Method and apparatus for vehicle to mobile phone communication

• US 10,841,765 B2
• Filed: 08/16/2016
• Issued: 11/17/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Nelson, Thomas, Hatton, David Anthony, Nasrallah, Hussein F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Heard, Erin F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Braswell, Donald H B
• Application Number:
  US15/238,271
• Publication Number:
  US 20160360023A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,554 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/12 wherein the cooperating elements are telecommunication base stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/001 Transmission of position information to remote stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3822 specially adapted for use in vehicles H04B1/3827 takes precedence
• 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 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6075 adapted for handsfree use in a vehicle H04M1/6058 takes precedence; arrangements for holding telephones in a vehicle B60R11/0241
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 for in-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 Allocation or use of connection identifiers

Abstract

A system includes a processor configured to receive a vehicle event and determine a wireless device present connection state relative to a vehicle infotainment system. The processor is further configured to communicate with a remote server through a vehicle modem, including transmission of the wireless device present connection state, based on the occurrence of the vehicle event. The processor may also be configured to request that the remote server instruct a wireless device to pair with a vehicle infotainment system if the wireless device present connection state indicates the wireless device is not presently paired.

Claims

1. A server comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive an indicator from an onboard modem of a vehicle that a mobile phone is not presently wirelessly connected an infotainment system of the vehicle;

select a mobile phone for cloud-assisted communication with the infotainment system;

establish cellular communication with the mobile phone; and

provide cloud-assisted communication by relaying communication through the server between the mobile phone and the vehicle infotainment system via the vehicle modem, wherein the relayed communication includes navigation information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to receive a vehicle occupant identity and select the mobile phone based on a preexisting correlation, accessible by the processor, between the mobile phone and an occupant corresponding to the occupant identity.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to receive a preferred-device identity and select the mobile phone based on the preferred-device identity identifying the mobile phone.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to confirm a location of the mobile phone as corresponding to a location of the vehicle, prior to establishing communication.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the processor is configured to confirm the location based on vehicle GPS coordinates and mobile phone GPS coordinates.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to select the mobile phone from a list of previously paired mobile phones.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the indicator includes a request from the vehicle identifying the mobile phone for communication.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the relayed communication includes communication between an application running on the mobile phone and the vehicle infotainment system.

9. A computer-implemented method comprising:

establishing a connection, through a system remote from a vehicle, providing relay of data between a modem of the vehicle and a smart phone, responsive to the system remote from the vehicle receiving an indicator from a computer of the vehicle that no smart phone is currently wirelessly connected to the computer of the vehicle, wherein the indicator includes an explicit request from an occupant of the vehicle for the system remote from the vehicle to connect with the smart phone and includes identification of a driver of the vehicle and wherein the smart phone is selected based on a predefined driver profile of the identified driver, including association with the smart phone.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the relay of data includes relaying navigation information, received via cellular communication from the smart phone, to the vehicle, via a modem of the vehicle, through the system remote from the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the relay of data includes relaying, via cellular communication, vehicle location information, received via cellular communication from a modem of the vehicle, to the smart phone through the system remote from the vehicle.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the relay of data includes relaying, via cellular communication, communication between an application executing on the smart phone and the vehicle computer, through the system remote from the vehicle, wherein the communication between the application and vehicle computer is received by the system and sent from the system via cellular communication to relay the data.