HANDS ON STEERING WHEEL VEHICLE SAFETY CONTROL SYSTEM
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a safety control system for a vehicle with controls located on the vehicle steering wheel. The controls maybe arranged in a cluster on one or both sides of the upper half of the steering wheel. The controls can be located in areas of the steering wheel including the spokes, the rim or a special flange extended from the rim or the spoke of the steering wheel and are easily recognizable and accessible by the driver while the driver is looking ahead from a normal driving position with the driver'"'"'s eyes focused on the road and maintaining the driver'"'"'s hands on the steering wheel. The controls can be further enhanced by varied coloring, shape, size, and texture to make them easily identifiable. The controls can be used to access and control vehicle systems or portable telematics devices in multi modal process in conjunction with thumb gesture interpretation or speech recognition. A further enhancement to the system is the introduction of a universal portable devices docking station to eliminate falling devices and the consequences of accident
11 Citations
38 Claims
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1-21. -21. (canceled)
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22. A method of controlling vehicle operation of a vehicle, the method comprising:
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determining if a telematics device is docked in a cradle; detecting a policy associated with the telematics device, vehicle or cradle; determining if the policy requires that the telematics device be physically docked; and limiting vehicle operation if the policy requires that the telematics device must be docked and it is determined that the telematics device is not docked. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A safety control system for vehicles having at least one vehicle controller with at least one program and memory to store the at least one program and operation parameters and a hand free communication system, the safety control system comprising:
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a sensor to detect a portable multifunctional telematics devices;
a sensor to physically detect whether the portable multifunctional telematics device is physically docked in a cradle; anda communication controller in communication with the at least one vehicle controller wherein upon detecting a starting operation of the vehicle, the communication control will determine if the portable multifunctional telematics device is not physically docked in the cradle and will issue a signal limiting the drivability of the vehicle and the operation of the portable multifunctional telematics device if the portable multifunctional telematics device is not docked in the cradle. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A method for controlling a vehicle having at least one vehicle controller with at least one program and memory to store the at least one program and operation parameters and a hand free communication system, the method comprising:
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detecting a portable multifunctional telematics devices;
physically detecting whether the portable multifunctional telematics device is physically docked in a cradle; andupon detecting a starting operation of the vehicle, determining if the portable multifunctional telematics device is physically docked in the cradle and issuing a signal limiting the drivability of the vehicle and the operation of the portable multifunctional telematics device if it is determined that the portable telematics device is not in the cradle.
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36. A safety control system for vehicles having at least one vehicle controller with at least one program and memory to store the at least one program and operation parameters and a hand free communication system, the safety control system comprising:
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a sensor to detect a portable multifunctional telematics devices; a sensor to physically detect whether the portable multifunctional telematics device is physically docked in a cradle; and a communication controller in communication with the at least one vehicle controller wherein upon detecting a starting operation of the vehicle, the communication control will determine if 1) the portable multifunctional telematics device is physically docked in the cradle as required by the parameters and 2) the portable multifunctional telematics device physically docked in the cradle is a functioning device and is the device associated by the parameters and failing either determination, will issue at least one signal limiting the drivability of the vehicle and the operation of the portable multifunctional telematics device. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38)
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Specification