PERFORMING ACTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH A CONNECTED VEHICLE

• US 20150224891A1
• Filed: 02/13/2015
• Published: 08/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Recargo, Inc. (E.ON SE)
• Original Assignee: Recargo, Inc. (E.ON SE)
• Inventors: PETROSIAN, Armen, MANFIELD, Lucas, NORTH, Forrest, WILD, Nick
• Granted Patent: US 10,137,795 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/34 Cabin temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/36 Temperature of vehicle components or parts
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/662 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/10 by alarm
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/50 by future state prediction
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/0023 Detecting, eliminating, remedying or compensating for drive train abnormalities, e.g. failures within the drive train
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/30 Constructional details of charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/665 Methods related to measuring, billing or payment
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/10 for monitoring or controlling batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/16 responding to battery ageing, e.g. to the number of charging cycles or the state of health [SoH]
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/26 for electrical energy, e.g. batteries or capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2510/244 Charge state
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0205 Diagnosing or detecting failures; Failure detection models
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40 Bus networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/40215 Controller Area Network CAN
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/40273 : the transportation system being a vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 : Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 : Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 : Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 : Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 : Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 : Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 : Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

Systems and methods for collecting data from electric vehicles, and performing various different actions based on the collected data, are described. In some embodiments, a device, such as a remote device that communicates with a server, connects with a controller area network (CAN) of an electric vehicle, and collects data from the CAN and/or other types of data associated with the electric vehicle (e.g., geographical information that identifies a location of an electric vehicle, movement information that identifies whether the electric vehicle is in motion or not, and so on). The systems and methods may perform various actions using some or all of the collected data.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

accessing data captured by a remote device from a controller area network of an electric vehicle;

accessing data captured by sensors contained by the remote device; and

determining a state of the electric vehicle based on the accessed data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing an action that is associated with the determined state of the electric vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing data captured by a remote device from a controller area network of an electric vehicle includes accessing data that identifies a charge mode of the electric vehicle;

and wherein determining a state of the electric vehicle based on the accessed data includes determining whether the electric vehicle is currently charging.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing data captured by a remote device from a controller area network of an electric vehicle includes accessing data that identifies a power level of a battery of the electric vehicle;

and wherein determining a state of the electric vehicle based on the accessed data includes determining a battery power state for the electric vehicle.

5. A method, comprising:

collecting data from a controller area network of an electric vehicle;

comparing the collected data to data previously collected from a group of electric vehicles that includes the electric vehicle; and

performing an action in response to the comparison.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein comparing the collected data to data collected from other electric vehicles includes determining the data collected from the controller area network of the electric vehicle indicates a failure event associated with a component of the electric vehicle;

and wherein performing an action in response to the comparison includes generating an alert message that identifies the failure event associated with the component of the electric vehicle.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein comparing the collected data to data collected from other electric vehicles includes determining the data collected from the controller area network of the electric vehicle indicates a potential failure event associated with a component of the electric vehicle;

and wherein performing an action in response to the comparison includes generating an alert message that identifies the potential failure event associated with the component of the electric vehicle.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein comparing the collected data to data collected from a group of electric vehicles that includes the electric vehicle includes comparing the collected data to data collected from electric vehicles of a same make and model as a make and model of the electric vehicle.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein comparing the collected data to data collected from a group of electric vehicles that includes the electric vehicle includes comparing the collected data to data collected from electric vehicles having a similar battery pack as a battery pack of the electric vehicle.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein comparing the collected data to data collected from a group of electric vehicles that includes the electric vehicle includes comparing the collected data to data collected from electric vehicles associated with a charging network that includes the electric vehicle as a member.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein collecting data from a controller area network of an electric vehicle includes collecting data that identifies a charge mode of the electric vehicle.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein collecting data from a controller area network of an electric vehicle includes collecting data that identifies a power level of a battery of the electric vehicle.

13. A computer-readable storage medium whose contents, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations, comprising:

collecting data from a controller area network of an electric vehicle;

comparing the collected data to data collected from a group of electric vehicles that includes the electric vehicle;

identifying a potential failure event at a component of the electric vehicle based on the comparison; and

performing an action in response to the identified potential failure event.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein comparing the collected data to data collected from a group of electric vehicles that includes the electric vehicle includes:

comparing the collected data to one or more data patterns associated with failure events and determined from the data collected from the group of electric vehicles;

identifying the potential failure event at the component of the electric vehicle when the collected data matches the one or more data patterns associated with the failure events.

15. A method, comprising:

monitoring charge states of multiple vehicles within a group of vehicles;

determining an order via which to charge the group of vehicles based on the monitored charge states; and

causing the vehicles to be charged in the determined order.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein monitoring charge states of multiple vehicles within a group of vehicles includes:

transmitting, via a device connected to a controller area network of an electric vehicle, a request to the controller area network to send a response message that includes information identifying a state of charge of the electric vehicle;

receiving, at the device, a response message from the controller area network that includes information identifying the state of charge of the electric vehicle; and

transferring, from the device to a server, the identified state of charge.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein determining an order via which to charge the group of vehicles based on the monitored charge states includes generating an order that is based on a level of charge for battery packs within the vehicles.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein determining an order via which to charge the group of vehicles based on the monitored charge states includes generating an order that is based on a level of charge for battery packs within each of the vehicles and a time for a predicted next use of each of the vehicles.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein monitoring charge states of multiple vehicles within a group of vehicles includes monitoring charge states of some or all electric vehicles within a fleet of vehicles.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein monitoring charge states of multiple vehicles within a group of vehicles includes monitoring charge states of some or all electric vehicles associated with a charging network.