SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VEHICLE DATA COMMUNICATION

• US 20170124871A1
• Filed: 10/28/2016
• Published: 05/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Faraday & Future Inc.
• Original Assignee: Faraday & Future Inc.
• Inventors: SUNADHAM, Anand, XIE, Kenneth X.
• Granted Patent: US 10,206,015 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

A system within an environment of a vehicle in which one or more electronic control unit(s) (ECU) having its own communications protocol stack (e.g., a TCP/IP stack) can communicate with an ECU gateway that functions as a component of an infotainment system. Each ECU can thereby publish its own data in real time, through an Internet (or similar) connection in the infotainment system, to a broker that can store the data from all connected ECUs of a plurality of vehicles. A backend system can subscribe to certain published data feeds (e.g., all ECU-2 and ECU-3 data from every 2010 model vehicle, or all ECU-2 data from every vehicle) via the broker to pull a specific subset of available data for analysis and/or visualization. The present invention enables users of a backend system to query for data from vehicles that are not connected to the Internet in real time.

Claims

1. A method of communicating vehicle data from a vehicle including a plurality of electronic control units, the method comprising:

generating first vehicle data in a first electronic control unit of the plurality of electronic control units;

publishing the first vehicle data through an electronic control unit gateway to a broker;

generating second vehicle data in a second electronic control unit of the plurality of electronic control units;

publishing the second vehicle data through the electronic control unit gateway to the broker.

2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

receiving third vehicle data from the broker;

determining whether a target electronic control unit for the third vehicle data is available;

in accordance with a determination that the target electronic control unit is available, transmitting, via the electronic control unit gateway, the third vehicle data to the target electronic control unit; and

in accordance with a determination that the target electronic control unit is not available, queueing the third vehicle data in a shadow system until the target electronic control unit is available.

3. A method comprising:

receiving first vehicle data associated with a first electronic control unit of a first plurality of electronic control units from a first vehicle;

receiving second vehicle data associated with a second electronic control unit of the first plurality of electronic control units; and

storing the first vehicle data in association with information of the first electronic control unit and storing the second vehicle data in association with information of the second electronic control unit.

4. The method of claim 3, the method further comprising:

identifying a first backend subscriber to data associated with the first electronic control unit, and a second backend subscriber to data associated with the second electronic control unit;

in response to receiving the first vehicle data, sending the first vehicle data to the first backend subscriber; and

in response to receiving the second vehicle data, sending the second vehicle data to the second backend subscriber.

5. The method of claim 3, the method further comprising:

receiving third vehicle data from a backend system;

determining whether a target vehicle for the third vehicle data is available;

in accordance with a determination that the target vehicle is available, transmitting the third vehicle data to the target vehicle; and

in accordance with a determination that the target vehicle is not available, queueing the third vehicle data in a shadow system until the target vehicle is available.

6. The method of claim 3, the method further comprising:

visualizing one or more of the first vehicle data and the second vehicle data.

7. The method of claim 3, the method further comprising:

the first vehicle data comprises one or more of a first speed and a first location;

the second vehicle comprises one or more of a second speed and a second location; and

analyzing the first vehicle data and the second vehicle data.

8. The method of claim 3, the method further comprising:

receiving third vehicle data associated with a third electronic control unit of a second plurality of electronic control units from a second vehicle;

receiving fourth vehicle data associated with a fourth electronic control unit of the second plurality of electronic control units;

the first vehicle data includes a first location data;

the second vehicle data includes a first speed data;

the third vehicle data includes a second location data;

the fourth vehicle data includes a second speed data;

determining a first destination based on the first location data and the second location data;

calculating a first estimated arrival time of the vehicle based on the first location data, the first speed data, and the first destination;

calculating a second estimated arrival time of the second vehicle based on the second location data, the second speed data, and the first destination;

transmitting the first estimated arrival time and first destination to the second vehicle; and

transmitting the second estimated arrival time and first destination to the first vehicle.

9. The method of claim 8, the method further comprising:

receiving a rejection of the first destination from the first vehicle or the second vehicle; and

in response to receiving the rejection of the first destination;

selecting a second destination from a predetermined set of destinations,

transmitting the second destination to the second vehicle, and

transmitting the second destination to the first vehicle.

10. A vehicle comprising:

a plurality of electronic control units, each including a communications stack;

an electronic control unit gateway in communication with a respective communications stack of each of the electronic control units; and

a telematics system connected to a network and in communication with the electronic control unit gateway, wherein the telematics system is configured to publish vehicle data from the plurality of electronic control units via the network.

11. The vehicle of claim 10, wherein:

a first electronic control unit of the plurality of electronic control units generates first vehicle data;

in response to generating the first vehicle data, the first electronic control unit publishes the first vehicle data through the electronic control unit gateway to a broker;

a second electronic control unit of the plurality of electronic control units generates second vehicle data; and

in response to generating the second vehicle data, the second electronic control unit publishes the second vehicle data through the electronic control unit gateway to the broker.

12. The vehicle of claim 10, wherein the vehicle further includes a shadow system, and wherein:

the telematics system receives third vehicle data from a broker;

the telematics system determines whether a target electronic control unit for the third vehicle data is available;

in accordance with a determination that the target electronic control unit is available, the electronic control unit gateway transmits the third vehicle data to the target electronic control unit; and

in accordance with a determination that the target electronic control unit is not available, the shadow system queues the third vehicle data until the target electronic control unit is available.