US 11,670,117 B2
Vehicle and software update method
Yosuke Shionoya, Wako (JP); and Tomoaki Taki, Tokyo (JP)
Assigned to Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Tokyo (JP)
Filed by HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD., Tokyo (JP)
Filed on Dec. 23, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/132,267.
Claims priority of application No. JP2019-237835 (JP), filed on Dec. 27, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2021/0201599 A1, Jul. 1, 2021
Int. Cl. G07C 5/00 (2006.01); G07C 5/08 (2006.01); B60W 20/20 (2016.01); B60W 30/192 (2012.01); B60W 20/15 (2016.01)
CPC G07C 5/008 (2013.01) [B60W 20/15 (2016.01); B60W 20/20 (2013.01); B60W 30/192 (2013.01); G07C 5/0841 (2013.01); B60W 2510/085 (2013.01)] 9 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A software update system for a vehicle, comprising:
a plurality of electronic control units installed in the vehicle, with each electronic control unit of the plurality of electronic control units having a unique identifier stored electronically in a memory thereof;
an intra-vehicle communication line installed on the vehicle that connects the plurality of electronic control units and configured to provide a medium for electronically exchanging data including at least the unique identifier of each electronic control unit connected thereto;
an activation switch of the vehicle having ON and OFF states;
a server that provides updated program data for a given list of electronic control unit unique identifiers via an external communication line that is external to the vehicle, the given list being one of a current list of unique identifiers, which includes a unique identifier of each electronic control unit that is currently installed on the vehicle at a current point in time and a previous list of unique identifiers, which includes a unique identifier of each electronic control unit that was installed on the vehicle at a previous point in time; and
one or more processors configured to execute computer-executable instructions for installing the updated program data to each electronic control unit of the plurality of electronic control units,
wherein the one or more processors execute the computer-executable instructions to:
recognize that the activation switch changes from the ON state to the OFF state;
transmit, at a time in which the activation switch is recognized to have changed from the ON to the OFF state, the previous list of unique identifiers that was acquired before the activation switch was recognized to have switched from ON state to the OFF state to the server via the external communication line and receive the updated program data from the server via the external communication line;
recognize that the activation switch changes from the OFF state to the ON state;
electronically acquire via the intra-vehicle communication line, at a time in which the activation switch is recognized to have changed from the OFF to the ON state, the unique identifier of each electronic control unit of the plurality of electronic control units installed on the vehicle at the present time, and store the acquired unique identifiers as the current list of unique identifiers;
make a comparison between the previous list of unique identifiers and the current list of unique identifiers;
determine based on the comparison that the previous list of unique identifiers and the current list of unique identifiers are one of different from each other and equal to each other;
in the case that it is determined that the previous list of unique identifiers and the current list of unique identifiers are different from each other, delete the updated program data; and
in the case that it is determined that the previous list of unique identifiers and the current list of unique identifiers are equal to each other, install the updated program data to the plurality of electronic control units.