COPYRIGHT NOTICE

©2015-2016 Airbiquity Inc. A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 37 CFR § 1.71(d).

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosure pertains to electronic communications by and among a remote server (for example, in the cloud), a motor vehicle, and a portable, mobile device situated in the motor vehicle. Methods and apparatuses are disclosed for downloading selected software from the remote server, through the portable, mobile device to the motor vehicle systems. The disclosure also enables efficient wireless transmission of vehicle data analytics associated with diagnostic information, location information, or the like, from the motor vehicle to the remote server, via the portable, mobile device.

BACKGROUND

A vehicle head unit may utilize a long range radio of a mobile device, such as a mobile phone carried in the vehicle, for the purposes of communications between the vehicle and the remote server associated with centralized management of motor vehicle software applications and services. While this enables the centralized management of the motor vehicle software applications and services without requiring a long range radio to be installed in the vehicle, today vehicle manufacturers may still be reliant on having a long range radio installed in the vehicle for other reasons, such as the upgrading of firmware of vehicle components (including but not limited to the Engine Control Unit (ECU) of the vehicle).

While it is possible to update firmware over a short range wireless connection or wire, the utilization of the short range wireless connection or wire may require delivery of the vehicle to a facility for the update over the short range wireless connection or wire (manual process may need to be performed by a person to update the ECU firmware at the facility). However, delivery of the vehicle to the facility is inconvenient, and for this and other reasons, today vehicle manufacturers may be dependent on having a long range radio installed in the vehicle to support their preferred firmware update procedures.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The following is a summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not intended to identify key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

In an example, a system is provided and the system includes a motor vehicle component client, a server located in the cloud, and an application to be installed on a personal portable device, such as mobile phone or other portable, mobile electronic device. In some examples, the system enables efficient vehicle software updates to the Engine Control Unit (ECU), the head unit, or the like, or combinations thereof, and/or enables efficient wireless transmission of vehicle data analytics associated with diagnostic information, location information, or the like, or combinations thereof.

In one example, a system includes a server in the cloud and a client of a component installed in the motor vehicle. The server provides an application to be installed in a smartphone that may couple to the motor vehicle component by a wire or a short range wireless connection.

The client may collect and aggregate data from a vehicle bus, and handle data transmission via a wire or short range wireless connection to the smartphone. Data may include vehicle data such as CAN (controller area network) data, OBD (on board diagnostic) data including but not limited to OBD II data, GPS (global positioning system) data, SQDF (service and quality data feed based on OBD data), or the like, or combinations thereof. The client may apply a store-and-forward function to temporarily hold a vehicle data set until a connection to the application is established, and the vehicle data is fully uploaded. The client may prioritize high and low priority data set transmission to the application. The client may dynamically collect different sets of vehicle data, change frequency of collection, and adjust other configurations according to a configuration file or other command from the server. The server may communicate with the client to manage a specific data set including a command to collect the specific data set, set a frequency of collection, and adjust other configurations, by pushing a configuration file or other command to the application of the smart phone.

In one example, the server includes a software-over-the-air module to communicate with a software-over-the-air module of the client. The software-over-the-air module of the server may cause a cellular connection to be established to or from the smartphone to download a software update to the application, based on urgency and cost of connection, or may wait until a WiFi connection is available. The client may collect a firmware image from the smartphone and forward to the software-over-the-air module of the client, which may manage onboard firmware upgrade of the head unit, the ECU, or the like, or the like, or combinations thereof.

The application may be downloaded by a user of the smartphone from an “app” store. The application may utilize a store-and-forward function to temporarily hold data received from one of the client or the server, to be forwarded to the other of the server or the client. The application may hold the data until connection to the server or the client is established, and the data is fully transmitted. The application may order forwarding based on priority if more than one forward is stored. The data held by the application may be a software upgrade for the motor vehicle or a data set collected by the motor vehicle.

Additional aspects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

