CENTRALIZED MANAGEMENT OF MOBILE-ASSISTED MOTOR VEHICLE SOFTWARE UPGRADING AND VEHICLE DATA ANALYTICS

• US 20170357499A1
• Filed: 08/28/2017
• Published: 12/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Karma Automotive LLC (Wanxiang Group Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Airbiquity Incorporated
• Inventors: Hong, Leon
• Granted Patent: US 10,055,217 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/122 by diverting traffic away from congested entities
• 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: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6075 adapted for handsfree use in a vehicle H04M1/6058 takes precedence; arrangements for holding telephones in a vehicle B60R11/0241
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 by software upgrading or downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0231 based on communication conditions dynamic wireless traffic scheduling definition based on channel quality criteria H04W72/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

In an example, a system is provided and the system includes a motor vehicle component client, a server located in the cloud, and an application to be installed on a personal portable device, such as mobile phone or other portable, mobile electronic device. In some examples, the system enables efficient vehicle software updates to the Engine Control Unit (ECU), the head unit, or the like, or combinations thereof, and/or enables efficient wireless transmission of vehicle data analytics associated with diagnostic information, location information, or the like, or combinations thereof.

Claims

1. A portable, mobile electronic device including a memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a processing device of the portable, mobile electronic device, cause the processing device of the portable, mobile electronic device to perform operations comprising:

downloading, from a remote server, a configuration file of a pair of configuration files, wherein a first configuration file of the pair includes a first mapping indicating different priorities for different types of data sets generated by a motor vehicle, and a second configuration file of the pair maps priority to connection information, wherein the received configuration file comprises the second configuration file of the pair;

receiving from the motor vehicle a communication including content of a data set of information output from the motor vehicle, the communication including metadata indicating one of the priorities of the first configuration file; and

determining a data channel for uploading, to the remote server, the content using the connection information of the second configuration file, and based on the indicated priority.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise checking whether the remote server is reachable over a first interface of the portable, mobile electronic device, and uploading a portion of the content to the remote server in the case that the remote server is reachable over the first interface, and in the case that the remote server is not reachable over the first interface, uploading the portion of the content over a second interface of the portable, mobile electronic device, conditioned on a value of the connection information of the second configuration file.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise uploading a subset of said content to the remote server on one of the first and second interfaces, and uploading a second subset of said content on the other one of the of the first and second interfaces.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the subset of said content includes at least one of vehicle speed information, engine speed information, odometer information, or ignition status information.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein a different subset of said content includes at least one of location information or instantaneous fuel economy information.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise caching the portion of the content if the remote server is not reachable over the first interface.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first interface is associated with at least one of a wired or short range wireless connection.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the first interface includes a WLAN (wireless local area network) interface.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

segmenting the content into a plurality of segments;

beginning upload of the plurality of segments to the remote server over a first connection;

if communication with the remote server over the first connection is disrupted prior to uploading all of the plurality of segments, selecting an action, based on a comparison of the priority indicated by the metadata to the second configuration file, the action comprising at least one of caching a remaining segment of the plurality of segments, caching the plurality of segments, or uploading said remaining segment to the remote server over a second different connection; and

executing the selected action.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a motor vehicle component installed in the motor vehicle, the motor vehicle component including a memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a processing device of the motor vehicle component, cause the processing device of the motor vehicle component to perform operations comprising;

collecting a vehicle data set from a vehicle bus installed in the motor vehicle;

associating the collected data set to a motor vehicle code;

comparing the motor vehicle code for the data set to the first configuration file to identify a result and generating the metadata that indicates the priority responsive to the result; and

transmitting the communication to the portable, mobile electronic device, the communication including said content and said metadata.

11. A system, comprising:

a server configured to;

identify a software update for a motor vehicle;

check whether a portable, mobile electronic device is accessible via a first interface of the portable, mobile electronic device;

in response to the portable, mobile electronic device not accessible via the first interface of the portable, mobile electronic device for the check, determine whether the software update corresponds to a criterion, wherein the criterion includes whether the software update is for a component of a predetermined group of components of the motor vehicle, wherein the predetermined group includes an Engine Control Unit (ECU) of the motor vehicle;

in response to determining that the software update corresponds to the criterion, establish a cellular connection to a second interface of the portable, mobile electronic device; and

transmit the software update over the established cellular connection.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the server is further configured to:

in response to determining that the software update does not correspond to the criterion, add the software update to a transmission queue for transmission without utilizing a cellular connection.

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

monitor the transmission queue to determine whether any software update of the transmission queue corresponds to the criterion; and

transmit the software update from the transmission queue responsive to receiving a signal output from the portable, mobile electronic device over the first interface.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the portable, mobile electronic device is configured to transmit a signal to the server responsive to accessing a wireless network access point.

15. The system of claim 11, further comprising a vehicle head unit, wherein:

the vehicle head unit is configured to aggregate data collected from a vehicle bus until a connection is established between the vehicle head unit and the portable, mobile electronic device; and

the vehicle head unit is configured to push the aggregated data to the portable, mobile electronic device responsive to the establishment of said connection between the vehicle head unit and the portable, mobile electronic device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the vehicle head unit is configured to select an order for transmitting a plurality of sets of data of the aggregated data based on priority.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein:

the portable, mobile electronic device is configured to identify a first portion of the aggregated data if no wireless network access points are accessible via the network interface of the portable, mobile electronic device;

the portable, mobile electronic device is configured to establish a cellular connection and transmit the first portion of the aggregated data over the cellular connection; and

the portable, mobile electronic device is configured to transmit a second different portion of the aggregated data to the server independently of a cellular radio of the portable, mobile electronic device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein at least one of the vehicle head unit and the portable, mobile electronic device is configured to:

generate a first data package including first information related to an event associated with the aggregated data; and

generate a second data package including second different information related to the same event.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the first data package includes fewer bits than the second data package.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the portable, mobile electronic device is configured to transmit the first data package to the server over said the cellular connection at a first time and the second data package to the server at a second time that is later than the first time.