Telematics On-Board Unit For Vehicles

• US 20130169410A1
• Filed: 09/20/2012
• Published: 07/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allianz Telematics S.p.A. (Allianz Se)
• Original Assignee: Allianz Telematics S.p.A. (Allianz Se)
• Inventors: Amselem, Jacques
• Granted Patent: US 9,933,758 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/5.52
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 1/01 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time

Abstract

The present invention relates to telematics on-board units for vehicles including data collection means for collecting vehicle usage data, data transmission means for transmitting collected vehicle usage data and/or analyzed vehicle usage data derived therefrom, to a telematics service platform and driver identification means for identifying a driver using the vehicle and providing a driver identification. In accordance with the present invention, the driver identification means includes a plurality of peripheral elements of different types for entering, detecting and/or receiving different identification data for determining the driver identification on the basis of different identification features, the different peripherals being integrated in a common component to be installed in the vehicle'"'"'s passenger compartment, thereby simplifying the installation of the device in the vehicle and reducing time and costs of first installation and reducing the number of possible mistakes done during the installation which usually would result in a recall to the installation plant with all costs associated.

Claims

1. An on-board unit for vehicles comprising:

data collection means for collecting vehicle usage data;

data transmission means for transmitting collected vehicle usage data and/or analyzed vehicle usage data derived therefrom, to a telematics service platform;

driver identification means for identifying a driver using the vehicle and providing a driver identification; and

a controller for controlling the transmission of the collected and/or analyzed vehicle usage data to the telematics service platform in response to the provided driver identification;

wherein the driver identification means includes a plurality of peripheral elements of different types for entering, detecting and/or receiving different identification data for determining the driver identification on the basis of different identification data, the different peripherals being integrated in a common component to be installed in a vehicle'"'"'s passenger compartment; and

wherein the controller includes adjustment means for adjusting the function and identification criteria of a first one of the plurality of peripheral elements in response to the result of the driver identification determined by a second one of the plurality of peripheral elements and/or for adjusting the function and identification criteria of the second one of the plurality of peripheral elements in response to the result of the driver identification determined by the first one of the plurality of peripheral elements.

2. The on-board unit according to claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to lower a required level of correspondence of the identification data detected by the first one of the plurality of peripheral elements when the identification data detected by the second one of the plurality of peripheral elements show a predetermined level of correspondence with respective reference data, and/or is adapted to increase the required level of correspondence of the identification data detected by the first one of the plurality of peripheral elements when the identification data detected by the second one of the plurality of peripheral element miss a predetermined level of correspondence to respective reference data.

3. The on-board unit according to claim 1, wherein the driver identification means include voice recognition means for recognizing a driver'"'"'s voice and determining the driver identification therefrom, and a wireless data receiver for wireless data reception of identification data stored on a data storage element carried by the vehicle'"'"'s driver and determining the driver identification from such wireless received identification data, wherein the different peripheral elements include a microphone for inputting audio data for the voice recognition and the wireless data receiver for receiving the stored identification data, wherein the common component is a voice box including both the microphone and the wireless data receiver.

4. The on-board unit according to claim 3, wherein the wireless data receiver includes an RFID receiver for receiving data from an RFID transponder carried by the vehicle'"'"'s driver.

5. The on-board unit according to claim 3, wherein the controller includes priority means for giving priority to the voice recognition means such that the driver identification means uses the voice recognition first, whereas the wireless received identification data are used on a secondary basis when voice recognition is inoperative and/or a driver identification is underivable from the driver'"'"'s voice.

6. The on-board unit according to claim 3, wherein the voice recognition means includes a voice recorder for recording a voice pattern of a term spoken by the driver and a voice comparator for comparing the recorded voice pattern with at least one previously stored voice pattern of that term and determining the driver identification in response to differences of the recorded voice pattern and the at least one previously stored voice pattern.

7. The on-board unit according to claim 6, wherein the voice recognition means includes sound analyzing means analyzing one or more of tone pitch, pitch variation, sound level variation, tone length, voice frequency range and tone oscillation.

8. The on-board unit according to claim 6, wherein the voice recognition means include voice pattern receiving means for receiving the previously stored voice pattern from the telematics service platform for comparison with the recorded voice pattern.

9. The on-board unit according to claim 3, wherein the controller is adapted to control the transmission of the collected and/or analyzed vehicle usage data to the telematics service platform in response to the recognized driver'"'"'s voice as well as in response to the data received from the data storage element.

