TRAFFIC DATA TRANSMISSION FROM A VEHICLE TELEMATICS UNIT

• US 20090325612A1
• Filed: 06/30/2008
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors Corporation (Motors Liquidation Co. GUC Trust)
• Inventors: Oesterling, Christopher L., Ampunan, Nathan
• Granted Patent: US 8,626,208 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

A method of sending traffic related data to a call center using a telematics unit of a vehicle. The method includes receiving a request at the telematics unit to transmit non-traffic data such as vehicle diagnostic information to the call center. Both the non-traffic data as well as traffic related data is obtained by the telematics unit and embedded into a short message service (SMS) message that is then sent to the call center. The traffic related data can be inserted only if it indicates a traffic problem and can be inserted into an otherwise unused portion of the SMS message. The received traffic related data can then be used by the call center or other remote facility to improve traffic reporting.

Claims

1. A method for sending traffic information to a call center using a telematics unit of a vehicle, the method comprising:

transmitting data from vehicle system modules to the telematics unit;

identifying a portion of the data transmitted to the telematics unit as traffic related data;

creating a message string containing the traffic related data;

embedding the message string in a short message service (SMS) message; and

transmitting the SMS message to the call center.

2. A method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the step of embedding the message string includes embedding the message string in a buffer of data unused by the short message service.

3. A method as set forth in claim 1, including the step of attaching GPS coordinate information to the message string prior to embedding the message string in the SMS message.

4. A method as set forth in claim 1, including the step correlating the traffic related data to a type of traffic event to create correlated traffic data.

5. A method as set forth in claim 4, including the step of counting correlated traffic data to create an occurrence value.

6. A method as set forth in claim 5, including the step of comparing the occurrence value to a predetermined threshold.

7. A method as set forth in claim 6, including the step of measuring time for the occurrence value to exceed the predetermined threshold.

8. A method as set forth in claim 7, including the step of resetting the occurrence value to zero when the occurrence value fails to exceed the predetermined threshold within a time period.

9. A method as set forth in claim 1, including the step of establishing a time period for each type of traffic data measured.

10. A method for sending traffic information to a call center using a telematics unit of a vehicle, the method comprising:

(a) receiving a request to send non-traffic data from a vehicle telematics unit to a call center;

(b) receiving the non-traffic data at the telematics unit from one or more vehicle system modules;

(c) generating a communication message containing the non-traffic data;

(d) determining if there is any traffic related data at the vehicle to be sent to the call center and, if so;

(d1) receiving traffic related data at the telematics unit; and

(d2) embedding the traffic related data into the message; and

(e) transmitting the message to the call center.

11. A method as set forth in claim 10, wherein step (c) further comprises generating a short message service (SMS) message, step (d2) further comprises embedding the traffic related data into the SMS message, and step (e) further comprises transmitting the SMS message to the call center.

12. A method as set forth in claim 11, wherein steps (d), (d1), and (d2) are carried out prior to step (c) and wherein step (d2) further comprises embedding the traffic related data into the SMS message as a part of generating the message in step (c).

13. A method as set forth in claim 11, wherein step (d2) further comprises creating a message string containing the traffic related data and embedding the message string into a portion of the SMS message that is unused by the short message service.

14. A method as set forth in claim 10, including the step of embedding GPS coordinate information into the message along with the traffic related data.

15. A method as set forth in claim 10, including the step correlating the traffic related data to a type of traffic event to create correlated traffic data.

16. A method as set forth in claim 15, including the step of counting correlated traffic data to create an occurrence value.

17. A method as set forth in claim 16, including the step of comparing the occurrence value to a predetermined threshold.

18. A method as set forth in claim 17, including the step of resetting the occurrence value to zero when the occurrence value fails to exceed the predetermined threshold within a time period.

19. A method as set forth in claim 10, wherein step (d) further comprises obtaining the traffic related data at the vehicle and determining if it meets at least one predefined criterion.

20. A vehicle telematics unit for use in sending traffic related data to a call center, comprising:

a plurality of inputs operatively connected to vehicle system modules to receive data therefrom;

a memory for storing the data;

a processing device for identifying the data as traffic related data; and

a cellular chipset for transmission of data to a call center, wherein the transmission of data includes traffic related data embedded into a short message service (SMS) text message that is sent to the call center in response to a request to send non-traffic data to the call center.