# US 10,481,896 B2 · Charger storage for cached vehicle updates

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- Number: US 10,481,896 B2
- Document ID: US10481896B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 15/636,047
- Filed: 2017-06-28
- Published: 2019-01-03
- Granted: 2019-11-19
- Earliest claimed: 2017-06-28
- Assignees: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
- Applicants: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
- Inventors: Benjamin M. Rocci; Mark Anthony Rockwell
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10481896B2

## CPC

- G06F 8/65: Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57)
- B60L 53/14: Conductive energy transfer
- B60L 53/60: Monitoring or controlling charging stations
- G06F 12/0875: with dedicated cache, e.g. instruction or stack
- G06F 12/0877: Cache access modes
- G06F 13/36: for access to common bus or bus system
- B60L 2240/70: Interactions with external data bases, e.g. traffic centres
- G06F 8/33: Intelligent editors
- G06F 8/433: {Dependency analysis; Data or control flow analysis}
- G06F 8/71: Version control (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57); Configuration management
- G06F 2212/60: Details of cache memory
- Y02T 10/70: Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
- Y02T 10/7072: Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
- Y02T 10/72: Electric energy management in electromobility
- Y02T 90/12: Electric charging stations
- Y02T 90/14: Plug-in electric vehicles
- Y02T 90/16: Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
- Y02T 90/167: Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
- Y04S 30/12: Remote or cooperative charging
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- B60L: PROPULSION OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES (arrangements or mounting of electrical propulsion units or of plural diverse prime-movers for mutual or common propulsion in vehicles B60K1/00, B60K6/20; arrangements or mounting of electrical gearing in vehicles B60K17/12, B60K17/14; preventing wheel slip by reducing power in rail vehicles B61C15/08; dynamo-electric machines H02K; control or regulation of electric motors H02P); SUPPLYING ELECTRIC POWER FOR AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES (electric coupling devices combined with mechanical couplings of vehicles B60D1/64; electric heating for vehicles B60H1/00); ELECTRODYNAMIC BRAKE SYSTEMS FOR VEHICLES IN GENERAL (control or regulation of electric motors H02P); MAGNETIC SUSPENSION OR LEVITATION FOR VEHICLES; MONITORING OPERATING VARIABLES OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES; ELECTRIC SAFETY DEVICES FOR ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES
- Y02T: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO TRANSPORTATION
- Y04S: SYSTEMS INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO POWER NETWORK OPERATION, COMMUNICATION OR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING THE ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION, TRANSMISSION, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT OR USAGE, i.e. SMART GRIDS

## Abstract

Responsive to a powerline connection of a vehicle to electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), vehicle version information is received indicative of whether the vehicle requires software updates that are downloaded to a non-transitory storage. If so, the software updates are sent to the vehicle over the powerline connection. If not, the software updates are requested over a wide-area connection to a remote server to be cached in the storage for use in subsequent vehicle powerline connections.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) comprising:
a non-transitory storage;
and a processor programmed to
responsive to a powerline connection of a vehicle to the EVSE, receive vehicle version information indicative of whether the vehicle requires software updates that are downloaded to the storage,
if so, send the software updates to the vehicle over the powerline connection, and
if not, request the software updates over a wide-area network to a remote server to be cached in the storage for use in subsequent vehicle powerline connections,
wherein the vehicle version information is sent during an association procedure configured to allow EVSEs and vehicles to identify one another when a vehicle is connected.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The EVSE of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to discard software updates from the storage using a first-in-first-out cache methodology.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The EVSE of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to discard software updates from the storage using a least-recently-used methodology cache methodology.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The EVSE of claim 1, wherein the vehicle version information includes software version information for a plurality of controllers of the vehicle.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The EVSE of claim 1, further comprising a modem configured to access the wide-area network using a cellular telephone network.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The EVSE of claim 1, further comprising a modem configured to access the wide-area network using a local-area wireless network.

### Claim 7

A vehicle comprising: a processor programmed to responsive to vehicle association to electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) over a powerline connection to receive a first charge of a traction battery, send version information over the connection to cause the EVSE to download software updates to EVSE storage, the version information being sent during an association procedure configured to allow EVSEs and vehicles to identify one another when a vehicle is connected,
reconnect to the EVSE to receive a second charge of the traction battery, and receive the software updates from the storage via the connection during the second charge.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The vehicle of claim 7, wherein the processor is further programmed to query a plurality of controllers of the vehicle over a vehicle bus to determine the version information.

### Claim 9 (depends on 7)

The vehicle of claim 7, wherein the processor is further programmed to send the software updates over a vehicle bus to a controller of the vehicle to be updated.

### Claim 10

A method comprising:
responsive to a powerline connection of a vehicle to electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) for charging of the vehicle and receiving vehicle version information indicative of whether the vehicle requires software updates, the vehicle version information being sent during an association procedure configured to allow EVSEs and vehicles to identify one another when a vehicle is connected, requesting the software updates over a wide-area network to a remote server to be cached in a non-transitory storage of the EVSE for providing to vehicles during subsequent vehicle powerline connections.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising:
responsive to a subsequent powerline connection of the vehicle to the EVSE and receiving the vehicle version information indicative of whether the vehicle requires software updates that are downloaded to the storage, sending the software updates as cached to the storage to the vehicle over the powerline connection.

### Claim 12 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising:
responsive to a subsequent powerline connection of a second vehicle to the EVSE and receiving second vehicle version information indicative of whether the second vehicle requires software updates that are downloaded to the storage, sending the software updates as cached to the storage to the second vehicle over the powerline connection.

### Claim 13 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising:
identifying that the storage lacks capacity for the software updates, and
discarding, from the storage, one or more software updates that are least recently added to the storage.

### Claim 14 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, further comprising:
identifying that the storage lacks capacity for the software updates, and
discarding, from the storage, one or more software updates that are least recently used.

### Claim 15 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10, wherein the software updates include updates to a plurality of controllers of the vehicle.