METHOD OF MANAGING A SCHEDULE-BASED SOFTWARE PACKAGE UPDATE

• US 20100082559A1
• Filed: 09/19/2008
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors Corporation (Motors Liquidation Co. GUC Trust)
• Inventors: Sumcad, Anthony J., Patenaude, Russell A.
• Application Number:
  US12/234,284
• Publication Number:
  US 20100082559A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/695
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• 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: H04W 8/24 Transfer of terminal data

Abstract

A method of managing the updating of a vehicle software configuration includes establishing a temporal period, identifying a software package, determining if that vehicle does not have the identified software package, wirelessly sending the software package from a central facility to the vehicle during the temporal period, and storing the software package at the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method of managing the updating of a vehicle software configuration, the method comprising:

(a) establishing a temporal period;

(b) identifying a software package;

(c) determining if a vehicle does not have the identified software package;

(d) wirelessly sending the software package from a central facility to the vehicle during the temporal period; and

(e) storing the software package at the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) further comprises storing a vehicle identifier in a database with a software package identifier associated with the temporal period.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) further comprises receiving user input containing the beginning and end of the temporal period.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(f) providing a user interface that informs a user of the software package;

(g) substituting the software package for a second software package based on user input; and

(h) wirelessly transmitting the second software package to the vehicle based on the substitution.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the user interface in step (f) comprises a speech recognition system for receiving user commands.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the user interface in step (f) comprises a web portal allowing the user to substitute software packages and alter the temporal period.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein steps (b) and (c) are carried out at the vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein steps (b) and (c) are initiated at the central facility.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) includes identifying a plurality of software packages that should be sent to the vehicle during the temporal period.

10. A method of managing the updating of a vehicle software configuration, the method comprising:

(a) establishing a temporal period;

(b) associating the temporal period with a vehicle;

(c) providing an update software package;

(d) comparing the software package stored on the vehicle with the update software package;

(e) if the software package stored on the vehicle is different from the update software package, downloading the update software package during the temporal period; and

(f) storing the software package at the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of storing a vehicle identifier in a database with a software package identifier identifying the update software package.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

(g) determining that the software package stored on the vehicle is the same as the update software package; and

(h) preventing a central facility from wirelessly transmitting the update software package to the vehicle.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises the step of providing a user interface that informs a user of the update software package.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

substituting a second software package for the update software package based on user input; and

wirelessly transmitting the second software package to the vehicle based on the substitution.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the user interface comprises a speech recognition system for receiving user commands.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the user interface comprises a web portal allowing the user to substitute software packages and alter the temporal period.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein steps (d) and (e) are initiated at the vehicle.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein steps (d) and (e) are carried out at a central facility.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein step (c) further comprises associating the update software package with the temporal period.

20. A method of managing the updating of a vehicle software configuration, the method comprising:

(a) establishing a temporal period;

(b) associating the temporal period with a vehicle;

(c) associating with the temporal period a software package;

(d) storing the temporal period and the software package in a database with a vehicle identifier;

(e) recognizing the beginning of a temporal period;

(f) wirelessly checking a vehicle to determine that the software package associated with the temporal period is stored at the vehicle;

(g) if the software package is not stored at the vehicle, accessing the software package from the database and wirelessly sending the software package to the vehicle; and

(h) storing the software package at the vehicle.