Method and apparatus for extra-vehicular emergency updates following an accident

• US 9,305,453 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2015
• Issued: 04/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Hatton, David Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Shirley
• Application Number:
  US14/710,757
• Publication Number:
  US 20150243159A1
• Time in Patent Office: 328 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/00 Traffic control systems for road vehicles arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00 ; automatic vehicle control B62D
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/127 to a central station ; Indicators in a central station
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/00 Arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received correcting synchronisation H04L7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/00 Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers subscriber services or facilities provided at exchanges H04M3/00; prepayment telephone coin boxes H04M17/00; current supply arrangements H04M19/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A system includes a processor configured to receive instructions from a vehicle computing system (VCS) to being reporting a mobile device location. The processor is also configured to access a list of emergency contacts. Further, the processor is configured to determine that a mobile device has left a predetermined perimeter around a last known vehicle location. The processor is additionally configured to periodically report mobile device GPS coordinates to members of the emergency contacts list, until the mobile device reaches a destination.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving data from an executing in-vehicle application via a mobile device application;

receiving data tracking instructions from the vehicle for altering the received data based on user extra-vehicular activity;

tracking user extra-vehicular activity, including modifying the received data as user activity is tracked in accordance with the instructions; and

sending tracked user extra-vehicular activity and modified received data back to the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a subset of the tracked user activity to send to the vehicle.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the subset is determined based on the received instructions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device application behaves as a proxy for the in-vehicle application.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising presenting data, through the mobile device application, on a mobile device, as the data would have been presented by the in-vehicle application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified received data includes mobile device coordinates tracked during an away-from-vehicle experience.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified received data includes mobile device communication usage during an away-from-vehicle experience.

8. A system comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive data from an executing in-vehicle application via a mobile device application;

receive data tracking instructions from the vehicle for altering the received data based on user extra-vehicular activity;

track user extra-vehicular activity, including modifying the received data as user activity is tracked in accordance with the instructions; and

send tracked extra-vehicular user activity and modified received data back to the vehicle.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to determine a subset of the tracked user activity to send to the vehicle.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the subset is determined based on the received instructions.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the mobile device application behaves as a proxy for the in-vehicle application.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to present data, through the mobile device application, on a mobile device, as the data would have been presented by the in-vehicle application.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the modified received data includes mobile device coordinates tracked during an away-from-vehicle experience.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the modified received data includes mobile device communication usage during an away-from-vehicle experience.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving data from an executing in-vehicle application via mobile device application;

receiving data tracking instructions from the vehicle for altering the received data based on user extra-vehicular activity;

tracking user extra-vehicular activity, including modifying the received data as user activity is tracked in accordance with the instructions; and

sending tracked user extra-vehicular activity and modified received data back to the vehicle.

16. The storage medium of claim 15, the method further comprising determining a subset of the tracked user activity to send to the vehicle.

17. The storage medium of claim 16, wherein the subset is determined based on the received instructions.

18. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the mobile device application behaves as a proxy for the in-vehicle application.

19. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the modified received data includes mobile device coordinates tracked during an away-from-vehicle experience.

20. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the modified received data includes mobile device communication usage during an away-from-vehicle experience.