VEHICLE MONITORING

• Main Authors: DU RAND, DEON, VAN DER WESTHUIZEN, JACO, BOTHA, GERHARD, MOSTERT, JOHANNES, CHRISTOFFEL, LE ROUX, JACO, KRIEL, JOSEPH, JOHN
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 21.11.2012
• Subjects: PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; SIGNALLING; TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL; VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISEPROVIDED FOR

A vehicle monitoring system includes a hub unit and a plurality of mobile units, each mobile unit locatable at a vehicle and including: a vehicle modem directly accessible by cellular telephone users via a cellular telephone network and operable to communicate with a remote hub unit via the cellular telephone network; and mobile control means operably connected to the vehicle modem and operable, on receipt of an initiating signal from a cellular telephone to actuate a reporting function and to transmit to the remote hub unit data representative of at least one predetermined parameter relating to the vehicle and an identifier of the cellular telephone transmitting the initiating signal; and the hub unit including: hub access means operable to access a cellular telephone network; and a hub controller operably connected to the hub access means and having data storage means having stored thereon identification and contact details for authorized users of the monitoring system, the hub controller being operable, on receipt of a data transmission from a mobile unit, to ascertain whether the identifier of the cellular telephone that transmitted the initiating signal for the said data transmission matches the identification of an authorized user and, if so, to transmit to the authorized user via the cellular telephone network preselected information related to the vehicle in question.