Vehicle access systems and methods

• US 10,412,088 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2016
• Issued: 09/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DealerWare LLC (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Silvercar, Inc. (Volkswagen AG)
• Inventors: Darnell, Allen, McMillan, Matt
• Primary Examiner(s): Moorthy, Aravind K
• Application Number:
  US15/083,382
• Publication Number:
  US 20170132534A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,260 Days
• Field of Search: 713171, 713168, 726 4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/00 Business processing using cryptography postage metering system using cryptography G06Q2250/05
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/00 Arrangements or apparatus for collecting fares, tolls or entrance fees at one or more control points handling coins or valuable papers, e.g. banknotes, G07D; apparatus for vending or hiring articles or services activated by coins, credit cards, paper currency or the like G07F7/00, G07F17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/38 with central registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40 Bus networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/40215 Controller Area Network CAN
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/40273 the transportation system being a vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/84 Vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/061 for key exchange, e.g. in peer-to-peer networks cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key agreement H04L9/0838
• 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 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• 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 9/0866 involving user or device identifiers, e.g. serial number, physical or biometrical information, DNA, hand-signature or measurable physical characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3234 involving additional secure or trusted devices, e.g. TPM, smartcard, USB or software token network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using an additional device in a packet data network H04L63/0853
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3297 involving time stamps, e.g. generation of time stamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/04 Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/041 Key generation or derivation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/084 : using delegated authorisation, e.g. open authorisation [OAuth] protocol
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 : for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]

Abstract

Systems, devices, and methods for controlling access to vehicles in rental, loaner, shared-use, and other vehicle fleets. Some of the present systems, devices, and methods use encrypted virtual keys that can be relayed to a vehicle computing device via a user'"'"'s mobile device. Such virtual keys can be command-specific such that successful use of a virtual key results execution of a predetermined command or group of commands, and further commands require one or more additional virtual keys with the additional commands. Others of the present systems, devices, and methods provide tools: for provisioning or initial pairing of vehicle computing devices with corresponding vehicles, identifying and permitting a user to select locally available vehicles, prompting vehicle computing devices to retrieve pending commands from a server, and/or various other functions described in this disclosure.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a server comprising a portion of a reservation management (RM) system for a plurality of vehicles, the server comprising memory and a processor configured to execute instructions from the memory to;

receive a message from a manufacturing work station configured to communicate with a vehicle computing device, the message including a unique identifier (UID) associated with the vehicle computing device;

generate a unique encryption key from the UID;

store the UID and the unique encryption key;

generate a message that includes the unique encryption key for the vehicle computing device; and

send the generated message to the manufacturing work station for storage in the vehicle computing device.

2. The system of claim 1, where at least a portion of the generated message that includes the unique encryption key is encrypted.

3. The system of claim 1, where the received message is encrypted and the server is configured to execute instructions from the memory to decrypt the received message.

4. The system of claim 3, where at least a portion of the generated message that includes the unique encryption key is encrypted.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

the vehicle computing device configured to communicate with a controller area network (CAN) bus of a vehicle, the vehicle computing device comprising memory and a processor, the memory storing a plurality of vehicle types and settings associated with each vehicle type, the processor configured to execute instructions from the memory to;

query the CAN bus for a vehicle identification number (VIN) of the vehicle;

determine a vehicle type associated with the VIN;

set the vehicle type in a nonvolatile memory of the vehicle computing device; and

reboot with the settings associated with the set vehicle type.

6. The system of claim 5, where the instructions to determine a vehicle type associated with the VIN comprises instructions to:

generate a message that includes the VIN;

send the message to the server; and

receive a message from the server with a vehicle type associated with the vehicle.

7. The system of claim 1, where the processor is further configured to execute instructions from the memory to:

generate a virtual key for a vehicle of the plurality of vehicles, the vehicle including the vehicle computing device, the virtual key comprising an encrypted portion that includes;

a command for an action to be initiated by the vehicle computing device; and

where the instructions to generate the virtual key for the vehicle includes instructions to;

access the unique encryption key, and use the accessed unique encryption key to generate the encrypted portion of the virtual key.

8. The system of claim 7, where the processor is further configured to execute instructions from the memory to:

receive, from a mobile computing device, a request for access to one of the plurality of vehicles, the request associated with a rental reservation; and

send the virtual key to the mobile computing device;

where decryption of the encrypted portion of the virtual key depends upon the unique encryption key that is known to the server and the vehicle computing device, but not known to the mobile computing device.

9. The system of claim 7, where the virtual key further comprises an unencrypted portion, where the unencrypted portion includes a unique reference, and where the unique reference is configured to enable decryption of the encrypted portion of the virtual key.

