Fleet vehicle aftermarket equipment monitoring

• US 9,299,198 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2014
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Chronowski, David, Bullister, Kevin Michael, Freiburger, Randy Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Marc, McDieunel
• Application Number:
  US14/455,084
• Publication Number:
  US 20160042577A1
• Time in Patent Office: 599 Days
• Field of Search: 701/29.3, 340/309.7, 340/425.5, 340/439, 340/576, 705/26.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/00 Estimation or calculation of non-directly measurable driving parameters for road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub unit, e.g. by using mathematical models
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

A processor of a server may receive, from a plurality of vehicles, fleet alerts indicative of vehicle locations and status of aftermarket equipment installed to the vehicles, identify fleet alerts associated with vehicles of a fleet, and generate, based on the fleet alerts, fleet data providing the vehicle locations and status of the aftermarket equipment of the vehicles of the fleet. A processor of a vehicle may receive vehicle data including vehicle location and aftermarket data including a status of aftermarket equipment installed to the vehicle, determine a condition of an alert rule indicative of a status of aftermarket equipment installed to the vehicles is satisfied, and send an fleet alert to a remote service indicative of the status of the aftermarket equipment.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a server programmed to

receive, from a plurality of vehicles, fleet alerts identifying vehicle locations and status of aftermarket equipment installed to the plurality of vehicles, and

generate, based on the fleet alerts, fleet data providing the vehicle locations and corresponding status of the aftermarket equipment of the vehicles of the fleet; and

a management system, programmed to display the vehicle locations and the corresponding status overlaid on a map.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the aftermarket equipment includes at least one of a vehicle siren, a vehicle light bar, and a weapon holder configured to maintain a weapon stored in the vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the status of the aftermarket equipment includes whether a vehicle siren is engaged, whether a vehicle light bar is engaged, whether a weapon stored in a weapon holder of the vehicle has been unlocked, and whether the weapon stored in the weapon holder of the vehicle has been removed.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to:

maintain a mapping of vehicle identifiers to fleet identifiers,

receive vehicle identifiers in the fleet alerts, and

utilize the vehicle identifiers and the mapping to identify the fleet alerts associated with the vehicles of the fleet.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to periodically generate the fleet data for the vehicles of the fleet.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to generate the fleet data for the vehicles of the fleet responsive to receipt of aftermarket data from a vehicle indicative of a change in the status of the aftermarket equipment.

7. A system comprising:

a memory of a vehicle storing a fleet client service; and

a processor of the vehicle programmed to execute the fleet client service to

receive information including vehicle data from a vehicle network and aftermarket data from installed vehicle aftermarket equipment,

determine whether a condition of an alert rule indicative of a status of aftermarket equipment installed to the vehicles is satisfied according to the information, and

when satisfied, send a fleet alert to a remote service indicative of a vehicle location and the status of the aftermarket equipment.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the vehicle aftermarket equipment includes at least one of a vehicle siren, a vehicle light bar, and a weapon holder configured to maintain a weapon stored in the vehicle.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor of the vehicle is further programmed to provide at least a portion of the vehicle data and the aftermarket data to the remote service according to a periodically-triggered alert rule.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor of the vehicle is further programmed to provide the vehicle data and the aftermarket data to the remote service responsive to a change in the status of the aftermarket equipment.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the remote service is one of a telematics service provider and a fleet management system.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the fleet alert includes at least one of a vehicle identifier number (VIN) of the vehicle and a fleet identifier of the vehicle.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the condition of the alert rule specifies a predefined value for at least one of lateral acceleration and brake torque data that, when satisfied, is indicative of a pursuit being performed by the vehicle.

14. The system of claim 7, wherein the condition of the alert rule specifies a predefined value for an element of aftermarket data, that when satisfied, is indicative of activation of an element of the aftermarket equipment.

15. The system of claim 7, wherein the condition of the alert rule specifies a predefined value for an element of aftermarket data, when satisfied, is indicative of deactivation of an element of the aftermarket equipment.

16. A system comprising:

a fleet status display; and

a server programmed to

receive fleet data for vehicles of a fleet including fleet vehicle locations and status of fleet vehicle aftermarket equipment, and

send to the fleet status display a user interface including a map, a plurality of vehicle indications overlaid on the map indicative of the locations of the vehicles, and a status indication visually referencing one of the vehicles indicative of a status of aftermarket equipment of the one of the vehicles.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the aftermarket equipment includes at least one of a vehicle siren, a vehicle light bar, and a weapon holder configured to maintain a weapon stored in the vehicle.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the status of the aftermarket equipment includes at least two of whether a vehicle siren is engaged, whether a vehicle light bar is engaged, whether a weapon stored in a weapon holder of the vehicle has been unlocked, and whether the weapon stored in the weapon holder of the vehicle has been removed.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the user interface further includes a second status indication visually referencing a second one of the vehicles and indicative of a status of aftermarket equipment of the second one of the vehicles.