VEHICLE DATA OFFLOADING SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20200137142A1
• Filed: 10/30/2018
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Motor North America, Inc. (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Motor North America, Inc. (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: SALLES, Felipe G.
• Granted Patent: US 11,349,903 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• 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 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A method for offloading vehicle data from a vehicle includes detecting and capturing a first set of data points with a group of sensors mounted on a vehicle, processing and analyzing, with a vehicle processor, the data points, determining whether the data points are to be offloaded from the vehicle or stored in the vehicle, and upon determination that the data points are to be offloaded from the vehicle, determining when to offload the vehicle data from the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method for offloading vehicle data from a vehicle, comprising:

detecting and capturing a first set of data points with a group of sensors mounted on a vehicle;

receiving a second set of data points;

processing and analyzing, with a vehicle processor, the first set of data points and the second set of data points;

determining whether vehicle data are to be offloaded from the vehicle, or stored in the vehicle, the vehicle data including the first set of data points, the second set of data points, or both; and

upon determination that the vehicle data are to be offloaded from the vehicle, determining when to offload the data from the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the vehicle data are to be offloaded further comprises determining whether the vehicle data will be needed at a cloud server, determining whether the cloud server requests the vehicle data, or both.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of determining whether the vehicle data are to be offloaded further comprises:

upon determination that the vehicle data will be needed at the cloud server, determining whether one or more network conditions improve after elapse of a predetermined time; and

upon determination that the one or more network condition improve, offloading the vehicle data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more network conditions comprise:

the strength of a network signal, a congested state of a network, cost associated with use of the network, a type of the network, or a combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the vehicle data are to be offloaded further comprises determining whether the vehicle data is time-sensitive.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining when to offload the data from the vehicle further comprises:

determining whether a WiFi network is available; and

upon determination that no WiFi network is available, withholding offloading of the vehicle data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the vehicle data are to be offloaded further comprises:

classifying, with a predetermined machine learning program stored in the vehicle, whether the vehicle data is critical, or non-critical; and

determining transmission of the vehicle data classified as critical.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of classifying the vehicle data further comprises determining whether the vehicle data relate to one of the following categories:

protection of drivers;

determining whether the vehicle data relate to data potentially lead to crash;

determining hardware malfunction leading to an immediate issue; and

determining component malfunction that is replaceable with another component.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

storing the vehicle data classified as non-critical in the vehicle temporarily; and

determining whether the stored vehicle data will be deleted over time.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining when to offload the data from the vehicle further comprises:

determining a risk of losing the vehicle data upon transmission; and

upon determination that the risk of losing the vehicle data exceeds a predetermined threshold, withholding transmission of the vehicle data until later.

11. A system for controlling transmission of vehicle data, comprising:

a group of sensors arranged on-board of a vehicle and operable to detect and capture data points;

one or more processors;

one or more memory modules communicatively coupled to the one or more processors;

machine readable instructions stored in the one or more memory modules and upon execution by the one or more processors, performing at least the following;

processing and analyzing data points;

determining whether the data points are required by a cloud server;

upon determination that the data points are not required by the cloud server, temporarily storing the data points in a storage device of the vehicle instead of transmitting the vehicle data; and

determining when to offload the stored data points from the vehicle.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the machine readable instructions further perform:

upon determination that the data points are required by the cloud server, determining whether the data points comply with predetermined criteria; and

transmitting the data points to the cloud server when the predetermined criteria are met.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the machine readable instruction of storing the vehicle data further comprises:

storing the data points for a later use; and

deleting the stored data points upon determination that the stored data points lead to no use.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the machine readable instruction of determining when to offload the stored data points from the vehicle further comprises:

determining whether a WiFi network is available; and

upon determination that the WiFi network is available, offloading of the stored data points.

15. A system for offloading vehicle data from a vehicle, comprising:

a group of sensors arranged on-board of a vehicle and operable to detect and capture data points;

one or more processors;

one or more memory modules communicatively coupled to the one or more processors;

machine readable instructions stored in the one or more memory modules and upon execution by the one or more processors, performing at least the following;

receiving the data points from the group of sensors;

processing and analyzing the data points;

determining whether the data points are to be offloaded from the vehicle, or stored in the vehicle; and

upon determination that the vehicle data are to be offloaded from the vehicle, determining when to offload the data from the vehicle; and

a data communication module communicatively connected to the one or more processors and configured to offload the vehicle data.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the machine readable instructions further perform:

determining whether the cloud server requests the vehicle data; and

determining whether the vehicle data is time-sensitive.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the machine readable instructions further perform:

determining whether a WiFi network is available; and

upon determination that no WiFi network is available, withholding offloading of the vehicle data.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the machine readable instructions further perform:

classifying, with a predetermined machine learning program stored in the vehicle, whether the vehicle data is critical, or non-critical; and

determining transmission of the vehicle data classified as critical.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the machine readable instructions further perform:

temporarily storing the vehicle data classified as non-critical in the vehicle; and

determining whether the stored vehicle data will be deleted over time.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the machine readable instructions further perform:

determining a risk of losing the vehicle data upon transmission; and

upon determination that the risk of losing the vehicle data exceeds a predetermined threshold, withholding transmission of the vehicle data until later.