US 9,175,977 B2Granted

Method for arbitrating between multiple vehicle navigation systems

AssigneeGeneral Motors Corporation

InventorsJaycee Murlidar, Nathan Ampunan

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Abstract

A method for arbitrating between vehicle navigation systems in the event that multiple systems are concurrently activated so that information is provided to a user by only one navigation system at a time. This method of arbitration reduces the possibility of user confusion that could otherwise occur if multiple vehicle navigation systems were simultaneously providing the user with information. According to one embodiment, the arbitration method is used in conjunction with a telematics-based system and a CD-based system that both provide turn-by-turn spoken driving directions. The method can also be used to arbitrate between any vehicle-based sources of electronically-supplied audio speech, particularly where the systems are connected to a common vehicle network that allows software control of the different vehicle systems.

Claims13

Dependent claims

An electronically-controlled method of arbitrating between separate vehicle navigation systems that are available to an occupant on board a vehicle, comprising the steps of:

(a) determining the operational status of at least one of first and second vehicle navigation systems that are accessible to the occupant in order to determine if more than one of said separate vehicle navigation systems are currently activated, wherein said first vehicle navigation system is a telematics-based vehicle navigation system and said second vehicle navigation system is an autonomous vehicle navigation system that is separate from said first vehicle navigation system;
(b) if more than one of said separate vehicle navigation systems are currently activated, then:
(b1) selecting one of said separate vehicle navigation systems;
(b2) running an active session for the selected vehicle navigation system so that the selected vehicle navigation system provides the occupant with navigation-related services;
and
(b3) preventing an active session from running on the unselected vehicle navigation system so that the unselected vehicle navigation system is prevented from providing the occupant with navigation-related services, wherein only one of said separate vehicle navigation systems is running an active session at a time.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.