Center device, vehicle electronic control system, program update progress control method, and program update progress control program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11614930-B2
Application number	US-202017093691-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 10, 2020
Priority date	Nov 14, 2019
Publication date	Mar 28, 2023
Grant date	Mar 28, 2023

Abstract

A vehicle electronic control system includes a center device and a vehicle master device. The center device includes: a campaign information obtainer obtaining campaign information of a program update; a vehicle state obtainer obtaining a vehicle state of a target vehicle of the program update; an execution requirement setter setting an execution requirement of a phase in the program update based on the campaign information obtained by the campaign information obtainer and the vehicle state obtained by the vehicle information obtainer; an execution requirement notifier notifying the vehicle master device of the execution requirement set by the execution requirement setter; and an update data deliverer delivering the update data to the vehicle master device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A center device for delivering update data about a program update to a vehicle master device comprising:
a campaign information obtainer obtaining campaign information of the program update;
a vehicle state obtainer obtaining a vehicle state of a target vehicle of the program update;
an execution requirement setter setting an execution requirement of a phase in the program update based on the campaign information obtained by the campaign information obtainer and based on the vehicle state obtained by the vehicle information obtainer;
an execution requirement notifier notifying the vehicle master device of the execution requirement set by the execution requirement setter; and
an update data deliverer distributing the update data to the vehicle master device;
wherein the execution requirement setter determines whether there is a necessity to change a setting of a user acceptance requirement of the phase, and, when it is determined that there is the necessity to change the setting of the user acceptance requirement of the phase, the execution requirement setter changes the setting of the user acceptance requirement of the phase and sets the execution requirement; and
wherein the user acceptance requirement indicates one of (a) that user acceptance is not required and a present phase can proceed to a next phase without receiving input indicating an acceptance operation of the user, or (b) that user acceptance is required and the present phase cannot proceed to the next phase unless input indicating the acceptance operation of the user is received.

2. The center device according to claim 1 , wherein
when the acceptance requirement of the phase is set to indicate that acceptance is required, the execution requirement setter sets the execution requirement such that (i) an accepted phase is executable and (ii) a non-accepted phase is non-executable.

3. The center device according to claim 1 , wherein
when it is determined that there is not the necessity to change the setting of the user acceptance requirement of the phase, the execution requirement setter sets the execution requirement without changing the setting of the user acceptance requirement of the phase.

4. The center device according to claim 1 , wherein
the vehicle state obtainer obtains a delivery plan from a predetermined place regarding the target vehicle of the program update as the vehicle state of the target vehicle of the program update, and
the execution requirement setter determines whether there is the necessity to change the setting of the user acceptance requirement of the phase according to the delivery plan of the target vehicle of the program update obtained by the vehicle state obtainer.

5. The center device according to claim 1 , wherein
the execution requirement setter changes, as the change of the setting of the user acceptance requirement of the phase, the setting of the user acceptance requirement of an installation phase in which the vehicle master device instructs a rewrite-target electronic control unit to write the update data.

6. The center device according to claim 1 , wherein
the execution requirement setter changes, as the change of the setting of the user acceptance requirement of the phase, the setting of an acceptance requirement of an activation phase in which a rewrite-target electronic control unit validates the update data.

7. The center device according to claim 1 , wherein
the execution requirement setter sets the execution requirement so that a predetermined phase is executable when the vehicle is in a travelable state.

8. The center device according to claim 1 , wherein
the execution requirement setter sets the execution requirement so that a predetermined phase is executable when the vehicle is in a non-travelable state.

9. The center device according to claim 1 , wherein
the execution requirement setter sets the execution requirement so that a predetermined phase is unconditionally executable.

10. The center device according to claim 1 , wherein
the execution requirement setter sets the execution requirement so that a predetermined phase is unconditionally non-executable.

11. A vehicle electronic control system comprising:
a center device for delivering update data related to a program update, wherein the center device includes:
(i) a campaign information obtainer obtaining campaign information of the program update,
(ii) a vehicle state obtainer obtaining a vehicle state of a target vehicle of the program update,
(iii) an execution requirement setter setting an execution requirement of a phase in the program update based on the campaign information obtained by the campaign information obtainer and the vehicle state obtained by the vehicle information obtainer,
(iv) an execution requirement notifier notifying the vehicle master device of the execution requirement set by the execution requirement setter, and
(v) an update data deliverer delivering the update data to the vehicle master device; and

a vehicle master device including:
(i) an execution requirement obtainer obtaining the execution requirement from the center device,
(ii) a phase executer executing a phase in the program update based on the execution requirement, and
(iii) an update data receiver receiving the update data from the center device;

wherein the execution requirement setter determines whether there is a necessity to change a setting of a user acceptance requirement of the phase, and, when it is determined that there is the necessity to change the setting of the user acceptance requirement of the phase, the execution requirement setter changes the setting of the user acceptance requirement of the phase and sets the execution requirement; and
wherein the user acceptance requirement indicates one of (a) that user acceptance is not required and a present phase can proceed to a next phase without receiving input indicating an acceptance operation of the user, or (b) that user acceptance is required and the present phase cannot proceed to the next phase unless input indicating the acceptance operation of the user is received.

12. A progress control method of a program update in which a center device delivers update data related to the program update to a vehicle master device, the progress control method comprising:
a campaign information obtaining procedure obtaining campaign information of the program update;
a vehicle state obtaining procedure obtaining a vehicle state of a target vehicle of the program update;
an execution requirement setting procedure setting an execution requirement of a phase in the program update based on at least one of: the campaign information obtained by the campaign information obtaining procedure, and the vehicle state obtained by the vehicle state obtaining procedure;
an execution requirement notification procedure notifying the vehicle master device of the execution requirement set by the execution requirement setting procedure; and
an update data delivery procedure delivering the update data to the vehicle master device;
wherein the execution requirement setting procedure determines whether there is a necessity to change a setting of a user acceptance requirement of the phase, and, when it is determined that there is the necessity to change the setting of the user acceptance requirement of the phase, the execution requirement setting procedure changes the setting of the user acceptance requirement of the phase and sets the execution requirement; and
wherein the user acceptance requirement indicates one of (a) that user acceptance is not required and a present phase can proceed to a next phase without receiving inp

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Abe Taiji
• Sakurai Nao

Classifications

• H04W4/44

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

• G06F8/65 Primary

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

• G06F9/3836

  Instruction issuing, e.g. dynamic instruction scheduling or out of order instruction execution · CPC title

• G07C5/008

  communicating information to a remotely located station (transmission systems for measured values G08C) · CPC title