Captured test fleet

• US 20060106584A1
• Filed: 12/28/2004
• Published: 05/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors Corporation (Motors Liquidation Co. GUC Trust)
• Inventors: Ampunan, Nathan D., Gawlik, Thomas A., Oesterling, Christopher L., Wisniewski, Brad, Brown, Craig A., Fetherolf, Brent W., Devries, Douglas H.
• Granted Patent: US 7,302,371 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 17/007 Wheeled or endless-tracked vehicles G01M17/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/02 CAD in a network environment, e.g. collaborative CAD or distributed simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/15 Vehicle, aircraft or watercraft design
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0841 Registering performance data recording measured values G01D; information storage G11B
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

A system and method for vehicle design and manufacture. The method includes designing a vehicle, building a pilot vehicle of the designed vehicle, installing a telematics units in the pilot vehicle, configuring the telematics unit to monitor systems of the pilot vehicle during vehicle operation, operating the pilot vehicle in a captured test fleet, obtaining data from the telematics unit during the operating in a captured test fleet, altering vehicle design data in response to the obtained data and, building a production vehicle with the design influenced by the altered vehicle design data.

Claims

1. A method of vehicle manufacture comprising the steps of:

designing a vehicle;

building a pilot vehicle of the designed vehicle;

installing a telematics unit in the pilot vehicle;

configuring the telematics unit to monitor systems of the pilot vehicle during vehicle operation;

operating the pilot vehicle in a captured test fleet;

obtaining data from the telematics unit during the operating in a captured test fleet;

altering vehicle design data in response to the obtained data; and

,

building a production vehicle with the design influenced by the altered vehicle design data.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the captured test fleet comprises at least one pilot vehicle having a unique identification and wherein each at least one pilot vehicle has an associated captured test fleet identifier stored in a relational database.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining data from the telematics unit comprises:

receiving a request for captured test fleet data;

determining vehicles having captured test fleet identifiers corresponding to the request;

sending a data retrieval request to vehicles based on the determination; and

,

receiving data from the vehicles responsive to the data retrieval request.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein altering vehicle design data in response to the obtained data comprises:

providing the obtained data to a vehicle design center;

analyzing the obtained data at the vehicle design center;

identifying a modification to the designed vehicle to improve the designed vehicle based on the obtained data; and

,

providing new vehicle design data based on the identified modification.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the new vehicle design data comprises improved vehicle component design data.

6. A method of vehicle manufacture comprising the steps of:

designing at least one vehicle;

building at least one pilot vehicle of the at least one designed vehicle;

installing telematics units in the at least one pilot vehicle;

operating the at least one pilot vehicle in a test fleet;

for each pilot vehicle of the test fleet;

monitoring performance of at least one vehicle system within the pilot vehicle;

first storing data within a controller in the pilot vehicle in response to the monitoring;

automatically triggering within the telematics unit a telematics connection from the pilot vehicle to a service center wherein the telematics connection is triggered independent of a location of the pilot vehicle;

communicating the first stored data to the service center;

second storing the first stored data in the service center;

providing the second stored data to at least one person capable of influencing design of the at least one vehicle and the at least one vehicle system; and

modifying at least one vehicle system or component of the designed vehicle in response to the second stored data.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein automatically triggering within the telematics unit a telematics connection from the pilot vehicle to a service center comprises:

determining an upload trigger occurrence.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the upload trigger is selected from the group consisting of a count of ignition cycles, expired days, kilometers recorded, a specific time, a continuous upload request and a user initiated call request.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein storing the first stored data in the service center comprises:

associating the first stored data with an entry in a relational database based on a test fleet identifier, the database having a unique entry corresponding to each at least one pilot vehicle of the test fleet; and

storing the first stored data to the unique entry corresponding to the pilot vehicle that communicated the data to the service center.

10. A method for real-time wireless interactive test vehicle data collection comprising:

operating at least one test vehicle in a captured test fleet wherein each at least one vehicle is equipped with a wireless telematics device;

monitoring performance of at least one vehicle system within the at least one test vehicle;

storing performance data within a controller in the test vehicle in response to the monitoring of the at least one vehicle system;

establishing a wireless telematics connection between the test vehicle and a service center;

communicating the performance data to the service center; and

storing the communicated stored data in a database in the service center.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

requesting performance data for the at least one vehicle system from the at least one test vehicle wherein the request is initiated from the service center.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

determining a trigger in the telematics device wherein the wireless telematics device establishes a wireless telematics connection between the test vehicle and a service center to communicate the performance data to the service center responsive to the trigger determination.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

requesting performance data for the at least one vehicle system from the at least one test vehicle wherein the request is initiated from the vehicle design center via the service center.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

providing the performance data stored to the database to a vehicle design center.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

analyzing the obtained data at the vehicle design center;

identifying a modification to the designed vehicle to improve the designed vehicle based on the obtained data; and

,

providing new vehicle design data based on the identified modification.

16. A method of obtaining captured test fleet data for vehicle design, the method comprising:

providing a database including a list of vehicles wherein each vehicle of the list is associated with a captured test fleet identifier;

receiving a request for captured test fleet data;

determining vehicles having captured test fleet identifiers corresponding to the request;

sending a data retrieval request to vehicles based on the determination; and

,

receiving data from the vehicles responsive to the data retrieval request.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

associating the received data with an entry in the database based on the test fleet identifier of the vehicle corresponding to the request; and

storing the received data to the database entry.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

providing the data stored to the database to a vehicle design center responsive to the request for captured test fleet data.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the request for captured test fleet data is received from a vehicle design center.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein determining vehicles having captured test fleet identifiers corresponding to the request comprises:

searching the database; and

identifying each vehicle data entry from the vehicle list having a captured test fleet identifier associated with the requested captured test fleet data.

21. The method of claim 16 wherein the captured test fleet data is selected from the group consisting of diagnostic trouble codes, vehicle readiness flags, odometer readings, enrollment data, vehicle system operating parameters and history codes.

22. A computer readable medium storing a computer program comprising:

computer readable code for accessing a data base including a list of vehicles associated with a captured test fleet identifier;

computer readable code for determining vehicles having captured test fleet identifiers responsive to a request for captured test fleet data;

computer readable code for sending a data retrieval request to vehicles based on the determination; and

,

computer readable code for managing data received from the vehicles responsive to the data retrieval request.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 22 further comprising:

computer readable code for associating the received data with an entry in the database based on the test fleet identifier of the vehicle corresponding to the request; and

computer readable code for storing the received data to the database entry.

24. The computer readable code of claim 22 further comprising:

computer readable code for providing the data stored to the database to a vehicle design center responsive to the request for captured test fleet data.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 22 wherein code for determining vehicles having captured test fleet identifiers corresponding to the request comprises:

computer readable code for searching the database; and

computer readable code for identifying each vehicle data entry from the vehicle list having a captured test fleet identifier associated with the requested captured test fleet data.

26. A system for obtaining captured test fleet data for vehicle design comprising:

means for providing a database including a list of vehicles associated with a captured test fleet identifier;

means for receiving a request for captured test fleet data;

means for determining vehicles having captured test fleet identifiers corresponding to the request;

means for sending a data retrieval request to vehicles based on the determination;

means for receiving data from the vehicles responsive to the data retrieval request; and

,

means for managing the received data for the vehicles.