Remote service system for a vehicle

• US 20070287415A1
• Filed: 04/03/2007
• Published: 12/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Yamada, Kazunao
• Granted Patent: US 7,653,384 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/406
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A control unit of a remote service terminal, for which a contract for using services is still valid, compares data of a vehicle inspection certificate with data in a user database to detect if an owner of a vehicle has changed. When the owner has changed, the control unit notifies the change of data to a management center through a cellular communication unit. The management center retrieves a contractor database based on the notified content to confirm if the owner of the vehicle has changed. When the owner change is confirmed, processing is executed through the remote service terminal to inquire if the contract for using services is canceled or the name of the contractor is changed. The contract is cancelled or the name of the contractor is changed based on a response by the user.

Claims

1. A remote service system for vehicles comprising:

a remote service terminal mounted on a vehicle and having a communication function; and

a management center for providing predetermined remote services to the remote service terminal by communication, enabling the remote services to be used through only a contract made for using the services,

wherein the remote service terminal, for which the contract of using the services is still valid, is constructed to detect a state where an owner of the vehicle have changed and communicate a detected content to the management center when an owner change is detected, and

wherein the management center is constructed to access a contractor database accumulating data of contracted users of the services, confirm a change of the owner of the vehicle by retrieving a contractor database based on the detected content notified from the remote service terminal, inquire if the contract be canceled or if the name of the contractor is changed through the remote service terminal when the owner of the vehicle has changed, and cancel the contract or changes the name of the contractor based upon a response from the remote service terminal to an inquiry.

2. The remote service system according to claim 1, wherein when the remote service terminal detects the owner change, the management center qualifies an owner of the vehicle before the change to be an old user based on retrieval of the contractor database, notifies cancellation of the contract to the qualified old user, and cancels the contract.

3. The remote service system according to claim 2, wherein the management center inquires if the contract by the old user be cancelled prior to canceling the contract, and cancels the contract only when consent to canceling of the contract is provided from the old user in response to an inquiry.

4. A remote service system for vehicles comprising:

a remote service terminal mounted on a vehicle and having a communication function; and

a management center for providing predetermined remote services to the remote service terminal by communication, enabling the remote services to be used through only a contract made for using the services,

wherein the remote service terminal, for which the contract of using the services is still valid, is constructed to detect a state where an owner of the vehicle have changed and communicate specific information capable of specifying the remote service terminal to the management center when an owner change is detected, and

wherein the management center is constructed to access a contractor database accumulating data of contracted users for using the services, and specify the contracted user for using services related to the remote service terminal by searching the contractor database based on the specific data notified from the remote service terminal, inquire the specified contracted user if content of the contract is to be changed, and cancel or change the contract based upon a response from the contracted user in response to an inquiry.