Tire Pressure Monitoring System for Theft Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current vehicle security systems do not effectively detect or prevent tire theft, as they are not specifically designed to monitor tire removal or provide timely notifications for missing tires.
Innovation Solution
A method utilizing a vehicle tire pressure monitoring system that includes sensors on each tire, where a telematics unit detects missing tires by failing to receive data from sensors and sends automatic wireless notifications to the vehicle owner.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If vehicle alarm systems are used to detect unauthorized access, then vehicle security is improved, but tire theft detection capability is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The existing TPM system, originally designed solely for monitoring tire pressure, is enhanced to perform multiple functions including tire presence detection and theft alerting. The same sensor infrastructure is used for both pressure monitoring and theft detection, making the system versatile without adding separate dedicated hardware for tire theft detection.
Solution Approach 2:
The vehicle's existing telematics unit and communication systems are utilized to send theft alerts, eliminating the need for separate alerting hardware. The TPM system self-serves by using its own data collection infrastructure to detect missing tires and trigger notifications through the vehicle's built-in communication capabilities.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If specialized locking lug nuts are used, then tire removal difficulty is increased, but these protections are not always used and can be defeated
Solution Approach 1:
The mechanical protection system (locking lug nuts requiring socket keys) is replaced with an electronic monitoring system. Instead of relying on physical barriers that can be defeated or forgotten, the invention uses electronic sensors and telematics to detect when tires are removed and automatically notifies the owner, providing more reliable security regardless of whether the owner uses mechanical protections.
3Reliability
If vehicle movement sensing is used to detect theft, then general vehicle theft detection is improved, but specific tire theft detection is not achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The vehicle monitoring system is segmented into component-level monitoring. Instead of treating the vehicle as a single unit for theft detection, the system individually monitors each tire through separate TPM sensors. This segmentation allows precise identification of which specific tire is missing, enabling accurate tire theft detection rather than just general vehicle movement detection.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for detecting a missing vehicle tire and notifying a user of the vehicle about a potential vehicle tire theft. The method carried out by the system involves detecting that a tire is missing from a vehicle using a vehicle tire pressure monitoring (TPM) system and thereafter providing a notification of the missing tire via a wireless communication sent from a telematics unit on the vehicle. The wireless communication can be sent automatically by the telematics unit in response to the detection. Identification numbers or other data reported by sensors used in the TPM system can be used to determine if a tire is missing.