CONTROLLING VEHICLE TELEMATICS UNIT DATA TRANSMISSION BASED ON CALL CENTER LOCATION

• US 20090325596A1
• Filed: 06/30/2008
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors Corporation (Motors Liquidation Co. GUC Trust)
• Inventors: Oesterling, Christopher L., Heines, Richard F.
• Granted Patent: US 9,918,208 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• 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 method and system that inhibits transmission of location information by a telematics unit outside of a geographic region in which such transmission is prohibited. The method includes identifying the relative location of the vehicle and a call center to which the information is to be sent. If the vehicle is in a country or other geographic region that prohibits transmission of vehicle location data outside of the region and, if the call center is determined by the vehicle to be outside of that region, then the telematics unit inhibits the location data from being sent in any communication between the vehicle and call center.

Claims

1. A method for inhibiting transmission of location information by a telematics unit of a vehicle to a call center located in a different geographic region, the method comprising:

identifying vehicle location;

determining a geographic region that the vehicle is within based on the vehicle location;

determining if the call center is within the geographic region; and

inhibiting the transmission of vehicle location information to the call center if the call center is determined to be outside the geographic region.

2. A method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the inhibiting step further comprises determining whether transmission of location information outside of the geographic region is prohibited and, if so, inhibiting the transmission of vehicle location information from the telematics unit to the call center.

3. A method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the step of identifying vehicle location includes the step of reading GPS data gathered by the telematics unit.

4. A method as set forth in claim 1, including the step of reading automatic number identification of the telematics unit to identify the location of the vehicle.

5. A method as set forth in claim 4, including the step of reading automatic number identification of the call center, wherein the step of determining if the call center is within the geographic region further comprises determining whether the telematics unit is in the same geographic region as the call center by comparing the automatic number identification of the telematics unit and the automatic number identification of the call center.

6. A method as set forth in claim 1, including the step of reading IP address class information of the telematics unit to determine the location of the vehicle.

7. A method as set forth in claim 6, including the step of reading IP address class information of the call center to determine the location thereof.

8. A method as set forth in claim 7, including the step of comparing the IP address class information of the telematics unit with the IP class information of the call center to determine whether the telematics unit is in the same geographic region as the call center.

9. A method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the step of inhibiting the transmission of the location information includes the step of replacing the location information with data void of location information.

10. A method for inhibiting transmission of location information by a telematics unit of a vehicle to a call center outside a geographic region, the method comprising:

reading an automatic number identification of the telematics unit as an indication of the location of the vehicle;

reading an automatic number identification of the call center as an indication of the location of the call center;

comparing the automatic number identification of the telematics unit with the automatic number identification of the call center; and

inhibiting the transmission of vehicle location information to the call center if the comparison indicates that the location of the vehicle is different than the location of the call center.

11. A method as set forth in claim 10, wherein the inhibiting step further comprises determining whether transmission of location information from the vehicle location is prohibited and, if so, inhibiting the transmission of vehicle location information from the telematics unit to the call center.

12. A method as set forth in claim 10, wherein the step of inhibiting the transmission of the location information includes the step of replacing the location information with data void of location information.

13. A method for inhibiting transmission of location information by a telematics unit of a vehicle to a call center outside a geographic region, the method comprising:

reading IP address class information of the telematics unit as an indication of the location of the vehicle;

reading IP address class information of the call center as an indication of the location of the call center;

determining if the vehicle and call center are within the same geographic region based on the IP address class information; and

inhibiting the transmission of vehicle location information to the call center if the call center is not in the same geographic region.

14. A method as set forth in claim 13, wherein the inhibiting step further comprises determining whether transmission of location information outside the geographic region is prohibited and, if so, inhibiting the transmission of vehicle location information from the telematics unit to the call center.

15. A method as set forth in claim 13, wherein the step of inhibiting the transmission of the location information includes the step of replacing the location information with data void of location information.

16. A method for inhibiting transmission of location information by a telematics unit of a vehicle to a call center outside a geographic region, the method comprising:

obtaining GPS data gathered by the telematics unit;

obtaining GPS data of the call center;

determining if the vehicle and call center are within the same geographic region based on the GPS data; and

inhibiting the transmission of vehicle location information to the call center if the call center is not in the same geographic region.

17. A method as set forth in claim 16, wherein the inhibiting step further comprises determining whether transmission of location information outside the geographic region is prohibited and, if so, inhibiting the transmission of vehicle location information from the telematics unit to the call center.

18. A method as set forth in claim 16, wherein the step of inhibiting the transmission of the location information includes the step of replacing the location information with data void of location information.

19. A telematics unit for a vehicle comprising:

a cellular chipset for transmission of data about the vehicle to a call center;

a memory device operatively connected to said cellular chipset for storing automatic number information; and

a processing device operatively connected to said chipset for comparing a telephone number of the call center with said automatic number information, said processing device inhibiting transmission of vehicle location information to the call center when a difference between said automatic number information of the vehicle and telephone number of the call center satisfies a predefined condition.

20. A telematics unit as set forth in claim 19, including an input port to receive data from a GPS module to confirm said predefined condition.

21. A telematics unit as set forth in claim 19, wherein said predefined condition includes geographic information.