Vehicle slowdown control via short range wireless communication
Granted: August 7, 2012
Patent Number:
8239076
A method and system for enabling police pursuing a vehicle to slow the vehicle down via short range wireless communication with the vehicle. The process can be carried out with or without involvement of a call center that provides telematics services to the vehicle. The method involves configuring the vehicle to accept a slowdown command, confirming the target vehicle at a pursuing police vehicle, establishing the short range connection between the police vehicle and target vehicle, and…
Method of establishing a data connection with a telematics-equipped vehicle
Granted: July 10, 2012
Patent Number:
8219710
A method for establishing a wireless, mobile-terminated data connection with a telematics-equipped vehicle so that data can be sent to and received from the vehicle. Generally, the method involves receiving network address update information from a wireless carrier system, using the network address update information to determine if a network address currently exists for a particular telematics-equipped vehicle, and using the current network address (if one exists) to establish a…
Controlling location-based services using a portable privacy key
Granted: July 3, 2012
Patent Number:
8212691
A method for controlling location-based services for a vehicle that includes establishing a user-selected location-based service preference for a vehicle, linking a portable privacy key to the vehicle, communicating the presence of the portable privacy key from the vehicle to a call center, sending the user-selected location-based service preference from the call center to the vehicle, and activating at least one location-based service in response to linking of the portable privacy key…
Method of vehicle to vehicle communication
Granted: July 3, 2012
Patent Number:
8213861
A method of communicating information that has been formatted for Internet publication from a principal vehicle using short range wireless communication components to communicate with a second vehicle. The method includes storing a web page (blog, social networking page, etc.) or other information formatted for Internet publication in the principal vehicle. An introductory signal is transmitted to the second vehicle. A communication link is established between the principal vehicle and…
Off PRL wireless acquisition system
Granted: July 3, 2012
Patent Number:
8213931
The invention relates generally to a system for providing an roaming carrier list to a remote wireless device such as a vehicle communications package (VCP), while largely overcoming several shortcomings of prior techniques. A more intelligent Off PRL Wireless System is proposed that will scan all wireless bands including opposite cellular bands and PCS. The VCP will place test calls to the wireless carrier found during the scan. All wireless carriers found during the scan will be used…
Satellite radio file broadcast method
Granted: June 5, 2012
Patent Number:
8195150
A method and system for distributing files to remote receiving units such as passenger vehicles. The method includes the steps of (a) creating a file broadcast schedule that identifies a plurality of files and that includes scheduling information indicating when the files will be transmitted, (b) sending the file broadcast schedule to a number of remote receiving units via wireless transmission, (c) analyzing the file broadcast schedule at one or more of the remote receiving units by…
Method and system for providing automated vehicle diagnostic function utilizing a telematics unit
Granted: June 5, 2012
Patent Number:
8195428
The present invention provides a method for providing automated vehicle diagnostic function within a mobile vehicle communication system. The method includes configuring a primary diagnostic script for a telematics equipped mobile vehicle, providing the primary diagnostic script to the mobile vehicle, executing the primary diagnostic script, and collecting diagnostic data based on the executed primary diagnostic script. The primary diagnostic script may recreate known problem sequences…
Method and system of monitoring and retrieving device usage
Granted: June 5, 2012
Patent Number:
8195388
A method and system for monitoring and retrieving device usage for a device at a vehicle including storing a vehicle data record in the telematics unit, monitoring the device usage for device data, storing the device data at the vehicle, requesting the telematics unit to upload the device data, and transmitting the device data from the telematics unit to a remote location. At least one of the monitoring and the requesting is performed in accordance with the vehicle data record.
