Vehicle speed control system

• US 10,661,797 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2016
• Issued: 05/26/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aytomic SC LLC
• Original Assignee: Imperio, LLC
• Inventors: Chack, Dennis M., Inks, Shawn G., Thompson, Christopher M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patton, Spencer D
• Application Number:
  US15/388,727
• Publication Number:
  US 20170183006A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,251 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2031/0091 Speed limiters or speed cutters
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 31/04 and means for comparing one electrical quantity, e.g. voltage, pulse, waveform, flux, or the like, with another quantity of a like kind, which comparison means is involved in the development of an electrical signal which is fed into the controlling means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/105 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/146 Speed limiting
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/52 Determining velocity
• 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

One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for limiting a speed of a vehicle. A speed control device, operably coupled with a vehicle management system, can be configured to limit an engine speed based at least upon: an identified speed of the vehicle; a pre-determined speed limit for a location of the vehicle, identified in real-time; and a pre-determined speed threshold for the vehicle. A networking component, communicatively coupled with the speed control device, can be configured to communicate wirelessly with a remote computing device to provide the speed threshold information from the remote computing device to the speed control device, and to provide vehicle-related information to the remote computing device. Additionally, the remote computing device can comprise an application that allows a user to provide the speed threshold information and receive the vehicle-related information.

Claims

1. A system for limiting a speed of a vehicle, comprising:

a speed limiter that limits a speed of a vehicle in which the speed limiter is installed based at least upon a speed signal, indicative of a desired speed for the vehicle, received from a vehicle based speed signal generator activated by a vehicle driver and a sensed speed, indicative of the vehicle'"'"'s current speed, received from a vehicle speed sensor, the speed limiter communicatively coupled with the speed signal generator and a vehicle electronic control unit (ECU), the speed limiter disposed on a controller area network (CAN) of the vehicle between the speed signal generator and the ECU, such that the speed signal is intercepted by the speed limiter, the speed limiter comprising;

a speed signal processor that compares a combination of the speed signal and the sensed speed with a stored threshold speed, resulting in one of the following;

the speed signal being passed unaltered to the ECU if the combination is less than or equal to the threshold; and

a modified speed signal being transmitted to the ECU instead of the speed signal if the combination is greater than the threshold, the modified speed signal indicative of a vehicle speed lower than the desired speed for the vehicle;

a speed signal modifier resident in local memory that directs the speed signal processor to generate the modified speed signal readable by the ECU that mimics the speed signal, and is indicative of a voltage from the speed signal generator lower than the voltage indicated by the speed signal, resulting in a lower vehicle speed output by the ECU than would be output by the ECU receiving the speed signal; and

a speed threshold generator communicatively coupled with the speed limiter to provide the threshold speed to the speed limiter in real time based at least upon a location of the vehicle, the speed threshold generator comprising;

a location generator that identifies the location of the vehicle in real-time based on a global position of the vehicle; and

a speed database comprising data indicative of locations with corresponding speed limits.

2. The system of claim 1, the threshold speed comprising a number of speed units, equal to or greater than zero, indicative of an amount above a local speed limit allowed for the vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1, the modified speed signal comprising data indicative of a reduction in the voltage reading from the speed signal generator.

4. The system of claim 1, the location generator also generating a vehicle heading, and the threshold speed based at least upon the location and heading of the vehicle identified in real-time.

5. The system of claim 1, the speed limiter is coupled with the speed signal generator and the vehicle ECU through the vehicle controller area network (CAN) bus.

6. The system of claim 1, the speed threshold generator is coupled directly with the speed limiter, and power provided to the speed threshold generator through the speed limiter.

7. The system of claim 1, the speed threshold generator comprising a personal area network (PAN) wireless component that creates a PAN with one or more proximate devices.

8. The system of claim 1, the speed threshold generator comprising an accelerometer for detecting magnitude and direction of proper acceleration.

9. The system of claim 1, the speed threshold generator comprising local memory and/or memory storage for storing one or more of:

the speed database;

the speed threshold;

current vehicle status information; and

historical vehicle status information.

