Method and apparatus for monitoring a vehicle

Abstract

To enable reliable monitoring of vehicle ownership. A device for monitoring a vehicle includes: - detecting a series of positions of the vehicle 100 at a corresponding series of points in time; - based on the series of locations, to identify whether a change of ownership of the vehicle 100 may have occurred at a point in time within the series of points in time; and - taking at least one action with respect to the vehicle 100 when it is determined that the vehicle 100 may have undergone an ownership change; It is composed of:

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a method and a corresponding device that allows reliable monitoring of vehicles, in particular vehicle ownership. [Background technology]

[0002] A vehicle may change owners, possibly multiple times, during its lifespan. In this case, certain rights and / or obligations regarding the vehicle are tied to ownership in the vehicle. For example, the possibility of remote access to the vehicle (e.g., to read vehicle data such as mileage or fuel tank fill status) should be limited to the vehicle's owner. On the other hand, one role of the owner is typically to ensure that the vehicle is well maintained. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0003] This specification addresses the technical problem of enabling reliable monitoring of vehicles, particularly with regard to vehicle ownership. [Means for solving the problem]

[0004] The problem is solved by each independent claim. Advantageous embodiments are set out in particular in the dependent claims. It should be noted that the additional features of claims dependent on an independent claim, either without the features of the independent claim or only in combination with some of the features of the independent claim, may form an invention independent of the combination of all the features of the independent claim, which invention may be made for the subject matter of an independent claim, a divisional application or a subsequent application. The same applies to technical suggestions given in the description that may form an invention independent of one of the features of the independent claim.

[0005] According to one aspect, an apparatus for monitoring a (motorized) vehicle is described. The apparatus is configured to detect a series of positions of the vehicle at a corresponding series of points in time. The positions can be determined based on a position sensor of the vehicle (e.g., based on a GPS receiver). It is therefore possible to determine where the vehicle was located at different (successive) points in time. The position of the vehicle can be determined, for example, once per hour or once per day, and can be displayed at a series of points in time. Alternatively or additionally, it is possible to determine the position of the vehicle at a point in time when the vehicle is stopped and / or parked.

[0006] The device is further configured to determine, based on the series of locations, whether a change of ownership of the vehicle may have occurred at a point in time within the series of points in time, and for this purpose, a statistical analysis of the locations based on the series of locations may be performed.

[0007] The device can be particularly configured so that some of the positions in the series are assigned to respective ones of a plurality of different and / or consecutive time intervals. Here, each time interval may be long enough to include a plurality of time points in the series. Thus, the individual time points can be grouped into different (consecutive) time intervals. And, the positions at different time points can be assigned to different time intervals. Thus, for multiple time intervals, a corresponding quantity of positions can be provided. The quantity of positions for one time interval can include, for example, 20 or more, or 100 or more, or 1000 or more positions (for example, for a 30-day time interval).

[0008] The device may also be configured to, for each of a plurality of time intervals, identify a respective location cluster of locations assigned to each time interval using a cluster algorithm (e.g., using a DBSCAN algorithm), where the clustering of locations may be performed depending on one or more cluster parameters. Exemplary cluster parameters are a minimum number of locations per cluster, a maximum spacing between two locations within a cluster, and / or a maximum allowable radius of a location cluster centered around a center or centroid of the location cluster.

[0009] It is therefore possible to provide one or more location clusters for each time interval, each location cluster representing a location where the vehicle was relatively frequently located during the respective time interval.

[0010] Based on the location clusters for multiple time intervals, it is then possible to determine with particular precision whether a vehicle change of ownership is likely to have occurred at a particular point in time within a series of points in time.

[0011] The device is therefore able to accurately and reliably determine vehicle ownership based on vehicle usage, and in particular vehicle location.

[0012] The device may also be configured to take at least one action with respect to the vehicle when it is determined that a possible ownership change of the vehicle has occurred. The device may, for example, be configured to issue a notification to the user of the vehicle about the recognized ownership change. The notification may be issued, in particular, via a user interface of the vehicle and / or a user device of the user (e.g., a smartphone). In particular, the issuance of the notification may check whether the recognized possible ownership change of the vehicle has actually occurred. Furthermore, the issuance of the notification may prompt the actual owner of the vehicle to take care of (possibly necessary) vehicle maintenance.

