Dual distance to empty function for bi-fuel vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9441999-B2
Application number	US-201313968589-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 16, 2013
Priority date	Aug 16, 2013
Publication date	Sep 13, 2016
Grant date	Sep 13, 2016

Abstract

A vehicle includes a powertrain comprising an engine configured to separately burn first and second types of fuels and propel the vehicle therefrom, and a computer programmed to compute a distance traveled per unit fuel burned for each fuel type, compute distance-to-empty (DTE) for each fuel type, and display DTE for each fuel type.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle comprising:
an engine; and
a controller to, in response to the engine switching from a first to a second fuel, compute a distance traveled per unit fuel burned for each of the fuels, display a single total distance-to-empty from a distances traveled sum for each of the fuels, and transmit the single total distance-to-empty to a phone within and a device external to the vehicle.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to use independent fuel burn parameters of the vehicle for the first and second fuels to compute a distance-to-empty for each of the first and second fuels based on the fuel burn parameters for the first and second fuels and alter the interface to display both distance-to-empty computations for each fuel type on the interface.

3. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the first fuel is gasoline and the second fuel is one of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG).

4. The vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising a toggle switch to alter the interface to display a distance-to-empty for each of the first fuel and the second fuel.

5. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to display an amount of fuel for the first and second fuel.

6. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to alter the interface to:
display distances traveled per fuel type; and
display fuel amount for both fuel types on a single gauge.

7. An information display system for a dual-fuel vehicle, comprising:
an interface configured to display a summed distance-to-empty calculated from a distance traveled per unit fuel for each fuel, and having a user-interface button; and
a controller configured to, in response to activation of the button, alter a cellphone paired with the controller to display the summed distance-to-empty and stop displaying the summed distance-to-empty on the interface.

8. The information display system of claim 7 , wherein the controller is further configured to access fuel burn parameters of the vehicle for a first fuel and for a second fuel, and compute the distance-to-empty for the first fuel and for the second fuel based on the fuel burn parameters for each fuel type and alter the interface to display the distance-to-empty for the first and second fuels.

9. The information display system of claim 7 , wherein a first fuel is gasoline and a second fuel is one of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG).

10. The information display system of claim 8 , wherein the controller is further configured to alter the interface to display the summed distance-to-empty and the distance-to-empty for the first and second fuels.

11. The information display system of claim 7 further comprising a toggle switch to selectively alter the interface to display a distance-to-empty of the first fuel or the second fuel.

12. The information display system of claim 7 , wherein the controller is further configured to alter the interface to:
display fuel level for each fuel type with only one gauge.

13. A vehicle information system control method comprising:
in response to receiving a request for a summed total distance-to-empty based on a first and a second fuel from a cellular telephone, send, via a controller, data of the summed total distance-to-empty from a sum of a distance traveled per unit fuel for each fuel such that the cellular telephone is configured to display the data on an interface.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Saavedra Jose Guillermo

Classifications

• G07C5/0825

  using optical means · CPC title

• Y10T29/49622

  Vehicular structural member making · CPC title

• G07C5/00

  Registering or indicating the working of vehicles · CPC title

• F02D19/066

  Retrofit of secondary fuel supply systems; Conversion of engines to operate on multiple fuels · CPC title

• F02D19/0618 Primary

  depending on the engine's or vehicle's position, e.g. on/off road or proximity to a harbor · CPC title