IP Library Granted Patent US 10,114,634
Granted Patent B2
US 10,114,634 · App. 15/429,379 · Granted Oct 30, 2018

Updating a controller unit in a vehicle

Inventors: Spencer Leavitt George Quin (Kitchener, CA); Christopher Scott Travers (Ottawa, CA); Paul Streatch (Richmond, CA); Roger Francis Maclean (Ottawa, CA)
Assignee: 2236008 Ontario Inc.
G06F8/65B60R16/02H04L67/12H04L67/34
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,114,634
App. No.
15/429,379
Granted
Oct 30, 2018
Kind
B2
Abstract

In some examples, a service receives releases including machine-readable instructions from different vendors, the releases for respective controller units of a vehicle. The service communicates the releases wirelessly to the vehicle to update machine-readable instructions executing on the respective controller units of the vehicle.

Claims (51)

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a service, releases comprising machine-readable instructions from different vendors, the releases for respective controller units of a vehicle;

presenting, by the service, a console accessible by the vendors to provide the releases to the service; and

communicating, by the service, the releases wirelessly to the vehicle to update machine-readable instructions executing on the respective controller units of the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the console comprises a user interface (UI) console that is accessible by vendor systems associated with the vendors.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

providing, using the UI console, an update package from a first vendor system to the service.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

presenting, by the UI console, a web page accessible by the first vendor system.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

collecting, by the service, a profile of the vehicle, the profile including information relating to components of the vehicle that are in communication with an update gateway of the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the profile includes information relating to the controller units and installed releases of the machine-readable instructions executing on the controller units.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the profile includes information relating to an identity of a wireless network over which the vehicle is communicating.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the service, information regarding a status relating to the update of the machine-readable instructions, the status selected from among success, failure, partial failure, rollback, and retry.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

indicating, by the service in response to the information regarding the status relating to the update of the machine-readable instructions, a problem with an update using a given release of the releases.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

determining, by the service in response to the information regarding the status relating to the update of the machine-readable instructions, a cause of a problem relating to an update using a given release of the releases.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

requesting, by the service, further information from the vehicle to determine the cause of the problem relating to the update using the given release.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the service, a result of a dependency check between the controller units of the vehicle, wherein the result of the dependency check indicates a dependency between first and second controller units of the controller units of the vehicle.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

using, by the service, the result of the dependency check to determine an issue with respect to an interaction between controller units of the vehicle, after the update of the machine-readable instructions has been performed at the vehicle.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the releases are associated with metadata specifying a manner and time for downloading each release of the releases to the vehicle.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the metadata specifies that a download of a release of the releases is to a group of vehicles that share at least one property.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein a given release of the releases is created at a back-office system of a respective vendor of the different vendors.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controller units of the vehicle are provided by the different vendors.

18. A vehicle comprising:

controller units from different vendors to perform respective tasks in the vehicle; and

a processor; and

a non-transitory storage medium storing instructions executable on the processor to:

communicate with a remote service over a wireless network, the communicating including receiving update packages from the different vendors for the controller units,

perform a dependency check between the controller units of the vehicle;

send a result of the dependency check to the remote service; and

cause installation of the received update packages to update machine-readable instructions executable on the controller units.

19. The vehicle of claim 18 , wherein the result of the dependency check indicates a dependency between first and second controller units of the controller units of the vehicle, wherein the dependency comprises a dependency of an operation of the first controller unit based on an operation of the second controller unit.

20. The vehicle of claim 19 , wherein the instructions are executable on the processor to use the result of the dependency check when installing the received update packages.

21. The vehicle of claim 18 , wherein the instructions are executable on the processor to install a given update package of the update packages by one or both of:

communicating the given update package to a third party installer service to install the given update package on a respective controller unit, wherein the third party installer service manages installation of update packages of a collection of the controller units, and

directly installing the given update package of the update packages on the respective controller unit.

22. The vehicle of claim 21 , wherein the instructions are executable on the processor to cause installation of content, configuration information, or calibration information to a non-controller unit component.

23. The vehicle of claim 21 , wherein the instructions or the installer service are to collect a status or progress of installation of the given update package, and to send a report including the status or progress to the remote service.

24. The vehicle of claim 21 , wherein the instructions or the installer service are to check an integrity of each respective update package of the update packages by verifying a signature of the respective update package.

25. The vehicle of claim 18 , wherein communication of the update packages to the controller units is over a bus and is protected by a security protocol.

26. The vehicle of claim 21 , wherein the instructions or the installer service are to cause installation of the update packages for a subset of the controller units such that the update packages for the subset are all installed or none are installed.

27. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions that upon execution cause at least one processor to:

receive releases comprising machine-readable instructions from different vendors, the releases for respective controller units provided by the different vendors, the controller units being part of one vehicle;

present a console accessible by the different vendors to provide the releases to the service for installation in the one vehicle; and

communicate the releases wirelessly over a wireless network to the one vehicle to update machine-readable instructions executing on the respective controller units of the one vehicle.

Assignments (4)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded May 22, 2020
From: 2236008 ONTARIO INC.
To: BLACKBERRY LIMITED
Reel/Frame 053313/0315 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded May 17, 2017
From: QUIN, SPENCER LEAVITT GEORGE; TRAVERS, CHRISTOPHER SCOTT; STREATCH, PAUL; MACLEAN, ROGER FRANCIS
To: QNX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS LIMITED
Reel/Frame 042488/0871 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded May 15, 2017
From: QNX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS LIMITED
To: 2236008 ONTARIO INC.
Reel/Frame 042375/0145 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 10, 2017
From: QUIN, SPENCER LEAVITT GEORGE; TRAVERS, CHRISTOPHER SCOTT; STREATCH, PAUL; MACLEAN, ROGER FRANCIS
To: QNX SOFTWARE SYSTEMS LIMITED
Reel/Frame 041223/0479 →
Continuity (3)
Continuation PCTCA2016050748 · Jun 27, 2016
Provisional Application 62286047 · Jan 22, 2016
Related Publication 20170212746A1 · Jul 27, 2017
Cited By (1)
US 12,423,091