Vehicle-to-X communication by means of radio key

• US 8,688,376 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2012
• Issued: 04/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG), Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Sthlin, Ulrich, Aunkofer, Markus, Sger, Peter, Breyer, Lutz
• Primary Examiner(s): Zanelli, Michael J
• Application Number:
  US13/529,435
• Publication Number:
  US 20130158862A1
• Time in Patent Office: 649 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 701/517
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0965 responding to signals from another vehicle, e.g. emergency vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/162 event-triggered
• 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 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

The invention relates to wireless vehicle-to-X communication by means of radio key (RKE) with a transceiver. The radio key transceiver is designed to send and receive not only data associated with the keyless driving authorization but also vehicle-to-X communication data. The radio key X communication can be used between two vehicles equipped with this radio key communication technique in order to communicate data such as positions, weather conditions or warnings quickly and reliably. This wireless communication technique using radio keys can also be used for coordinating emergency services when searching for an accident scene.

Claims

1. A communication apparatus for radio key vehicle-to-X communication for a vehicle, said communication apparatus comprising:

a radio key device (RKE) having

a vehicle module, and

a portable module;

wherein at least one of the vehicle module and the portable module have a transceiver which is designed for;

wirelessly receiving vehicle-to-X communication data from a first vehicle or a first infrastructure,

storing the received vehicle-to-X communication data, and

sending the stored vehicle-to-X communication data to a second vehicle or a second infrastructure in response to the second vehicle or the second infrastructure being in a wireless range of the transceiver.

2. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1, also comprising:

an interface to a position-finding unit for creating position data for a vehicle.

3. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 2,

wherein the vehicle is an emergency vehicle which, after finding an accident scene, sends its position data as a locating signal via the communication apparatus to further emergency vehicles for the purpose of coordinating the operation.

4. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 3, also comprising a vehicle-based navigation system which is designed to receive the locating signal and to display destination guidance on a digital map on a display apparatus.

5. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1,

wherein the vehicle-to-X communication data are selected from the group consisting of:

position data;

time stamps;

surroundings data;

warning signals;

identifier data;

speed data; and

direction data.

6. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1,

wherein at least one vehicle also has:

a display apparatus which is designed to receive and display vehicle-to-X communication data.

7. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1,

wherein the vehicle-to-X communication data can additionally also be received and transmitted on the basis of a further communication technique with a higher bandwidth from the transceiver on the basis of a standard format, and

wherein the further communication technique is selected from the group consisting of:

WLAN engineering based on IEEE 802.11 standards;

cellular radio based on GSM, UMTS, LTE, Wimax; and

communication technique based on DSRC.

8. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the vehicle-to-X communication data comprise an identifier which indicates what further communication technique is integrated in a transmitter.

9. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1, also comprising a memory unit for providing vehicle-to-X communication data.

10. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1, also comprising:

a microprocessor for processing the vehicle-to-X communication data and for executing communication stacks,

wherein the vehicle-to-X communication data have a standard format for an intelligent transportation system (ITS).

11. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1,

wherein customization of keyless software can be executed by means of the portable module and/or direct radio communication to the vehicle module.

12. The communication apparatus as claimed in claim 11,

wherein a keyless driving authorization has a mid-range or long-range front end.

13. A vehicle having a communication apparatus as claimed in claim 1.

14. A method for radio key vehicle-to-X communication with a radio key device including a portable module and a vehicle module, said method comprising:

receiving vehicle-to-X communication data from a first vehicle or a first infrastructure by a transceiver in at least one of the portable module and the vehicle module;

storing the received vehicle-to-X communication data in a memory of at least one of the portable module and the vehicle module; and

transmitting the stored vehicle-to-X communication data to a second vehicle or a second infrastructure in response to the second vehicle being in wireless range of the transceiver.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium which stores a program which, when executed on a radio key device, instructs the radio key device to perform the method steps as claimed in claim 14.