Maintenance time notification device

• US 8,285,437 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2008
• Issued: 10/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Kubota, Masatoshi, Fukui, Naoki, Endo, Kazuyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Khoi
• Assistant Examiner(s): MOYER, DALE S
• Application Number:
  US12/663,656
• Publication Number:
  US 20100174443A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,680 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/29, 701/30, 701/33, 701/35, 340/425.5, 340/438, 340/457.4, 340/461
• US Class Current: 701/29.4
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/006 Indicating maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

A maintenance time notification device includes a storing unit storing a threshold value of a usage time or a traveling distance for each of a plurality of vehicle parts; a measuring unit measuring the usage time and the traveling distance of a vehicle since the vehicle began to be used for each of the vehicle parts; a maintenance period determination unit determining a maintenance period of each of the vehicle parts by comparing the usage time and the traveling distance measured by the measuring unit, with the threshold value; and a reporting unit reporting to a passenger based on a determination result of the maintenance period determination unit.

Claims

1. A maintenance time notification device comprising:

a storing unit storing a usage time threshold value or a traveling distance threshold value for each of a plurality of vehicle parts;

a measuring unit measuring a usage time and a traveling distance of a vehicle since the vehicle began to be used, for each of the vehicle parts;

a maintenance period determination unit determining a maintenance period of each of the vehicle parts by comparing the usage time with the usage time threshold value or the traveling distance with the traveling distance threshold value; and

a reporting unit reporting to a passenger based on a determination result of the maintenance period determination unit, wherein

the storing unit stores a first threshold value being one of the usage time threshold value and the traveling distance threshold value required to reach a maintenance limit, the storing unit also storing a second threshold value, said second threshold value being set so that the usage time and the traveling distance required to reach the maintenance limit is longer than usage time and traveling distance required to reach the maintenance limit from the first threshold value;

the maintenance period determination unit determines whether or not there is a vehicle part with at least one of the usage time and the traveling distance that has reached the first threshold value, the maintenance period determination unit also determining whether or not there is a vehicle part with at least one of the usage time and the traveling distance that has reached the second threshold value, the maintenance period determination unit also determining, from among the usage time and the traveling distance of each of the vehicle parts measured by the measuring unit, a one usage time closest to the maintenance limit and a one traveling distance closest to the maintenance limit, the maintenance period determination unit also performing a conversion by converting either said one usage time closest to the maintenance limit into a converted traveling distance or said one traveling distance closest to the maintenance limit into a converted usage time, the maintenance period determination unit also performing a comparison of the converted traveling distance with said one traveling distance or the converted usage time with said one usage time;

based on the determination result of the maintenance period determination unit, the reporting unit only reports the vehicle part that has reached the first threshold value to the passenger when there is only the vehicle part that has reached the first threshold value, and, when there is a vehicle part with the usage time or the traveling distance that has reached the first threshold value in addition to a vehicle part with the usage time or the traveling distance that has only reached the second threshold value, the reporting unit reports both the vehicle part that has reached the first threshold value along with the vehicle part that has only reached the second threshold value to the passenger,

when the comparison shows that the converted usage time is closer to the maintenance limit than is the one usage time, the reporting unit reports to the passenger one traveling distance without reporting the one usage time, and, when the comparison shows that the converted traveling distance is closer to the maintenance limit than is the one traveling distance, the reporting unit reports to the passenger the one usage time without reporting the one traveling distance, and, when the comparison shows that the one usage time is closer to the maintenance limit than is the converted usage time, the reporting unit reports the one usage time to the passenger without reporting the converted usage time, and, when comparison shows that the one traveling distance is closer to the maintenance limit than is the converted traveling distance, the reporting unit reports the one traveling distance to the passenger without reporting the converted traveling distance,

the reporting unit comprises a displaying unit displaying a remaining usage time or a remaining traveling distance required to reach the maintenance period; and

the displaying unit performs a renewal of a display of the remaining usage time or the remaining traveling distance when a predetermined amount of time is determined to have passed since the renewal of the display was previously performed, or when the vehicle is determined to have travelled a travelling distance corresponding to the predetermined amount of time according to an estimated value of an annual traveling distance.

2. The maintenance time notification device according to claim 1, wherein

the storing unit stores the first threshold value and the second threshold value which are common to all of the vehicle parts.

3. The maintenance time notification device according to claim 1, wherein

when the maintenance period determination unit determines that there is no vehicle part with the usage time and the traveling distance that have reached the first threshold value, the reporting unit reports to the passenger, a vehicle part that is closest to a maintenance limit requiring an exchange, and the usage time and the travelling distance of this vehicle part.

4. The maintenance time notification device according to claim 1, wherein

the reporting unit comprises a displaying unit displaying a plurality of figures;

the storing unit storing a third threshold value which is set so that the usage time and the traveling distance required to reach the maintenance limit are shorter compared to the first threshold value;

based on a measuring result of the measuring unit, the maintenance period determination unit determines whether or not the usage time and the traveling distance have reached the third threshold value; and

when the maintenance period determination unit determines that the usage time and the traveling distance have reached the third threshold value, the displaying unit switches over a displaying condition of a certain figure among the plurality of figures, and reports to the passenger that there is a vehicle part with an impending maintenance limit.

5. The maintenance time notification device according to claim 1, wherein

the storing unit stores the vehicle part as a maintenance item corresponding to each of the vehicle part;

and

the reporting unit comprises a displaying unit displaying the maintenance item, the reporting unit reporting to the passenger by displaying the maintenance item to the displaying unit.