Vehicle information acquisition system and vehicle information acquisition method

Abstract

A vehicle information acquisition system includes a vehicle and an information management center. The vehicle includes an information acquisition portion that acquires a piece of vehicle information, which is processed by an information processing unit, based on a set collection condition, and transmits the acquired piece of the vehicle information to the information management center. The information management center determines a new collection condition for the piece of the vehicle information, which is processed by the information processing unit, based on a result of an analysis of the transmitted piece of the vehicle information, and transmits the determined collection condition to the vehicle as a collection condition for a piece of vehicle information to be subsequently acquired by the information acquisition portion to re-set the transmitted collection condition in the information acquisition portion.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The invention relates to a vehicle information acquisition system and a vehicle information acquisition method that acquire pieces of vehicle information from an information processing unit mounted on a vehicle.[0003]2. Description of Related Art[0004]In general, a vehicle such as an automobile or the like is provided with a self-diagnosis unit that diagnoses a vehicle state including a state of an internal combustion engine and the like based on pieces of vehicle information acquired from various sensors that are mounted on the vehicle. Such a self-diagnosis unit can carry out a more detailed diagnosis and a more accurate diagnosis as the number of pieces of vehicle information to be used for the diagnosis increases. On the other hand, the increase in the number of pieces of vehicle information to be used for the diagnosis leads to an increase in the load in processing those pieces of information and the shortage of a ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]The invention provides a vehicle information acquisition system and a vehicle information acquisition method that make it possible to suitably restrain the amount of vehicle information to be acquired for a diagnosis from increasing while enhancing the accuracy in the diagnosis even in the case where an origin of a piece of vehicle information that assumes an abnormal value is determined by tracing back a processing procedure of a program.

[0012]In addition, the piece of the vehicle information is collected on the collection condition that is so set as to narrow down the cause. Therefore, the amount of vehicle information to be collected at a time can be reduced, so that even an information processing unit in a vehicle with low information processing capacity can also collect pieces of vehicle information while maintaining its normal function. Thus, the collection of pieces of vehicle information can be facilitated as well.

[0015]According to this configuration or this method, for example, when there is no need to set the collection condition, the monitoring of pieces of vehicle information that are suited to the monitoring of a general state of the vehicle, for example, the exhaustive monitoring of a state, the monitoring of pieces of information with high level of importance, and the like can be carried out by using a predetermined collection condition. Thus, it is possible to spare the burden of setting the collection condition as well.

[0024]According to this configuration or this method, since the characteristic of each vehicle differs depending on the vehicle type thereof, the accumulation of pieces of vehicle information on the vehicles of the same type also makes it possible to detect the characteristics of the vehicles of the same type, especially an abnormality peculiar to the vehicle type.

[0030]The traffic situation originally differs depending on the time zone as well as the position. In some cases, therefore, the piece of the vehicle information characteristically changes depending on the position or the time. Thus, by determining the position and the time according to this configuration or this method, a more detailed analysis, for example, the determination of a situation in which an abnormality occured can be suitably carried out. Further, since the position and the time are determined, the amount of information in the piece of the vehicle information to be acquired can be reduced as well.

Problems solved by technology

On the other hand, the increase in the number of pieces of vehicle information to be used for the diagnosis leads to an increase in the load in processing those pieces of information and the shortage of a storage area as well, so that the determination of a cause at an appropriate timing may be made difficult as a result of a fall in the processing speed of the self-diagnosis.

However, the preliminary embedment of positions for acquiring those pieces of vehicle information for determining a cause in the program that is used to determine the cause incurs the complication of the program itself, and hence is not easy.

Further, even if such a program can be created, an attempt to enhance the diagnostic accuracy thereof cannot avoid an increase in the number of pieces of vehicle information to be used for the diagnosis.