SMS origination for vehicle communication with a call center
Granted: June 5, 2012
Patent Number:
8195148
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…
Method for resetting a non-responsive mobile unit then-currently occupying a cellular traffic channel of a wireless network
Granted: June 5, 2012
Patent Number:
8195144
A method for resetting a non-responsive mobile unit then-currently occupying a cellular traffic channel of a wireless network is disclosed herein. The method involves recognizing, at an external entity, that the mobile unit is in a non-responsive state that is occupying a voice channel of the cellular traffic channel, and establishing a wireless data connection between the mobile unit and an external entity over the cellular traffic channel. A data message is transmitted to the mobile…
Authenticating a short message service (SMS) message
Granted: June 5, 2012
Patent Number:
8195129
A vehicle telematics unit or other electronic hardware in a vehicle authenticates an incoming SMS message and provides additional security features above and beyond those inherent to the SMS protocol. A call center uses a mathematical function to derive a security code, and then sends an SMS message to the vehicle. The telematics unit can utilize the transmitted information to authenticate the sender of the SMS message and/or its contents. One group of suitable mathematical functions…
Method for data communication via a voice channel of a wireless communication network
Granted: June 5, 2012
Patent Number:
8194779
A system and method for data communication over a cellular communications network that allows the transmission of digital data over a voice channel using a vocoder that operates in different modes depending upon characteristics of the inputted signal it receives. To prepare the digital data for transmission, one or more carrier signals are encoded with the digital data using one of a number of modulation schemes that utilize differential phase shift keying to give the modulated carrier…
Method for data communication via a voice channel of a wireless communication network
Granted: June 5, 2012
Patent Number:
8194526
A system and method for data communication over a cellular communications network that allows the transmission of digital data over a voice channel of the communications network. Digital data is encoded into DBPSK data using differential binary phase shift keying encoding. The DBPSK data is then sent across the cellular network using a vocoder having a linear predictive or other speech compression codec. At the receiving end, the DBPSK data is demodulated back into the original digital…
Method of finding a key to a mobile vehicle
Granted: May 29, 2012
Patent Number:
8188837
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…
Method and system for notifying a subscriber of events
Granted: May 29, 2012
Patent Number:
8190130
The present invention provides a system and method for notifying a subscriber of events. A subscriber event request is received at a call center. An event activation table is created based on the received subscriber event request. The event activation table is sent to an event table storage system. A subscriber notification is sent from the event table storage system in accordance with the event activation table. A computer usable medium with suitable computer program code is employed…
Method for reactivating a then-currently deactivated mobile unit
Granted: May 29, 2012
Patent Number:
8190141
A method for reactivating a then-currently deactivated mobile unit involves submitting a request to a call center to reactivate the mobile unit and, upon receiving the request, submitting another request to a cellular service provider from the call center, where such other request includes a request to broadcast a message having a mobile unit identifier and a reactivation protocol contained therein. The method further involves broadcasting the message from the cellular service provider…
Method of activating a device
Granted: May 15, 2012
Patent Number:
8180337
A method of activating a device involves establishing communication between the device and another device and receiving, at the other device, a message including activation information from a third party facility. The activation information includes a header and a mobile dialing number. The method further includes using the header to identify the message as an activation message for the device and, via the device, retrieving the identified message from the other device. The mobile…
Method and system for presenting media content in a mobile vehicle communication system
Granted: May 1, 2012
Patent Number:
8170468
A method of presenting channels to the user of a multi-channel wireless media service is provided. A user input is received in a mobile unit, wherein the user input has an associated category. At least one channel of the multi-channel wireless media service responsive to the user input is determined based upon a relationship of the channel to the associated category. Access to the channel is provided to the user. Alternative methods as well as systems and programs for accomplishing the…
Vehicle compass using telematics unit and vehicle sensor information
Granted: April 24, 2012
Patent Number:
8165806
A software compass used during a GPS outage calculates vehicle heading and presents it upon request. The software compass gathers information from a yaw rate sensor, wheel steering angle sensor, wheel speed sensor, and PRNDL gear position sensor to calculate vehicle heading using a weighting algorithm. Because the yaw rate sensor data is a central factor in calculating vehicle heading, the quality of calibration of the yaw rate sensor is of importance. The disclosed calibration algorithm…
Vehicle telematics unit activation with provisioning detection
Granted: April 17, 2012
Patent Number:
8160547
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…
