PRIORITIZATION OF UPDATES FOR OVER-THE-AIR DISTRIBUTION

• US 20180081670A1
• Filed: 09/21/2016
• Published: 03/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2016
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: CAUSHI, Brunilda Bleta, VANGELOV, John Naum
• Application Number:
  US15/271,850
• Publication Number:
  US 20180081670A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests

Abstract

Priority data is accessed to determine a priority of a software update specific to a vehicle to be updated. The software update is pushed to a vehicle responsive to the priority indicating that the software update is an add-on authorized for use by the vehicle. Otherwise, the software update is scheduled to the vehicle at a time according to the priority and a geographic region of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a server configured to;

access stored priority data to determine a priority of a software update specific to a vehicle to be updated,

responsive to the priority indicating that the software update is an add-on authorized for use by the vehicle, schedule the software update for immediate push, and

otherwise, schedule the software update to the vehicle at a time according to the priority and a geographic region of the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to, responsive to a vehicle request for software updates, indicate that the software update is provided by a regional software delivery network located within the geographic region of the vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to:

receive, from the vehicle responsive to vehicle presence in the geographic region for a predefined period, a message indicating the geographic region in which the vehicle is located,

responsive to the message, update a data store to associate the vehicle with the geographic region.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the server is further configured to update the data store to indicate that the vehicle is associated with the geographic region using a vehicle identification number (VIN) of the vehicle included in the message.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the geographic region corresponds to a political boundary.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the priority includes one or more of:

a first priority indicating a mandatory fix, a second priority indicating that the vehicle is paid for the software update, a third priority indicating a software update to fix functional issues in one or more features, a fourth priority indicating a software update to provide new features, a fifth priority indicating a software update to adjust settings of an operational vehicle feature, a sixth priority indicating a preferred update, and a seventh priority indicating a non-imminent update to be scheduled at a customer-specific time.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further programmed to push the software update to the vehicle responsive to determining by the server that the time is reached.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further programmed to initiate determination of the priority of the software update responsive to addition of availability of the software update.

9. A method comprising:

including, in a data store, priority data for a software update to a vehicle based on metadata of the software update;

responsive to receiving an indication of a vehicle-specific priority override for the software update for the vehicle, updating the priority data with the vehicle-specific priority override; and

scheduling the software update to the vehicle at a time according to the vehicle-specific priority override and a geographic region of the vehicle.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising updating the data store to associate the vehicle with the geographic region responsive to receiving, from the vehicle, a message indicating the geographic region in which the vehicle is located.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising indicating in the metadata that the software update is a mandatory fix for immediate distribution.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising indicating in the metadata that the software update is a non-essential update.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the indication of the vehicle-specific priority includes payment for the software update.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining the geographic region of the vehicle according to an origination address of a message received from the vehicle.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions, that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to schedule a software update to a vehicle at a time specific to a priority determined using metadata of the software update and a geographic region in which the vehicle identifies in a message to the processor as being located.

16. The medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions to cause the processor to update the time using user-defined timing settings specific to the vehicle.

17. The medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions to cause the processor to:

receive, from the vehicle, a message indicating the geographic region in which the vehicle is located responsive to vehicle presence in the geographic region for a predefined period,

responsive to the message, update a data store to associate the vehicle with the geographic region.

18. The medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions to cause the processor to update the data store to identify the vehicle to associate with the geographic region based on a vehicle identification number (VIN) of the vehicle included in the message.

19. The medium of claim 15, wherein the geographic region corresponds to a political boundary.

20. The medium of claim 15, wherein the priority includes one or more of:

a first priority indicating a mandatory fix, a second priority indicating that the vehicle is paid for the software update, a third priority indicating a software update to fix functional issues in one or more features, a fourth priority indicating a software update to provide new features, a fifth priority indicating a software update to adjust settings of an operational vehicle feature, a sixth priority indicating a preferred update, and a seventh priority indicating a non-imminent update to be scheduled at a customer-specific time.