IP Library Granted Patent US 11,429,377
Granted Patent B2
US 11,429,377 · App. 16/399,168 · Granted Aug 30, 2022

Vehicle update data sharing

Inventors: Abraham Mezaael (Southfield, MI); Shaheer Ahmed (Farmington Hills, MI)
Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
G06F8/658G06N5/04G07C5/085H04L67/34H04W4/44H04W76/10
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,429,377
App. No.
16/399,168
Granted
Aug 30, 2022
Kind
B2
Abstract

A server includes a memory configured to store a software update for a vehicle; and a processor configured to responsive to receiving first usage data from the vehicle indicative of a usage pattern of the vehicle, analyze the first usage data to identify an entity associated with the vehicle; receive second usage data from the entity indicative of a usage pattern of the entity; predict the entity and the vehicle to be within a predefined distance for establishing a wireless connection based on the usage pattern of vehicle and the usage pattern of the entity; responsive to verifying a capability of the wireless connection, divide the software update into multiple partitions; and transmit one or more partitions to the entity for sharing with the vehicle over the wireless connection.

Claims (44)

1. A remote server, comprising:

a memory configured to store a software update for a vehicle; and

a processor configured to

responsive to receiving first usage data from the vehicle indicative of a usage pattern of the vehicle, analyze the first usage data to identify a mobile device associated with the vehicle;

receive second usage data from the mobile device indicative of a usage pattern of the mobile device, the second usage data including a prior connection history between the mobile device and the vehicle;

predict the mobile device and the vehicle to be within a predefined distance for establishing a wireless connection for a period of time calculated using the usage pattern of vehicle and the usage pattern of the mobile device;

responsive to verifying a capability of the mobile device, divide the software update into multiple partitions, the capability of the mobile device including speed of the wireless connection, the period of time, storage capacity and battery status; and

transmit one or more partitions to the mobile device for sharing with the vehicle over the wireless connection.

2. The server of claim 1 , further comprising:

a network interface, configured to receive the software update from a software provider.

3. The server of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to send a sharing instruction to the mobile device to identify the vehicle to share the one or more partitions.

4. The server of claim 3 , wherein the sharing instruction includes a sharing condition for the mobile device to share the one or more partitions with the vehicle.

5. The server of claim 4 , wherein the sharing condition includes: a battery threshold for the mobile device above which the sharing may be performed.

6. The server of claim 1 , wherein the first usage data identifies at least one of: vehicle pick-up time, vehicle pick-up location, vehicle drop-off time, vehicle drop-off location, vehicle location history, previous destinations of the vehicle, points-of-interest of the vehicle, favorite places of the vehicle, or prior connection history of the vehicle.

7. The server of claim 1 , wherein the second usage data is indicative of at least one of: appointments of user calendar, events, or bookings.

8. A digital entity, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor, configured to

send digital entity usage data indicative of a usage pattern of the digital entity to a server;

verify that the digital entity has already obtained a portion of a software update;

responsive to receiving a first partition from the server, store the first partition in the memory;

receive a sharing instruction indicative of a prediction to establish a wireless connection for a period of time with a vehicle to which the first partition is designated, wherein the period of time is calculated using a usage pattern of vehicle and the usage pattern of the digital entity;

responsive to establishing a wireless connection with the vehicle, transmit the first partition to the vehicle; and

responsive to detecting a battery level of the digital entity is below a predefined threshold, suspend data transmission to the vehicle.

9. The digital entity of claim 8 , further comprising a wireless transceiver, configured to connect to the vehicle through one of the following technologies: Wi-Fi, near-field communication, radio-frequency identification, Bluetooth, or dedicated short-range communication.

10. The digital entity of claim 8 , wherein the sharing instruction includes a sharing condition, and the processor is further programmed to

transmit the first partition to the vehicle responsive to verifying the sharing condition is met.

11. The digital entity of claim 10 , wherein the sharing condition includes a geofence, and verifying the sharing condition includes verifying the digital entity.

12. The digital entity of claim 10 , wherein the sharing condition includes a battery threshold, the processor is further programmed to, responsive to detecting a battery level of the digital entity is below the battery threshold, suspend transmission of the first partition and output a message asking to recharge the battery.

13. The digital entity of claim 8 , wherein the digital entity is a fleet vehicle, the processor is further configured to receive a second partition from the vehicle through the wireless connection.

14. A method for a server, comprising:

detecting a software update is ready for multiple fleet vehicles;

receiving usage data from the multiple fleet vehicles, the usage data including a location history of the fleet vehicles;

analyzing the usage data to identify associations between the multiple fleet vehicles and responsive to identifying the fleet vehicles have parked close to each other within a wireless transmission range based on the location history, predict a future connection having a predicted duration of connection based on the usage data received from the multiple fleet vehicles and verify a data sharing speed between the fleet vehicles via the future connection;

dividing the software update into multiple partitions based on the future connection;

transmitting at least one partition to one of the multiple fleet vehicles involved in the future connection for data sharing; and

responsive to receiving a message from one of the multiple fleet vehicles indicative of a successful data sharing, provide an incentive to at least one of the fleet vehicles involved in the data sharing.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

sending a sharing instruction to the at least one of the multiple fleet vehicles to identify a target vehicle to share the at least one partition.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the sharing instruction includes a sharing condition for the at least one of the multiple fleet vehicles to share the partition.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the sharing condition includes at least one of: a geofence, or a battery threshold.

18. The server of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

analyze if the mobile device has already obtained at least a part of the software update;

send a part of the software data to the mobile device to avoid the mobile device re-downloading data already obtained by the mobile device.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 30, 2019
From: MEZAAEL, ABRAHAM; AHMED, SHAHEER
To: FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
Reel/Frame 049042/0954 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20200348923A1 · Nov 5, 2020
Cited By (3)
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