include one or more first settings for a navigation system associated with the first user and not configured to include one or more second settings associated with the second user;

the second user profile data includes one or more second settings for the navigation system of the vehicle;

the operations further comprise reconfiguring the navigation system of the vehicle based on the one or more second settings for the navigation system; and

following reconfiguration, the navigation system is configured to no longer include the one or more first settings associated with the first user.

20. The non-transitory medium of claim 14, wherein:

the vehicle was previously configured to include first electronic calendar data for one or more first electronic calendars associated with the first user and not configured to include second electronic calendar data for one or more second electronic calendars associated with the second user;

the second user profile data includes first electronic calendar data for one or more second electronic calendars associated with the second user;

the operations further comprise reconfiguring the vehicle so that the second user can access the one or more second electronic calendars from a display of the vehicle; and

following reconfiguration, the vehicle is configured to no longer include the first electronic calendar data associated with the first user.