Personalizing vehicular comfort settings for a specific user

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9963012-B2
Application number	US-201514961808-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 7, 2015
Priority date	Dec 7, 2015
Publication date	May 8, 2018
Grant date	May 8, 2018

Abstract

An application is launched in response to identifying a specific user in the vehicle. Upon launching the application, a historical comfort setting profile is automatically downloaded for the user. The historical profile includes individual comfort setting records. The historical profile is updated with comfort setting record(s) corresponding to each instance of an automatic climate control setting, a manual climate control setting, or an alternate climate control setting while the specific user is in the vehicle. An in-vehicle setting is dynamically predicted within respective predetermined time increments while the specific user is in the vehicle or in response to a user request. The predicted in-vehicle setting is dependent upon geographic location data points and a set of climate control related settings retrieved from the individual comfort setting records. A most recently predicted in-vehicle setting is caused to be displayed on a vehicle display while the specific user is in the vehicle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for personalizing vehicular comfort settings for a specific user, the method comprising:
in response to identifying the specific user in a vehicle, autonomously launching an adaptation application in the vehicle;
upon launching the adaptation application, automatically downloading a historical comfort setting profile for the specific user, the historical comfort setting profile including individual comfort setting records;
autonomously updating the historical comfort setting profile with a comfort setting record corresponding to each instance of an automatic climate control setting, a manual climate control setting, or an alternate climate control setting while the specific user is in the vehicle;
dynamically predicting an in-vehicle setting within respective predetermined time increments while the specific user is in the vehicle or in response to a user request, the predicted in-vehicle setting and the respective predetermined time increments based upon geographic location data points and a set of climate control related settings retrieved from the individual comfort setting records corresponding to the specific user, wherein a time period for the respective predetermined time increments is inversely proportional to a frequency of implementations of a comfort setting initiated by the specific user; and
causing a most recently predicted in-vehicle setting corresponding to the specific user to be displayed on a vehicle display while the specific user is in the vehicle.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the set of climate control related settings retrieved from each of the individual comfort setting records includes at least one of: an outside air temperature data point; an outside humidity data point; an air conditioner indication; a humidity glass temperature data point; an interior air temperature data point; an interior roof temperature data point; an interior dash temperature data point; a wiper indication; a sun intensity data point; a sun elevation data point; a sun azimuth data point; an ambient light status indication; a window indication; a blower mode; a fan speed; a thermal seat setting; a zone control indication; an air inlet mode; a front or rear defog indication; or a driver temperature setting.

3. The method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an input to accept the most recently predicted in-vehicle setting; and
in response to the input, autonomously changing a then-current setting to the predicted in-vehicle setting.

4. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the dynamically predicting of the in-vehicle setting includes:
determining a first predicted in-vehicle setting for a first of the respective predetermined time increments; and
while the specific user is in the vehicle, determining a second predicted in-vehicle setting within a next of the respective predetermined time increments upon an expiration of the first of the respective predetermined time increments, the next of the respective predetermined time increments based upon a plurality of implementations of a comfort setting, each implementation of the plurality of implementations initiated by the specific user.

5. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein each of the geographic location data points is selected from the group consisting of a latitude data point, a longitude data point, and an elevation data point.

6. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the alternate climate control setting includes a change in a window status or a change in a sunroof status.

7. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein the dynamically predicting of the in-vehicle setting includes dynamically predicting at least one of a window setting, a front blower mode, a front fan speed, a thermal seat setting, a zone control setting, an air inlet mode, a rear defog setting, or a driver temperature setting.

8. The method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying the specific user within the vehicle based upon a mobile device associated with the specific user.

9. The method as defined in claim 8 , wherein identifying the specific user further comprises identifying the specific user within the vehicle based upon a mobile device associated with the specific user, wherein a vehicle communications platform retrieves the specific user based upon a mobile device identifier corresponding to the mobile device.

10. A vehicle comfort setting personalization method, comprising:
at a first time, recognizing that a specific user is in a first vehicle containing an adaptation application;
monitoring climate control settings every half second while the specific user is in the first vehicle;
upon recognizing, by the monitoring, an instance of an automatic climate control setting, a manual climate control setting, or an alternate climate control setting:
collecting a first vehicle location data point, a time/date data point, and at least one climate control related setting associated with the first vehicle; and
generating a first comfort setting record including the data points and the at least one climate control related setting;

at a second time, recognizing that the specific user is in a second vehicle containing the adaptation application, the second vehicle being different from the first vehicle;
monitoring climate control settings every second while the specific user is in the second vehicle;
upon recognizing, by the monitoring, another instance of an automatic climate control setting, a manual climate control setting, or an alternate climate control setting:
collecting a second vehicle location data point, a time/date data point, and at least one climate control related setting associated with the second vehicle; and
generating a second comfort setting record including the data points and the at least one climate control related setting;

consolidating the first and second comfort setting records into a historical comfort setting profile for the specific user; and
at a third time, using the historical comfort setting profile to dynamically predict an in-vehicle setting within respective predetermined time increments while the specific user is in the first vehicle, the second vehicle, or a third vehicle or in response to a request while the specific user is in the first vehicle, the second vehicle, or the third vehicle, wherein a time period for the respective predetermined time increments is inversely proportional to a frequency of implementations of a comfort setting initiated by the specific user.

11. The vehicle comfort setting personalization method as defined in claim 10 wherein:
the first vehicle location data point is selected from the group consisting of a latitude data point for the first vehicle, a longitude data point for the first vehicle, and an elevation data point for the first vehicle; and
the second vehicle location data point is selected from the group consisting of a latitude data point for the second vehicle, a longitude data point for the second vehicle, and an elevation data point for the second vehicle.

12. The vehicle comfort setting personalization method as defined in claim 10 wherein:
the collecting of the time/date data point associated with the first vehicle includes collecting a calendar day and a time of day at which the instance is recognized; and
the collecting of the time/date data point associated with the second vehicle includes collecting a calendar day and a time of day at which the other instance is recognized.

13. The vehicle comfort setting personalization method as defined in claim 10 wherein prior to using the historical comfort setting profile to dynamically predict the

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Llc

Inventors

• Stevanovic Miroslav
• Elnajjar Hassan
• Gautama Neeraj R
• Adesina Opeyemi
• Abdelzad Vahdat

Classifications

• B60H1/00771

  the input being a vehicle position or surrounding, e.g. GPS-based position or tunnel · CPC title

• B60H1/00971 Primary

  Control systems or circuits characterised by including features for locking or memorising of control modes · CPC title

• B60H1/00785

  by the detection of humidity or frost · CPC title