Methods and structures to extend vehicle connectivity

1. A method of extending connectivity of a recipient vehicle, comprising:

during an ignition off state of the recipient vehicle, disabling a recipient cellular network access device (NAD) of the recipient vehicle;

connecting the recipient vehicle to a low power communications source, the low power communications source including a recipient Bluetooth® low energy (BLE) device located within the recipient vehicle;

and

communicating with a centralized location over the low power communications source on behalf of the recipient vehicle, via a donor NAD and a donor BLE device of a donor vehicle, wherein the donor vehicle is located proximate the recipient vehicle.

2. The method of extending connectivity of a recipient vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising:

searching for the donor vehicle based on whether the donor vehicle has sufficient telematic energy budget to operate the donor NAD; and

requesting permission from the donor vehicle to communicate via the donor BLE and to use the donor NAD.

3. The method of extending connectivity of a recipient vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying the donor vehicle based on driver behavior predictions from the donor vehicle.

4. The method of extending connectivity of a recipient vehicle of claim 3 , further comprising:

using vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) negotiations to communicate with vehicles from a different manufacturer than the recipient vehicle to identify non-manufacturer donor vehicles; and

determining whether the non-manufacturer donor vehicles are candidates to use the donor NAD of the non-manufacturer donor vehicles to communicate with the centralized location on behalf of the recipient vehicle.

5. The method of extending connectivity of a recipient vehicle of claim 4 , further comprising:

temporarily whitelisting donor vehicles from the different manufacturer.

6. The method of extending connectivity of a recipient vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising:

interrupting the donor NAD if the donor vehicle exceeds its telematic energy budget.

7. The method of extending connectivity of a recipient vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining whether there is a pattern-based donor vehicle regularly nearby in a specific location,

wherein the pattern-based donor vehicle includes a pattern-based donor NAD and a pattern-based donor BLE device, and

wherein regularly nearby includes the donor vehicle being detected by the recipient vehicle during two or more ignition off periods in the specific location; and

setting a pattern flag to positive if the pattern-based donor vehicle is nearby.

8. The method of extending connectivity of a recipient vehicle of claim 7 , wherein, if the pattern flag is positive:

using the recipient BLE device to communicate with the pattern-based donor BLE device; and

using the pattern-based donor NAD to communicate with the centralized location.

9. The method of extending connectivity of a recipient vehicle of claim 8 , wherein the pattern-based donor vehicle is one of a plurality of pattern-based donor vehicles and the recipient vehicle creates a pattern-based donor list from the available pattern-based donor vehicles, and further comprising:

searching for any of the pattern-based donor vehicles on the pattern-based donor list; and

using a specific pattern-based donor NAD from the pattern-based donor list to communicate with the centralized location.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ignition off state is greater than 10 days.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

interrupting the donor NAD if the recipient vehicle exits the ignition off state.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium on which is recorded instructions, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor causes the processor to:

during an ignition off state of a recipient vehicle, disable a recipient cellular network access device (NAD) of the recipient vehicle, such that the recipient vehicle is unable to communicate with a centralized location via the recipient NAD;

utilize a recipient Bluetooth® low energy (BLE) device within the recipient vehicle to search for a donor vehicle proximate the recipient vehicle, wherein the donor vehicle includes a donor NAD and a donor BLE device; and

utilize the donor NAD of the donor vehicle to communicate with the centralized location on behalf of the recipient vehicle.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein execution of the instructions by a processor causes the processor to:

search for the donor vehicle based on whether the donor vehicle has sufficient telematic energy budget to operate the donor NAD; and

request permission from the donor vehicle to communicate via the donor BLE device and to use the donor NAD.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein execution of the instructions by a processor causes the processor to:

determine whether there is a pattern-based donor vehicle regularly nearby in a specific location, wherein the pattern-based donor vehicle includes a pattern-based donor NAD and a pattern-based donor BLE device, and wherein regularly nearby includes the donor vehicle being detected by the recipient vehicle during two or more ignition off periods in the specific location; and

set a pattern flag to positive if the pattern-based donor vehicle is nearby.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein execution of the instructions by a processor causes the processor to:

use the recipient BLE device to communicate with the pattern-based donor BLE device; and

use the pattern-based donor NAD to communicate with the centralized location.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the pattern-based donor vehicle includes a plurality of pattern-based donor vehicles and the recipient vehicle creates a pattern-based donor whitelist from the available pattern-based donor vehicles, and wherein the execution of the instructions by a processor causes the processor to:

search for any of the pattern-based donor vehicles on the pattern-based donor whitelist; and

use a specific pattern-based donor NAD from the pattern-based donor whitelist to communicate with the centralized location.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein execution of the instructions by a processor causes the processor to:

identify the donor vehicle based on driver behavior predictions from the donor vehicle.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein execution of the instructions by a processor causes the processor to:

use vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) negotiations to communicate with vehicles from a different manufacturer than the recipient vehicle to identify non-manufacturer donor vehicles;

determine candidates for use of the donor NAD of one of the non-manufacturer donor vehicles to communicate, such that the one non-manufacturer donor vehicle communicates with the centralized location; and

determine a likely amount of time that the non-manufacturer donor vehicles will be near the recipient vehicle.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the ignition off state is greater than 10 days.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein execution of the instructions by a processor causes the processor to interrupt the donor NAD if the recipient vehicle exits the ignition off state.