Method for vehicle communication by means of a vehicle-implemented vehicle diagnostic system, vehicle diagnostic interface, interace module, user communication terminal, data connection system, and diagnostic and control network for a plurality of vehicles

• US 9,538,374 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2012
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Flycar Innovations GmbH
• Original Assignee: Flycar Innovations GmbH
• Inventors: Kaufmann, Stephan, Marten, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Dager, Jonathan M
• Application Number:
  US14/122,107
• Publication Number:
  US 20140200760A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,684 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: G08G 1/162 event-triggered
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0876 based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint
• 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: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/71 Hardware identity

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for vehicle communication via a vehicle-implemented vehicle diagnosis system (3), to which a vehicle diagnosis interface (10) having an interface connector (11), an interface module (12) and an air interface (13) is connected, and in which: vehicle diagnosis data (I) from a vehicle are transmitted from the vehicle-implemented vehicle diagnosis system (3) of the vehicle to a mobile user communication terminal (20) via the air interface, and the mobile user communication terminal (20) is associated with the vehicle and also the vehicle diagnosis data (I) are transmitted from the mobile user communication terminal (20) to a data network system (40) via a communication network (30), wherein the data network system (40) makes the vehicle diagnosis data (I) available to the mobile user communication terminal (20) again.

Claims

1. A method for vehicle communication via a vehicle-implemented vehicle diagnosis system, which is limited to vehicle diagnosis, within a framework of a vehicle control system for a vehicle having a vehicle bus and a vehicle system interface connected to the vehicle bus, comprising:

plugging a vehicle diagnosis interface in the form of a connector into a connector of the vehicle system interface and coupling said vehicle diagnosis interface directly to the vehicle bus, said vehicle diagnosis interface compatible with the vehicle system interface and having an interface module and an air interface,

transmitting vehicle diagnosis data via the air interface to a mobile user communication terminal,

augmenting the vehicle diagnosis data with supplementary data obtained outside the vehicle diagnosis system, wherein the supplementary data go beyond vehicle diagnosis data,

associating the supplementary data with the vehicle diagnosis data for an immediate driving situation by an instruction specification on the interface module, and

predetermining a relevance of the supplementary data to the immediate driving situation of the vehicle by filtering the supplementary data in the instruction specification;

wherein a verifiable proposal for a vehicle control function is made following transmission of the vehicle diagnosis data and the supplementary data back as far as to the vehicle diagnosis interface.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the supplementary data are associated with the vehicle diagnosis data for an immediate driving situation by means of an instruction specification on the user communication terminal.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the vehicle diagnosis data and the supplementary data are transmitted back only as far as to the mobile user communication terminal, in a data packet.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the vehicle diagnosis data and the supplementary data are transmitted further back as far as into the vehicle-implemented vehicle diagnosis system.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that vehicle diagnosis data and/or supplementary data are transmitted between the mobile user communication terminal and a data network system, via a communication network.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that vehicle diagnosis data and/or supplementary data are transmitted between the mobile user communication terminal, and the vehicle diagnosis interface, via a local area network.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that augmentation of supplementary data and/or data buffering of at least the supplementary data take place on at least one of the components selected from the group comprising:

vehicle diagnosis interface, user communication terminal, data network system, proprietary and open data systems.

8. The method according to claim 1 characterized in that the instruction specification is created in an open programming environment, and the instruction specification is compatible with the mobile user communication terminal.

9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the supplementary data comprise one or more of the pieces of information selected from the group consisting of:

position, date and/or time of day, motion state, local close environment, acoustic close environment, temperature, humidity, visual close environment, barometric pressure, motion and/or acceleration values.

10. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that supplementary data are obtained from supplementary modules of the mobile user communication terminal and/or supplementary data are obtained from the communication network and/or the data network system and/or other data systems and/or supplementary data are obtained from an external sensor system and/or supplementary data are made available directly via the air interface module.

11. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that supplementary data from the interface module comprise at least:

time of day and date;

location data and location time data in the form of uninfluenced supplementary data that are in the form of substantiation data for verifying a vehicle time and/or location.

12. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the mobile user communication terminal is associated with the vehicle by the interface module and vehicle diagnosis data from a vehicle are transmitted by radio broadcast from the vehicle-implemented vehicle diagnosis system of the vehicle via the air interface to an air interface of another vehicle and in the other vehicle are transmitted to a mobile user communication terminal that is associated with the other vehicle by a further vehicle diagnosis interface.

13. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the vehicle communication is with a vehicle-independent center and comprises automatically authenticating the vehicle, wherein the authentication is based on an authorization code that is transmitted during the vehicle communication.

14. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that the authorization code is based on a combination of at least two codes, wherein the at least two codes are selected from the group comprising:

a vehicle code that is used for vehicle identification,

a communication code that relates to the mobile user communication terminal,

an interface code that is used for interface identification.

15. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the instruction specification contains on the mobile user communication terminal, a user programmed software application, wherein the instruction specification is designed for one or more functions that are selected from the group consisting of:

vehicle control proposal and/or repair, accident examination and notification, journey route stipulation and analysis, journey route and/or driving behavior cost balancing, vehicle passport data update and storage, and driving behavior control and analysis.

16. An interface module for implementing the method according to claim 1, having:

a memory and a logic unit, wherein

the logic unit is designed to execute a software module with an instruction protocol for implementing the instruction specification, wherein the instruction specification is designed to predetermine relevant supplementary data for the immediate driving situation of the vehicle, and

the memory is designed to store the vehicle diagnosis data and/or the relevant supplementary data.

17. A vehicle diagnosis interface having the interface module according to claim 16, characterized in that the interface connector is an OBD connector or an SAE connector or an RJ connector.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mobile user communication terminal is configured to receive the vehicle diagnosis data from the vehicle-implemented vehicle diagnosis system of the vehicle via the air interface and is configured to execute the instruction specification.

19. A data network system for carrying out the method of claim 1, the data network system configured to receive the vehicle diagnosis data and supplementary data, and the data network system is further configured to execute the instruction specification.

21. The method according to claim 1, further comprising transmitting vehicle diagnosis data from the vehicle diagnosis system to a data network system via said air interface, and making the vehicle diagnosis data available to the mobile user communication terminal.

22. The method according to claim 5, wherein the communication network is an Internet.

23. the method according to claim 6, wherein the local area network is a WiFi or WLAN network.

24. The method according to claim 11, wherein the location data is obtained from a communication network, or a global positioning system, and the location time data is in the form of uninfluenced supplementary data that are in the form of substantiation data for verifying a vehicle time and/or location.

25. The method according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle diagnosis data and/or the supplementary data are encrypted by an identification number from the vehicle and/or from the mobile user communication terminal and/or from the vehicle diagnosis interface as a key.

26. The method according to claim 15, wherein the instruction specification is on the mobile user communication terminal.

27. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that vehicle diagnosis data and/or supplementary data are transmitted between the vehicle diagnosis interface and the data network system via a communication network.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the communication network is an Internet.

30. The method according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle diagnosis data and the supplementary data are transmitted in a data packet.

20. A diagnosis and control network having a multiplicity of vehicles that each have a vehicle-implemented vehicle diagnosis system, which is limited to vehicle diagnosis, within the framework of a vehicle control system of a vehicle having a vehicle bus and a vehicle system interface connected to the vehicle bus, comprising:

an air interface for transmitting vehicle diagnosis data to a user communication terminal,

a communication network, via which vehicle diagnosis data is transmitted to a data network system,

the data network system, by means of which the vehicle diagnosis data is made available to a mobile user communication terminal,

characterized by

a vehicle diagnosis interface in the form of a connector, as a couplable adapter having an interface connector that is compatible with the vehicle system interface, having an interface module and having the air interface for the vehicle-implemented vehicle diagnosis system of the respective vehicle, wherein

said user communication terminal and/or the data network system is designed to augment the vehicle diagnosis data with supplementary data obtained outside the vehicle diagnosis system, wherein the supplementary data go beyond vehicle diagnosis data, and are associated with the vehicle diagnosis data for an immediate driving situation by means of an instruction specification on the user communication terminal and/or the interface module, wherein

a relevance of the supplementary data to the immediate driving situation of the vehicle is predetermined by means of filtering in the instruction specification;

wherein a verifiable proposal for a vehicle control function is made following transmission of the vehicle diagnosis data and the supplementary data back as far as to the vehicle diagnosis interface.

29. A method for vehicle communication via a vehicle-implemented vehicle diagnosis system, which is limited to vehicle diagnosis, within a framework of a vehicle control system for a vehicle having a vehicle bus and a vehicle system interface connected to the vehicle bus, comprising:

plugging a vehicle diagnosis interface in the form of a connector into a connector of the vehicle system interface and coupling said vehicle diagnosis interface directly to the vehicle bus, said vehicle diagnosis interface compatible with the vehicle system interface and having an interface module and an air interface,

transmitting vehicle diagnosis data via the air interface to a mobile user communication terminal,

augmenting the vehicle diagnosis data with supplementary data obtained outside the vehicle diagnosis system, wherein the supplementary data go beyond vehicle diagnosis data,

associating the supplementary data with the vehicle diagnosis data for an immediate driving situation by an instruction specification on the interface module, and

predetermining a relevance of the supplementary data to the immediate driving situation of the vehicle by filtering the supplementary data in the instruction specification;

wherein the vehicle diagnosis data and/or the supplementary data are encrypted using an unchangedly fixed key.