Vehicle anti-theft apparatus and method
A vehicle anti-theft apparatus and method. The vehicle anti-theft apparatus includes a wireless interface to receive wireless messages from other network devices (e.g., smart phones, tablets, wearables, etc.) to apply a kill switch signal to a vehicle to disable a vehicle and prevent the vehicle from being restarted, provide Global Positioning System (GPS) physical location information of the vehicle to law enforcement in real-time (i.e., 1 to 2 seconds, etc.), and remove the kill switch signal to allow the vehicle to be restarted. The kill switch signal proactively prevents vehicle theft and also helps law enforcement locate the disabled vehicle after a car theft and/or car-jacking.
1 . A vehicle anti-theft system, comprising in combination:
a vehicle anti-theft apparatus including:
a case component,
a power supply,
a wireless interface, for receiving wireless signals and wireless messages from a wireless communications network, with a wireless protocol including a Machine-2-Machine (M2M) wireless protocol;
a control circuit, for controlling the vehicle anti-theft apparatus,
a first diode connected to the control circuit to stop any electrical current from carrying any voltage to the power supply of the vehicle anti-theft apparatus from any external sources including a battery and to stop any electrical current from carrying any voltage to an electrical system of the vehicle or from other electrical equipment used for tampering with the vehicle anti-theft apparatus trying to defeat the vehicle anti-theft apparatus,
a processor for processing wireless data, a non-transitory computer readable medium for including a plurality of instructions for controlling the processor, the processor and the plurality of instructions including a software application configured for sending a wireless configuration message via the wireless interface and the M2M wireless protocol to a desired network device with one or more processors and a non-transitory computer readable medium including non-volatile storage asking for a unique network hardware Medium Access Control (MAC) identifier for the network device and configured for receiving the unique network hardware MAC identifier from the network device via the wireless interface and the M2M wireless protocol to store in non-volatile storage on the vehicle anti-theft apparatus to prevent spoofing by other network devices,
a Global Positioning System (GPS) component, for providing GPS physical geographic location information for the vehicle,
a power wire connector to supply power to the vehicle anti-theft apparatus from the vehicle,
a second diode connected to the power wire connector to stop any electrical current from the vehicle anti-theft apparatus from carrying any voltage into the electrical system of the vehicle to prevent damage of the electrical system of the vehicle, and
a ground wire connector to provide a ground to the vehicle anti-theft apparatus from the vehicle, the power wire connector and the ground wire connector connected to the battery for the vehicle,
wherein the ground wire connector is used to intentionally generate a kill switch signal by generating an electrical kill switch signal directly to a negative terminal on a battery of the vehicle to kill the engine of the vehicle and to prevent the vehicle from starting again if an ignition switch for the vehicle is damaged, circumvented or bypassed;
the non-volatile storage on the vehicle anti-theft apparatus for storing the unique network hardware MAC identifier received in the configuration message for the desired network device; and
the desired network device identified by the unique network hardware MAC identifier,
configured for allowing a driver of the vehicle to send the a kill switch signal from the network device with the M2M wireless protocol devices via the wireless communications network to disable the vehicle after it has been carjacked or stolen,
the GPS location information for the vehicle obtained from a GPS-satellite and immediately provided to law enforcement in real-time via the wireless communications network.
2 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , wherein the case component includes, plastic, rubber, wood, metal, paper, composite materials, or a combination thereof.
3 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , wherein the power supply a Direct Current (DC) or an Alternating Current (AC) power supply.
4 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , wherein the power supply includes a backup power supply to prevent tampering.
5 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , wherein the wireless interface further includes: an IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.15.4 (ZigBee), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), ETSI High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network (HIPERMAN), RF Home, BLUETOOTH (IEEE 802.15.1), Infra Data Association (IrDA), Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID), Near Field Communications (NFC), smart speaker, or Internet of Things (IoT), wireless interface.
6 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , wherein the wireless messages include one or more of: telecommunications, short message services (SMS), direct messages (DM), instant messages (IM), Rich Communication Suite (RCS), social media messages, or a combination thereof, wireless messages.
7 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , wherein the communications network includes: Internet, wireless intranet, wireless Local Area Network (WiLAN), wireless LAN (WILAN), wireless Wide Area Network (WiWAN), wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WiMAN), wireless Public Switched Telephone Network (WiPSTN), wireless personal area network (WPAN), wireless mesh network, cloud network, satellite network or combinations thereof, wireless communications networks.
8 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , wherein an integrated circuit (IC) an IC, a chip, or a microchip, with one or more processors and a non-transitory computer readable medium.
9 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , wherein the second diode only allows current to pass through in one direction, the second diode stopping the current from carrying any voltage to the battery and the electrical system of the vehicle to prevent damage to the electrical system of the vehicle from the vehicle anti-theft apparatus.
10 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , wherein the kill switch signal is generated on a data bus or wireless multimedia communications interface in the vehicle.