[0013] Alternatively or additionally, the device can be configured to check and / or automatically block remote access to the vehicle by a user of the vehicle, in particular by a user device (e.g., a smartphone) of the previous owner, thereby increasing the safety of the vehicle's operation. In particular, it is therefore possible to block unauthorized remote access to the vehicle in some cases.

[0014] The device may be configured to determine the degree of overlap of location clusters for a pair of immediately consecutive time intervals. Here, the degree of overlap of location clusters for a pair of immediately consecutive time intervals may be determined based on, for example, the number of location clusters for different time intervals that overlap with each other. Alternatively or additionally, the degree of overlap may be determined based on the degree of overlap of location clusters for different time intervals. To determine the degree of overlap of two location clusters, for example, both location clusters may be considered as circles with a predetermined radius centered on each cluster center. Then, the degree of overlap of both circles may be determined.

[0015] The device may also be configured to determine whether a vehicle ownership change may have occurred between immediately consecutive time intervals based on the degree of overlap of the location clusters. In particular, the device may be configured to compare the degree of overlap of the determined location clusters for a pair of immediately consecutive time intervals with an overlap threshold. The device may then rely on the comparison to particularly accurately determine whether a vehicle ownership change may have occurred between immediately consecutive time intervals.

[0016] The device can be configured to determine a degree of overlap of location clusters for each pair of immediately successive time intervals of the plurality of time intervals, and can determine which time intervals of the plurality of time intervals may have undergone a vehicle ownership change based on the degree of overlap of location clusters for different pairs of immediately successive time intervals.

[0017] The device can be configured to divide the series of points in time into time intervals of a predetermined duration (e.g., one month) to identify a plurality of time intervals. Furthermore, the device can be configured to vary the duration of the time intervals to identify a plurality of different time intervals each having a different length of duration. Thus, different time intervals with different durations (e.g., two weeks, one month, two months) can be taken into account.

[0018] Then, location clusters can be identified for different time intervals (based on the sequence of locations). Furthermore, based on the location clusters for the different time intervals, it can be determined whether the vehicle is likely to have changed ownership at a particular point in time within the sequence. Taking into account time intervals of different lengths, the reliability of the ownership change recognition can be further improved.

[0019] According to another aspect, there is described a (road vehicle) motor vehicle (in particular a car or lorry or bus or motorcycle) comprising the apparatus described herein.

[0020] According to another aspect, a vehicle external unit is described that includes the apparatus described herein, which can be configured to monitor a plurality of different vehicles (based on a series of locations for each vehicle, respectively) and, in particular, the ownership status of each vehicle.

[0021] According to another aspect, a method of monitoring a (motorized) vehicle is described. The method includes detecting a series of locations of the vehicle at a corresponding series of points in time. The method further includes determining, based on the series of locations, whether the vehicle may have changed ownership at a point in the series of points in time. The method may further include taking at least one action with respect to the vehicle when it is determined that the vehicle may have changed ownership.

[0022] According to another aspect, a software (SW) program is described, the software program being configurable to be executed in a processor and thereby to perform the methods described herein.

[0023] According to another aspect, a storage medium is described. The storage medium can include a software program configured to execute on a processor and thereby perform the methods described herein.

[0024] It should be noted that the methods, devices, and systems described herein can be used alone or in combination with other methods, devices, and systems described herein. Furthermore, aspects of the methods, devices, and systems described herein can be combined with each other in various ways. In particular, features of the claims can be combined in various ways.

[0025] The present invention will be described in detail below based on examples. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0026] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 illustrates exemplary components of a vehicle. [Figure 2a] FIG. 2 illustrates exemplary location data for a vehicle. [Figure 2b] FIG. 2 illustrates exemplary location data for a vehicle. [Figure 3]FIG. 1 illustrates a flowchart of an exemplary method for monitoring a vehicle. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0027] As explained in the introduction, this specification deals with the reliable monitoring of vehicles, and in particular vehicle ownership. In this regard, Figure 1 shows an exemplary vehicle 100 having a location sensor 105 (e.g., a GPS receiver) configured to detect location data (i.e., sensor data) about the location of the vehicle 100.

[0028] The control unit 101 of the vehicle 100 can be configured to determine a series of positions of the vehicle 100 based on position data for a series of points in time. It is therefore possible to determine where the vehicle 100 was located at different points in time. The positions can be, for example, positions within a digital map of a road network. The positions of the vehicle 100 can be determined at a predetermined sampling rate (for example, positions per hour or per day).

