Vehicle middleware

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10020995-B2
Application number	US-201615287219-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 6, 2016
Priority date	Nov 16, 2011
Publication date	Jul 10, 2018
Grant date	Jul 10, 2018

Abstract

The present disclosure describes a vehicle implementing one or more processing modules. These modules are configured to connect and interface with the various buses in the vehicle, where the various buses are connected with the various components of the vehicle to facilitate information transfer among the vehicle components. Each processing module is further modularized with the ability to add and replace other functional modules now or in the future. These functional modules can themselves act as distinct vehicle components. Each processing modules may hand-off processing to other modules depending on its health, processing load, or by third-party control. Thus, the plurality of processing modules helps to implement a middleware point of control to the vehicle with redundancy in processing and safety and security awareness in their applications.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle, comprising:
a non-transient, tangible computer-readable memory;
a computational module selector stored in the non-transient, tangible computer-readable memory to identify and select a computational module from among a plurality of computational modules in communication with the computational module selector to perform a selected operation, the selected operation, having performance requirements, wherein each one of the plurality of computational modules has processing capabilities; wherein at least a pair of the plural computational modules comprises a first computational module with a cellular capability and a second computational module without a cellular capability, wherein the computational module selector selects a computational module from among the plurality of computational modules, wherein the selected computational module has processing capabilities that satisfy the performance requirements of the selected operation;
a network selector module stored in the non-transient, tangible computer-readable memory to select one of a plurality of communication networks local to the vehicle for transmitting a selected signal and wherein the network selector module selects one of the plurality of communication networks local to the vehicle for transmitting the selected signal based on one or more of network status, an intermediate node status, a signal/noise ratio, a type of signal, availability of bandwidth, network performance parameters, and a quality of service, wherein the network selector module configures the selected signal in accordance with the selected network's transmission protocol; and
a diagnostic module to receive one or more of a warning signal and an error signal,
wherein the vehicle further comprises a plurality of processing modules, a first processing module being in an active mode whereby the first processing module is in primary control of at least most vehicle functions and a second processing module being in a standby mode whereby the second processing module is ready to assume primary control of at least most vehicle functions, wherein the first and second processing modules are in wireless communication with one another, and wherein a state of the second processing module is maintained substantially in synchronicity with a state of the first processing module to a enable a stateful failover from the first processing module to the second processing module, wherein each of the afore-mentioned modules are stored in a non-transient, tangible computer readable memory.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle further comprises an arbitration module to arbitrate hand-off conflicts between duplicated first and second processing modules and wherein the arbitration module selects one of the first and second processing modules to currently possess and/or own a token, the token indicating which processing module is an active processing module and/or which processing module is a standby processing module, wherein each of the afore-mentioned modules are stored in a non-transient, tangible computer readable memory.

3. The vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the vehicle further comprises a health check module to determine a corresponding state of health of each of the duplicated first and second processing modules to perform at least one of critical and non-critical operations and wherein the health check module performs a check and/or test, in response to an internally generated interrupt and/or request to determine a selected processing module's ability to perform critical and/or non-critical vehicle operations, assign a score to the selected processing module based on the check and/or test results, and compare the score to one or more thresholds and/or to a score of a different processing module to determine a state of health to determine a state of health of the selected processing module, wherein each of the afore-mentioned modules are stored in a non-transient, tangible computer readable memory.

4. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle further comprises a displayed object movement module to move displayed objects from a source input/output system to a target input/output system, the source and target input/output systems corresponding to different vehicle occupants and wherein the displayed object movement module selects the target input/output system from among plural input/output systems on board the vehicle based on input from a user of the source input/output system, wherein each of the afore-mentioned modules are stored in a non-transient, tangible computer readable memory.

5. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle further comprises a media filter module to apply a selected rule to filter third party sourced signals received by a vehicle processing module for presentation to a vehicle occupant via a corresponding input/output system and wherein the selected rule is one or more of a whitelist, blacklist, user preference, sensed occupant context, and/or governing federal, state, provincial, and/or local law and/or regulation applicable to a current sensed spatial location of the vehicle, wherein each of the afore-mentioned modules are stored in a non-transient, tangible computer readable memory.

6. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle wherein the diagnostic module selects a destination for the signal, the possible destinations including a vehicle input/output system to present the warning and/or error to a vehicle occupant, an emergency service provider, an emergency responder, and a remotely located diagnostic service to diagnose a cause of the warning and/or error signal and wherein the diagnostic module provides the warning and/or error signal to the vehicle occupant and interactively communicates a likely cause of the warning and/or error signal to the occupant and receives a command from the occupant to contact one or more of an emergency service provider, an emergency responder, and a remotely located diagnostic service, wherein each of the afore-mentioned modules are stored in a non-transient, tangible computer readable memory.

7. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle further comprises a remote control module to receive a request from a remote source to command a vehicle function, authenticate the requestor, and, when successfully authenticated and when privileged to request the performance of the vehicle function, execute or cause execution of the request and wherein the remote control module is associated with one or more of the vehicle owner, a law enforcement authority, a lender associated with a loan having the vehicle as collateral, and a vehicle manufacturer and wherein the requested vehicle function is executed or caused to be executed notwithstanding a contrary command from the vehicle operator, wherein each of the afore-mentioned modules are stored in a non-transient, tangible computer readable memory.

8. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle further comprises a media controller module to receive a media stream from a remote node, identify which of a plurality of vehicle input/output systems are disabled due to operator command and/or as a result of a rule, and, when enabled, provide the media stream to an input/output system associated with an associated vehicle occupant and wherein the media controller module, in a dependent mode, provides common content synchronously to each of the input/output systems and, in an independent mode, provides different content to different ones of the input/output systems, wherein each of the afore-mentioned modules are stored in a non-transient, tangible computer readable memory.

9. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle further comprises an installation supervisor module to determine, for a newly installed software a

Assignees

• Autoconnect Holdings Llc

Inventors

• Ricci Christopher P
• Swartz Douglas W

Classifications

• B60W2540/221

  Physiology, e.g. weight, heartbeat, health or special needs · CPC title

• B60W2555/60

  Traffic rules, e.g. speed limits or right of way · CPC title

• B60W2540/043

  Identity of occupants · CPC title

• H04L67/125

  involving control of end-device applications over a network · CPC title

• G08G1/012

  from other sources than vehicle or roadside beacons, e.g. mobile networks · CPC title