An engine start control device is provided with: a starter relay that is provided between a battery and a starter motor; a start abnormality determining means that determines the occurrence of start abnormality of an engine; and a start control means, which turns on the starter relay, and starts supplying power from the battery to the starter motor in the cases where a start instruction signal is inputted from a start switch, and which turns off the starter relay in the cases where the start abnormality determining means determined the occurrence of start abnormality of the engine.

A storage maintains charge times for vehicles. A processor of a server is programmed to periodically determine a time interval since each of the vehicles has been started according to the charge times. The server sends a message over a wide-area network requesting remote start of one of the vehicles responsive to the time interval for the one of the vehicles indicating no engine restart for at least a predefined time period. A processor of a vehicle restarts the vehicle according to receipt of a restart request sent responsive to a periodic process performed by a remote server to identify that a most recent vehicle start time sent from the vehicle to the remote server is at least a predefined time interval from a current time identified by the remote server.

A method, apparatus, system, vehicle, and/or computer program provides that one or more components of a vehicle are operated as a function of a predetermined pick-up time of the vehicle at a pick-up position of a parking facility in such a way that the vehicle exhibits one or more predetermined states at the pick-up position at the predetermined pick-up time.

A method of controlling an internal combustion engine of a vehicle comprises the following steps: on determining that the engine is running, determining whether or not the engine was started using a remote start procedure; if the engine is determined to have been started using the remote start procedure, starting a timer to run for a predetermined period; determining whether a door of the driver compartment has been opened or closed after the determining that the engine is running; if it is determined that a door has been opened, determining whether a transmission of the vehicle has been engaged; if the transmission has not been engaged, turning off the engine on expiry of the period; if the transmission has been engaged, terminating the method; if the engine is determined not to have been started using the remote start procedure, performing a check to establish whether a driver compartment of the vehicle has any occupants; starting a timer to run for a predetermined period if the check reveals that there are no occupants in the driver compartment of the vehicle; resetting the timer in the event that an occupant is detected in the driver compartment of the vehicle before expiry of the period, otherwise turning off the engine on expiry of the period.

A vehicle control device configured to be capable of executing idle stop control to automatically stop an engine when a predetermined automatic stop condition is satisfied and restart the engine when a predetermined restart condition is satisfied during the automatic stop of the engine, the vehicle control device includes: a start request detector, a shift position detector, and a delay time setting module. A start request detector detects a driver operation indicating a request for starting the engine by a driver. A shift position detector detects a shift position of a shift changer. A delay time setting module sets, on a basis of presence or absence of the driver operation and the shift position, a delay time from when the engine is restarted until when an automatic stop of the engine is permitted.

A road vehicle comprising: an internal combustion engine; an electric starter motor; a high-voltage electric circuit provided with a first storage system; a low-voltage electric circuit provided with a second storage system and directly connected to the electric starter motor; an electronic DC-DC power converter, which connects the low-voltage electric circuit and the high-voltage electric circuit to one another; and a control unit configured, in the presence of a turned-on condition of the road vehicle and when the internal combustion engine is off, to activate the electronic DC-DC power converter so as to transfer power to be at least partially supplied to the electric starter motor from the high-voltage electric circuit to the low-voltage electric circuit only in case of a cold-start condition of the internal combustion engine.

In some embodiments, a vehicle includes a temperature monitoring controller. The temperature monitoring controller is a processor, control module, or other suitable hardware that is configured to receive temperature sensor values from an engine control module (ECM) when an ignition bus is in a powered on state, and to decide when the engine should be automatically started in order to maintain a temperature above a low temperature threshold. The temperature monitoring controller periodically causes an ignition bus of the vehicle to be placed in the powered on state when the engine is shut down in order to collect temperature sensor values. The temperature monitoring controller determines whether to automatically start the engine, and if not, determines how long to wait before collecting temperature sensor values again based on a rate of change of the temperature sensor values.

A starter system includes a brushless electric starter motor and a battery power pack, the motor operatively connectable to an internal combustion engine of a powertrain. A power inverter converts direct current provided from the battery power pack to multi-phase alternating current to drive the motor. A pinion gear with one-way clutch is rotatably driven by the motor and movable between a disengaged position and an engaged position in which the pinion gear is meshingly engaged with a ring gear operatively connected to a crankshaft of the engine. A solenoid is operatively connected to the pinion gear. An electronic control system controls the motor to crank the engine using power provided from the battery power pack, and to separately command the solenoid to a disabled or an enabled state. A method of controlling the starter system controls the motor to crank the engine in a restart following an autostop.

A control apparatus for a vehicle disclosed herein is applied to a vehicle configured to perform pre-air conditioning of the interior of the vehicle by starting an internal combustion engine according to a remote control signal sent from a remote controller. When starting pre-air conditioning according to the remote control signal, the control apparatus sets the control mode of the vehicle to a drive-disabling mode, which is a control mode that disables an operation for driving the vehicle. If a specific mode-cancelling operation is detected in a situation in which the remote controller is present in the interior of the vehicle while the control mode of the vehicle is being set to the drive-disabling mode, the control apparatus cancels the drive-disabling mode while leaving the internal combustion engine operating.

A starter system includes a brushless electric starter motor and a battery power pack, the motor operatively connectable to an internal combustion engine of a powertrain. A power inverter converts direct current provided from the battery power pack to multi-phase alternating current to drive the motor. A pinion gear with one-way clutch is rotatably driven by the motor and movable between a disengaged position and an engaged position in which the pinion gear is meshingly engaged with a ring gear operatively connected to a crankshaft of the engine. A solenoid is operatively connected to the pinion gear. An electronic control system controls the motor to crank the engine using power provided from the battery power pack, and to separately command the solenoid to a disabled or an enabled state. A method of controlling the starter system controls the motor to crank the engine in a restart following an autostop.