PROVISIONING OF DATA TO A VEHICLE INFOTAINMENT COMPUTING SYSTEM

• US 20120030512A1
• Filed: 07/27/2010
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ford Motor Company
• Original Assignee: Ford Motor Company
• Inventors: Wadhwa, Sukhwinder, Westra, Michael Raymond, Huang, Henry Heping, Geiger, Timothy Allan, Esker, Edward Charles, Soleimani, Saeid, Waraich, Sandeep
• Application Number:
  US12/844,601
• Publication Number:
  US 20120030512A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/23
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• 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 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests

Abstract

Various embodiments include a software provisioning system and method for a vehicle infotainment computer. Software provisioning of the vehicle infotainment computer may occur during vehicle assembly. A software provisioning request may be received for custom installing software to the vehicle infotainment computer. The custom install may be based on a customization schedule which may include a location identifier (such as uniform resource identifiers or file paths) for locating the software. In response to the request, the software may be located on a provisioning server or a portable memory device based on the customization schedule. The software may be transmitted to memory of the vehicle infotainment computer and custom installed on the vehicle infotainment computer.

Claims

1. A software provisioning system for a vehicle infotainment computer, the software provisioning system being configured to:

store a customization schedule for installing software to a vehicle infotainment computer;

receive from the vehicle infotainment computer a software provisioning request to custom install software to the vehicle infotainment computer;

in response to the request, locate the software based on the customization schedule; and

transmit the software to memory of the vehicle infotainment computer for customized installation.

2. The software provisioning system of claim 1 wherein the customization schedule has a software location identifier for locating each software for customized installation.

3. The software provisioning system of claim 2 wherein the system is further configured to receive the software location identifier for retrieving the software for customized installation.

4. The software provisioning system of claim 3 wherein the software location identifier is a uniform resource locator (URL) or a file path.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the system is further configure to receive a vehicle identification number (VIN) that identifies the vehicle infotainment computer.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the VIN is associated with the customized schedule and the system is further configured to retrieve the customization schedule for the vehicle infotainment computer based on the VIN.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein the VIN is obtained by the vehicle infotainment computer from a vehicle network.

17. The software provisioning system of claim 3 wherein the URI is a uniform resource locator (URL).

8. A software provisioning system for a vehicle infotainment computer, the system comprising:

a vehicle infotainment computer configured to;

establish a connection with memory storing a customization schedule comprising software for customized installation on the vehicle infotainment computer and the software for customized installation on the vehicle infotainment computer, the customization schedule associating a uniform resource identifier (URI) with each software;

receive from memory the customization schedule;

obtain from the customization schedule one or more URIs to receive the software;

transmit the one or more URIs to memory;

receive the software from memory based on the one or more URIs; and

custom install the software to the vehicle infotainment computer after at least part of the software is received.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the memory is a portable memory device.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the memory is a software provisioning server.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the software comprises a large volume of data.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the system further comprises a software provisioning verification system configured to:

receive diagnostic trouble codes defining an error in the custom installation; and

presenting the error at the vehicle infotainment computer.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the vehicle infotainment computer is further configured to:

receive the diagnostic trouble codes from a vehicle network; and

transmit the diagnostic trouble codes to the software provisioning verification system.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the customization schedule is based on at least one of a geographic region, user preferences, licensing, OEM preferences, or vehicle type.

15. The system of claim 8 wherein the connection is a wireless or wired connection.

16. The system of claim 8 wherein the vehicle infotainment computer is further configured to transmit the one or more URIs as one or more hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) requests.

18. A method comprising:

receiving input for activating software provisioning from a vehicle;

connecting to a provisioning medium storing a software customization schedule and software for installation on the vehicle computer;

receiving from the provisioning medium the software based on the customization schedule; and

custom installing the software on the vehicle computer.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising performing the method simultaneously with configuration of one or more vehicle control modules.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the method is performed during vehicle assembly.

21. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

receiving an interruption triggering the vehicle computer to reboot;

determining a point of interruption during custom install;

after the reboot, identifying the software provisioning medium; and

after identifying the software provisioning medium, restarting the custom install or completing the custom install at the point of interruption.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein identifying the software provisioning medium further includes:

determining if the software provisioning medium has changed; and

if the software provisioning medium has changed, restarting the custom install.

23. The method of claim 18 wherein the input is a signal from a vehicle network.

24. The method of claim 18 further comprising maintaining a connection to the provisioning medium by roaming between access points.

25. The method of claim 18 further comprising prohibiting software provisioning upon completion of a custom install.