ON-BOARD WEB SERVER TELEMATICS SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20170063994A1
• Filed: 08/25/2015
• Published: 03/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: LEI, Oliver, DRAGESCU, James, MURRAY, Allen R.
• Granted Patent: US 10,142,420 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/10 of different types
• 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 12/069 using certificates or pre-shared keys
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

A web server may be installed to a telematics control unit of a vehicle. The telematics control unit and a plurality of vehicle controllers may be connected to a vehicle bus. The web server may be programmed to host a plurality of web applications configured to expose telematics functions of the vehicle controllers to a mobile device connected to the web server, and authenticate the mobile device to access to the web applications.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a mobile device programmed to

query an address resolution server for a vehicle address of a web server associated with an identifier of a vehicle;

initiate a web connection to the vehicle address;

display an access portal including a listing of telematics web applications installed to the web server; and

access one of the telematics web applications via the web connection to request the vehicle to perform a telematics command.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is further programmed to:

determine that the web server is inactive;

send a wake-up message to an in-vehicle modem of the vehicle requesting that the web server re-active; and

receive the vehicle address of the web server as re-activated.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the wake-up message is sent from the mobile device to the in-vehicle modem over short message service (SMS).

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle address is one of an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address or Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one of the telematics web applications is a key fob application, and the telematics command is a door lock or unlock command.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one of the telematics web applications is an electric vehicle application, and the telematics command is to request a current state of charge of a battery of the vehicle.

7. A method comprising:

maintaining, in a database, identifiers of vehicles and associated telephone numbers and network addresses;

receiving a request for a network address of a web server associated with a vehicle identifier;

sending a wake-up message to a telephone number associated with the vehicle identifier;

receiving a wake-up response including a network address of the web server; and

returning the network address responsive to the request.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising sending the wake-up message to an in-vehicle modem over short message service (SMS).

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving the wake-up response from the in-vehicle modem over short message service (SMS).

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the network addresses include one or more Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address or Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a second request for the network address of the web server associated with a vehicle identifier;

retrieving the network address from the database; and

returning the network address responsive to the second request.

12. A system comprising:

a vehicle modem;

a plurality of vehicle controllers connected to a vehicle bus; and

a web server installed to a telematics control unit connected to the vehicle bus, the web server programmed to;

host a plurality of web applications configured to expose telematics functions of the vehicle controllers to a mobile device connected to the vehicle modem, and

authenticate the mobile device to access the web applications.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the web server is further programmed to:

send a user interface of one of the plurality of web applications to the mobile device; and

receive a command request from the mobile device indicating user selection of a telematics function exposed by the user interface.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the telematics control unit is configured to:

receive the command request from the mobile device connected to the web server via the vehicle modem,

forward the command request to the vehicle bus as a bus command directed to one of the vehicle controllers,

receive a bus response from the vehicle bus indicating a status of the bus command, and

send a command response indicating the status to the mobile device connected to the web server via the vehicle modem.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the web server is further programmed to send the mobile device a listing of the plurality of web applications installed to the web server for display by the mobile device as an access portal.