Captured test fleet

• US 7,302,371 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2004
• Issued: 11/27/2007
• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rodriguez; Paul
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sharon; Ayal I.
• Application Number:
  US11/024,103
• Publication Number:
  US 20060106584A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,064 Days
• Field of Search: 703/1, 703/7, 701/32, 701/33, 701/29, 702/57
• US Class Current: 703/7
• 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 design and manufacture comprising the steps of:

(a) generating a vehicle design;

(b) building a plurality of pilot vehicles using the vehicle design;

(c) installing a telematics unit in each of the pilot vehicles;

(d) configuring the telematics unit to monitor one or more systems of the pilot vehicles during vehicle operation;

(e) associating each of the pilot vehicles with a captured test fleet identifier, wherein the plurality of pilot vehicles are each associated with the same captured test fleet identifier;

(f) receiving a request for test data;

(g) determining which of the pilot vehicles are associated with the request using the captured test fleet identifier(s);

(h) recording test data from the pilot vehicles associated with the request during operation of the vehicles;

(i) obtaining the test data from at least one of the telematics units;

(j) altering vehicle design data in response to the obtained test data; and

,

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

2. The method of claim 1 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.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the new vehicle design data comprises improved vehicle component design data.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein step (e) further comprises choosing a vehicle attribute to analyze for possible design refinement, and associating at least some of the pilot vehicles with a captured test fleet identifier based on the vehicle attribute.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the vehicle attribute comprises vehicle model data.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the captured test fleet identifier comprises vehicle model data.

4. A method of evaluating a vehicle design comprising the steps of:

(a) designing a vehicle;

(b) building a plurality of pilot vehicles of the designed vehicle;

(c) installing telematics units in the pilot vehicles;

(d) creating a captured test fleet that includes the pilot vehicles;

(e) operating the captured test fleet; and

,

(f) for each pilot vehicle of the captured test fleet;

(i) monitoring performance of at least one vehicle system within the pilot vehicles;

(ii) storing data within a controller in the pilot vehicles in response to the monitoring;

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

(iv) communicating the data to the service center; and

(v) storing the data in the service center;

(g) providing the data for at least some of the pilot vehicles to at least one person capable of influencing design of the monitored vehicle system; and

(h) modifying the monitored vehicle system in response to the data;

wherein the automatic triggering of the telematics connection from the pilot vehicle to the service center comprises determining an upload trigger occurrence, and 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.

5. A method of evaluating a vehicle design comprising the steps of:

(a) designing a vehicle;

(b) building a plurality of pilot vehicles of the designed vehicle;

(c) installing telematics units in the pilot vehicles;

(d) creating a captured test fleet that includes the pilot vehicles;

(e) operating the captured test fleet;

(f) for each pilot vehicle of the captured test fleet;

(i) monitoring performance of at least one vehicle system within the pilot vehicles;

(ii) storing data within a controller in the pilot vehicles in response to the monitoring;

(iii) automatically triggering within the telematics unit a telematics connection from the pilot vehicles to a service center;

(iv) communicating the data to the service center; and

(v) storing the data in the service center;

(g) providing the data for at least some of the pilot vehicles to at least one person capable of influencing design of the monitored vehicle system; and

(h) modifying the monitored vehicle system in response to the data;

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 captured 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.

6. A method of test vehicle data collection comprising:

(a) operating a plurality of test vehicles in a captured test fleet having hundreds of test vehicles, wherein each of the plurality of test vehicles is equipped with a wireless telematics device and is assigned to the plurality of test vehicles based on a vehicle attribute;

(b) monitoring performance of at least one vehicle system within the plurality of test vehicles;

(c) storing performance data within a controller in the plurality of test vehicles in response to the monitoring of the at least one vehicle system;

(d) selectively establishing a wireless telematics connection between the plurality of test vehicles and a service center without establishing similar connections with the remainder of the captured test fleet;

(e) communicating the performance data from the plurality of test vehicles to the service center; and

(f) storing the communicated performance data in a database in the service center.

7. The method of claim 6 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.

8. The method of claim 6 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.

9. The method of claim 8 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.

10. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

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

11. The method of claim 6 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.

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

(a) providing a database including a list of vehicles, wherein each vehicle of the list is associated with a captured test fleet identifier that is based on a vehicle attribute and comprises vehicle model data;

(b) receiving a request for captured test fleet data;

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

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

,

(e) receiving data from the vehicles responsive to the data retrieval request.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

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

storing the received data to the database entry.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

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

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the request for captured test fleet data is received from a vehicle design center.

16. The method of claim 12 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.

17. The method of claim 12 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.