Mobile control apparatus

• Main Authors: SANDHU KULBIR S, FAN RODRIC C, MLECZKO DAVID
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 03.07.2007
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; ELECTRICITY; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; PHYSICS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; SIGNALLING; TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION; TESTING; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION; TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS FOR MEASURED VALUES, CONTROL OR SIMILARSIGNALS

Vehicle maintenance-related services are provided from a server over a wide area network, such as the Internet. Under one method, a server that is accessible over the wide area network through a wireless communication link is provided. Then, in a vehicle, an apparatus is provided to collect, over a data bus in the vehicle, data relating to an operation of the vehicle. The data received from the data bus is then communicated to the server over the wireless communication link. Based on the data received at the server, the maintenance-related services is then initiated. The operation data of the vehicle can be collected from various subsystems of the vehicle, such as a brake sub-system, an engine sub-system and various sensors located at various subsystems of the vehicle. Under one mode of operation, the data collected from these subsystems are reported to the server at pre-determined time intervals. In one embodiment, the apparatus of the invention includes a positioning apparatus for determining a location of said vehicle from received ranging signals. Such signals can be received from a global position system (GPS) or a ranging system based on triangulation, such as those used in cellular telephone systems.