Vehicle information communication system

• US 7,609,174 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2006
• Issued: 10/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Technical Center North America Incorporated (Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Heft, Ronald, Tengler, Steve
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu; Daniel
• Assistant Examiner(s): WILSON, BRIAN P
• Application Number:
  US11/637,187
• Publication Number:
  US 20080136670A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,050 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 340/905
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

A vehicle information communication system is provided in which probe data or other private data relating to a host vehicle can be collected with anonymity. Basically, the host vehicle collects the probe data and sends the probe data to a carrier vehicle that disassociates the host vehicle'"'"'s identifying information (e.g., MAC address) from the data before the carrier vehicle sends the probe data to a roadside unit or other external communications station.

Claims

1. A vehicle onboard unit comprising:

a vehicle probe data collecting section configured to collect host vehicle probe data relating to external traveling conditions of a first vehicle having the onboard unit; and

a vehicle communication section,

the vehicle onboard unit being configured to operate in

a host vehicle mode in which the vehicle communication section

communicates with the vehicle probe data collecting section to receive the host vehicle probe data of the first vehicle,

prepares a host vehicle common message set by associating the host vehicle probe data with host vehicle identifying information of the first vehicle,

communicates with at least one surrounding vehicle onboard unit disposed in at least one surrounding vehicle to collect at least one surrounding vehicle common message set which includes surrounding vehicle probe data associated with corresponding surrounding vehicle identifying information, and

transmits at least one of the host vehicle common message set and the at least one surrounding vehicle common message set to a vehicle onboard unit disposed in a different vehicle from the first vehicle, the different vehicle operating in a carrier vehicle mode of the vehicle onboard unit of the different vehicle; and

a carrier vehicle mode in which the vehicle communication section

communicates with a vehicle onboard unit of a second vehicle operating in a host vehicle mode to receive at least one of a host vehicle common message set of the second vehicle and at least one surrounding vehicle common message set of at least one vehicle surrounding the second vehicle,

disassociates host vehicle identifying information associated with the second vehicle and surrounding vehicle identifying information associated with the at least one vehicle surrounding the second vehicle to isolate host vehicle probe data and surrounding vehicle probe data after receiving the at least one of the host vehicle common message set and the at least one surrounding vehicle common message set, and

transmits at least one of the isolated host vehicle probe data and the isolated surrounding vehicle probe data to an external communication device.

2. The vehicle onboard unit as recited in claim 1, wherein

the vehicle communication section is further configured to erase the at least one of the host vehicle common message set and the at least one surrounding vehicle common message set transmitted to the different vehicle operating in the carrier vehicle mode upon completing transmission when the vehicle onboard unit of the first vehicle is operating in the host vehicle mode.

3. The vehicle onboard unit as recited in claim 1, wherein

the vehicle communication section is further configured to erase the at least one of the host vehicle common message set and the at least one surrounding vehicle common message set received from the second vehicle in response to at least one of the vehicle onboard unit of the first vehicle being turned off and the vehicle onboard unit of the first vehicle completing transmission to the external communication device while operating in the carrier vehicle mode.

4. The vehicle onboard unit as recited in claim 1, wherein

the vehicle communication section is further configured to broadcast a request for a carrier vehicle to relay at least one of the host vehicle probe data and the surrounding vehicle probe data from the first vehicle to the external communication device when the first vehicle is operating in the host vehicle mode, and configured to transmit the host vehicle probe data to the carrier vehicle after the carrier vehicle has received the request.

5. The vehicle onboard unit as recited in claim 1, further comprising

a travel route recording section configured to record travel route data that is transmitted by the vehicle communication section.

6. The vehicle onboard unit as recited in claim 5, wherein

the travel route recording section is further configured to record a starting point, an ending point and a travel time as the travel route data.

7. The vehicle onboard unit as recited in claim 1, wherein

the vehicle probe data collecting section further includes detection devices that detect the external traveling conditions of the first vehicle that include at least one of traffic, weather and roadway conditions as the probe data.

8. The vehicle onboard unit as recited in claim 1, wherein

the vehicle onboard unit is configured to operate in the host vehicle mode and the carrier vehicle mode simultaneously.

