Method and apparatus for remote fuel refill level monitoring

• US 9,783,140 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 10/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Brown, Gregory P., Aitken, Brian Thomas, Pierron, Phillip M.
• Primary Examiner(s): NWUGO, OJIAKO K
• Application Number:
  US13/616,950
• Publication Number:
  US 20140077936A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,852 Days
• Field of Search: 320109, 705 18, 705 17, 235375, 340 101- 105, 340540, 3406866
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0232 for measuring vehicle parameters and indicating critical, abnormal or dangerous conditions
• 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 4/21 for social networking applications
• 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

Abstract

A system includes a processor configured to receive requests from a wireless device in wireless communication with the processor, the requests corresponding to one or more aspects of a refueling process. The processor is also configured to collect vehicle data corresponding to the one or more aspects of the refueling process and respond to the requests by sending the data relating to the one or more aspects of the refueling process.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor configured to;

responsive to a data request from a wireless device, collect vehicle data corresponding to an ongoing refueling process;

send the data relating to the refueling process to the wireless device, responsive to the collection; and

receive a stop request, during refueling, from the wireless device, including a user-defined fuel level and, responsively instruct cessation of a refueling process once the fuel level has been reached.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the refueling process relates to gasoline refueling.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the refueling process relates to electric recharging.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the request is for a present fuel level and the data indicates the present fuel level.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the request is for a time-until-full and the data indicates the time-until-full.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the request is for a projected drivable-distance based on current fuel and the data indicates the projected driveable-distance.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the user-defined fuel level specifies a non-full fuel or charge level at which to stop.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the user-defined fuel level includes a user-defined total amount of dispensed fuel or power.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the user-defined fuel level includes a total cost of dispensed fuel or power.

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

receiving requests, corresponding to one or more aspects of a refueling process, from a wireless device in wireless communication with the processor;

collecting vehicle data corresponding to the one or more aspects of the refueling process responsive to the requests;

responding to the requests by sending the data corresponding to the one or more aspects of the refueling process;

receiving a stop request, including a user specified travelable distance, from the mobile device; and

instructing cessation of the refueling process once a projected travelable distance based on a current fuel level reaches the specified travelable distance.

11. The storage medium of claim 10, wherein the stop request is received while refueling is ongoing.

12. A computer-implemented method comprising:

collecting vehicle refueling data, via a vehicle computing system (VCS), responsive to a request from a wireless device in wireless communication with the VCS;

sending the refueling data responsive to the request;

receiving a stop request, including a user-defined stop point, defining a total cost, from the wireless device; and

instructing cessation of the refueling process once a total cost of fuel reaches the user-defined total cost.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the stop request is received while refueling is ongoing.