[0029] The sequence of locations can be transmitted by means of the communication unit 103 of the vehicle 100 via a (wireless) communication connection 108 to an evaluation device 110 (external to the vehicle). The device 110 can be configured to determine whether an owner change has (may) occurred based on the sequence of locations and a time specification for the different locations. In particular, it is possible to make hypotheses about a possible owner change based on the sequence of locations over time. For example, it can be determined that there is an x% probability that an owner change has occurred (e.g. x=50 or more, or x=70 or more).

[0030] 2a shows an exemplary digital map 200, on which different locations 201 of vehicles 100 are recorded. As is apparent from FIG. 2a, the distribution of the locations 201 of vehicles 100 typically has one or more accumulations (e.g., at the residence or workplace of the owner of vehicle 100). The device 110 can be configured to apply a clustering algorithm to the sequence of locations 201 of vehicle 100 over time. An exemplary clustering algorithm is the DBSCAN algorithm.

[0031] In this case, the clustering of a temporal sequence of locations 201 can be performed separately for different time intervals. In particular, a sequence of locations 201 or a sequence of time points can be divided into different (directly consecutive) time intervals. A time interval can have a duration of, for example, 30 days. Then, different locations 201 (each having a time designation) can be divided into different amounts of locations 201 for different time intervals.

[0032] Then, for each time interval for each quantity of the locations 201, it is possible to perform a positional clustering of the locations 201, for example: the maximum allowed spacing between cluster positions 201, and / or the minimum required number of positions 201 in the cluster, and / or The maximum allowed radius of a cluster around its center or the maximum allowed spacing of a cluster's position 201 relative to the center of the cluster It is possible to consider one or more cluster parameters such as:

[0033] Figure 2b shows exemplary location clusters 211, 212, 213 for different time intervals. In particular, Figure 2b shows a first location cluster 211 for a first time interval, a second location cluster 212 for a second time interval, and a third location cluster 213 for a third time interval, where the second time interval (immediately) follows the first time interval and the third time interval (immediately) follows the second time interval.

[0034] The device 110 can be configured to determine whether an ownership change has occurred for the vehicle 100 based on the location clusters 211, 212, 213. In particular, based on the location clusters 211, 212, 213, a hypothesis can be made (e.g., with a predetermined probability) that an ownership change has occurred.

[0035] The device 110 can be configured to compare the location clusters 211, 212, 213 for two immediately successive time intervals with each other. In particular, it can check whether the location clusters 211, 212, 213 for two immediately successive time intervals overlap. For example, it can determine the degree of overlap of the location clusters 211, 212, 213 for two immediately successive time intervals, where the degree of overlap is the number of location clusters 211, 212, 213 for different time intervals where there is overlap or duplication, and / or · The overlapping degree of location clusters 211, 212, and 213 for different time intervals may depend on

[0036] Then, based on the degree of overlap of the location clusters 211, 212, 213 for two immediately consecutive time intervals, it is possible to determine whether an ownership change has occurred between both time intervals, or to make a hypothesis about an ownership change.

[0037] The device 110 can be configured to change (e.g., lengthen and / or shorten) the length of the considered time interval. Then, location clusters 211, 212, and 213 can be identified for time intervals of different lengths. Furthermore, based on the location clusters 211, 212, and 213, respectively, it can be checked whether an ownership change has (potentially) occurred and during which time interval. Changing the length of the time interval can improve the accuracy of identifying assumptions about ownership changes. In particular, it can detect and eliminate erroneous detection of temporary changes in the vehicle 100 specifications (e.g., when going on vacation) and the resulting changes in users.

[0038] The device 110 may further be configured to perform one or more actions with respect to the vehicle 100 if there is an assumption about an owner change and / or after detecting a possible owner change. In particular, a notification may be issued to the user of the vehicle 100 to check whether an owner change has actually occurred. For example, a notification may be issued via the user interface 102 (e.g., on a screen of the vehicle 100 and / or via a speaker). The user of the vehicle 100 may, for example, be requested by the notification to confirm whether an owner change has actually occurred. Furthermore, the user of the vehicle 100 may be requested to perform maintenance on the vehicle 100.

[0039] Alternatively or additionally, remote access to vehicle 100 after a recognized possible change of ownership may be blocked or at least checked. Remote access may, for example, allow the owner of vehicle 100 to access vehicle 100 via user equipment 120 (e.g., a smartphone) and request vehicle information, such as the mileage of vehicle 100 and / or the state of charge of the energy storage of vehicle 100. Furthermore, the owner may, in some cases, lock or unlock vehicle 100 or open or close windows of vehicle 100.

