Method and system for providing user-selected telematic services

• US 20040190693A1
• Filed: 03/27/2003
• Published: 09/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors Corporation (Motors Liquidation Co. GUC Trust)
• Inventors: Beiermeister, Frederick J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,406,321 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2856 Access arrangements, e.g. Internet access asynchronous transfer mode networks H04L12/5601; broadband local area networks H04L12/2801; optical access or distribution networks H04Q11/0067; access to open networks H04L12/5691; digital subscriber line end-user equipment and bit-level processing of data on a PSTN-based network H04M11/00; home network gateways H04L12/2834; wireless access networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• 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 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/68 Payment of value-added services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0196 Payment of value-added services, mainly when their charges are added on the telephone bill, e.g. payment of non-telecom services, e-commerce, on-line banking

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method for providing user-selected telematics services in a mobile vehicle. The method includes accessing a menu of available telematics services and selecting a desired telematics service. The method also includes determining a telematics service fee based on the user selected service and paying the user selected telematics service fee via remote resource. The method further includes receiving the selected telematics service.

Claims

1. A method for providing user-selected telematics services in a mobile vehicle comprising:

accessing a menu of available telematics services;

selecting a desired telematics service;

determining a telematics service fee based on the user selected service;

paying the user selected telematics service fee via remote resource; and

receiving the selected telematics service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing a menu of available telematics services may be initiated by depressing an onboard call center request button or by speaking a request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a desired telematics service comprises responding to at least one voice response unit prompt.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a telematics service

fee comprises retrieving a predetermined fee amount from a database corresponding to the user selected service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein paying the service fee comprises transmitting user billing information to a payment processing source.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein paying the service fee comprises:

retrieving a vehicle identification number from the mobile vehicle; and

transmitting the vehicle identification number and the telematics service fee to a payment processing source,

wherein the vehicle identification number is linked to the users billing information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the selected telematics service comprises a call center operator delivering the selected service to the vehicle.

8. A computer usable medium including a program for providing user-selected telematics services in a mobile vehicle comprising:

computer readable program code for accessing a menu of available telematics services;

computer readable program code for selecting a desired telematics service;

computer readable program code for determining a telematics service fee based on a user selected service;

computer readable program code for paying the user selected service fee; and

computer readable program code for receiving the selected telematics service via remote resource.

9. The computer usable medium of claim 8, further comprising

computer readable program code for retrieving a vehicle identification number from the mobile vehicle;

and

computer readable program code for transmitting the vehicle identification number and the telematics service fee to a payment processing source,

wherein the vehicle identification number is linked to the user billing information.

10. A system for providing user-selected telematics services in a mobile vehicle comprising:

means for accessing a menu of available telematics services;

means for selecting a desired telematics service;

means for determining a telematics service fee based on a user selected service;

means for paying the user selected telematics service fee via a remote resource; and

means for receiving the selected telematics service.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising

means for retrieving a vehicle identification number from the mobile vehicle;

and

means for transmitting the vehicle identification number and the telematics service fee to a payment processing source,

wherein the vehicle identification number is linked to the users billing information.