Odometer verification and reporting using a telematics-equipped vehicle
Granted: February 18, 2014
Patent Number:
8653953
A system and method for providing an odometer verification for a vehicle. The method carried out by the system includes the steps of: (a) receiving authorization from a customer to periodically store odometer information obtained from the customer's vehicle; (b) configuring at least one processing device such that it automatically stores odometer readings and associated correlation parameter values for the vehicle; (c) receiving a request for an odometer verification; (d) analyzing the…
Variable corridor navigation
Granted: February 4, 2014
Patent Number:
8645066
The described method and system provide for GPS navigation utilizing variable route corridors. The method may be implemented at a GPS-capable device (e.g. a telematics unit in one implementation) or through a call center that provides navigation services to a telecommunications device (e.g. a telematics unit in another implementation). A user input corresponding to an intended destination is received and a route to the intended destination is calculated with a variable route corridor.…
Restoring connectivity to a desubscribed telematics unit
Granted: February 4, 2014
Patent Number:
8644889
Aspects of the invention include a method and system for restoring connectivity from a telematics service provider to a desubscribed telematics unit, and therefore, restored a capability of providing telematics services to a vehicle owner. A vehicle owner with a lapsed subscription and a desubscribed telematics unit installed in his vehicle may have the need to request certain telematics services from the telematics service provider. Aspects of the invention provide for a vehicle owner…
User-specific confidence thresholds for speech recognition
Granted: January 28, 2014
Patent Number:
8639508
A method of automatic speech recognition includes receiving an utterance from a user via a microphone that converts the utterance into a speech signal, pre-processing the speech signal using a processor to extract acoustic data from the received speech signal, and identifying at least one user-specific characteristic in response to the extracted acoustic data. The method also includes determining a user-specific confidence threshold responsive to the at least one user-specific…
System and method for processing vehicle communications
Granted: January 28, 2014
Patent Number:
8639234
A system and a method for improving wireless communications between a call center and a vehicle. The system and method can reduce the number of wireless connections needed between a call center and a vehicle by using multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages to convey information therebetween. This obviates the need for the call center to make an initial wireless connection simply to alert the vehicle that it wishes to communicate. Instead, the system and method can convey information…
Method of communicating between a vehicle and a telematics subscription service
Granted: January 14, 2014
Patent Number:
8630619
A method of communicating between a vehicle and a telematics subscription service includes initiating a call from a vehicle telematics unit to a telematics subscription service via a wireless carrier system; accessing a vertical service code telephone number that is associated with the telematics subscription service and stored at a vehicle carrying the vehicle telematics unit; establishing a call between the vehicle telematics unit and the telematics subscription service using the…
Method for updating an electronic calendar in a vehicle
Granted: January 7, 2014
Patent Number:
8626553
A method for updating an electronic calendar in a vehicle involves uploading an appointment to the electronic calendar, where the appointment includes a description of an event, a time block for the event, and a travel time preceding the time block. An alert is set in a telematics unit of the vehicle, where the alert notifies a vehicle occupant of the appointment. The alert is configured to be activated in response to a trigger. At a time subsequent to the time block of the event, one of…
Method and system for dynamic nametag scoring
Granted: January 7, 2014
Patent Number:
8626506
A method for dynamic nametag scoring includes receiving at least one confusion table including at least one circumstantial condition wherein the confusion table is based on a plurality of phonetically balanced utterances, determining a plurality of templates for the nametag based on the received confusion tables, and determining a global nametag score for the nametag based on the determined templates. A computer usable medium with suitable computer program code is employed for dynamic…
Traffic data transmission from a vehicle telematics unit
Granted: January 7, 2014
Patent Number:
8626208
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…
Outgoing binary SMS messaging for vehicle communication with a call center
Granted: December 31, 2013
Patent Number:
8620360
A system and method for making vehicle originated calls to a telematics service provider or other call center. The method includes identifying a call type associated with a desired wireless communication of speech or data to the call center, and then carrying out one of a number of different call connection processes depending on the call type. For voice channel cellular connections, an in-band modem cellular connection is preferably established in most instances using a connection retry…
System and method for zone based initial route guidance within a telematics equipped mobile vehicle
Granted: December 24, 2013
Patent Number:
8615358
The present invention provides a method of operating a telematics enabled mobile vehicle communication system. The method includes receiving a navigation request from a user interface to a telematics unit, receiving a location signal defining an approximate geographic location of the telematics unit to the telematics unit, analyzing the navigation request and the location signal to produce a navigation route defined by a plurality of navigation points including an initial navigation…
Multifactor charging for electric vehicles
Granted: December 24, 2013
Patent Number:
8615355
The described method and system improve electric-power driving range for electric vehicles, i.e., electric-only, hybrid electric, and other vehicles that draw electrical power from an on-board storage system for propulsion. The described system uses synergy among selected data sources to provide charging prompts and route assistance to allow the vehicle user to operate his or her vehicle in a more economical fashion by ensuring timely and cost effective charging.
