US 6,434,459 B1 · Automobile information system

Abstract

An automobile information system facilitates communication within clusters of components and among various clusters. Each cluster has logically related automobile components (e.g., environment control components, entertainment components, etc.) interconnected to a cluster controller connected via a data communications bus. The cluster controller is responsible with disseminating information received from an external source and exchanging information between two or more components. The cluster controller is implemented as a general-purpose computing device having an open platform operating system, which supports multiple applications and provides interfaces to the components. The cluster controllers are interconnected via another data communications bus to enable information flow between clusters. In this manner, any component in one cluster can share information with any component in another cluster without need for dedicated wiring or specially written code.

Claims19

Dependent claims

An automobile information system comprising:

a first data communications bus;
a first cluster of components connected to the first data communications bus;
a first cluster controller connected to the first data communications bus to manage information among the first cluster of components, and facilitate information flow between components in the first cluster of components;
a second cluster of components connected to the first data communications bus;
a second cluster controller connected to the first data communications bus to manage information among the second cluster of components, and facilitate information flow between components in the second cluster of components;
and
a second data communications bus to interconnect the first and second cluster controllers.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Automobile information system

Life of this patent

Automobile information system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19