METHOD FOR OBTAINING ELECTRONIC VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (VIN)
Granted: March 20, 2008
Application Number:
20080071882
A method for obtaining an electronic Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) from a vehicle. According to one embodiment, an electronic VIN request is generated at the vehicle through a vehicle user interface, such as a visual display, a microphone, a speaker, a keypad, or an electronic control or button. According to another embodiment, the electronic VIN request is generated at an entity, such as a remote call center, that is remotely located from the vehicle. In either case, the…
System and method for reducing route previews to reduce driver workload
Granted: March 13, 2008
Application Number:
20080065314
A method and computer-readable medium for generating and presenting a preview of a driving route reduces driver workload. In an example, the method determines that the driving route comprises more than the predetermined number of driving instructions and creates a route preview wherein the number of instructions does not exceed the predetermined number of driving instructions. In a further example, the route preview is created by eliminating certain instructions from the route. A…
PRE-ENGINEERED FRAME PORTION AND METHOD OF USE THEREFOR
Granted: March 6, 2008
Application Number:
20080053739
A vehicle chassis includes a structural frame having a frame portion that partially defines an open space and that has a predetermined configuration such that the open space maintains a predetermined amount of spatial integrity in the event of a horizontal impact to the vehicle chassis. The frame also includes a frame component operatively connected to the frame portion that further defines the structural frame. The open space provides a protected packaging space wherein certain critical…
POWERTRAIN AND METHOD OF OPERATION
Granted: March 6, 2008
Application Number:
20080058160
A method of releasing a lockup clutch for a fluid coupling assembly disposed between an engine and an automatically shiftable transmission during a negative engine torque mode of operation is provided. The method includes the steps of: A) determining a current engine torque value prior to commanding the engine to ramp to a target engine torque value; B) commanding the engine to a target engine torque value wherein the target engine torque value is one of a zero and near zero value; C)…
METHOD FOR CONDUCTING VEHICLE-RELATED SURVEY
Granted: February 28, 2008
Application Number:
20080051955
A method for conducting a vehicle-related survey that gathers information regarding a specific area of interest from a vehicle user or vehicle hardware. In general, this method utilizes vehicle data to generate a survey having a variety of questions and instructions that are generally directed towards the area of interest. The instructions can be designed to place the vehicle into a predetermined configuration in an attempt to recreate a known vehicle problem or condition. Once the…
LIGHTWEIGHT PROTOCOL FOR USE IN A TCP/IP COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK
Granted: February 21, 2008
Application Number:
20080043684
A lightweight communications protocol optimized for wireless transfer of data across a TCP/IP network that connects a vehicle communications device to a remote entity, such as a call center. The lightweight protocol utilizes messages that include header, trailer, and payload elements, where the payload element is optimized for the transmission of SOAP content as a default content type, but is capable of transmitting other types of non-SOAP MIME content as well. The lightweight protocol…
ROUTE-MATCHING METHOD FOR USE WITH VEHICLE NAVIGATION SYSTEMS
Granted: February 21, 2008
Application Number:
20080046174
A method for matching navigational routes that are generated by separate route generators and are used by vehicle navigation systems. According to one embodiment, a user previews a first navigational route generated by a first route generator, such as those incorporated in a navigation-related website. From this first navigational route, a variety of location markers corresponding to different points along the route are generated. The location markers are then sent to a second route…
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING VEHICLE EMISSIONS DATA TO AN AUTHORIZED RECIPIENT
Granted: February 14, 2008
Application Number:
20080039983
A method for providing vehicle emissions data from a vehicle to a remotely located call center, so that the call center can then provide the emissions data to one or more authorized recipients. According to one embodiment, this method includes the steps of receiving a vehicle emissions data request, sending emissions data from one or more vehicle electronic modules (VEMs) to a vehicle telematics unit, and wirelessly transmitting the emissions data to a call center. Once at the call…
VEHICLE FLEET EMAIL NOTIFICATION METHOD AND SYSTEM
Granted: February 14, 2008
Application Number:
20080039995
A vehicle fleet email notification system and method which assists in management of vehicle fleets by allowing fleet managers to send messages to fleet drivers as well as receive email messages that provide diverse types of dynamic vehicle information about the fleet vehicles. The email notifications are triggered by different events, some of which are independent of the vehicle (e.g., a monthly trigger), and others of which occur at the vehicle, such as a mileage or low oil life…
Oil Pan Assembly and Method of Selecting an Oil Pan
Granted: February 7, 2008
Application Number:
20080028888
A transmission oil pan assembly includes an oil pan matable with a transmission case to at least partially define a transmission interior space, and an accessing component for accessing an interior component located inside of the transmission interior space from outside of the transmission interior space. The oil pan is formed with structure adapted to support the accessing component. The oil pan may be formed with an opening adapted to receive the accessing component. A method of…