10. A system comprising:

a vehicle computing device configured to communicate with a controller area network (CAN) bus of a corresponding vehicle, the vehicle computing device comprising memory and a processor, the memory storing a plurality of vehicle types and settings associated with each vehicle type, the processor configured to execute instructions from the memory to;

query the CAN bus for a vehicle identification number (VIN) of the vehicle;

determine a vehicle type associated with the VIN;

set the vehicle type in a nonvolatile memory of the vehicle computing device; and

reboot with the settings associated with the set vehicle type.

11. The system of claim 10, where the instructions to determine a vehicle type associated with the VIN includes instructions to:

generate a message that includes at least a portion of the VIN;

send the message to a server; and

receive a message from the server with a vehicle type associated with the vehicle.

12. The system of claim 11, where at least a portion of the received message is encrypted, and receiving the message includes decrypting the received message.

13. The system of claim 11, where at least a portion of the generated message is encrypted.

14. The system of claim 13, where at least a portion of the received message is encrypted, and receiving the message includes decrypting the received message.

15. The system of claim 14, where the generated message also includes a unique identifier (UID) associated with a vehicle computing device.

16. The system of claim 10, where the memory is further configured to store a lookup table associating certain VINs or portions of VINs with certain types of vehicle, and where the instructions to determine a vehicle type associated with the VIN include instructions to determine the vehicle type associated with the VIN based on the lookup table.

17. The system of claim 10, where the vehicle computing device is coupled to the CAN bus via an on-board diagnostics (OBD) port or a convenience module connector.

18. A method comprising:

receiving a message including a unique identifier (UID) associated with a vehicle computing device, the message being;

received with a server of a reservation management (RM) system for a plurality of vehicles; and

sent from a manufacturing work station configured to communicate with the vehicle computing device;

generating a unique encryption key from the UID;

storing the UID and the unique encryption key;

generating a message that includes the unique encryption key for the vehicle computing device; and

sending the generated message to the manufacturing work station for storage in the vehicle computing device.

19. The method of claim 18, where at least a portion of the generated message that includes the unique encryption key is encrypted.

20. The method of claim 18, where at least a portion of the received message is encrypted and the method further comprises:

decrypting the received message.

21. The method of claim 20, where at least a portion of the generated message that includes the unique encryption key is encrypted.

22. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

installing the vehicle computing device in a corresponding vehicle such that the vehicle computing device can communicate with a controller area network (CAN) bus of the corresponding vehicle.

23. The method of claim 18, where the vehicle computing device comprises memory and a processor, the memory storing a plurality of vehicle types and settings associated with each vehicle type, and the method further comprises, after the vehicle computing device is installed in communication with a controller area network (CAN) bus of a corresponding vehicle:

querying, with the processor of the mobile computing device, the CAN bus for a vehicle identification number (VIN) of the vehicle;

determining a vehicle type associated with the VIN;

setting the vehicle type in a nonvolatile memory of the vehicle computing device; and

rebooting the mobile computing device with the settings associated with the set vehicle type.

24. The method of claim 23, where determining a vehicle type associated with the VIN comprises:

generating, with the processor of the mobile computing device, a message that includes the VIN;

sending the message to the server; and

receiving with the mobile computing device a message from the server with a vehicle type associated with the vehicle.

25. A method comprising:

querying a controller area network (CAN) bus of a vehicle for a vehicle identification number (VIN) of the vehicle;

determining a vehicle type associated with the VIN;

setting the vehicle type in a nonvolatile memory of a vehicle computing device in communication with the CAN bus, the vehicle computing device comprising memory storing a plurality of vehicle types and settings associated with each vehicle type; and

rebooting the vehicle computing device with the settings associated with the set vehicle type.

26. The method of claim 25, where determining a vehicle type associated with the VIN comprises:

generating a message that includes at least a portion of the VIN;

sending the message to a server; and

receiving with the mobile computing device a message from the server with a vehicle type associated with the vehicle.

27. The method of claim 26, where generating the message includes encrypting at least a portion of the message, and where the generated message also includes a unique identifier (UID) associated with a vehicle computing device.

28. The method of claim 27, where at least a portion of the received message is encrypted, and receiving the message includes decrypting the received message.

29. The method of claim 26, where the vehicle computing device is rebooted with the settings associated with the set vehicle type responsive to setting the vehicle type in the nonvolatile memory.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the CAN bus of the vehicle is queried by the vehicle computing device responsive to connecting the vehicle computing device to the CAN bus.