System and methods for vehicle passive keyless entry triggered by smartphone proximity detection
AssigneeLear Corporation
InventorsNikolay Yakovenko, Riad Ghabra, Chadi Shaya
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The current disclosure relates to unlocking at least one vehicle door or a trunk and operating other welcome features on the vehicle, including but not limited to, opening a tailgate, turning on ambient lights or head lights, and starting a vehicle engine. The current disclosure is directed to a system and method for automatically unlocking at least one door or a trunk on the vehicle using a smartphone and a vehicle key fob. Due to the method provided herein, frequent recharging of the vehicle key fob is not required, nor does the size of the key fob have to be large enough to hold large batteries.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- initiating wireless communication between a smartphone and a vehicle when the smartphone is within a first vehicle range;
- in response to initiating the wireless communication, transmitting a wake-up signal from the vehicle to a key fob to wake up the key fob when the key fob is within a second vehicle range;
- initiating an exchange with the key fob to measure a distance between the key fob and the vehicle in response to waking up the key fob;
- and
- operating a remote feature on the vehicle in response to the key fob being located within a predefined authorization zone.
A method comprising:
- establishing a wireless connection between a smartphone and a vehicle when a first distance between the smartphone and the vehicle is within a first pre-determined distance value;
- sending a wake-up signal to a key fob in wireless communication with the vehicle when a second distance between the smartphone and the vehicle is within a second pre-determined distance value;
- and
- activating a vehicle function within the vehicle when the key fob is located within a predefined authorization zone.
A method comprising:
- initiating a wireless connection between a smartphone and a vehicle when the smartphone is within a first communication range from the vehicle, wherein the wireless connection is used to track a distance between the smartphone and the vehicle;
- transmitting a wake-up signal to a key fob when the smartphone is within a second communication range from the vehicle, the second communication range being less than the first communication range;
- and
- receiving ultra-wideband (UWB) signals from the key fob to determine a position of the key fob when the key fob is within the second communication range.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.