Methods and systems for monitoring a vehicle's energy source

• US 8,849,499 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2011
• Issued: 09/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Profitt-Brown, Elizabeth, Rork, Joseph Paul, Petersen, Brian, Pleet, Edward Andrew, Zechel, Kelly Lee, Sosonkina, Yevgeniya, Curry, Susan, Smith, Mary, Skaff, Ryan
• Primary Examiner(s): TISSOT, ADAM D
• Application Number:
  US12/985,803
• Publication Number:
  US 20110224841A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,363 Days
• Field of Search: 701/31.4, 340/426.18, 380/270
• US Class Current: 701/31.4
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/174 Economic driving
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/589 Wireless data transfers
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/28 characterised by the type of the output information, e.g. video entertainment or vehicle dynamics information; characterised by the purpose of the output information, e.g. for attracting the attention of the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/85 Arrangements for transferring vehicle- or driver-related data
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/00 Methods of charging batteries, specially adapted for electric vehicles; Charging stations or on-board charging equipment therefor; Exchange of energy storage elements in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/53 Batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/68 Off-site monitoring or control, e.g. remote control
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2510/244 Charge state
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/84 Data processing systems or methods, management, administration
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/12 Remote or cooperative charging
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

One or more embodiments may include a method for remotely obtaining information about an energy source of a vehicle. Information identifying one or more vehicles and one or more drivers of the vehicles may be received at one or more computing devices remote from a vehicle. Instructions from the one or more remote computing devices may be transmitted requesting information from the identified vehicle(s) about a status of an energy source for the identified vehicle(s). The status information may be received at the remote computing device(s). Based on the energy source status information and the driver identifying information, a vehicle energy source status with respect to one or more attributes of the vehicle drivers may be calculated. Additionally, the vehicle energy source status may be displayed at the one or more devices.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for remotely obtaining information about an energy source of a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving at one or more computing devices remote from a vehicle information identifying one or more vehicles and one or more drivers of the one or more vehicles;

transmitting instructions from the one or more remote computing devices requesting information from the one or more identified vehicles about a status of an energy source for the identified vehicle;

receiving the status information at the one or more remote computing devices;

based on the energy source status information and the information identifying the one or more drivers, calculating at the one or more remote computing devices a vehicle energy source status with respect to one or more attributes of the vehicle drivers; and

displaying the vehicle energy source status at the one or more devices.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the energy source is one or more batteries.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the identifying information is based on one or more vehicle keys.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the identifying information is input by a user.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a vehicle charging schedule for automatic charging of the vehicle;

commanding vehicle charging from the one or more remote computing devices based on the vehicle charging schedule; and

based on the commanding, transmitting one or more charging instructions to the vehicle.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 wherein the schedule is a time-based schedule.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 wherein the schedule is a schedule based on a charge of the vehicle.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the one or more attributes is one or more driving behaviors of the one or more identified drivers including at least one of driving style, speed, terrain driven, and distance.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein there is at least a first vehicle driver of the identified vehicle and a second vehicle driver of the identified vehicle, the method further comprising:

performing a comparison of information relating to the use of the identified vehicle by the first vehicle driver and the second vehicle driver; and

presenting the comparison on the one or more remote devices.

10. A system comprising:

at least one device configured to;

receive information identifying a vehicle and vehicle drivers;

receive information for determining the vehicle energy source status;

determine an energy source status with respect to a driver attribute based on the status information and the driver information; and

display the vehicle energy source status.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the at least one device is at least one of a nomadic device, a personal computer, or a server computing system.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the at least one device is further configured to receive a software application for commanding one or more operations performed at the vehicle, wherein at least one operation includes receiving the information for determining the vehicle energy source status.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein at least one other instruction includes door lock and unlock, HVAC control, vehicle start, radio system control, and window control.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein the at least one device is further configured to receive one or more commands for immediate charging.