ENHANCED PASSENGER PICKUP VIA TELEMATICS SYNCHRONIZATION
Granted: March 18, 2010
Application Number:
20100070168
A system is provided for facilitating passenger pickup via telematic routing. The system includes a call center for receiving a plurality of data feeds indicative of passenger arrival time and location, a vehicle telematics unit for receiving vehicle routing instructions from the call center based at least in part on the passenger arrival time and location, the vehicle routing instructions directed to guiding a vehicle to a passenger meeting location. The system further includes a mobile…
CREATION OF GIS TOOLS AND SPATIAL DATABASE FOR LIMITED ACCESS HIGHWAY ENTRANCE POINTS IN THE US AND CANADA
Granted: March 18, 2010
Application Number:
20100070174
A navigation assistance system and method determines limited access highway entrance points as destinations in a geographic information system. In one aspect, the limited access highway entrance points are stored as destinations in a geographic database within the geographic information system such that a telematics service provider can provide directions to the limited access highway entrance points.
DYNAMIC DETERMINATION OF OPTIMAL ROUTE DELIVERY METHOD
Granted: March 4, 2010
Application Number:
20100057341
A method and system for dynamic determination of optimal route delivery receives a point of interest location, a current vehicle location, and a date of first set of route directions from a telematics unit over a wireless network by a software application running on a navigation server. The application accesses the first set of route directions and a second set of route directions from a database located on a telematics service provider premises. Both the first and second set of route…
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATING BETWEEN A VEHICLE AND A CALL CENTER
Granted: March 4, 2010
Application Number:
20100056195
A method of communicating between a vehicle and a call center includes establishing voice communication between a telematics unit of the vehicle and the call center; verbally communicating data during the voice communication; and designating, via an advisor at the call center, at least some of the verbally communicated data as significant data during a data entry mode of an operator station. Textual and/or graphical indicia corresponding to the significant data are sent from the call…
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR THE DELIVERY OF USER REQUESTED PROGRAM CONTENT USING BROADCAST CHANNELS
Granted: March 4, 2010
Application Number:
20100056076
Aspects of the disclosure describe a method and system for the delivery and notification of user requested radio content. Aspects include a radio unit that is physically integrated with and is part of a telematics unit and receives user requested content data from a radio control center over a wireless network. The radio unit processes the user requested content data using a user request application. Further, the user requested data includes the scheduled times for one or more items of…
RADIO FILTERS FOR XM CHANNELS
Granted: March 4, 2010
Application Number:
20100056093
A method of providing user-defined satellite radio filtering in a satellite radio system entails receiving at the satellite radio system a user-defined filter specifying one or more satellite channels to block and, when receiving satellite radio signals, making the one or more satellite channels to block unavailable for listening by the user. The user-defined filter may be received via direct user input, a portable storage device, or a wireless network.
METHOD OF USING MICROPHONE CHARACTERISTICS TO OPTIMIZE SPEECH RECOGNITION PERFORMANCE
Granted: February 25, 2010
Application Number:
20100049516
A system and method for tuning a speech recognition engine to an individual microphone using a database containing acoustical models for a plurality of microphones. Microphone performance characteristics are obtained from a microphone at a speech recognition engine, the database is searched for an acoustical model that matches the characteristics, and the speech recognition engine is then modified based on the matching acoustical model.
SEALS FOR TRANSMISSION DRIVE MOTORS
Granted: February 25, 2010
Application Number:
20100044973
A seal for use between the housing of an automatic transmission and the housing (can) of a transmission drive motor is disposed at each end of the drive motor housing. The seal includes a preferably metal annulus having inner and outer elastomeric ribbed seals secured thereto. The annulus, which defines a non-hardened “S” shape in cross section, maintains the shape and strength of the seal and the ribbed inner seal provides a fluid tight seal with the motor housing while the ribbed…
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRANSMITTING DATA TO A TRAFFIC INFORMATION SERVER
Granted: February 11, 2010
Application Number:
20100036595
A method for transmitting data to a traffic information server includes obtaining, at a mobile vehicle, data including at least one of a vehicle speed and a vehicle location at a then-current time, and determining whether the data is redundant. Determining whether the data is redundant may be accomplished by at least one of comparing the data with other data previously transmitted to the traffic information server from an other mobile vehicle or determining whether the data falls within…
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MONITORING AND REPORTING TELEMATICS UNIT COMMUNICATION NETWORK SYSTEM ACQUISITION AND SCANNING PERFORMANCE
Granted: February 11, 2010
Application Number:
20100035602
A system and method for monitoring and reporting telematics unit communication network system acquisition and scanning performance is disclosed herein. An example of the method includes monitoring a scan of all cellular networks that are available to a vehicle telematics unit, and during the monitoring, recognizing a predetermined trigger. In response to the predetermined trigger, a memory buffer in the telematics unit stores data associated with at least one of performance or outcome of…