Methods to improve route quality using off-route data
Granted: December 10, 2013
Patent Number:
8606511
The described principles provide a method and system for identifying potentially closed roads and potentially open roads based on reroute requests, and of accommodating the potential road closure. If a reroute request is received from a user on a given route, the avoided roads of the route may be deemed potentially closed. If a predetermined number or a statistically significant number of users treat the road as potentially closed in this manner, it may be deemed closed. Similarly, if a…
Route-matching method for use with vehicle navigation systems
Granted: December 10, 2013
Patent Number:
8606506
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 device for demonstrating features of a vehicle navigation system
Granted: December 10, 2013
Patent Number:
8606500
A demonstration method and module for demonstrating various features of a vehicle navigation system without activating the system at a back-end facility, such as a remote call center. The demonstration module comes with a variety of pre-established navigation demonstrations, each of which is designed for a particular geographic area. The demonstration module obtains a vehicle position reading from the vehicle navigation system, and then utilizes this reading to select the most…
Telematics unit and method for controlling telematics unit for a vehicle
Granted: December 10, 2013
Patent Number:
8604937
A telematics unit is provided for a vehicle having a power unit, along with a method for controlling a telematics unit for a vehicle. The telematics unit includes a voltage sensor, a global positioning system unit, and a processor. The voltage sensor senses a measure of a voltage of the power unit. The global positioning system unit obtains position data as to a position of the vehicle. The processor is coupled to the voltage sensor and the global positioning system unit. The processor…
Determining status of high voltage battery for emergency responders
Granted: December 10, 2013
Patent Number:
8604919
The described method and system provide an early notification to emergency responders regarding a non-nominal condition associated with a vehicle involved in a collision. The system provides a short range wireless system controller in communication with a battery controller. The short range wireless system controller is further in communication with a communications device associated with an emergency responder via broadcast over a short range wireless RF network. If battery physical…
Navigation system support of in-vehicle TTY system
Granted: December 3, 2013
Patent Number:
8600011
The described method and system provide for utilizing a navigation system to facilitate communications between a call center and a disabled individual who may have difficulty hearing or speaking. In one implementation, if TTY services are unavailable through a TIM or TTY device, a call center may communicate with occupants of a vehicle through a vehicle navigation unit, utilizing a display and input method associated with the navigation unit. In another implementation, the call center…
Correcting substitution errors during automatic speech recognition by accepting a second best when first best is confusable
Granted: December 3, 2013
Patent Number:
8600760
A speech recognition method includes the steps of receiving input speech containing vocabulary, processing the input speech with a grammar to obtain N-best hypotheses and associated parameter values, and determining whether a first-best hypothesis of the N-best hypotheses is confusable with any vocabulary within the grammar. The first-best hypothesis is accepted as recognized speech corresponding to the received input speech if the first-best hypothesis is not determined to be confusable…
Method of using microphone characteristics to optimize speech recognition performance
Granted: December 3, 2013
Patent Number:
8600741
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.