VEHICLE MAINTENANCE EVENT REPORTING METHOD
Granted: January 31, 2008
Application Number:
20080027604
A vehicle maintenance event reporting system and method that utilizes a vehicle email notification system in which triggers are used to initiate the generation and transmission of email messages that provide diverse types of dynamic vehicle information to the owner or other authorized subscriber. The email notifications are triggered by different events, some of which are independent of the vehicle (e.g., a monthly trigger), and others of which occur at the vehicle, such as a mileage or…
CRITERIA-BASED ALTERNATIVE MESSAGING FOR A VEHICLE EMAIL NOTIFICATION SYSTEM
Granted: January 31, 2008
Application Number:
20080027606
A criteria-based messaging method for use with a vehicle email notification system in which triggers are used to initiate the generation and transmission of email messages that provide diverse types of dynamic vehicle information to the owner or other authorized subscriber. The email notifications are triggered by different events, some of which are independent of the vehicle (e.g., a monthly trigger), and others of which occur at the vehicle, such as a mileage or low oil life trigger.…
IN-VEHICLE NOTIFICATION OF FAILED MESSAGE DELIVERY
Granted: January 31, 2008
Application Number:
20080027605
A method and system for in-vehicle notification of a failed message delivery for use with a vehicle email notification system in which triggers are used to initiate the generation and transmission of email messages that provide diverse types of dynamic vehicle information to the owner or other authorized subscriber. The email notifications are triggered by different events, some of which are independent of the vehicle (e.g., a monthly trigger), and others of which occur at the vehicle,…
VEHICLE EMAIL NOTIFICATION USING DATA FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES
Granted: January 24, 2008
Application Number:
20080021605
A vehicle email notification system and method that accesses data from the vehicle as well as from one or more other sources and combines the information into an email that is then sent to the owner or other authorized subscriber. The email notifications are triggered by different events, some of which are independent of the vehicle (e.g., a monthly trigger), and others of which occur at the vehicle, such as a mileage or low oil life trigger. The notification system builds and sends to…
VEHICLE EMAIL NOTIFICATION WITH REGIONAL-SPECIFIC CONTENT
Granted: January 24, 2008
Application Number:
20080021964
A vehicle email notification system and method in which regional-specific information such as seat belt laws and dynamic vehicle information such as remaining oil life is obtained and incorporated into periodic email messages that are sent to the owner or other authorized subscriber. The regional-specific information is determined based on residence information for the vehicle, such as its garaged address. The email notifications are triggered by different events, some of which are…
MOLDING COSMETIC COMPOSITE PANELS WITH VISIBLE FIBERS FROM ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT RESISTANT EPOXY COMPOSITIONS
Granted: January 10, 2008
Application Number:
20080008868
One embodiment of the invention provides a method including molding composite panels that are UV resistant, substantially free of fiber readout, and have visible fibers from epoxy compositions comprising resins having aromatic rings.
APPLYING SPEECH RECOGNITION ADAPTATION IN AN AUTOMATED SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM OF A TELEMATICS-EQUIPPED VEHICLE
Granted: January 10, 2008
Application Number:
20080010057
A speech recognition adaptation method for a vehicle having a telematics unit with an embedded speech recognition system. Speech is received and pre-processed to generate acoustic feature vectors, and an adaptation parameter is applied to the acoustic feature vectors to yield transformed acoustic feature vectors. The transformed acoustic feature vectors are decoded and a hypothesis of the speech is selected, and the adaptation parameter is trained using acoustic feature vectors from the…
AUTOMATED SPEECH RECOGNITION USING NORMALIZED IN-VEHICLE SPEECH
Granted: January 3, 2008
Application Number:
20080004875
A speech recognition method includes the steps of receiving speech in a vehicle, extracting acoustic data from the received speech, and applying a vehicle-specific inverse impulse response function to the extracted acoustic data to produce normalized acoustic data. The speech recognition method may also include one or more of the following steps: pre-processing the normalized acoustic data to extract acoustic feature vectors; decoding the normalized acoustic feature vectors using as…
AUTOMATIC COMMUNICATION OF PERSONALIZED MESSAGES TO A TELEMATICS EQUIPPED VEHICLE
Granted: December 27, 2007
Application Number:
20070299565
A method of automatically communicating personalized messages to a telematics-equipped vehicle includes the following steps: (a) creating a personalized message; (b) defining playback instructions for playing the personalized message; (c) generating a trigger based on the defined playback instructions; (d) setting the trigger; (e) monitoring for the occurrence of one or more conditions that satisfy the trigger; and (f) determining that the one or more conditions have occurred and, if so,…
Releasable Fastening Device
Granted: December 13, 2007
Application Number:
20070284897
An assembly having a device for releasably fastening a first component to a second component includes a device body, a first fastener extending from the device body and operable to attach the device body to the first component, and a second fastener extending from the device body and adapted to attach the device to the second component. When a force of greater than a predetermined amount is applied to the second component, the first fastener detaches from the first component without…
