Granted Patent B2

US 11,163,931 · App. 17/233,412 · Granted Nov 2, 2021

Inventor: Christopher P. Ricci (Saratoga, CA)

Assignee: AutoConnect Holdings LLC

G06F30/392G06F21/31G06F21/32G06F21/44G06F30/39G06F30/398H05K3/0005B60K2370/73B60K2370/741

Abstract

Claims (68)

1. A vehicle system comprising:

a vehicle including a locking system configured to lock and unlock the vehicle;

a database storing vehicle profile data that associates a vehicle profile for the vehicle with at least one mobile device;

a first user computing device that is used by a first user and generates a user interface configured to receive a user input from the first user;

a second user computing device that is used by a second user;

a server system configured to communicate with the vehicle and the first user computing device,

wherein the first user computing device is further configured to:

receive, via the user interface, a command to grant vehicle control permission for the vehicle to the second user computing device; and

transmit, to the server system, the command and an identifier of the second user computing device,

wherein the server system is further configured to:

receive, from the first user computing device, the command and the identifier of the second user computing device;

access the database to retrieve the vehicle profile data;

update the vehicle profile data by associating the vehicle profile for the vehicle with the identifier of the second user computing device; and

transmit, to the vehicle the updated vehicle profile data;

wherein the vehicle is further configured to:

receive, from the server system, the updated vehicle profile data;

wirelessly receive, from a mobile computing device in proximity to the vehicle, an identifier of the mobile computing device;

identify the mobile computing device as the second user computing device by matching the wirelessly-received identifier of the mobile computing device with the updated vehicle profile data that stores the identifier of the second user computing device; and

based on the identification, control the lock system to lock or unlock the vehicle while the mobile computing device is in proximity to the vehicle.

2. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle profile data includes authentication data to authenticate the first user computing device with respect to the vehicle.

3. The vehicle system of claim 2 , wherein the server system is further configured to:

receive, from the first user computing device, an identifier of the first user computing device; and

upon receiving, from the first user computing device, the command and the identifier of the second user computing device, authenticate the first user computing device based on the identifier of the first user computing device and the vehicle profile data.

4. The vehicle system of claim 1 ,

wherein the first user computing device is further configured to:

receive, via the user interface, a command to remove the vehicle control permission from the second user computing device; and

transmit, to the server system, the removal command and the identifier of the second user computing device;

wherein the server system is further configured to remove the vehicle control permission from the second user computing device.

5. The vehicle system of claim 4 , wherein the server system is configured to remove the vehicle control permission by performing operations comprising:

receive, from the first user computing device, the removal command and the identifier of the second user computing device;

based on the removal command and the identifier of the second user computing device, update the vehicle profile data by disassociating the vehicle profile of the vehicle from the second user computing device; and

transmit, to the vehicle, the updated vehicle profile data, and

wherein the vehicle is further configured to:

receive, from the server system, the updated vehicle profile data; and

store the updated vehicle profile data.

6. The vehicle system of claim 5 , wherein, after storing the updated vehicle profile data, the vehicle is further configured to:

wirelessly receive, from the second user computing device in proximity to the vehicle, the identifier of the second user computing device;

deny access to the second user computing device based on the identifier of the second user computing device not being included in updated vehicle profile data.

7. The vehicle system of claim 1 ,

wherein the first user computing device is further configured to:

receive, via the user interface, a command to restrict a vehicle function while the second user computing device is located in the vehicle; and

transmit, to the server system, the restriction command and the identifier of the second user computing device;

wherein the server system is further configured to restrict the vehicle function during operation of the vehicle while the second user computing device is located in the vehicle.

8. The vehicle system of claim 7 , wherein the server system is further configured to restrict the vehicle function by performing operations comprising:

receive, from the first user computing device, the restriction command and the identifier of the second user computing device;

based on the restriction command and the identifier of the second user computing device, update the vehicle profile data to indicate that the vehicle function is restricted when the second user computing device is located in the vehicle; and

transmit, to the vehicle, the updated vehicle profile data, and

wherein the vehicle is further configured to:

receive, from the server system, the updated vehicle profile data; and

store the updated vehicle profile data.

9. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the updated vehicle profile data includes instructions to transmit vehicle condition data for the vehicle to the server system while the second user computing device is located in or within a threshold distance of the vehicle.

10. The vehicle system of claim 9 ,

wherein the server system is further configured to:

receive, from the vehicle, vehicle condition data while the second user computing device is located in or within a threshold distance of the vehicle; and

transmit, to the first user computing device, the vehicle condition data, and

wherein the first user computing device is further configured to:

receive, from the server system, the vehicle condition data; and

display the vehicle condition data.

11. The vehicle system of claim 10 , wherein the vehicle condition data include at least one of number of passengers in the vehicle, speeds, current and historical locations, or timestamps associated with the locations.

12. The vehicle system of claim 1 , wherein the updated vehicle profile data includes instructions to transmit location data for the vehicle's current location to the server system while the second user computing device is located in or within a threshold distance of the vehicle.

13. The vehicle system of claim 1 ,

wherein the server system is further configured to:

receive, from the vehicle, location data of the vehicle while the second user computing device is located in or within a threshold distance of the vehicle;

determine that the vehicle is located outside a geographical limitation, the geographical limitation being included in the vehicle profile data; and

transmit, to the first user computing device, alert data that indicates the vehicle is located outside the geographical limitation, and

wherein the first user computing device is further configured to:

receive, from the server system, the alert data; and

based on the alert data, output a notification indicating that the vehicle is located outside the geographical limitation.

Assignments (4)

Cited By (10)

US 12,200,132 US 12,248,545 US 12,284,172 US 12,299,093 US 12,301,558 US 12,347,095 US 12,401,650 US 12,470,552 US 12,487,464 US 12,567,291