Automotive electronic control unit pre-booting for improved man machine interface performance

1. A method comprising:

operating, by a vehicle, a pre-boot electronic control unit (ECU) in an always on state while at least one ECU is operating in a low-power state;

detecting, by the pre-boot ECU, a triggering of a pre-booting condition based on one or more interactions with a vehicle, wherein detecting the triggering of the pre-booting condition comprises determining that at least one of a plurality of pre-booting conditions was triggered;

transmitting, by the pre-boot ECU, a power-on signal to the at least one ECU, the power-on signal causing the at least one ECU to pre-boot, wherein pre-booting a respective ECU comprises: initializing a bootloader of the respective ECU and pausing the bootloader prior to the bootloader ceding control to an operating system of the ECU;

monitoring, by the pre-boot ECU, a bus of the vehicle to determine if a start condition has been triggered within a time window;

issuing, by the pre-boot ECU, a command to fully boot the at least one ECU upon determining the start condition has been triggered, wherein fully booting the respective ECU comprises issuing a command to the bootloader to resume ceding control to the operating system; and

issuing, by the pre-boot ECU, a second command to power down the at least one ECU if the start condition has not been triggered within the time window.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising powering off the at least one ECU upon determining that the vehicle has not been started after a pre-configured timeout period.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of pre-booting conditions comprises:

a door unlock signal;

a change in weight of a seat of the vehicle;

a person nearby to the vehicle;

an over-the-air command received by an ECU of the vehicle; and

an output of a behavioral model using a current day and time as inputs.

4. The method of claim 3 , the detecting a door unlock signal comprising:

detecting if a driver's side door received the door unlock signal and pre-booting critical driver ECUs in response;

detecting if a passenger door received the door unlock signal and pre-booting additional ECUs in response; and

detecting if a trunk received the door unlock signal and delaying pre-booting of an ECU in response.

5. The method of claim 3 , the detecting a change in weight of a seat of the vehicle comprising detecting if a current weight exceeds a pre-determined threshold.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the behavioral model is generated by continuously updating a time-based predictive model based on historical start times of the vehicle and pre-booting the at least one ECU upon determining that the current time is predicted by the time-based predictive model to correspond to a start time of the vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing and updating a set of pre-boot timing characteristics, the pre-boot timing characteristics controlling the timing of pre-booting the at least one ECU.

8. A system comprising:

a bus of a vehicle;

at least one electronic control unit (ECU) communicatively coupled to the bus, the at least one ECU operating in a low-power state; and

a pre-boot ECU communicatively coupled to the bus and operating in an always on state, the pre-boot ECU comprising

a processor; and

a storage medium for tangibly storing thereon program logic for execution by the processor, the stored program logic causing the processor to execute steps of:

detecting a triggering of a pre-booting condition based on one or more interactions with the vehicle, wherein detecting the triggering of the pre-booting condition comprises determining that at least one of a plurality of pre-booting conditions was triggered;

transmitting a power-on signal to the at least one ECU, the power-on signal causing the at least one ECU to pre-boot, wherein pre-booting a respective ECU comprises: initializing a bootloader of the respective ECU and pausing the bootloader prior to the bootloader ceding control to an operating system of the ECU;

monitoring, by the pre-boot ECU, a bus of the vehicle to determine if a start condition has been triggered within a time window;

issuing a command to fully boot the at least one ECU upon determining the start condition has been triggered, wherein fully booting the respective ECU comprises issuing a command to the bootloader to resume ceding control to the operating system; and

issuing a second command to power down the at least one ECU if the start condition has not been triggered within the time window.

9. The system of claim 8 , the stored program logic further causing the processor to execute the step of powering off the at least one ECU upon determining that the vehicle has not been started after a pre-configured timeout period.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of pre-booting conditions comprises:

a door unlock signal;

a change in weight of a seat of the vehicle;

a person nearby to the vehicle;

an over-the-air command received by an ECU of the vehicle; or

an output of a behavioral model using a current day and time as inputs.

11. The system of claim 10 , the detecting a door unlock signal comprising:

detecting if a driver's side door received the door unlock signal and pre-booting critical driver ECUs in response;

detecting if a passenger door received the door unlock signal and pre-booting additional ECUs in response; and

detecting if a trunk received the door unlock signal and delaying pre-booting of an ECU in response.

12. The system of claim 10 , the detecting a change in weight of a seat of the vehicle comprising detecting if a current weight exceeds a pre-determined threshold.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the behavioral model is generated by continuously updating a time-based predictive model based on historical start times of the vehicle and pre-booting the at least one ECU upon determining that the current time is predicted by the time-based predictive model to correspond to a start time of the vehicle.

14. The system of claim 8 , further comprising storing and updating a set of pre-boot timing characteristics, the pre-boot timing characteristics controlling the timing of pre-booting the at least one ECU.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium for tangibly storing computer program instructions capable of being executed by a computer processor, the computer program instructions defining steps of:

operating, by a vehicle, a pre-boot electronic control unit (ECU) in an always on state while at least one ECU is operating in a low-power state;

detecting, by the pre-boot ECU, a triggering of a pre-booting condition based on one or more interactions with a vehicle, wherein detecting the triggering of the pre-booting condition comprises determining that at least one of a plurality of pre-booting conditions was triggered;

transmitting, by the pre-boot ECU, a power-on signal to the at least one ECU, the power-on signal causing the at least one ECU to pre-boot, wherein pre-booting a respective ECU comprises: initializing a bootloader of the respective ECU and pausing the bootloader prior to the bootloader ceding control to an operating system of the ECU;

monitoring, by the pre-boot ECU, a bus of the vehicle to determine if a start condition has been triggered within a time window;

issuing, by the pre-boot ECU, a command to fully boot the at least one ECU upon determining the start condition has been triggered, wherein fully booting the respective ECU comprises issuing a command to the bootloader to resume ceding control to the operating system; and

issuing, by the pre-boot ECU, a second command to power down the at least one ECU if the start condition has not been triggered within the time window.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 , the computer program instructions further defining the step of powering off the at least one ECU upon determining that the vehicle has not been started after a pre-configured timeout period.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the plurality of pre-booting conditions comprises:

a door unlock signal;

a change in weight of a seat of the vehicle;

a person nearby to the vehicle;

an over-the-air command received by an ECU of the vehicle; or

using an output of a behavioral model using a current day and time as inputs.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17 , the detecting a door unlock signal comprising:

detecting if a driver's side door received the door unlock signal and pre-booting critical driver ECUs in response;

detecting if a passenger door received the door unlock signal and pre-booting additional ECUs in response; and

detecting if a trunk received the door unlock signal and delaying pre-booting of an ECU in response.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17 , the detecting a change in weight of a seat of the vehicle comprising detecting if a current weight exceeds a pre-determined threshold.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the behavioral model is generated by continuously updating a time-based predictive model based on historical start times of the vehicle and pre-booting the at least one ECU upon determining that the current time is predicted by the time-based predictive model to correspond to a start time of the vehicle.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 , further comprising storing and updating a set of pre-boot timing characteristics, the pre-boot timing characteristics controlling the timing of pre-booting the at least one ECU.