11 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , wherein one or more network devices include: smart phones, cell phones, electronic tablets, computers, smart speakers, wearable devices, or combination thereof.
12 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending a wireless configuration message from a first network device with one or more processors via a wireless communications network to a vehicle anti-theft apparatus included in a vehicle, the first wireless message including a unique identifier for the network device;
storing in the vehicle anti-theft apparatus the unique identifier for the network device in non-volatile storage on the vehicle anti-theft apparatus;
receiving on the vehicle anti-theft apparatus a kill switch request message from the network device via the communications network for the vehicle after a car-jacking or vehicle theft;
applying from the vehicle anti-theft apparatus a kill switch signal to the vehicle to turn the vehicle off and prevent the vehicle from being restarted; and
sending from the vehicle anti-theft apparatus a current GPS physical location of the vehicle to a law enforcement network device via the communications network.
13 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 12 , wherein the unique identifier for the network device includes: a unique hardware address, including a network address or Internet Protocol (IP) address, phone number, user name, unique network identifier including a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID), Universally Unique Identifier (UUID), encrypted token, stored contact, database record, cloud database record, email address, or social media identifier, or combination thereof, to uniquely identify the network device on the communications network.
14 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a kill switch request message on the vehicle anti-theft apparatus from the network device via the communications network for the vehicle after a car-jacking or vehicle theft,
the kill switch message includes a unique identifier for the network device;
applying from the vehicle anti-theft apparatus the kill switch signal to the vehicle to turn the vehicle off and prevent the vehicle from being restarted;
sending from the vehicle anti-theft apparatus a current GPS physical location of the vehicle to a law enforcement network device via the communications network; and
receiving on the vehicle anti-theft apparatus a remove kill switch request message from the network device via the communications network; and
removing from the vehicle anti-theft apparatus the kill switch signal to allow the vehicle to be restarted.
15 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving on the vehicle anti-theft apparatus a wireless kill switch message after the vehicle is stolen or carjacked from a first network device via the wireless communication network;
applying from the anti-theft apparatus a kill switch signal the vehicle to the vehicle to disable it; and
sending from the vehicle anti-theft apparatus current GPS physical location information of the vehicle to a law enforcement server network device with one or more processors via the wireless communications network,
wherein the law enforcement server network device stores the current GPS physical location information of the vehicle in an associated law enforcement database to locate the vehicle and use as evidence for arrest charges and corresponding court cases,
wherein law enforcement is dispatched to recover the disabled vehicle and arrest a vehicle thief.
16 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , further comprising:
placing the vehicle anti-theft apparatus in a passenger compartment of the vehicle, on a chassis of the vehicle in an engine compartment of the vehicle or in an On Board Diagnostic (OBD) port on the vehicle.
17 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , further comprising:
placing the vehicle anti-theft apparatus in a plurality of vehicles;
placing in a database with a vehicle anti-theft application on a server network device with one more processor, a first set of information including a first set of a plurality of unique identifiers about a first set of vehicles from the plurality of vehicles to proactively disable the first set of vehicles to help prevent theft of the first set of vehicles;
placing in the database with the vehicle anti-theft application on the server network device a second set of information including a second set of a plurality of unique identifiers about a second set of vehicles from the plurality of vehicles to aid repossession for the second set of vehicles with drivers that have not paid their vehicle payments to a bank, credit union, financing company;
placing in the database with the vehicle anti-theft application on the server network device information about a third set rental car vehicles including information for drivers that have not returned their rental vehicles;
receiving on the vehicle anti-theft application on the server network device a wireless kill switch message after a selected vehicle from the plurality of vehicles is stolen, carjacked, requires repossession, or rental company return from a first network device via the wireless communication network; and
applying from the vehicle anti-theft application on the server network device a wireless kill switch signal with information from the database about the selected vehicle to the selected vehicle to disable the vehicle.
18 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , wherein the communications network includes a cloud communications network with one or more cloud databases, a cloud computing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), a cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) and one or more cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) services including a specific cloud software service for vehicle anti-theft services.
19 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , wherein the wireless interface includes one or more security and encryptions techniques to provide secure wireless communications.
20 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 , wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium further includes an Artificial Intelligence (AI) application for vehicle anti-theft services.
21 . The vehicle anti-theft system of claim 1 further comprising:
a server vehicle anti-theft application on a server network device with one more processors with a database for storing information about a plurality of vehicles including a unique identifier for each vehicle,
the server vehicle anti-theft application on the server network device including Artificial Intelligence (AI) knowledge-based methods for determining car-jacking or vehicle theft events and responses, repossession events and responses, rental car rental and rental car return events and responses, a precise geographical location with GPS and a precise date and time of such events and responses, and
the server vehicle anti-theft application on the server network device also configured for sending the kill switch signal via the wireless communications network to disable the vehicle after it has been carjacked, stolen or repossessed.