Subscription-based safety features in car sharing

A system comprising:

• a vehicle including a safety system, a subscription system and a communication unit;
• wherein the safety system is operable to provide a plurality of safety features for an operation of the vehicle based on configuration data that defines which of the plurality of safety features are provided by the safety system during the operation of the vehicle;
• wherein the communication unit receives user profile data from a wireless network and the user profile data describes a set of safety features to be activated when a driver operates the vehicle and the set of safety features are selected by the driver from the plurality of safety features so that the safety system operates in accordance with one or more preferences of the driver;
• and
• wherein the subscription system is communicatively coupled to the communication unit to receive the user profile data from the communication unit and modify the configuration data based on the user profile data so that the safety system provides the set of safety features selected by the driver from the plurality of safety features so that the safety system operates in accordance with the one or more preferences of the driver.

A method for providing subscription-based safety features in car sharing, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a communication unit of a vehicle, a wireless message from a wireless network, wherein the wireless message includes subscription data describing how to modify an operation of a safety system of the vehicle based on one or more preferences of a driver for the operation of the safety system, wherein the driver has reserved the vehicle for their use during a time period via a car sharing service, the safety system is operable to provide a plurality of safety features during the operation of the vehicle based on configuration data that defines which of the plurality of safety features are provided by the safety system during the operation of the vehicle and the subscription data describes the time period when the vehicle is reserved for the driver and a subset of the plurality of safety features for the vehicle that the driver prefers to be active during the time period;
• and
• modifying, by a processor of the vehicle, the configuration data of the safety system based on the subscription data, wherein the modifying of the configuration data results in the safety system providing only the subset of the plurality of safety features when the vehicle is operated during the time period so that the operation of the safety system during the time period conforms to one or more safety features which the driver has subscribed to when reserving the vehicle with the car sharing service.