Vehicle information communication system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11163549-B2
Application number	US-202016792917-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 18, 2020
Priority date	Aug 10, 2018
Publication date	Nov 2, 2021
Grant date	Nov 2, 2021

Abstract

A vehicle information communication system includes a center apparatus and a vehicle apparatus that includes a group of electronic control units (ECUs) and that sends vehicle configuration information including configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle to the center apparatus via wireless communications. The center apparatus performs a first determination of whether the vehicle configuration information received from the vehicle apparatus matches approved-configuration information registered in an approved-configuration database, and performs a second determination of whether software update data for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle exists in an update database. When both the first and second determinations are true, the center apparatus sends the software update data for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle to the vehicle apparatus via the wireless communications.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle information communication system comprising:
a vehicle apparatus mounted in a vehicle, and including a group of electronic control units (ECUs) and a vehicle computer; and
a center apparatus including:
an approved-configuration database (DB) that includes approved-configuration information which contains approved ECU-group configurations for the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle,
an update DB that contains software update data for the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle, and
a center computer configured to communicate with the vehicle apparatus via wireless communications,

wherein:
the vehicle computer is configured to send vehicle configuration information which includes configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle to the center apparatus via the wireless communications,
the center computer is configured to:
perform a first determination of whether the vehicle configuration information received from the vehicle apparatus matches the approved-configuration information registered in the approved-configuration DB;
perform a second determination of whether software update data for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle exists in the update DB; and
when both the first and second determinations are true, send the software update data for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle to the vehicle apparatus via the wireless communications; and

the vehicle computer is further configured to:
based on the software update data for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle received from the center apparatus, perform a software update for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle; and
in response to completion of the software update for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle, perform processing to send new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle to the center apparatus;

wherein:
when the sending of the new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle to the center apparatus is performed by the vehicle computer in response to the completion of the software update for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle, the center computer:
(i) performs the first determination using the new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle;
(ii) notifies the vehicle apparatus about an abnormality for the new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle when the first determination using the new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle is false; and
(iii) sends further software update data to the vehicle apparatus via the wireless communications when both of the first determination using the new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle and the second determination performed after receipt of the new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle are true.

2. A center apparatus for providing software update data via wireless communications to a vehicle apparatus mounted in a vehicle that includes a group of electronic control units (ECUs) and a vehicle computer configured to send vehicle configuration information which includes configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle to the center apparatus via the wireless communications, the center apparatus comprising:
an approved-configuration database (DB) that includes approved-configuration information which contains approved ECU-group configurations for the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle;
an update DB that contains software update data for the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle; and
a center computer configured to:
perform a first determination of whether the vehicle configuration information received from the vehicle apparatus matches the approved-configuration information registered in the approved-configuration DB;
perform a second determination of whether software update data for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle exists in the update DB; and
when both the first and second determinations are true, send the software update data for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle to the vehicle apparatus via the wireless communications, which causes the vehicle computer to,
based on the software update data for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle received from the center apparatus, perform a software update for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle,
wherein in response to completion of the software update for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle, the vehicle computer performs processing to send new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle to the center apparatus,

wherein:
when the sending of the new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle to the center apparatus is performed by the vehicle computer in response to the completion of the software update for at least one ECU of the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle, the center computer:
(j) performs the first determination using the new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle;
(ii) notifies the vehicle apparatus about an abnormality for the new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle when the first determination using the new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle is false; and
(iii) sends further software update data to the vehicle apparatus via the wireless communications when both of the first determination using the new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle and the second determination performed after receipt of the new vehicle configuration information including the configuration information on the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle are true.

3. The center apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein:
the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle includes a plurality of groups of ECUs mounted in the vehicle;
the approved ECU-group configurations for the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle registered in the approved-configuration DB include a plurality of approved ECU-group configurations for the plurality of groups of ECUs mounted in the vehicle;
the software update data in the update DB includes software update data for each group of ECUs of the plurality of groups of ECUs mounted in the vehicle; and
both the first and second determinations are performed for each group of ECUs of the plurality of groups of ECUs mounted in the vehicle.

4. The center apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein:
a respective ECU in the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle has installed software and is associated with an ECU configuration identifier (CFG-ID) which is changed together at least with a change in the installed software;
the approved ECU-group configurations for the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle registered in the approved-configuration DB include approved ECU CFG-ID combinations for the group of ECUs mounted in the vehicle;
the configurat

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Sakurai Nao
• Takahashi Shuhei
• Hayakawa Kazuaki
• Hasegawa Takuya
• Harata Yuzo
• Uehara Kazuhiro
• Kawasaki Takuya

Classifications

• H04W4/44

  for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H] · CPC title

• H04W4/50 Primary

  Service provisioning or reconfiguring · CPC title

• H04W4/60

  Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits · CPC title

• H04L12/40032

  Details regarding a bus interface enhancer · CPC title

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title