Vehicle emergency dialing system

• US 9,432,828 B1
• Filed: 08/03/2015
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Tu, Thomas H., Stacey, Thomas J., Saylor, Daniel R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shedrick, Charles
• Application Number:
  US14/816,631
• Time in Patent Office: 393 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1, 455/404.2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72421 with automatic activation of emergency service functions, e.g. upon sensing an alarm
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0261 managing power supply demand, e.g. depending on battery level
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A system and method for providing emergency vehicle services is provided. The method includes detecting an emergency condition including a vehicle crash and/or rollover, determining if a vehicle telematics unit is available, and initiating an emergency communication using one or more wireless devices present in the vehicle if the vehicle telematics unit is unavailable.

Claims

1. A method for providing emergency vehicle services, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting an emergency condition including a vehicle crash and/or rollover;

determining if a vehicle telematics unit is available; and

initiating an emergency communication using one or more wireless devices present in the vehicle if the vehicle telematics unit is not available.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of detecting wireless devices that are present in the vehicle upon vehicle startup.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining if the vehicle telematics unit is available includes attempting to place the emergency communication using the vehicle telematics unit.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of determining whether the attempt to place the emergency communication using the vehicle telematics unit was successful.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of comparing a battery power level to a battery threshold if the vehicle telematics unit is not available.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the battery power level is the battery power level of the vehicle telematics unit.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more wireless devices are ranked according to a priority, and wherein the emergency communication is initiated sequentially according the priority using the one or more wireless devices if the battery power level is above the battery threshold, and initiating the emergency communication using all of the one or more wireless devices concurrently if the battery power level is below the battery threshold.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein initiating the emergency communication includes contacting an emergency authority, a call center, a contact person related to an occupant of the vehicle, and/or any other parties previously selected by a user of the vehicle.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the emergency communication is initiated using a software application on the one or more wireless devices.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the emergency communication is initiated using a Bluetooth connection and/or a Wi-Fi connection between the vehicle and the one or more wireless devices.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of providing emergency condition data from a vehicle crash module, a safety module, and/or other suitable module to the emergency authority, the call center, the contact person related to an occupant of the vehicle, and/or any other parties previously selected by the user of the vehicle.

12. A method for providing emergency vehicle services for a vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving notification of an emergency condition including a vehicle crash and/or rollover;

comparing a battery power level to a battery threshold if an emergency communication attempt using a vehicle telematics unit fails; and

initiating an emergency communication using one or more wireless devices present in the vehicle, wherein the one or more wireless devices are ranked according to a priority, and wherein the emergency communication is initiated sequentially according the priority using the one or more wireless devices if the battery power level is above the battery threshold, and initiating the emergency communication using all of the one or more wireless devices concurrently if the battery power level is below the battery threshold.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the emergency communication is attempted sequentially through the ranked wireless devices until the emergency communication is successfully transmitted.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the battery power level is the battery power level of the vehicle telematics unit.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein initiating the emergency communication includes contacting an emergency authority, a call center, a contact person related to an occupant of the vehicle, and/or any other parties previously selected by a user of the vehicle.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the emergency communication is initiated using a software application on the one or more wireless devices.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the emergency communication is initiated using a Bluetooth connection and/or a Wi-Fi connection between the vehicle and the one or more wireless devices.

18. A system for providing emergency vehicle services, the system comprising:

at least one vehicle system module configured to;

detect an emergency condition including a vehicle crash and/or rollover;

determine if a vehicle telematics unit is available; and

initiate an emergency communication using one or more wireless devices present in the vehicle if the vehicle telematics unit is unavailable.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more wireless devices are ranked according to a priority, and wherein the emergency communication is initiated sequentially according the priority using the one or more wireless devices if a battery power level is above a battery threshold, and initiating the emergency communication using all of the one or more wireless devices concurrently if the battery power level is below the battery threshold.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the emergency communication is initiated using a software application on the one or more wireless devices, a Bluetooth connection and/or a Wi-Fi connection between the vehicle and the one or more wireless devices.