9. A vehicle information communication system comprising:

a host vehicle including a host vehicle onboard device having

a vehicle probe data collecting section configured to collect host vehicle probe data relating to external traveling conditions of the host vehicle, and

a host vehicle communication section configured to

communicate with the host vehicle probe data collecting section to receive the host vehicle probe data,

create a host vehicle common message set by associating the host vehicle probe data with host vehicle identifying information, and

communicate with a surrounding vehicle onboard device of at least one surrounding vehicle to receive at least one surrounding vehicle common message set comprised of surrounding vehicle probe data associated with surrounding vehicle identifying information; and

a carrier vehicle including a carrier vehicle onboard device having a carrier vehicle communication section configured to communicate with the host vehicle onboard device to receive a carrier request signal and to subsequently receive at least one of the host vehicle common message set and the at least one surrounding vehicle common message set in response to a reply sent from the carrier vehicle to the host vehicle,

the carrier vehicle onboard device being further configured to disassociate the host vehicle identifying information from the host vehicle probe data and the surrounding vehicle identifying information from the surrounding vehicle probe data after receiving the at least one of the host vehicle common message set and the at least one surrounding vehicle common message set, and to transmit at least one of the host vehicle probe data and the surrounding vehicle probe data to an external communication device.

10. The vehicle information communication system as recited in claim 9, wherein

the external communication device includes a roadside unit that is part of a vehicle communication infrastructure system.

11. The vehicle information communication system as recited in claim 9, wherein

the host vehicle communication section is further configured to erase the at least one of the host vehicle common message set and the at least one surrounding vehicle common message set from the host vehicle upon completing transmission from the host vehicle to the carrier vehicle.

12. The vehicle information communication system as recited in claim 9, wherein

the carrier vehicle communication section is further configured to erase the at least one of the host vehicle common message set and the at least one surrounding vehicle common message set from the carrier vehicle in response to at least one of the carrier vehicle being turned off and the carrier vehicle completing transmission to the external communication device.

13. The vehicle information communication system as recited in claim 9, wherein

the host vehicle further includes a travel route recording section configured to record travel route data that is transmitted by the host vehicle communication section.

14. The vehicle information communication system as recited in claim 13, wherein

the travel route recording section is further configured to record a starting point, an ending point and a travel time as the travel route data.

15. The vehicle information communication system as recited in claim 9, wherein

the vehicle probe data collecting section further includes detection devices that detect external traveling conditions of the host vehicle that include at least one of traffic, weather and roadway conditions as the probe data.

16. The vehicle information communication system as recited in claim 9, wherein

the carrier vehicle onboard device sends a service channel change request to the host vehicle onboard device upon receiving the carrier request signal from the host vehicle.

17. The vehicle information communication system as recited in claim 16, wherein

the host vehicle onboard device switches to a service channel upon receiving the service channel change request, the host vehicle sending the at least one of the host vehicle common message set and the at least one surrounding vehicle common message set through the service channel.

18. The vehicle information communication system as recited in claim 9, wherein

the carrier vehicle onboard device sends a data received acknowledgement signal to the host vehicle onboard device upon receipt of the at least one of the host vehicle common message set and the at least one surrounding vehicle common message set.

19. The vehicle information communication system as recited in claim 18, wherein

the host vehicle onboard device erases the at least one of the host vehicle common message set and the at least one surrounding vehicle common message set from the host vehicle onboard device upon receipt of the data received acknowledgement signal.

20. A vehicle information communication method comprising:

collecting host vehicle probe data and surrounding vehicle probe data in a host vehicle;

transmitting the host vehicle probe data and the surrounding vehicle probe data from the host vehicle to a carrier vehicle;

disassociating host vehicle identifying information from the host vehicle probe data and surrounding vehicle identifying information from the surrounding vehicle probe data after transmission from the host vehicle;

transmitting the host vehicle probe data and the surrounding vehicle probe data from the carrier vehicle after disassociating the identifying information to an external communication device when the carrier vehicle is within a communication area of the communication device.

21. The vehicle information communication method as recited in claim 20, further comprising

erasing the host vehicle probe data and the surrounding vehicle probe data automatically from the host vehicle upon completing transmission to the carrier vehicle.

22. The vehicle information communication method as recited in claim 20, further comprising

erasing the host vehicle probe data and the surrounding vehicle probe data automatically from the carrier vehicle in response to the carrier vehicle being turned off.

23. The vehicle information communication method as recited in claim 20, further comprising

recording travel route data in the host vehicle transmitting the travel route data from the host vehicle.

24. The vehicle information communication method as recited in claim 23, wherein

the recording of the travel route data including recording a starting point of the host vehicle, an ending point of the host vehicle and a travel time of the host vehicle.

25. The vehicle information communication method as recited in claim 20, wherein

the collecting of the host vehicle probe data further including detecting at least one of traffic, weather and roadway conditions.