10. A device for installation on a vehicle, comprising:

a database resident on a first local, non-volatile memory, and comprising;

data indicative of a plurality of locations; and

data indicative of a speed limit corresponding to respective locations;

a locator component that identifies a current vehicle location in real-time based on a global position of the vehicle;

a local processor to identify a current speed limit for the current vehicle location using the database, and generate a vehicle speed threshold based at least upon the current speed limit; and

a transmitter to transmit data indicative of the vehicle speed threshold to a communicatively coupled vehicle speed limiter that limits the speed of a vehicle; and

the speed limiter limiting the speed of the vehicle in which the speed limiter is installed based at least upon a speed signal, indicative of a desired speed for the vehicle, received from a vehicle based speed signal generator activated by a vehicle driver and a sensed speed, indicative of the vehicle'"'"'s current speed, received from a vehicle speed sensor, the speed limiter communicatively coupled with the speed signal generator and a vehicle electronic control unit (ECU), the speed limiter disposed on a controller area network (CAN) of the vehicle between the speed signal generator and the ECU, such that the speed signal is intercepted by the speed limiter, the speed limiter comprising;

a speed signal processor that compares a combination of the speed signal and the sensed speed with a stored threshold speed, resulting in one of the following;

the speed signal being passed unaltered to the ECU if the combination is less than or equal to the threshold; and

a modified speed signal being transmitted to the ECU instead of the speed signal if the combination is greater than the threshold, the modified speed signal indicative of a vehicle speed lower than the desired speed for the vehicle;

a speed signal modifier resident in local memory that directs the speed signal processor to generate the modified speed signal readable by the ECU that mimics the speed signal, and is indicative of a voltage level from the speed signal generator lower than the voltage indicated by the speed signal, resulting in a lower vehicle speed output by the ECU than would be output by the ECU receiving the speed signal.

11. The device of claim 10, comprising a speed limit adjustment resident as data on a second local, non-volatile memory, and representative of a number of speed units, equal to or greater than zero, indicative of an amount above a current speed limit allowable for the vehicle, and the local processor generating the vehicle speed threshold based upon a combination of the current speed limit and the speed limit adjustment.

12. The device of claim 11, comprising a wireless communications module for receiving updated database information and/or an updated speed limit adjustment from a remote device.

13. The device of claim 10, comprising a wireless communications module for transmitting vehicle status information and/or vehicle status alerts to a remote device.

14. The device of claim 13, comprising an accelerometer to detect proper acceleration of the vehicle, for use as vehicle status information.

15. The device of claim 10, comprising a personal area network (PAN) module for creating a personal area network with one or more local devices to:

share vehicle status information, activate and deactivate the device, receive vehicle status alerts, and/or update data stored in local memory.

16. A method for limiting a vehicle'"'"'s speed, comprising:

installing a speed limiting device in a vehicle on the vehicle'"'"'s controller area network (CAN) of the vehicle between an accelerator speed signal generator and the engine control unit (ECU), such that the speed signal is intercepted by the speed limiter, the speed limiting device comprising;

an accelerator signal receiver that receives data indicative of a desired vehicle speed from the vehicle accelerator signal generator;

a speed signal processor that identifies a speed signal based at least upon a combination of the data indicative of the desired vehicle speed and an identified actual vehicle speed, compared to a pre-determined vehicle speed threshold, the speed signal comprising data indicative of one of;

the desired vehicle speed if the combination is less than or equal to the threshold; and

a modified speed signal if the combination is greater than the threshold, the modified speed signal indicative of a speed less than the desired vehicle speed;

a speed signal modifier resident in local memory that directs the speed signal processor to generate the modified speed signal readable by the ECU that mimics the speed signal, but is indicative of a voltage level from the speed signal generator lower than the voltage indicated by the speed signal, resulting in a lower vehicle speed output by the ECU than would be output by the ECU receiving the speed signal; and

a speed signal transmitter that transmits the speed signal to the ECU as one of the following;

the speed signal unaltered to the ECU if the combination is less than or equal to the threshold; and

transmitting a modified speed signal to the ECU instead of the speed signal if the combination is greater than the threshold, the modified speed signal indicative of a vehicle speed lower than the desired speed for the vehicle; and

installing a vehicle speed threshold device in the vehicle in communicative coupling with the speed limiting device, the vehicle speed threshold device comprising;

a database resident in memory and comprising data indicative of a plurality of locations respectively linked to data indicative of a speed limit;

a locator component that identifies a current vehicle location and heading in real-time based on a global position of the vehicle;

a processor that identifies a speed limit for the vehicle'"'"'s location using the database, to generate the vehicle speed threshold based at least upon the speed limit and a pre-determined speed limit adjustment; and

a transmitter to transmit data indicative of the vehicle speed threshold to the speed limiting device.

17. The method of claim 16, comprising providing a computer program that allows a remote computing device to wirelessly communicatively couple with the vehicle speed threshold device to perform one or more of:

update the pre-determined speed limit adjustment;

update the database information;

receive vehicle-related status information; and

receive vehicle-related status alert.