Vehicle component identification and configuration registry reporting system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9269203-B2
Application number	US-201414502564-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2014
Priority date	May 17, 2011
Publication date	Feb 23, 2016
Grant date	Feb 23, 2016

Abstract

A method and system for utilizing a telematics unit on a telematics-equipped vehicle as a register for ECU Critical Information (ECI) associated with the ECUs in the vehicle, which may include their serial numbers, configurations, software images, and other data includes the telematics unit querying ECUs within the telematics-equipped vehicle such as, for example, when the vehicle is started. The ECUs may then provide the telematics unit with the ECI associated with each ECU. The ECI may be encrypted, and the telematics unit may provide each module that it queries with a nonce used in the encryption process. The telematics unit may then decrypt the ECI received from each of the ECUs and compare the received ECI to previously stored ECI. If the received ECI is different from the previously stored ECI, the telematics unit may send the new ECI to a TSP call center. Both the telematics unit and the call center may replace the previously stored ECI with the new ECI and may maintain records of previously stored ECI and updates to the ECI.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for registering electronic control unit (ECU) critical information, comprising:
a plurality of telematics-equipped vehicles, each telematics-equipped vehicle comprising a telematics unit configured to communicate with an ECU of the respective telematics-equipped vehicle to obtain ECU critical information (ECI) corresponding to the ECU, and to transmit the ECI to a telematics service provider (TSP) call center, wherein the ECI obtained by each telematics unit is encrypted, and wherein each telematics unit is further configured to verify the integrity of the obtained encrypted ECI by:
obtaining an encrypted hash function result corresponding to contents of the encrypted ECI obtained by the telematics unit,
decrypting the obtained encrypted ECI,
performing a hash function on the decrypted ECI to obtain a hash function result corresponding to the decrypted ECI,
decrypting the obtained encrypted hash function result, and
comparing the hash function result corresponding to the decrypted ECI with the decrypted obtained hash function result; and

the TSP call center, configured to receive ECI from the plurality of telematics-equipped vehicles and to identify stolen vehicles and to issue targeted recall notifications based on the received ECI;
wherein the TSP call center identifying stolen vehicles comprises: comparing received ECI with ECI corresponding to ECUs reported as stolen to determine whether the ECI received from a telematics-equipped vehicle matches the ECI corresponding to an ECU reported as stolen; and
wherein the TSP call center issuing targeted recall notifications comprises: identifying a defective ECU for which a recall notification is to be issued; identifying telematics-equipped vehicles of the plurality of telematics-equipped vehicles with the defective ECU installed based on the received ECI; and transmitting a recall notification to the identified telematics-equipped vehicles.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein identifying telematics-equipped vehicles of the plurality of telematics-equipped vehicles with the defective ECU installed further includes identification of telematics-equipped vehicles that have previously had the defective ECU installed thereon based on the received ECI.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein transmission of the ECI to the TSP call center by the telematics units is triggered by the telematics-equipped vehicle detecting a change in ECI of an ECU of the telematics-equipped vehicle.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the telematics unit obtaining the ECI is triggered by the telematics-equipped vehicle being started.

5. The system according to claim 1 , wherein transmission of the ECI to the TSP call center by the telematics units is encrypted.

6. The system according to claim 5 , wherein the TSP call center has a public and private key pair associated therewith, and the telematics units are configured to encrypt ECI to be transmitted using the public key of the pair, and the TSP call center is configured to decrypt transmitted ECI using the private key of the pair.

7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the obtained ECI corresponds to an ECU serial number.

8. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the obtained ECI corresponds to ECU configuration data.

9. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the obtained ECI corresponds to an ECU software image.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having processor-executable instructions stored thereon for registering electronic control unit (ECU) critical information of a telematics-equipped vehicle with a telematics service provider (TSP) call center, the processor-executable instructions, when executed by a processor, facilitating performance of the following:
communicating, by a telematics unit, with an ECU of the telematics-equipped vehicle to obtain ECU critical information (ECI) corresponding to the ECU, wherein the ECI obtained by each telematics unit is encrypted;
verifying, by the telematics unit, the integrity of the obtained encrypted ECI, wherein the verifying further comprises:
obtaining an encrypted hash function result corresponding to contents of the encrypted ECI obtained by the telematics unit,
decrypting the obtained encrypted ECI,
performing a hash function on the decrypted ECI to obtain a hash function result corresponding to the decrypted ECI,
decrypting the obtained encrypted hash function result, and
comparing the hash function result corresponding to the decrypted ECI with the decrypted obtained hash function result; and

transmitting, by the telematics unit, the ECI to the TSP call center to facilitate stolen vehicle identification and targeted recall notifications by the TSP call center.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 10 , wherein transmission of the ECI to the TSP call center is triggered by the telematics-equipped vehicle detecting a change in ECI of an ECU of the telematics-equipped vehicle.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 10 , wherein the telematics units obtaining the ECI is triggered by the telematics-equipped vehicle being started.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 10 , wherein transmission of the ECI to the TSP call center is encrypted.

14. A method for registering electronic control unit (ECU) critical information of a telematics-equipped vehicle with a telematics service provider (TSP) call center, the method comprising:
communicating, by a telematics unit, with an ECU of the telematics-equipped vehicle to obtain ECU critical information (ECI) corresponding to the ECU, wherein the ECI obtained by each telematics unit is encrypted;
verifying, by the telematics unit, the integrity of the obtained encrypted ECI, wherein the verifying further comprises:
obtaining an encrypted hash function result corresponding to contents of the encrypted ECI obtained by the telematics unit,
decrypting the obtained encrypted ECI,
performing a hash function on the decrypted ECI to obtain a hash function result corresponding to the decrypted ECI,
decrypting the obtained encrypted hash function result, and
comparing the hash function result corresponding to the decrypted ECI with the decrypted obtained hash function result; and

transmitting, by the telematics unit, the ECI to the TSP call center to facilitate stolen vehicle identification and targeted recall notifications by the TSP call center.

15. The method according to claim 14 , wherein transmission of the ECI to the TSP call center is triggered by the telematics-equipped vehicle detecting a change in ECI of an ECU of the telematics-equipped vehicle.

16. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the telematics units obtaining the ECI is triggered by the telematics-equipped vehicle being started.

17. The method according to claim 14 , wherein transmission of the ECI to the TSP call center is encrypted.

Assignees

• Gen Motors Llc

Inventors

• Peirce Kenneth L

Classifications

• G07C5/008 Primary

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

• G07C5/085

  using electronic data carriers · CPC title

• H04L67/125 Primary

  involving control of end-device applications over a network · CPC title

• H04L69/40

  for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection (management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06) · CPC title