Maintenance notification apparatus

• US 10,640,061 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2018
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Ono, Hiroyuki, Aizawa, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Ziaeianmehdizadeh, Navid
• Application Number:
  US16/219,106
• Publication Number:
  US 20190111870A1
• Time in Patent Office: 509 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0234 related to maintenance or repairing of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/006 Indicating maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0825 using optical means
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

Even in the case where a vehicle is not utilized for a long period of time, not only maintenance notification but notification of countermeasures is performed by use of vehicle information. There is provided a control unit that: calculates a maintenance timing based on vehicle information obtained by a vehicle information I/F, a present time measured by a time measurement unit, and maintenance information stored in a memory unit; detects that the maintenance timing for the vehicle part has arrived, from the result of a failure determination based on the vehicle information, a stoppage period during which the vehicle is turned off, a usage period of the vehicle part between the usage-start time and the present time, and mileage of the vehicle or an engine driving time; and controls a display unit to notify the user of the arrival of the maintenance timing and a maintenance method.

Claims

1. A maintenance/replacement notification apparatus that supports a user of a vehicle in at least one of maintenance of a vehicle part utilized in the vehicle, or replacement of the vehicle part, the maintenance/replacement notification apparatus comprising:

a clock that measures time;

a memory that stores a usage start date of a vehicle part, a recommended maintenance or replacement date for the vehicle part based on the usage start date of the vehicle part, a starting mileage at the usage start date for the vehicle part, and a recommended maintenance or replacement mileage for the vehicle part based on the starting mileage at the usage start date for the vehicle part, for one or more vehicle parts;

a display; and

at least one processor configured to;

when an engine of the vehicle is turned off, store, in the memory, information regarding a time that the engine is turned off;

when the engine is turned on, store, in the memory, information regarding a time that the engine is turned on;

perform maintenance or replacement notification determination processing, which includes;

based on at least one of the recommended maintenance or replacement date of the vehicle part becoming equal to or after a current date indicated by the clock, or a current vehicle mileage, which is obtained as vehicle information from the vehicle, becoming greater than or equal to the recommended maintenance or replacement mileage for the vehicle part, determining that at least one of a maintenance or a replacement should be performed with regards to the vehicle part;

calculating and storing, in the memory, a stoppage period, which is a period during which an engine of the vehicle is off, by subtracting the stored time when the engine was last turned off from the stored time when the engine was started; and

based on the stored stoppage period being greater than or equal to a predetermined stoppage limit value, determining that at least one of a maintenance or a replacement should be performed with regards to the vehicle part; and

based on a result of the maintenance or replacement notification determination processing, control the display to display a notification related to the arrival of a recommended maintenance or replacement timing for the vehicle part and information related to a corresponding maintenance or replacement method, wherein the calculating the stoppage period includes subtracting the stored time when the engine was last turned off from the stored time when the engine was started after being last turned off.

2. The maintenance notification apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the maintenance or replacement method is changed in accordance with at least one of:

a season or an atmospheric temperature.

3. The maintenance notification apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in a case where the vehicle part has not been utilized for a period of time equal to or exceeding a replacement timing, a maintenance notification interval is made shorter than the maintenance notification interval at a time before the replacement timing has arrived.

4. The maintenance/replacement notification apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in reverse proportion to usage years or usage mileage of the vehicle part, the maintenance notification interval is shortened.

5. The maintenance/replacement notification apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined stoppage limit value corresponds to 30 days.

6. A maintenance/replacement notification apparatus that supports a user of a vehicle in at least one of maintenance of a vehicle part utilized in the vehicle, or replacement of the vehicle part, the maintenance/replacement notification apparatus comprising:

a clock that measures time;

a memory; and

at least one processor configured to;

when an engine of the vehicle is turned off, store, in the memory, information regarding a time that the engine is turned off;

when the engine is turned on, store, in the memory, information regarding a time that the engine is turned on;

calculate and store, in the memory, a stoppage period, which is a period during which an engine of the vehicle is off, by subtracting the stored time when the engine was last turned off from the stored time when the engine was started;

based on the stored stoppage period being greater than or equal to a predetermined stoppage limit value, determine that at least one of a maintenance or a replacement should be performed with regards to the vehicle part; and

based on determining that the at least one of the maintenance or the replacement should be performed, output a notification related to the arrival of a recommended maintenance or replacement timing for the vehicle part and information related to a corresponding maintenance or replacement method, wherein the calculating the stoppage period includes subtracting the stored time when the engine was last turned off from the stored time when the engine was started after being last turned off.