Patent Application
20060200296
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Operating a vehicle faster than the posted speed limit is against the law on all public roads. However, speeding in a motorized vehicle is a commonplace occurrence. Currently, business owners and the judicial system have no passive control over how fast people travel in their vehicles. A business owner must rely on trust and faith that his/her employees are obeying speed limits when utilizing company vehicles. The judicial system must order large fines and/or jail time to an individual caught breaking the speed laws. Neither trust nor fines nor jail time guarantees that the operator of a vehicle will not break the speed laws. At this time, there are no systems or devices which enable a vehicle to be passively speed controlled and/or allow that speed control to be changed once a vehicle has been manufactured.
It is known that the majority of internal combustion and/or electric/hybrid engine freight transport and passenger vehicles manufactured and/or sold for use in the United States today have some sort of On-Board Engine Management Computer (OBEMC). This computer, which is configured by the manufacturer, is an integral part of engine operation. While these OBEMCs serve many uses, a primary responsibility is to manage the flow of fuel/electricity to the engine and there-by control the fuel/electricity consumption rate for maximum efficiency and to limit the physical speed of the vehicle. Because some vehicle engines are capable of propelling a vehicle faster than what is safe for the operation of the vehicle, passenger and freight vehicle manufacturers purposely limit the physical speed of many vehicles by means of programs which run in the OBEMCs. Once the OBEMC has been properly programmed, the OBEMC interfaces with other subsystems of the vehicle to slow the fuel/electricity delivery to the engine when the vehicle approaches the maximum speed set by the manufacturer. This, in turn, insures that the vehicle can never travel faster than has been deemed safe by the vehicle's design engineers and the manufacturer.
An object of this Invention is to allow a third party to alter the programming code in a vehicle's on-board engine management computer to place a limit on the vehicle's speed. Once the limit has been established, regardless of who operates that vehicle, he/she will not be able to make the vehicle travel faster than the speed limit to which the vehicle was set by means of manipulation of the vehicle's throttle mechanism.
It is of great concern to trucking companies, rental car agencies and business owners that have company cars that their employees and customers operate their vehicles in accordance with the law. Not only can doing so save them money in wear and tear on a vehicle, but may also help prevent many vehicle accidents which may leave the business owners vulnerable to litigation from an injury or death as a result of the vehicle having been breaking the speed limit laws of the area.
It is also theoretically possible that the judicial system may deliver punishments for vehicle related infractions, misdemeanors and/or felonies that include having the guilty party's vehicle forcibly speed controlled by the Invention in order to lessen the likelihood of a repeat vehicle offense, thereby providing reasonable assurance to the community to which the justice system serves that the guilty party cannot repeat offend.
Another object of the Invention is also to allow any person to voluntarily limit the speed of their own vehicle in the interest of potentially saving money on car insurance, to help prevent accidental vehicle speed infractions and to possibly lower their fuel costs as a result of the more efficient use of fuel from operating the vehicle at slower speeds and within the confines of local traffic laws.
A stated object of the Invention is to allow the user to append, modify or extend the programming of a target vehicle's on-board engine management computer for the purpose of limiting the physical speed of that vehicle. Once set, no operator of that vehicle can cause the vehicle to exceed the speed limitation placed upon the vehicle by the user of the Invention by use of the vehicle's throttle mechanism.
Operation:
The user of the Invention need first mate the Invention with a license manager device via a communication link. Once communication from the device is established, the user would then download one or more licenses from an online data warehouse via the license manager. The license information would then be transferred to the Invention from the license manager.
The Invention would be taken to the target vehicle and a new communication link would be established between the target vehicle and the Invention. The target vehicle's ignition would be turned to the “Run” position so that the vehicle and its engine management computer would be powered by the vehicle's battery system.
Once the vehicle has been turned on, the Invention would be turned on and would automatically interface with the target vehicle establishing a communication link with the vehicle. The target vehicle would send information to the Invention which would both uniquely identify the vehicle to the Invention as well as inform the Invention what language requirements were necessary to modify the programming language contained in the engine management computer.
Once the information had been exchanged and the communication protocols established, the user would be provided with a prompt screen on the Invention with which to interface. The user would then choose whether (s)he wanted to (1) add, (2) remove or (3) check on the status of a current license.
(s)he would choose that option and be presented with a query from the Invention requesting what speed (s)he desired. The user would then input the desired maximum speed of the vehicle and would then be presented with a query from the Invention as to how long this license should be active on the vehicle. The user of the Invention could choose from between 1 day to 365 days (1 year) in increments of 1 day. The user would also input a 5 digit numeric code of his/her choosing as a password to prevent the license from being removed without authorization. Upon completion of this step, a success or failure message would be passed to the Invention to be displayed to the user. If successful, the license would be installed.
The user could then power off the Invention, disconnect the communication link with the target vehicle, and turn the ignition off on the target vehicle. Once the speed limitation license was removed from the target vehicle, the on-board engine management computer would then default to the manufacturer installed speed limitation.
3. If the user wished to check the status of a current license installed on a target vehicle or verify that one was installed, (s)he would choose this option from the Invention's menu. It would not be necessary to input a serial number or pass code for this operation. The Invention would then query the target vehicle's on-board engine management computer and display the following information to the user:
After completion of any of the above operations, the user of the Invention would re-establish a communication link between the Invention and the license manager. The Invention would then upload the license data to a remotely maintained online database warehouse where those records would be centrally maintained.
