# US 12,182,565 B2 · Systems and methods for safe over-the-air update of electronic control units in vehicles

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- Number: US 12,182,565 B2
- Document ID: US12182565B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 18/230,276
- Filed: 2023-08-04
- Published: 2023-11-30
- Granted: 2024-12-31
- Earliest claimed: 2021-09-29
- Assignees: Geotab Inc.
- Applicants: Geotab Inc.
- Inventors: Puneet Sharma; William Keane Hickey; Artur Gyumushyan; Patrick Wojcik
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12182565B2

## CPC

- G06F 8/65: Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57)
- B60W 50/06: Improving the dynamic response of the control system, e.g. improving the speed of regulation or avoiding hunting or overshoot
- H04L 67/12: specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
- H04L 67/34: {involving the movement of software or configuration parameters (network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416)}
- H04W 4/44: for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
- H04W 4/80: Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
- B60W 2556/45: External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
- H04L 63/0492: {by using a location-limited connection, e.g. near-field communication or limited proximity of entities}
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- B60W: CONJOINT CONTROL OF VEHICLE SUB-UNITS OF DIFFERENT TYPE OR DIFFERENT FUNCTION; CONTROL SYSTEMS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR HYBRID VEHICLES; ROAD VEHICLE DRIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR PURPOSES NOT RELATED TO THE CONTROL OF A PARTICULAR SUB-UNIT
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)

## Abstract

Systems and method for safe over-the-air (OTA) update of electronic control units in vehicles are provided. The OTA server determines whether an operator terminal is close to a vehicle and if so, sends a request to the operator terminal requesting confirmation for proceeding with completing a firmware update for an electronic control unit in the vehicle. In response to receiving the confirmation, the OTA server sends a request to a telematics device coupled to the vehicle to complete the firmware update.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method by an over-the-air (OTA) update server, the method comprising:
receiving a firmware update request from an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) server including a firmware update and a list of vehicle identifiers;
determining whether an operator terminal is in close proximity to a vehicle;
in response to determining that the operator terminal is in close proximity to the vehicle, sending a request to the operator terminal requesting a confirmation for proceeding with completing a firmware update for an electronic control unit (ECU) deployed on the vehicle; and
in response to receiving the confirmation for proceeding with completing the firmware update, sending a request to a telematics device coupled to the vehicle to complete the firmware update.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein completing a firmware update comprises sending a firmware update to an ECU, and wherein the firmware update becomes a primary firmware of the ECU after being downloaded thereto.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein completing a firmware update comprises sending a firmware activation command to an ECU, and wherein the firmware activation command causes a secondary firmware on the ECU to start executing.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the operator terminal is in close proximity to the vehicle comprises determining that a distance between a location of the vehicle and a location of the operator terminal is below a particular threshold.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving the location of the vehicle from a telematics server and receiving the location of the operator terminal from the operator terminal.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the operator terminal is in close proximity to the vehicle comprises receiving an indication from the operator terminal that the operator terminal is connected with the telematics device coupled to the vehicle.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The method of claim 6, wherein the operator terminal is connected with the telematics device via a wired communications module or a wireless communications module.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the operator terminal is in close proximity to the vehicle comprises receiving an indication from the operator terminal of a near-field communications (NFC) tap within a prior period of time.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
sending the firmware update to the telematics device.

### Claim 10

An over-the-air update server, comprising:
a controller;
a network interface coupled to the controller; and
a memory coupled to the controller, the memory storing machine-executable programming instructions which, when executed by the controller, configure the over-the-air (OTA) update server to:
receive a firmware update request from an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) server including a firmware update and a list of vehicle identifiers;
determine whether an operator terminal is in close proximity to a vehicle;
in response to determining that the operator terminal is in close proximity to the vehicle, send a request to the operator terminal requesting a confirmation for proceeding with activating a firmware update on the vehicle; and
in response to receiving the confirmation for proceeding with activating the firmware update, send a firmware activation command to a telematics device coupled to the vehicle.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The over-the-air update server of claim 10, wherein the machine-executable programming instructions which configure the OTA update server to determine whether an operator terminal is in close proximity to a vehicle comprise machine-executable instructions which configure the OTA update server to determine that a distance between a location of the vehicle and a location of the operator terminal is below a particular threshold.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The over-the-air update server of claim 11, wherein the machine-executable programming instructions further configure the OTA update server to receive the location of the vehicle from a telematics server and receive the location of the operator terminal from the operator terminal.

### Claim 13 (depends on 10)

The over-the-air update server of claim 10, wherein the machine-executable programming instructions which configure the OTA update server to determine that the operator terminal is in close proximity to the vehicle comprise machine-executable programming instructions which receive an indication from the operator terminal that the operator terminal is connected with the telematics device coupled to the vehicle.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The over-the-air update server of claim 13, wherein the operator terminal is connected with the telematics device via a wired communications module or a wireless communications module.

### Claim 15 (depends on 10)

The over-the-air update server of claim 10, wherein the machine-executable programming instructions which configure the OTA update server to determine that the operator terminal is in close proximity to the vehicle comprise machine-executable programming instructions which receive an indication from the operator terminal of a near-field communications (NFC) tap within a prior period of time.

### Claim 16 (depends on 10)

The over-the-air update server of claim 10, wherein the machine-executable programming instructions further configure the OTA update server to:
send the firmware update to the telematics device; and
receive an indication of the firmware update download completion to the vehicle.