[0040] Device 110 may be configured to automatically block remote access to vehicle 100 in response to a recognized possible ownership change. A notification may then be sent to the previous owner's user equipment 120 to inform the previous owner that remote access has been blocked for security reasons due to a recognized possible ownership change. Furthermore, it may be possible for the previous owner to unlock remote access again (possibly only after checking the ownership status, e.g., by the presence of vehicle registration documents). Automatic detection of a possible ownership change thus enables particularly secure operation of vehicle 100.

[0041] 3 illustrates a flowchart of an exemplary (possibly computer-implemented) method 300 for monitoring vehicle 100. Method 300 is particularly configured to monitor the ownership status of vehicle 100.

[0042] The method 300 includes detecting 301 a series of positions 201 of the vehicle 100 at a corresponding series of points in time. The series of positions 201 can be determined, for example, based on the position sensor 105 of the vehicle 100. The points in the series of points in time can be equally spaced (e.g., with time intervals of one hour, several hours, or one day). Alternatively, or in addition, the points in time can be points in time when the vehicle 100 is stopped and / or parked.

[0043] The method 300 further includes determining 302 whether an ownership change of the vehicle 100 may have occurred at a point in time within the series of points in time based on the series of locations 201. In particular, it is possible to check for different time intervals whether an ownership change may have occurred between two time intervals based on the location clusters 211, 212, 213 of the locations 201. Each time interval may include, for example, 100 or more points in time or 100 or more locations 201 within the series of points in time or the series of locations 201, respectively.

[0044] Method 300 may further include taking at least one action with respect to vehicle 100 upon identifying that a potential ownership change of vehicle 100 has occurred, such as issuing a notification to the previous owner of the vehicle and / or checking and / or blocking remote access to vehicle 100.

[0045] The measures described herein may allow reliable monitoring of the vehicle 100, in particular with regard to the owner status.

[0046] The invention is not limited to the embodiments shown, and it should be noted that the specification and drawings are intended to illustrate, by way of example only, the principles of the proposed methods, devices and systems. The present invention may also include the following aspects: 1. A device (110) for monitoring a vehicle (100), the device (110) comprising: - detecting a series of positions (201) of the vehicle (100) at a corresponding series of points in time; - based on the series of locations (201), to determine whether a change of ownership of the vehicle (100) may have occurred at a point in time within the series of points in time; and - taking at least one action with respect to the vehicle (100) when it is determined that the vehicle (100) may have undergone an ownership change; 1. An apparatus comprising: 2. The device (110) - some positions (201) of the sequence of positions (201) are assigned to one time interval of a plurality of time intervals, each time interval including a plurality of time points of the sequence of time points; - for each of a plurality of time intervals, using a cluster algorithm to identify respective location clusters (211, 212, 213) of locations (201) respectively assigned to the time interval; and - based on the location clusters (211, 212, 213), for a plurality of time intervals, determining whether a change of ownership of the vehicle (100) is likely to have occurred at a point in time among a series of points in time; The device (110) according to item 1 above, characterized in that it is configured as follows. 3. The device (110) - determining the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213) for a pair of immediately consecutive time intervals; and -Identifying whether a vehicle (100) may have changed ownership between immediately consecutive time intervals based on the degree of overlap of location clusters (211, 212, 213). The device (110) according to 2 above, characterized in that it is configured as follows. 4. The device (110) - for each pair of immediately consecutive time intervals of the plurality of time intervals, determining the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213); and - determining whether a change of ownership of the vehicle (100) may have occurred among a plurality of time intervals based on the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213) for different pairs of immediately consecutive time intervals; The device (110) according to item 3 above, characterized in that it is configured as follows. 5. The device (110) based on the number of location clusters (211, 212, 213) for different time intervals that overlap each other, and / or Based on the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213) for different time intervals, The device (110) according to paragraph 3 or 4 above, characterized in that it is configured to determine the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213) for one pair of immediately successive time intervals. 6. The device (110) comparing the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213) for one pair of immediately consecutive time intervals with an overlap threshold; and - determining based on said comparison whether a change of ownership of the vehicle (100) may have occurred between immediately successive time intervals; The device (110) according to any one of items 3 to 5 above, characterized by being configured as follows: 7. The device (110) - dividing a series of time points into time intervals of predetermined duration to identify multiple time intervals; Varying the duration of the time intervals to identify different time intervals each having a different length of duration; - identifying location clusters (211, 212, 213) for different time intervals; and - determining whether a change of ownership of the vehicle (100) may have occurred at a certain point in time in a series of points in time based on the location clusters (211, 212, 213) for different time intervals; The device (110) according to any one of items 2 to 6 above, characterized by being configured as follows: 8. The device (110) according to any one of the above items 1 to 7, characterized in that the device (110) is configured to issue a notification of the recognized change of ownership to the user of the vehicle (100), in particular via the user interface (102) of the vehicle (100) and / or the user's user equipment (120). 9. The device (110) according to any one of 1. to 8. above, characterized in that the device (110) is configured to check and / or automatically block remote access to the vehicle (100) by the user of the vehicle (100), in particular the user equipment (120) of the previous owner, as a measure. 10. A method (300) for monitoring a vehicle (100), comprising: - detecting (301) a series of positions (201) of a vehicle (100) at a corresponding series of points in time; - determining (302) whether a change of ownership of the vehicle (100) may have occurred at a point in time within the series of points in time based on the series of locations (201); and - taking at least one action (303) with respect to the vehicle (100) when it is determined that the vehicle (100) may have undergone an ownership change; A method comprising:

