Car operating system

• US 20160214622A1
• Filed: 02/19/2016
• Published: 07/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: A Truly Electric Car Company
• Original Assignee: A Truly Electric Car Company
• Inventors: Durney, Brian, Durney, Edward Gordon
• Granted Patent: US 10,752,257 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/0244 with logic circuits
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0231 Circuits relating to the driving or the functioning of the vehicle monitoring tyres B60C23/00; indicating overspeed B60K31/00; for dash boards B60K37/00, B60Q3/10; for indicating emergencies B60Q1/52; brake control systems B60T; registering or indicating the working of vehicles G07C5/00; measuring distance G01C, e.g. combinations of speed and distance G01C23/00; engine indicators G01L; measuring speed or acceleration G01P
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0006 Digital architecture hierarchy
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0018 Method for the design of a control system
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/21 Voice
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/215 Selection or confirmation of options
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/00 Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of vehicle sub-units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0098 Details of control systems ensuring comfort, safety or stability not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/10 Interpretation of driver requests or demands
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/00 Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/02 Control of position or course in two dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/021 specially adapted to land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0257 using a radar radar systems designed for anti-collision purposes between land vehicles or between land vehicle and fixed obstacles G01S13/931
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45504 Abstract machines for programme code execution, e.g. Java virtual machine [JVM], interpreters, emulators
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/02 Registering or indicating driving, working, idle, or waiting time only apparatus forming part of taximeters G07B13/00

Abstract

Our car operating system allows a car'"'"'s driver to control—using abstract direction and speed commands—the car'"'"'s core resources that make the car move. The car operating system then translates those high-level abstractions to a lower level of abstraction, providing device-specific commands to the car devices that will implement the driver'"'"'s commands. That means that the same car operating system can work on a wide variety of car configurations. That differs from the control system for today'"'"'s cars, which is hardwired into the car'"'"'s design and lasts from the car'"'"'s manufacture to its junking. Each model of today'"'"'s car has a custom control system (steering wheel, accelerator, brake pedal) that cannot be replaced by the control system from another car, even though they do the same thing. Our car operating system allows car technology to evolve more rapidly and carmaking to become a more vibrant industry.

Claims

1. A method for operating a car that includes at least the following steps using computer hardware and software:

creating a map of the specific devices that are available on the car,

maintaining the map as the devices available change,

receiving a command—

such as indicating the desired motion (direction and speed) of the car or asking that another function be performed by the car—

from the driver of the car,

parsing the driver'"'"'s command to understand the driver'"'"'s command and any values associated with it,

determining which of the devices are needed to carry out the driver'"'"'s commands,

calculating for each device the device-specific commands needed for the car to provide the resources to implement the driver'"'"'s command, and

sending to each device the device-specific commands—

such as direction and speed signals for the car'"'"'s wheels—

required to carry out the driver'"'"'s command,

where the device-specific commands are at a lower-level of abstraction than the driver'"'"'s commands.

2. The car operating system of claim 1 where the abstractions allow modularity in the car so that modules in the car can be replaced by other modules that perform the same function.

3. A system—

including computer software and hardware—

for operating a car that;

makes a car'"'"'s resources available to the car'"'"'s user by use of abstract commands,

coordinates the devices providing the resources that implement the user'"'"'s commands,

and provides less abstract commands that are appropriate for each device so that a device can be replaced without requiring the car operating system to be replaced.

4. A car operating system—

including computer software and hardware—

that accepts (as input) the desired motion (direction and speed) of the car and produces (as output) steering and speed signals for at least one of the car'"'"'s wheels.

5. The car operating system of claim 4 where the signals indicating the desired motion of the car come from a human driver.

6. The car operating system of claim 4 where the signals indicating the desired motion of the car come from an automated driving program.

7. The car operating system of claim 4 where the car operating system provides a communication network so that any system in the car can communicate with any other system in the car.

8. The car operating system of claim 4 where the car operating system controls the interaction between the devices of the car.

9. The car operating system of claim 5 where the input from the driver is voice input.