AUTOMATED ENROLLMENT AND ACTIVATION OF TELEMATICS EQUIPPED VEHICLES

• US 20070244628A1
• Filed: 06/18/2007
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors Corporation (Motors Liquidation Co. GUC Trust)
• Inventors: Beiermeister, Frederick, Rockett, David, Gumushian, Gary
• Granted Patent: US 9,767,697 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• 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 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A method for automated enrollment and activation of a mobile telematics system comprising receiving a customer data record of a customer at a communication services database, determining a command signal based on the customer data record, sending the command signal to a telematics unit of a vehicle, enrolling the customer in a telematics-unit access system based on the command signal and activating the telematics unit of the telematics-unit access system based on the command signal.

Claims

1. A method for processing a vehicle that has recently been sold or leased, comprising the steps:

(a) receiving customer-related data from a vehicle sales facility at one or more database(s), wherein the customer-related data is received in response to the recent sale or lease of the vehicle to a customer;

(b) using the customer-related data to produce a first command signal; and

(c) sending the first command signal to a communications service manager, wherein receipt of the first command signal causes the customer to be enrolled in a telematics-unit access system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer-related data includes at least one piece of data selected from the group consisting of:

a customer name, a customer address, a customer phone number, a name of a vehicle sales facility, one or more feature(s) desired by a customer, and a vehicle identification number (VIN).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

step (a) further comprises receiving vehicle-related data from a vehicle manufacturing facility at the one or more database(s);

step (b) further comprises using the vehicle-related data to produce a second command signal; and

step (c) further comprises sending the second command signal to a telematics unit of a vehicle, wherein receipt of the second command signal causes the telematics unit to become activated.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein step (a) further comprises receiving the vehicle-related data in response to shipping the vehicle from the vehicle manufacturing facility to the vehicle sales facility.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the vehicle-related data includes at least one piece of data selected from the group consisting of:

a vehicle identification number (VIN), an electronic serial number (ESN), a name of a vehicle sales facility, and a location of a vehicle sales facility.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the customer-related data includes one or more feature(s) desired by the customer, and the receipt of the second command signal in step (c) causes the telematics unit to become activated with the desired feature(s).

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the desired feature(s) include at least one feature selected from the group consisting of:

navigation assistance, real-time traffic, directory assistance, roadside assistance, information services assistance, emergency assistance, communications assistance, vehicle personalization, vehicle data upload, vehicle data download, door unlock/lock, diagnostic functions, and vehicle tracking functions.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step:

(d) linking the vehicle-related data with the customer-related data by using a vehicle identification number (VIN).

9. The method of claim 3, wherein prior to step (c), receiving a signal indicating that the customer wishes to proceed with the activation process.

10. A method for processing a vehicle that has recently been sold or leased, comprising the steps:

(a) determining one or more feature(s) that are desired by the customer;

(b) sending a customer delivery report to a database, wherein the customer delivery report includes the feature(s) desired by the customer;

(c) configuring a command signal to activate the telematics unit with the feature(s) desired by the customer; and

(d) sending the command signal to the telematics unit, wherein receipt of the command signals causes the telematics unit to become activated with the feature(s) desired by the customer.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the method includes, prior to step (a), the step of sending vehicle-related data from a vehicle manufacturing facility to one or more database(s) in response to shipping the vehicle from the vehicle manufacturing facility to a vehicle sales facility.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the vehicle-related data includes at least one piece of data selected from the group consisting of:

a vehicle identification number (VIN), an electronic serial number (ESN), a name of a vehicle sales facility, and a location of a vehicle sales facility.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the method includes, prior to step (a), the step of sending customer-related data from a vehicle sales facility to one or more database(s) in response to a recent sale or lease of the vehicle.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the customer-related data includes at least one piece of data selected from the group consisting of:

a customer name, a customer address, a customer phone number, a name of a vehicle sales facility, one or more feature(s) desired by a customer, and a vehicle identification number (VIN).

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the method includes, prior to step (d), the step of receiving a signal indicating that the customer wishes to proceed with the activation process.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the desired feature(s) include at least one feature selected from the group consisting of:

navigation assistance, real-time traffic, directory assistance, roadside assistance, information services assistance, emergency assistance, communications assistance, vehicle personalization, vehicle data upload, vehicle data download, door unlock/lock, diagnostic functions, and vehicle tracking functions.