Method and apparatus for inflation of a vehicle tire
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorDaniel Gimeno Ferrer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of inflating a tire of a vehicle includes connecting the vehicle to an external air pump, using a connection, to provide communication of information between the vehicle and the external air pump. The method also includes transmitting information from the vehicle to the external air pump over the connection and controlling the external air pump based upon the communicated information to provide air to a vehicle tire, connected to the air pump, until the communicated information indicates that the tire has reached a desired pressure level, at which point the air pump ceases provision of air to the vehicle tire.
Claims12
A method of inflating a tire of a vehicle, the method comprising:
- connecting the vehicle to an external air pump, using a wireless connection, to provide communication of information between the vehicle and the external air pump, including detecting a proximity of the vehicle to the external air pump, and automatically connecting the vehicle to the external air pump using the wireless connection when the vehicle is within a predefined distance from the external air pump as indicated by the detected proximity;
- transmitting information from the vehicle to the external air pump over the connection;
- and
- controlling the external air pump based upon the communicated information to provide air to a vehicle tire, connected to the air pump, until the communicated information indicates that the tire has reached a desired pressure level, at which point the air pump ceases provision of air to the vehicle tire.
A system comprising:
- a vehicle processor configured to:
- determine that a vehicle is within a predefined distance from an air pump based on wireless information received from the air pump;
- and
- responsive to the vehicle being within the predefined distance, establish a wireless connection between a vehicle transceiver and an air pump transceiver.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.