Cooperative vehicle diagnosis system
Operational data generated and used in a vehicle to control various vehicular systems is temporarily stored in a data buffer in the vehicle. A processor in the vehicle is configured to detect anomalous conditions, which can be based on predefined fault codes or user defined conditions (based on a single parameter or a combination of parameters). Whenever such an anomaly is detected, a diagnostic log is conveyed from the vehicle to a remote location. Such a log will include the detected anomaly, and buffered operational data. In at least one embodiment, the diagnostic log includes buffered operational data collected both before and after the anomaly. The diagnostic log is analyzed at the remote location to diagnose the cause of the anomalous condition, so a decision can be made as to whether the vehicle requires immediate repair, or whether the repair can be scheduled at a later time.
1. A system, comprising:
an onboard vehicle data collection device, the onboard vehicle data collection device including:
a vehicle data bus interface to pass operational data generated by a plurality of vehicle-based sensor devices;
a ring buffer arranged in a memory to store the operational data;
a fault detection mechanism arranged to assert a fault code when data passed via the vehicle data bus indicates a predefined fault; and
a wireless data link device, the wireless data link device arranged to communicate fault code data and a predetermined amount of operational data from the ring buffer to a first remote computing device, the predetermined amount of operational data including operational data associated with the asserted fault code and operational data not associated with the asserted fault code, wherein the predetermined amount of operational data includes a first amount of data that was stored in the ring buffer before the fault code was asserted and a second amount of data that was stored in the ring buffer after the fault code was asserted; and
a first remote computing device at a first remote location and a second remote computing device at a second remote location, the first remote computing device being configured to forward the predetermined amount of operational data defining a detected anomalous condition and buffered operational data to the second remote computing device at the second remote location without analyzing the data,
wherein the second remote computing device at the second remote location analyzes the detected anomalous condition and buffered operational data to determine if the detected anomalous condition and buffered operational data indicates a particular fault code data.
2. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the data passed via the vehicle data bus indicates the predefined fault after at least one datum of the operational data crosses a threshold.
3. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the ring buffer is a first-in, first-out buffer.
4. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the ring buffer is arranged in at least 128 MB of the memory.
5. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the ring buffer is arranged in no more than 256 MB of the memory.
6. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined amount of operational data is a user-definable amount of data.
7. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined amount of operational data is all of the operational data stored in the ring buffer.
8. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the fault code corresponds to a fault code defined by a vehicle manufacturer.
9. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the fault code corresponds to a user defined fault code.
10. A system according to claim 1 , wherein at the remote computing device is arranged to communicate a plurality of fault codes and at least one threshold associated with each of the plurality of fault codes to the onboard vehicle data collection device.