Patent Application

App. No. 12/234,284

Abstract

Claims (46)

1 . A method of managing the updating of a vehicle software configuration, the method comprising:

(a) establishing a temporal period;

(b) identifying a software package;

(c) determining if a vehicle does not have the identified software package;

(d) wirelessly sending the software package from a central facility to the vehicle during the temporal period; and

(e) storing the software package at the vehicle.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein step (b) further comprises storing a vehicle identifier in a database with a software package identifier associated with the temporal period.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein step (a) further comprises receiving user input containing the beginning and end of the temporal period.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:

(f) providing a user interface that informs a user of the software package;

(g) substituting the software package for a second software package based on user input; and

(h) wirelessly transmitting the second software package to the vehicle based on the substitution.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the user interface in step (f) comprises a speech recognition system for receiving user commands.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the user interface in step (f) comprises a web portal allowing the user to substitute software packages and alter the temporal period.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein steps (b) and (c) are carried out at the vehicle.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein steps (b) and (c) are initiated at the central facility.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein step (b) includes identifying a plurality of software packages that should be sent to the vehicle during the temporal period.

10 . A method of managing the updating of a vehicle software configuration, the method comprising:

(a) establishing a temporal period;

(b) associating the temporal period with a vehicle;

(c) providing an update software package;

(d) comparing the software package stored on the vehicle with the update software package;

(e) if the software package stored on the vehicle is different from the update software package, downloading the update software package during the temporal period; and

(f) storing the software package at the vehicle.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising the step of storing a vehicle identifier in a database with a software package identifier identifying the update software package.

12 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising the steps of:

(g) determining that the software package stored on the vehicle is the same as the update software package; and

(h) preventing a central facility from wirelessly transmitting the update software package to the vehicle.

13 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises the step of providing a user interface that informs a user of the update software package.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises the steps of:

substituting a second software package for the update software package based on user input; and

wirelessly transmitting the second software package to the vehicle based on the substitution.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the user interface comprises a speech recognition system for receiving user commands.

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the user interface comprises a web portal allowing the user to substitute software packages and alter the temporal period.

17 . The method of claim 10 , wherein steps (d) and (e) are initiated at the vehicle.

18 . The method of claim 10 , wherein steps (d) and (e) are carried out at a central facility.

19 . The method of claim 10 , wherein step (c) further comprises associating the update software package with the temporal period.

20 . A method of managing the updating of a vehicle software configuration, the method comprising:

(a) establishing a temporal period;

(b) associating the temporal period with a vehicle;

(c) associating with the temporal period a software package;

(d) storing the temporal period and the software package in a database with a vehicle identifier;

(e) recognizing the beginning of a temporal period;

(f) wirelessly checking a vehicle to determine that the software package associated with the temporal period is stored at the vehicle;

(g) if the software package is not stored at the vehicle, accessing the software package from the database and wirelessly sending the software package to the vehicle; and

(h) storing the software package at the vehicle.

Assignments (14)