Vehicle ECU Data Deletion Control for Privacy-Safe Sensor Management

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current vehicles lack the ability to perform fine-grained deletion of data stored in electronic control units (ECUs), leading to privacy risks and disruption of normal vehicle operations when bulk data deletion is performed.

Innovation Solution

A data processing method involving a controller that manages data requests and deletions for ECUs, recording request information and sending targeted deletion instructions based on mark information and user inputs, ensuring precise data management and secure communication with sensors.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Object-affected harmful factors

If bulk data deletion is performed in the entire vehicle, then privacy leakage is avoided, but normal driving operations are disrupted

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprivacy leakageVSAvoidnormal driving operations
Core Design Contradiction:
Object-affected harmful factorsVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the vehicle's data management system into multiple ECUs, each managing its own data independently. The controller can send deletion instructions to specific ECUs based on mark information, allowing selective deletion of data from individual ECUs rather than forcing bulk deletion across the entire vehicle. This segmentation enables privacy protection for specific data while preserving operational data in other ECUs.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements local quality by allowing different data retention policies for different ECUs. Each ECU can have its data marked for deletion or retention based on specific criteria (e.g., data type, sensitivity, operational importance). This enables the system to apply different deletion qualities locally to specific ECUs rather than uniformly across all components, thus protecting privacy where needed while maintaining operational continuity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

2Object-affected harmful factors

If fine-grained data deletion is implemented, then privacy protection is improved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprivacy leakageVSAvoiddata management system
Core Design Contradiction:
Object-affected harmful factorsVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The controller serves as an intermediary between ECUs and the data deletion process. It receives deletion requests, determines which ECUs should have their data deleted based on mark information, and sends targeted deletion instructions to specific ECUs. This intermediary role simplifies the overall system architecture by centralizing the decision-making logic while allowing individual ECUs to maintain their operational independence.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent employs mark information as a preliminary action mechanism. Before actual deletion occurs, the controller marks specific data in specific ECUs using mark information that identifies the data and the target ECU. This preliminary marking step enables the system to prepare for selective deletion without immediately executing it, allowing for careful control and verification before data is actually removed, thus managing complexity through staged processing.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP4383110B1Data processing method and related apparatus
Publication Date: 2025.12.10 YINWANG INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGIES CO LTD
  • EP4383110B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4383110B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4383110B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

This application discloses a data processing method, which is used in the field of intelligent vehicle technologies. The method is applied to a vehicle including a controller and a plurality of electronic control units ECUs. The method includes: The controller receives a data request message from a first ECU, where the first ECU is any one of the plurality of ECUs, and the data request message is used to request to obtain sensor data. The controller sends a response message to the first ECU, where the response message indicates the first ECU to obtain the sensor data. The controller generates mark information based on the data request message, where the mark information records request information for the sensor data. If the vehicle triggers deletion of the sensor data in the first ECU, the controller sends a first data deletion instruction to the first ECU based on the mark information, where the first data deletion instruction indicates the first ECU to delete the sensor data. Based on the method, fine-grained management of data can be implemented for components in a vehicle, so that specific data in the vehicle can be deleted conveniently, and leakage of private data in the vehicle is avoided.