METHOD OF MANAGING A SCHEDULE-BASED SOFTWARE PACKAGE UPDATE

• US 20150301819A1
• Filed: 06/27/2015
• Published: 10/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Sumcad, Anthony J., Patenaude, Russell A.
• Application Number:
  US14/752,871
• Publication Number:
  US 20150301819A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• 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: H04W 8/24 Transfer of terminal data

Abstract

A system and method of managing a vehicle software configuration includes: receiving from a user both a software package identifier for a software package that will be loaded onto a vehicle during a temporal period that is selected by the user and a vehicle identifier; identifying the software package associated with the software package identifier; wirelessly sending the software package from a central facility to the vehicle associated with the vehicle identifier for use during the user-selected temporal period; and storing the software package at the vehicle during the user-selected temporal period.

Claims

1. A method of managing a vehicle software configuration on one or more test vehicles used by vehicle engineers, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving from a vehicle engineer (i) a vehicle identifier that is associated with at least one test vehicle, (ii) a software package identifier that is associated with a software package to be used by the vehicle engineer on the at least one test vehicle, and (iii) a preset schedule comprising a temporal period specified by the vehicle engineer that includes one or more temporal windows during which the vehicle engineer will use the software package on the test vehicle;

(b) identifying one or more test vehicles using the vehicle identifier;

(c) identifying the software package associated with the software package identifier;

(d) wirelessly sending the software package from a central facility to the one or more test vehicles identified by the vehicle identifier for use during the engineer-specified temporal period;

(d) storing the software package at the one or more test vehicles during the engineer-specified temporal period; and

(e) using the software package on the one or more test vehicles during the temporal period while the one or more vehicles are being used by the vehicle engineer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(f) receiving from a second vehicle engineer a software package identifier for a second software package that will be loaded onto the one or more test vehicles during a second temporal period that is selected by the second vehicle engineer;

(g) determining that the one or more test vehicles do not have the second software package identified by the second vehicle engineer;

(h) wirelessly sending, in response to step (g), the second software package from the central facility to the one or more test vehicles for use during the second temporal period; and

(i) storing the second software package at the one or more test vehicles.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of deleting the software package stored at step (d) during the second temporal period.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of determining if the one or more test vehicles do not have the software package during the engineer-specified temporal period.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the temporal period includes multiple time windows that occur daily or weekly.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the software package controls at least one aspect of vehicle operation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) further comprises receiving input from the vehicle engineer that establishes the beginning and the end of the temporal period.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of providing a user interface that identifies a plurality of software package identifiers for the vehicle engineer to select.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of providing a portal allowing the vehicle engineer to substitute software packages and alter the engineer-specified temporal period.

10. A method of managing a vehicle software configuration, the method comprising:

(a) identifying a group of vehicles using a plurality of vehicle identifiers, wherein the group of vehicles are maintained for evaluation by one or more users of the group of vehicles;

(b) establishing one or more temporal periods for one or more of the vehicles within the group during which the vehicle(s) will be evaluated by a user;

(c) receiving both a software package identifier representing a software package to be evaluated by one of the users during a user-selected temporal period and a vehicle identifier;

(d) wirelessly transmitting the software package associated with the software package identifier to the vehicle associated with the vehicle identifier; and

(f) storing the software package at the vehicle during the user-selected temporal period.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

substituting a second software package for the software package based on user input; and

wirelessly transmitting the second software package to the vehicle based on the substitution.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of determining if the vehicle associated with the vehicle identifier does not have the software package during the user-selected temporal period.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the temporal periods occur daily or weekly.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the software package controls at least one aspect of vehicle operation.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of receiving user input establishing the beginning and the end of the user-selected temporal period.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of providing a portal allowing the user to substitute software packages and alter the user-selected temporal period.

17. A method of managing a vehicle software configuration, the method comprising:

(a) receiving a software package identifier, a temporal period, and a vehicle identifier from a user;

(b) accessing a centrally-located database that stores software package identifiers, temporal periods, and vehicle identifiers with users of software packages;

(c) searching the centrally-located database for a vehicle identifier associated with a vehicle;

(d) identifying the software package identifier(s) stored with the vehicle identifier in the centrally-located database; and

(e) wirelessly transmitting a software package associated with the identified software package identifier(s) to the vehicle for use during the temporal period.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

substituting a second software package for the software package associated with the software package identifier based on user input; and

wirelessly transmitting the second software package to the vehicle based on the substitution.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of determining if the vehicle associated with the vehicle identifier does not have the software package during the temporal period.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the software package controls at least one aspect of vehicle operation.