Global stolen vehicles tracking

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10124769-B2
Application number	US-201715415148-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 25, 2017
Priority date	Jan 25, 2017
Publication date	Nov 13, 2018
Grant date	Nov 13, 2018

Abstract

A vehicle information server maps a unique identifier of a stolen vehicle to a network identifier of the vehicle. Responsive to receiving the network identifier of the stolen vehicle and identifying access of the network identifier to a component of the network, a service provider server of a service provider network indicates a physical location of the component and a time of access of the component to a vehicle theft system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a vehicle information server mapping a unique identifier of a stolen vehicle to a network identifier of the stolen vehicle; and
a service provider server of a service provider network, programmed to, responsive to receiving a message from a vehicle theft system initiating monitoring for the network identifier and identifying access of the network identifier to a network device of the network, indicate a physical location of the network device and a time of access of the vehicle to the network device.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the service provider server maintains a mapping of network locations to physical locations, and the service provider server is programmed to utilize the mapping to translate a network address of the network device to the physical location of the network device.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the service provider server maintains a log of historical network usage, and the service provider server is further programmed to access the log of historical network usage to identify a second network device of the network to which the stolen vehicle was previously connected, and indicate a physical location of the second network device and a time of the access to a vehicle theft system.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network identifier is an integrated circuit card identifier (ICCID) of a subscriber identity module (SIM) of an embedded modem utilized by a telematics control unit of the vehicle to communicate over the network.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network identifier is a media access control (MAC) address network identifier of an accessory protocol interface module controller utilized by the vehicle to communicate over the network through use of a mobile device connected to the accessory protocol interface module controller over a local area connection.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the service provider server is further programmed to:
initiate monitoring for the network identifier responsive to receiving a message from a vehicle theft system requesting initiation of the monitoring; and
indicate the physical location and the time of access to the vehicle theft system.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the service provider server is further programmed to discontinue monitoring for the network identifier responsive to receiving a message from the vehicle theft system requesting termination of the monitoring.

8. A method comprising:
responsive to receiving a message from a vehicle theft system, initiating monitoring for a network identifier corresponding to a unique vehicle identifier of a stolen vehicle;
identifying access of the network identifier to a network device of the network; and
utilizing a mapping of network locations to physical locations to translate a network location of the network device to the physical location of the network device.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining the network identifier according to a mapping of unique vehicle identifiers to network identifiers maintained by a vehicle information server.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising updating the vehicle theft system with the physical location of the network device to indicate an approximate location of the stolen vehicle.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
continuing the monitoring for the network identifier;
identifying a second access of the network identifier to a second network device of the network;
utilizing the mapping of network locations to physical locations to translate a network location of the second network device to a physical location of the second network device; and
updating the vehicle theft system with the physical location of the second network device.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the network identifier is an integrated circuit card identifier (ICCID) of a subscriber identity module (SIM) of an embedded modem utilized by a telematics control unit of the vehicle to communicate over the network.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the network identifier is a media access control (MAC) address network identifier of an accessory protocol interface module controller utilized by the vehicle to communicate over the network through use of a mobile device connected to the accessory protocol interface module controller over a local area connection.

14. The method of claim 8 , further comprising discontinuing monitoring for the network identifier responsive to receiving a second message from a vehicle theft system.

15. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving an indication including the unique vehicle identifier indicating that the stolen vehicle is to be monitored; and
receiving the network identifier from a vehicle information server responsive to sending the unique vehicle identifier to the vehicle information server.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
receive an indication including a unique vehicle identifier from a vehicle theft system, the indication specifying that a stolen vehicle corresponding to the unique vehicle identifier is to be monitored;
map the unique vehicle identifier to one or more network identifiers using a vehicle information server storing an association of unique identifiers of vehicles to network identifiers of vehicles;
identify one or more of the network identifiers as having accessed a communications network; and
utilize a mapping of network locations to physical locations to translate network locations of the network accesses to physical locations of the stolen vehicle.

17. The medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to discontinue monitoring for the network identifier responsive to receiving a stop message from the vehicle theft system.

18. The medium of claim 16 , wherein the one or more network identifiers include an integrated circuit card identifier (ICCID) of a subscriber identity module (SIM) of an embedded modem utilized by a telematics control unit of the vehicle to communicate over the network.

19. The medium of claim 16 , wherein the one or more network identifiers include a media access control (MAC) address network identifier of an accessory protocol interface module controller utilized by the vehicle to communicate over the network though use of a mobile device connected to the accessory protocol interface module controller over a local area connection.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Sandhu Harminder
• Gersabeck David Marvin
• Porter Sr Derek Louis

Classifications

• H04B1/3816

  Mechanical arrangements for accommodating identification devices, e.g. cards or chips; with connectors for programming identification devices · CPC title

• B60R25/33 Primary

  of global position, e.g. by providing GPS coordinates · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04W4/046

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L2101/622

  Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses · CPC title