10. The on-board unit according to claim 3, wherein the controller includes adjustment means for adjusting the function and/or identification criteria of the voice recognition means in response to the result of the driver identification determined by the wireless data receiver and/or for adjusting the function and/or identification criteria of the wireless data receiver in response to the driver identification determined by the voice recognition means.

11. The on-board unit according to claim 10, wherein the controller is adapted to reduce a required level of correspondence of the voice or audio signals detected by the voice recognition means with reference voice or audio signals after having received identification data from the data storage element.

12. The on-board unit according to claim 1, wherein the common component is a separate mounting entity that includes connection ports to be releasably connected to the vehicle'"'"'s board computer.

13. The on-board unit according to claim 1, wherein the driver identification means includes a biometric data detector for detecting biometric data of the driver and determining the driver identification therefrom.

14. The on-board unit according to claim 1, wherein the controller includes data selection means for selecting some of the collected and/or analyzed vehicle usage data in response to the determined driver identification and trans-mission control means for controlling the transmission to the telematics service platform such that only the selected some of the collected and/or analyzed vehicle usage data are transmitted together with the determined driver identification, wherein the controller includes data linking means for linking the collected and/or analyzed vehicle usage data to the driver identification and/or the recognized driver'"'"'s voice and/or the data received from the data storage element, and storage control means for controlling storage of the collected and/or analyzed vehicle usage data together with the driver identification and/or recognized driver'"'"'s voice and/or data received from the data storage element in a storage means of the on-board unit.

15. The on-board unit according to claim 14, wherein the data collection means includes, or is connected to, a GPS receiver, an accelerometer and/or odometer, wherein the data transmission means includes a speed transmitter, an acceleration transmitter, a mileage transmitter and/or a travel route transmitter for transmission of the speed, acceleration, mileage and/or travel route to the telematics service platform.

16. The on-board unit according to claim 15, wherein the controller includes compression means for the compression of the data to be transferred to the telematics service platform and/or prioritizing means for prioritizing data to be transferred and determining when and/or what data are transferred.

17. An on-board unit for vehicles comprising:

data collection means for collecting vehicle usage data;

data transmission means for transmitting collected vehicle usage data and/or analyzed vehicle usage data derived therefrom, to a telematics service platform;

driver identification means for identifying a driver using the vehicle and providing a driver identification; and

a controller for controlling the transmission of the collected and/or analyzed vehicle usage data to the telematics service platform in response to the provided driver identification;

wherein the driver identification means includes key code receiving means for receiving a key code from the telematics service platform, the key code including an audio reference file, a pin code, biometric reference data or similar reference data for determining the driver identification from the identification data input into the driver identification means via a peripheral element in the vehicle'"'"'s driver cabinet.

18. The on-board unit according to claim 17, wherein the driver identification means includes a biometric data detector for detecting biometric data of the driver and determining the driver identification therefrom.

19. The on-board unit according to claim 17, wherein the controller includes data selection means for selecting some of the collected and/or analyzed vehicle usage data in response to the determined driver identification and trans-mission control means for controlling the transmission to the telematics service platform such that only the selected some of the collected and/or analyzed vehicle usage data are transmitted together with the determined driver identification, wherein the controller includes data linking means for linking the collected and/or analyzed vehicle usage data to the driver identification and/or the recognized driver'"'"'s voice and/or the data received from the data storage element, and storage control means for controlling storage of the collected and/or analyzed vehicle usage data together with the driver identification and/or recognized driver'"'"'s voice and/or data received from the data storage element in a storage means of the on-board unit.

20. The on-board unit according to claim 19, wherein the controller includes a privacy mode selection means for disabling the driver identification means and/or allowing transmission of at least some of the collected and/or analyzed vehicle usage data without driver identification.

21. The on-board unit according to claim 19, wherein the data collection means includes, or is connected to, a GPS receiver, an accelerometer and/or odometer, wherein the data transmission means includes a speed transmitter, an acceleration transmitter, a mileage transmitter and/or a travel route transmitter for transmission of the speed, acceleration, mileage and/or travel route to the telematics service platform.

22. The on-board unit according to claim 21, wherein the controller includes compression means for the compression of the data to be transferred to the telematics service platform and/or prioritizing means for prioritizing data to be transferred and determining when and/or what data are transferred.

23. Telematics service platform for communication with the on-board unit of claim 17 comprising key code transmission means for transmitting the key code to the on-board unit.