Intelligent vehicles and control logic for enhanced vehicle-to-everything wireless mesh communications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12439231-B2
Application number	US-202318187194-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 21, 2023
Priority date	Mar 21, 2023
Publication date	Oct 7, 2025
Grant date	Oct 7, 2025

Abstract

Presented are intelligent vehicle communications (comm) systems provisioning enhanced vehicle-to-everything (V2X) wireless mesh network (WMN) hop propagation, methods for making/using such systems, and vehicles equipped with such systems. A method of controlling operation of a host vehicle includes a vehicle controller determining the host vehicle is incapacitated and then detecting the host vehicle's wireless comm device is unable to connect to a cellular or satellite communications system. Responsive to such insufficient connectivity, the controller broadcasts a V2X WMN distress message containing data specific to the host vehicle and data specific to the host vehicle's incapacitating event. Upon receipt of the distress message, a recipient vehicle's controller determines if a prior distress message for the incapacitating vehicle event was previously received and if the distress message exceeds any preset multi-hop restrictions. If yes to either, the resident controller disables retransmission of the distress message to other recipient nodes over the WMN.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method of controlling operation of a host vehicle with a vehicle controller and a wireless communications (comm) device, the method comprising:
receiving, via the vehicle controller, a vehicle disabled signal indicating the host vehicle is incapacitated due to an incapacitating vehicle event;
detecting, via the vehicle controller responsive to receiving the vehicle disabled signal, an insufficient connectivity state indicating the wireless comm device is unable to wirelessly connect to a cellular or satellite communications system;
broadcasting, over a wireless mesh network (WMN) via the vehicle controller responsive to detecting the insufficient connectivity state, a distress message containing vehicle data specific to the host vehicle and incident data specific to the incapacitating vehicle event;
determining, via a resident controller of a recipient vehicle using the vehicle data, if a prior distress message for the incapacitating vehicle event was previously received;
determining, via the resident controller of the recipient vehicle using the incident data, if the distress message exceeds a preset multi-hop restriction;
transmitting, via the resident controller responsive to the prior distress message being previously received and/or the distress message exceeding the preset multi-hop restriction, a disable command signal to a resident subsystem of the recipient vehicle disabling retransmission of the distress message to another recipient node over the WMN;
detecting, via the resident controller responsive to the prior distress message not being previously received and the distress message not exceeding the preset multi-hop restriction, a sufficient connectivity status indicating the recipient vehicle is able to contact a back-office (BO) vehicle services system or a first responder entity; and
transmitting, via the resident controller responsive to detecting the sufficient connectivity status: (1) the distress message to the BO vehicle services system or the first responder entity; (2) a return message to the host vehicle indicating the distress message was sent to the BO vehicle services system or the first responder entity; and/or (3) a hop interrupt message to one or more additional nodes over the WMN indicating the distress message was sent to the BO vehicle services system or the first responder entity.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the distress message contains a hop counter tracking a number of times the distress message was transmitted from node to node on the WMN, the preset multi-hop restriction includes a hop count threshold, and the distress message exceeds the preset multi-hop restriction when the hop counter exceeds the hop count threshold.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the distress message contains a hop timer tracking a time since first broadcast of the distress message by the host vehicle over the WMN, the preset multi-hop restriction includes a hop time threshold, and the distress message exceeds the preset multi-hop restriction when the hop timer exceeds the hop time threshold.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the distress message contains a real-time host vehicle location of the host vehicle, the preset multi-hop restriction includes a geofence boundary relative to the real-time host vehicle location, and the distress message exceeds the preset multi-hop restriction when a real-time recipient vehicle location of the recipient vehicle is outside the geofence boundary.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, via the resident controller after receiving the distress message, a hop interrupt message indicating the distress message was successfully transmitted via another node on the WMN to the BO vehicle services system or the first responder entity; and
transmitting, via the resident controller responsive to receiving the hop interrupt message, the disable command signal to the resident subsystem of the recipient vehicle disabling retransmission of the distress message to another node over the WMN.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting, via the vehicle controller responsive to receiving the vehicle disabled signal, a sufficient connectivity state indicating the wireless comm device is able to wirelessly connect to the cellular or satellite communications system; and
transmitting, via the vehicle controller responsive to detecting the sufficient connectivity state, a host disable command signal to a resident host subsystem of the host vehicle disabling transmission of the distress message over the WMN.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
retrieving, via the resident controller from a memory device storing a plurality of multi-hop restrictions responsive to receiving the distress message, a set of multi-hop restrictions calibrated to a severity level of the incapacitating vehicle event; and
setting, prior to the resident controller determining if the distress message exceeds the preset multi-hop restriction, the preset multi-hop restriction to the set of multi-hop restrictions.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising retransmitting, via the resident controller of the recipient vehicle responsive to the prior distress message not being previously received and the distress message not exceeding the preset multi-hop restriction, the distress message to one or more additional nodes over the WMN.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
detecting, via the resident controller, an insufficient connectivity status indicating the recipient vehicle is not able to contact the BO vehicle services system or the first responder entity,
wherein retransmitting the distress message to the one or more additional nodes over the WMN is further responsive to detecting the insufficient connectivity status.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
determining, via the resident controller responsive to detecting the insufficient connectivity status, a failed retry connection event indicating the recipient vehicle did not successfully contact the BO vehicle services system or the first responder entity; and
determining, via the resident controller responsive to the failed retry connection event, if a retry connection counter tracking a number of retry connection attempts exceeds a retry count threshold,
wherein retransmitting the distress message to the one or more additional nodes over the WMN is further responsive to the retry connection counter exceeding the retry count threshold.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising incrementing a hop counter contained in the distress message prior to retransmitting the distress message over the WMN.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle disabled signal is received from a vehicle interface micro control unit (MCU) resident to the host vehicle or an occupant of the host vehicle via an in-vehicle human machine interface (HMI).

13. Non-transitory, computer-readable media storing instructions executable by a vehicle controller of a host vehicle having a wireless communications (comm) device and/or a resident controller of a recipient vehicle having a resident wireless comm device configured to communicate with the host vehicle over a wireless mesh network (WMN), the instructions, when executed, causing the vehicle controller and/or the resident controller to perform operations comprising:
receiving, via the vehicle controller, a vehicle disabled signal indicating the host vehicle is incapacitated due to an incapacitating vehicle event;
detecting, via the vehicle controller responsive to receiving the vehicle disabled signal, an insufficient connectivity state indicating the wireless comm device

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Llc

Inventors

• Wright Adam L
• Droste Scott T

Classifications

• H04L45/122 Primary

  by minimising distances, e.g. by selecting a route with minimum of number of hops · CPC title

• H04W84/18

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title

• H04W4/90

  Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS] · CPC title

• H04W4/40 Primary

  for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P] · CPC title

• H04W24/08

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title