Predictive diagnostic method and system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10643403-B2
Application number	US-201514871594-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2015
Priority date	Aug 20, 2012
Publication date	May 5, 2020
Grant date	May 5, 2020

Abstract

There is provided a method of predicting defects likely to occur in a vehicle over a predetermined period. The method includes receiving vehicle characteristic data regarding a vehicle under consideration, and comparing the received vehicle characteristic data with a defect database. The defect database includes information related to defects that have occurred in different vehicles and the mileage at which such defects occurred. The method additionally includes identifying defects that occurred in vehicles corresponding to the vehicle under consideration, and the mileage at which such defects occurred. Defects which fail to satisfy minimum count requirements are then filtered out, and the defects are then sorted in order of the highest defect count.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of predicting and displaying defects likely to occur in a vehicle over a selected mileage bracket, and identifying the parts useful to repair the predicted defects, the selected mileage bracket extending beyond a current vehicle mileage and beyond any additional mileage usage associated with repair of any current or imminent vehicle defects, the method comprising:
a) receiving, on a vehicle data acquisition device, vehicle characteristic data regarding the vehicle under consideration, the vehicle characteristic data comprising vehicle identification information, and current vehicle mileage, the vehicle identification information being independent of live data indicating an operating condition of vehicle devices associated with the vehicle under consideration;
b) communicating the vehicle characteristic data from the vehicle data acquisition device to a remote server;
c) establishing a defect database at the server, the defect database having stored information related to prior defects that have occurred in different vehicles during at least the selected mileage bracket, the stored information including stored vehicle identification data associated with the prior defects, parts associated with repair of the prior defects and a reference mileage at which the prior defects occurred;
d) identifying, at the server, prior defects that occurred in vehicles substantially corresponding to the vehicle under consideration, the stored vehicle identification data associated with the identified prior defects, the parts associated with repair of the identified defects and the reference mileage at which the identified prior defects occurred;
e) comparing, at the server, vehicle the identification information received from the vehicle under test with the stored vehicle identification data associated with the identified prior defects that occurred in the vehicles substantially corresponding to the vehicle under consideration to identify any correspondence therewith, such correspondence indicating that the vehicle under consideration is subject to the identified prior defects;
f) limiting, at the server, the identified prior defects to those prior defects that are associated with the selected mileage bracket;
h) identifying, at the server, parts useful to repair the identified prior defects associated with the selected mileage bracket;
g) communicating, to an internet communicable device, the identified prior defects and a list of parts useful to repair the identified prior defects associated with the selected mileage bracket; and
i) displaying on the internet communicable device, the identified prior defects and the list of parts useful to implement repair the of identified prior defects associated with the selected mileage bracket.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the received vehicle identification data is acquired from an electronic control unit of the vehicle under consideration and includes the year, make, model, engine, and current mileage of the vehicle under consideration.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 , wherein the stored vehicle identification data includes the year, make, model and engine associated with each associated prior defect.

4. The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein the selected mileage bracket extends from the current vehicle mileage to 30,000 miles greater than the current vehicle mileage.

5. The method as recited in claim 3 , further including the step of receiving diagnostic information from the vehicle under consideration, the diagnostic information indicating an operating condition of at least one automotive device associated with the vehicle under consideration.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 , further including the step of adjusting the current vehicle mileage based on the diagnostic information indicating the operating condition of the automotive device associated with the vehicle under consideration.

7. The method as recited in claim 6 , wherein the step of adjusting the current mileage includes the step of increasing the current vehicle mileage where the diagnostic information indicating the operating condition of the automotive device indicates that the automotive device is not in optimum operating condition.

8. The method as recited in claim 6 , wherein the step of adjusting the current mileage includes the step of decreasing the current vehicle mileage where the diagnostic information indicating the operating condition of the automotive device indicates that the automotive device is in optimum operating condition.

9. The method as recited in claim 3 , further comprising the steps of receiving information from the vehicle under consideration regarding the climatic region in which the vehicle under consideration has been used, and adjusting the current vehicle mileage based on the information regarding the climate region.

10. The method as recited in claim 9 , wherein the step of adjusting the current vehicle mileage based on the information regarding the climatic region comprises the step of increasing the current vehicle mileage where the information regarding the climate region indicates that the vehicle has operated in a region characterized by harsh climate conditions.

11. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein at least one defect is associated with a climatically sensitive vehicle device.

12. The method as recited in claim 11 , wherein the climatically sensitive device includes at least one in the group consisting of: a muffler, a body panel, a radiator, a battery, a door lock, and a starter.

13. The method as recited in claim 2 , further comprising the step of limiting the identified prior defects to those defects which occurred in a mileage bracket that includes the current mileage of the vehicle under consideration.

14. The method as recited in claim 2 , further including the step of adjusting the reference mileage associated with the identified prior defects based on an operating condition associated with the vehicle under consideration.

15. The method as recited in claim 14 , wherein the reference mileage associated with the identified prior defects is decreased based on an operating condition associated with the vehicle under consideration.

16. The method as recited in claim 14 , wherein the reference mileage associated with the identified prior defects is increased based on an operating condition associated with the vehicle under consideration.

17. The method as recited in claim 1 , further including the step of adjusting the current mileage to the nearest 5,000 mile gradient.

18. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the prior defects in the defect database are derived from actual repair records.

19. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the prior defects in the defect database are derived from probabilistic determinations of most likely prior defects that occurred in the different vehicles.

20. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the received vehicle characteristic data includes geographic information associated with the vehicle under consideration.

21. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the step of identifying, at the server, a cost of the parts useful to repair the identified prior defects and displaying the cost of the parts useful to repair the identified prior defects on the internet communicable device.

22. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprises the step of identifying, at the server, a cost of the tools useful to repair the identified pr

Assignees

• Innova Electronics Corp

Inventors

• Madison Robert
• Andreasen Keith
• Nguyen Michael

Classifications

• G07C5/12

  in graphical form · CPC title

• G07C5/0808 Primary

  Diagnosing performance data (testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005) · CPC title

• G06F17/00

  Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions (information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00) · CPC title

• G07C5/085

  using electronic data carriers · CPC title