Status-assisted communications with a vehicle

• US 9,716,927 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2014
• Issued: 07/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Droste, Scott, Rabbah, Khaled
• Primary Examiner(s): RUSHING, MARK S
• Application Number:
  US14/270,066
• Publication Number:
  US 20150319511A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,177 Days
• Field of Search: 34087007
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/43 using wireless personal area networks [WPAN], e.g. 802.15, 802.15.1, 802.15.4, Bluetooth or ZigBee
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

A method of sending data from a central facility to a vehicle includes transmitting a vehicle identifier to a status server from a central facility located apart from the status server; obtaining at the central facility one or more vehicle status variables corresponding to the transmitted identity of the vehicle from the status server; and initiating a direct transmission of packet data from the central facility to the vehicle based on the content of the obtained vehicle status variables.

Claims

1. A method of directly sending data from a central facility to a vehicle, comprising the steps of:

(a) transmitting a vehicle identifier to a status server from a central facility located apart from the status server;

(b) obtaining at the central facility one or more vehicle status variables corresponding to the transmitted identity of the vehicle from the status server, wherein the vehicle status variables indicate whether a radio access technology (RAT) of a vehicle telematics unit has changed from one RAT to another, different RAT and

(c) initiating a direct transmission of packet data from the central facility to the vehicle based on the content of the obtained vehicle status variables.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of initiating the direct transmission of packet data based on the content of the packet data to be transmitted.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of comparing the obtained vehicle status variables with one or more vehicle status variable standards.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of registering the central facility with the status server using a central facility identifier and one or more vehicle identifiers.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of transmitting a set of instructions from the status server to the vehicle, wherein the instructions control when a vehicle telematics unit sends vehicle status variables.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle status variables further comprise an operational state of a vehicle telematics unit.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle status variables further comprise an operational state of a vehicle ignition switch.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the direct transmission of packet data is sent by an extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP) or a session initiation protocol (SIP) for instant messaging and presence leveraging extensions (SIMPLE) protocol.

9. A method of facilitating the direct transmission of data from a central facility to a vehicle, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving at a status server vehicle status variables associated with one or more vehicle identifiers, wherein the vehicle status variables indicate whether a radio access technology (RAT) of a vehicle telematics unit has changed from one RAT to another different RAT;

(b) receiving at the status server a vehicle identifier from the central facility;

(c) determining that the vehicle identifier received from the central facility matches a vehicle identifier stored in the status server; and

(d) transmitting vehicle status variables associated with the matching vehicle identifier to the central facility.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of directly sending packet data from the central facility to the vehicle based on the vehicle status variables.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the direct transmission of packet data is sent by an extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP) or a session initiation protocol (SIP) for instant messaging and presence leveraging extensions (SIMPLE) protocol.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of registering the central facility with the status server using a central facility identifier and one or more vehicle identifiers.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of transmitting a set of instructions from the status server to the vehicle, wherein the instructions control when a vehicle telematics unit sends vehicle status variables.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the vehicle status variables further comprise an operational state of a vehicle telematics unit.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the vehicle status variables further comprise an operational state of a vehicle ignition switch.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the status server and the central facility are located at the same facility.