System for controlling operations of a vehicle using mobile devices and related methods thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11345313-B2
Application number	US-202016856509-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 23, 2020
Priority date	Apr 23, 2020
Publication date	May 31, 2022
Grant date	May 31, 2022

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to aspects of authenticating a mobile device and providing a vehicle access key thereto when a previously registered mobile device is not accessible. In one aspect of the present disclosure, a method includes requesting at a first mobile device, access to a profile associated with controlling operations of a vehicle, the profile having stored thereon an access key for operating the vehicle, the access key having been previously installed on a second mobile device. The method further includes upon successful authorization, receiving the access key at the first device and operating the vehicle using the access key on the first mobile device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, from a first mobile device, a request to access a profile associated with controlling operations of a vehicle and including an access key for operating the vehicle, a copy of the access key having been previously installed on a second mobile device, and the profile being accessible via a plurality of mobile devices registered in association with the profile including the first mobile device and the second mobile device;
responsive to the request, successful authorization, and a number of copies of the access key installed on the plurality being less than a limit value, sending a copy of the access key to the first mobile device such that the first mobile device is configured to operate the vehicle using the copy of the access key on the first mobile device; and
disabling the copy of the access key installed on the second mobile device after successful activation of the copy of the access key on the first mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein operating the vehicle includes at least one of turning on the vehicle, turning off the vehicle, parking the vehicle, locking the vehicle, unlocking the vehicle, adjusting cabin parameters of the vehicle, and controlling movement and speed of the vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the profile is stored in a cloud accessible system.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the profile is stored on the second mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the profile is stored on a control unit of the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising, responsive to the request and the number being equal to or exceeding the limit value, preventing a copy of the access key from being sent to the first mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the limit value is greater than one.

8. A mobile device comprising:
memory having computer-readable instructions corresponding to an application for vehicle access stored therein; and
one or more processors configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to,
responsive to (i) a request to access a profile associated with controlling operations of a vehicle, the profile having an access key for operating the vehicle, a copy of the access key being currently active on the mobile device, and the profile being accessible via a plurality of mobile devices registered in association with the profile including the mobile device and a different mobile device, (ii) successful authorization, and (iii) a number of copies of the access key installed on the plurality being less than a limit value, send a copy of the access key to the different mobile device such that the different mobile device is configured to operate the vehicle using the copy of the access key on the different mobile device, and
responsive to the request and the number being equal to or exceeding the limit value, disable the copy of the access key on the mobile device.

9. The mobile device of claim 8 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to input authorization information for accessing the profile using the application for vehicle access.

10. The mobile device of claim 8 , wherein operating the vehicle includes at least one of turning on the vehicle, turning off the vehicle, parking the vehicle, locking the vehicle, unlocking the vehicle, adjusting cabin parameters of the vehicle, and controlling movement and speed of the vehicle.

11. The mobile device of claim 8 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to prevent a copy of the access key from being sent to the different mobile device responsive to the request and the number being equal to or exceeding the limit value.

12. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising computer-readable instructions for an application for vehicle control, which when executed by one or more processors of a vehicle, cause the one or more processors to:
responsive to (i) a request to access a profile associated with controlling operations of the vehicle, the profile including an access key that is currently available on a first mobile device for operating the vehicle, and the profile being accessible via a plurality of mobile devices registered in association with the profile including the first mobile device and a second mobile device, (ii) successful authorization, and (iii) a number of copies of the access key installed on the plurality being less than a limit value, send a copy of the access key to the second mobile device such that the second mobile device is configured to operate the vehicle using the copy of the access key on the second mobile device, and
responsive to the request and the number being equal to or exceeding the limit value, disable the copy of the access key on the first mobile device.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12 , wherein operating the vehicle includes at least one of turning on the vehicle, turning off the vehicle, parking the vehicle, locking the vehicle, unlocking the vehicle, adjusting cabin parameters of the vehicle, and controlling movement and speed of the vehicle.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12 , wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by the one or more processors further causes the one or more processors to prevent a copy of the access key from being sent to the second mobile device responsive to the request and the number being equal to or exceeding the limit value.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Schubert Jochen
• Nelson Tom
• Simons Michael Andrew
• Hassani Ali
• Golgiri Hamid
• Van Wiemeersch John Robert

Classifications

• G07C2009/00865

  remotely by wireless communication · CPC title

• G07C9/00309

  operated with bidirectional data transmission between data carrier and locks · CPC title

• H04L63/10 Primary

  for controlling access to devices or network resources · CPC title

• H04L63/0807

  using tickets, e.g. Kerberos (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213) · CPC title

• B60R25/241 Primary

  whereby access privileges are related to the identifiers · CPC title