Claims

1. A device (110) for monitoring a vehicle (100), comprising: - to detect a series of positions (201) of the vehicle (100) at a corresponding series of points in time, - some positions (201) of the sequence of positions (201) are assigned to respective time intervals of a plurality of time intervals, each time interval comprising a plurality of time points of the sequence of time points; - for each of a plurality of time intervals, using a cluster algorithm to identify respective location clusters (211, 212, 213) of locations (201) respectively assigned to the time interval; - to determine the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213) for one pair of immediately successive time intervals, - to determine whether an ownership change of the vehicle (100) may have occurred between immediately consecutive time intervals based on the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213); and - taking at least one action with respect to the vehicle (100) when it is determined that the vehicle (100) may have undergone an ownership change; 1. An apparatus comprising:

2. The device (110) - for each pair of immediately consecutive time intervals of the plurality of time intervals, determining the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213); and - identifying, based on the degree of overlap of location clusters (211, 212, 213) for different pairs of immediately successive time intervals, between which time intervals there is a possibility that the vehicle (100) has undergone an ownership change; 2. The apparatus (110) of claim 1, wherein the apparatus (110) is configured to:

3. The device (110) based on the number of location clusters (211, 212, 213) for different time intervals that overlap each other, and / or - based on the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213) for different time intervals, 3. The device (110) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it is configured to determine the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213) for a pair of immediately successive time intervals.

4. The device (110) - comparing the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213) for one pair of immediately consecutive time intervals with an overlap threshold; and - determining based on said comparison whether a change of ownership of the vehicle (100) may have occurred between immediately successive time intervals; The device (110) according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that it is configured

5. The device (110) - dividing a series of time points into time intervals of a predetermined duration in order to identify a plurality of time intervals; - Varying the duration of a time interval to identify different time intervals each having a different length of duration; - to identify location clusters (211, 212, 213) for different time intervals; and - based on location clusters (211, 212, 213) for different time intervals, to identify whether a change of ownership of the vehicle (100) may have occurred at a certain point in time within a series of points in time; 5. The device (110) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it is configured

6. The device (110) according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the device (110) is configured to issue a notification of the recognized change of ownership to the user of the vehicle (100), in particular via a user interface (102) of the vehicle (100) and / or a user equipment (120) of the user.

7. The device (110) according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the device (110) is configured to check and / or automatically block remote access to the vehicle (100) by a user device (120) of a user or previous owner of the vehicle (100).

8. A method (300) for monitoring a vehicle (100), comprising: - detecting (301) a series of positions (201) of a vehicle (100) at a corresponding series of points in time; - assigning some positions (201) of the sequence of positions (201) to respective time intervals of a plurality of time intervals, each time interval comprising a plurality of time points of the sequence of time points; - for each of a plurality of time intervals, using a cluster algorithm to identify respective location clusters (211, 212, 213) of locations (201) respectively assigned to the time interval; - determining the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213) for a pair of immediately consecutive time intervals; and - determining whether an ownership change of the vehicle (100) may have occurred between immediately consecutive time intervals based on the degree of overlap of the location clusters (211, 212, 213); - taking at least one action (303) with respect to the vehicle (100) when it is determined that the vehicle (100) may have undergone an ownership change; A method comprising:

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