Vehicle unit

• US 8,554,420 B2
• Filed: 05/28/2010
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Sthlin, Ulrich, Menzel, Marc
• Primary Examiner(s): FREJD, RUSSELL WARREN
• Application Number:
  US13/375,299
• Publication Number:
  US 20120150392A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,229 Days
• Field of Search: 701 45- 49
• US Class Current: 701/48
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• 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

Abstract

The invention relates to a vehicle unit in a vehicle, including at least one multimedia control unit and at least one safety control unit for controlling multimedia and safety functions, wherein the vehicle unit is provided as a switching unit between the multimedia control unit and the safety control unit, and wherein the switching unit processes the data received from the multimedia control unit and makes the data available to the safety control unit. The switching unit also transmits data received from the safety control unit to the multimedia control unit. Furthermore, the switching unit has a safety level which is higher than that of the multimedia control unit and lower than that the safety control unit.

Claims

1. A vehicle unit in a vehicle comprising:

at least one multimedia control unit having a first safety level, and at least one safety control unit having a second safety level for controlling multimedia functions and safety functions respectively,

wherein the vehicle unit includes a switching unit having a third safety level between the multimedia control unit and the safety control unit,

wherein the switching unit is configured to;

process data received from the multimedia control unit and the safety control unit, and

control transfer of the processed data, by controlling a connection to the multimedia control unit and a connection to the safety control unit based on the first and second safety levels respectively, such that the connection to the safety control unit is more restricted than the connection to the multimedia control unit, and

wherein the third safety level is higher than the first safety level, and lower than the second safety level.

2. The vehicle unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein system monitoring of the switching unit takes place.

3. The vehicle unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the switching unit has at least one connection for the multimedia control unit and at least one connection for the safety control unit, which connections have different safety levels.

4. The vehicle unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the switching unit carries out pre-processing of the data for a bidirectional ad hoc network radio communication, positioning on the basis of satellite position data, map data, vehicle-to-surroundings communications data, vehicle sensor data and/or environment sensor data and/or representation of the environment for determining the expected road profile and traffic profile.

5. The vehicle unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the switching unit is divided among a plurality of module units.

6. The vehicle unit as claimed in claim 5, wherein the module units of the switching unit have connections for connecting to the other module units of the switching unit.

7. The vehicle unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein a mobile radio unit with an emergency call unit is integrated into the switching unit.