Vehicle status indicator assembly and indicating method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11495065-B2
Application number	US-202016801256-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 26, 2020
Priority date	Feb 26, 2020
Publication date	Nov 8, 2022
Grant date	Nov 8, 2022

Abstract

An indicator assembly includes, among other things, a vehicle model that is configured to communicate with a vehicle. The indicator assembly further includes an indicator portion of the vehicle model. The indicator portion is configured to indicate a status of the vehicle based on a communication sent to the vehicle model.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An indicator assembly, comprising:
a vehicle model that is configured to communicate with a vehicle; and
an indicator portion of the vehicle model, the indicator portion configured to provide an indication that the vehicle has completed an action in response to a first communication sent from a keyfob to the vehicle, the indicator portion providing the indication based on a second communication sent to the vehicle model from the vehicle, wherein the vehicle model is a three-dimensional model of the vehicle.

2. The indicator assembly of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is an electrified vehicle having a traction battery, wherein the indicator portion includes a traction battery indicator portion configured to provide an indication of a charge status of the electrified vehicle.

3. The indicator assembly of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of lighting devices, the indicator portion including the plurality of lighting devices.

4. The indicator assembly of claim 1 , wherein the indicator portion includes a tire pressure indicator portion configured to provide an indication of a low tire pressure status of at least one tire of the vehicle, the tire pressure indicator portion configured to illuminate at least one tire of the vehicle model, the at least one tire of the vehicle model corresponding to the at least one tire of the vehicle having the low tire pressure status.

5. The indicator assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first and second communications are wireless communications.

6. The indicator assembly of claim 1 , further comprising a wireless receiver of the vehicle model, the wireless receiver configured to receive a wireless communication from a cloud server, the indicator portion configured to indicate the status based on the wireless communication.

7. The indicator assembly of claim 1 , wherein the status included in the second communication is a confirmation status that causes the indicator portion to adjust in a way that confirms the action initiated in response the first communication.

8. A vehicle status indicating method, comprising:
receiving, at a vehicle model, a communication that includes a confirmation status of a vehicle; and
indicating the confirmation status of the vehicle on the vehicle model by adjusting an indicator portion of the vehicle model based on the communication, wherein the indicator portion is adjusted a first way if the vehicle completes an action requested by a user, and the indicator portion is adjusted a different, second way if the vehicle does not complete the action requested by the user, wherein the vehicle model is a three-dimensional model of the vehicle.

9. The vehicle status indicating method of claim 8 , wherein the vehicle is an electrified vehicle and further comprising indicating a charging status of a traction battery of the electrified vehicle by adjusting the indicator portion of the vehicle model based on another communication.

10. The vehicle status indicating method of claim 9 , wherein the indicator portion includes a plurality of lighting devices, wherein the indicating comprises illuminating a percentage of the lighting devices within the plurality of lighting devices in proportion to a state of charge of the traction battery.

11. The vehicle status indicating method of claim 9 , wherein the indicator portion includes a plurality of lighting devices, wherein the indicating comprise flashing at least some of the plurality of lighting devices when the electrified vehicle is charging.

12. The vehicle status indicating method of claim 8 , wherein the status is a tire pressure status of at least one tire of the vehicle.

13. The vehicle status indicating method of claim 8 , wherein the action requested by the user is requested by the user initiating a wireless command to the vehicle.

14. The vehicle status indicating method of claim 8 , wherein the wireless command is sent from a keyfob that is separate and distinct from the vehicle model.

15. A vehicle status indicating method, comprising:
at a vehicle, receiving a first communication from a keyfob;
in response to the first communication, initiating an action at the vehicle; and
sending a second communication from the vehicle to a vehicle model of the vehicle, the second communication including a status of the vehicle, wherein the vehicle model is configured to adjust an indicator portion of the vehicle model based on the second communication to provide an indication of the status on the vehicle model, wherein the vehicle is an electrified vehicle, and the vehicle model is a replica of the electrified vehicle.

16. The vehicle status indicating method of claim 15 , wherein the status included in the second communication is a confirmation status that causes the indicator portion to adjust in a way that confirms the action initiated in response the first communication.

17. The vehicle status indicating method of claim 15 , where the keyfob is separate and distinct from the vehicle model.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• O'Gorman Ryan
• Bailey Hannah
• Velampudi Aparna
• Sharma Ankur

Classifications

• B60L53/68 Primary

  Off-site monitoring or control, e.g. remote control · CPC title

• Y02T10/7072

  Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• B60C23/0479

  Communicating with external units being not part of the vehicle, e.g. tools for diagnostic, mobile phones, electronic keys or service stations · CPC title

• H04W4/44 Primary

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