IN-VEHICLE ALERT OF CLOUD POINT IN ENGINE DIESEL FUEL
Granted: February 11, 2010
Application Number:
20100033372
The disclosure relates to a method for receiving in-vehicle information regarding diesel fuel cloud point condition. The method includes establishing communication between a telematics unit in a vehicle and i) a global positioning system device, ii) a call center including a database, and iii) a cloud point monitoring device in the vehicle. The telematics unit receives from at least one of i, ii, or iii, information pertaining to vehicle location, cloud point, and ambient temperature.…
METHOD OF FINDING A KEY TO A MOBILE VEHICLE
Granted: February 11, 2010
Application Number:
20100033342
A method of finding a key to a mobile vehicle includes receiving a call, at a call center, indicating that the key is lost and requesting, via the call center, a telematics unit on-board the mobile vehicle to establish communication with a remote access key fob that is associated with the key, the remote access key fob having an alarm integrated therewith. The method further includes requesting, via the call center, the telematics unit to activate the alarm of the remote access key fob…
INTERACTIVE INFORMATION DISSEMINATION AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING ACTION ITEMS
Granted: January 7, 2010
Application Number:
20100005152
An interactive information dissemination and retrieval system is disclosed herein. The system includes a website configured to host a blog and to receive at least one blog post. An information retrieval reporting system is configured to i) extract a first set of tags from the blog and a second set of tags from the at least one blog post and ii) recognize a semantic relationship between the first and second sets of tags. At least one analyzer is included in the system and is configured to…
APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR COOLING AN EXHAUST GAS
Granted: January 7, 2010
Application Number:
20100000205
An exhaust gas cooling apparatus and method for cooling an exhaust gas is provided. The exhaust cooling apparatus has a first fluid conduit and a variable nozzle extending from the first fluid conduit. The variable nozzle being disposed in an inlet end of a second fluid conduit, wherein the variable nozzle has at least two dissimilar materials adjacent to each other and a fluid inlet opening is located between an outer periphery of the variable nozzle and an inner surface of the inlet…
LOCATION BASED METHOD FOR IMPROVING VEHICLE CABIN AIR QUALITY
Granted: December 31, 2009
Application Number:
20090326760
Ways are provided for improving the in-cabin air quality of a vehicle by automatically adjusting the HVAC system settings sufficiently in advance of approaching a location associated with an air quality hazard. In one example, the vehicle's telematics unit correlates the vehicle's position information with locations of static and dynamic air quality hazards, including locations of incidents potentially affecting the air quality in vicinity of the vehicle's location and issues…
TRAFFIC DATA TRANSMISSION FROM A VEHICLE TELEMATICS UNIT
Granted: December 31, 2009
Application Number:
20090325612
A method of sending traffic related data to a call center using a telematics unit of a vehicle. The method includes receiving a request at the telematics unit to transmit non-traffic data such as vehicle diagnostic information to the call center. Both the non-traffic data as well as traffic related data is obtained by the telematics unit and embedded into a short message service (SMS) message that is then sent to the call center. The traffic related data can be inserted only if it…
CONTROLLING VEHICLE TELEMATICS UNIT DATA TRANSMISSION BASED ON CALL CENTER LOCATION
Granted: December 31, 2009
Application Number:
20090325596
A method and system that inhibits transmission of location information by a telematics unit outside of a geographic region in which such transmission is prohibited. The method includes identifying the relative location of the vehicle and a call center to which the information is to be sent. If the vehicle is in a country or other geographic region that prohibits transmission of vehicle location data outside of the region and, if the call center is determined by the vehicle to be outside…
PRODUCTION OF CRYPTOGRAPHIC KEYS FOR AN EMBEDDED PROCESSING DEVICE
Granted: December 31, 2009
Application Number:
20090323967
A system and method for producing cryptographic keys for use by an embedded processing device within a manufactured product. A pseudo random number generator is seeded with entropy data gathered by the embedded device, and the result is used to generate a public-private key pair. The process can be carried out during manufacturing so that the public key of each manufactured product can be stored in a database along with a unique identifier for the embedded device associated with the key.…
IN-VEHICLE ALERT DELIVERY MAXIMIZING COMMUNICATIONS EFFICIENCY AND SUBSCRIBER PRIVACY
Granted: December 31, 2009
Application Number:
20090322560
A system and method are provided for enhancing subscriber privacy while delivering location-based in-vehicle alerts to the subscribers of a mobile traffic reporting system by disassociating subscriber information from location information transmitted by a traffic probe vehicle. In various examples, the in-vehicle alerts include Flash Flood alerts, Hurricane alerts, Amber alerts, as well as non-crisis alerts, such as traffic hotspots, locations of inexpensive gas stations, and various…
Automatic Alert Playback Upon Recognition of a Paired Peripheral Device
Granted: December 31, 2009
Application Number:
20090322558
A system for providing alert information to a user of a vehicle comprising a telematics unit associated with the vehicle and further including a short range wireless interface. A mobile wireless device is paired with the vehicle via a pairing with the telematics unit. The mobile device further comprises a first communication interface for wirelessly receiving the alert information and a second communication interface for communicating with the telematics unit via the short range wireless…
