An autonomous mobile device has a tower extending from a main body. The tower pans from left to right. An extensible mast may extend through, and pan with, the tower. An upper section is attached to the tower by a hinge and may tilt with respect to the tower. The upper section may include a touchscreen or other devices. An assembly with separate pan and tilt motors allows for the tower and attached upper section to pan while also allowing the upper section to tilt independently of the panning motion. The tilt motor is within the portion of the assembly rotated by the pan motor. The tilt motor drives a worm gear in the tower to rotate a tilt axle. An asymmetric friction hinge connects to the upper section to the tilt axle. Rotating the tilt motor rotates the worm gear, rotating the tilt axle and the attached upper section.

A driver assistance system aids a driver in charging one or more trailer-mounted batteries in a trailer being towed by an electrified passenger vehicle. Many existing charging facilities for electric vehicles have charging stalls with a layout configured to accommodate single vehicles. Charging facilities having drive-through or elongated charging stalls able to accommodate larger vehicles which are towing an electrified trailer are much scarcer. When attempting to charge a trailer-mounted battery in a charging stall meant for a single vehicle, it may be necessary to unhitch (i.e., decouple) the trailer while in the charging stall so that the passenger vehicle does not block the aisles of a charging station. Sensors in the vehicle perform a sensor sweep of a selected charging stall, and after unhitching, the trailer uses an independent drive system to park itself in the selected charging stall using driving commands which are calculated from the sensor sweep.

An apparatus, system, and method for determining the presence of a mobile device located in a predetermined detection zone within a vehicle are disclosed. A detection module receives a communication signal, determines that the communication signal was transmitted by a mobile device located within a predetermined detection zone within a vehicle, and a control module transmits a control signal to the mobile device located within the predetermined detection zone. The system further includes a monitoring logic to monitor a functional system of the vehicle activating the transmission of the control signal by the control module when the monitored functional system is activated and the detection module determines that the communication signal was transmitted by the mobile device located within the predetermined detection zone.

Methods, systems, and vehicles are provided that include information systems including a display disposed about the interior of a vehicle. The display is positioned within the vehicle to be viewable by an occupant of the vehicle who is not looking forward through the vehicle windshield and/or or towards displays, gauges or instrumentation primarily positioned for viewing by a forward-looking occupant. The information system may be coupled to receive data from one or more vehicle control systems or controllers, from cameras disposed within the interior or on the exterior of the vehicle, from one or more sensors and/or from a telematics system. The information system configures the data for display on the display.

In one embodiment, an autonomous vehicle includes a controller and a control interface disposed in an enclosure on the side of the autonomous vehicle. The control interface includes a display communicatively coupled to the controller. The display is used to at least setup or control operation of an implement attached to the autonomous vehicle, setup or control operation of the autonomous vehicle, or both.

A system for providing proactive service to a passenger of an autonomous vehicle during an autonomous-driving ride. The system includes a hardware-based processing unit, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage component including an input-interface module that, when executed by the hardware-based processing unit, obtains input data indicating a condition related to the autonomous-driving ride. The storage component also includes an actions module that, when executed by the hardware-based processing unit determines, based on the condition indicated by the input data, a proposed action; and proactively initiates dialogue with the passenger by way of a vehicle-passenger interface, the dialogue including proposing that the vehicle take the proposed action. Example actions include executing a conversation function, an educating function, an HVAC function, an autonomous-driving function, and an infotainment function. The technology in various embodiments includes any of the processes performed by the systems or devices described.

A display method implemented using a display system for a vehicle, the method including the following steps: connecting said mobile terminal to the onboard display device; displaying, on the screen of the onboard display device, a graphical user interface comprising a first menu representing said plurality of applications as icons; generating a graphical user interface on the touch screen of the mobile terminal; and using the touch screen of the mobile terminal as a touchpad to navigate the first menu of the graphical user interface displayed on the screen of the onboard display device, a swiping gesture by a user's finger on the touch screen of the mobile terminal generating the display of movement of a marking area in the first menu of the graphical user interface displayed on the screen of the onboard display device, the marking area indicating the selection of an icon.

A system managing vehicle operations based on thermal data. The system includes a thermal camera arranged in the vehicle to sense intra-vehicle thermal conditions. The system also includes a hardware-based storage device including a thermal-data analysis module that, when executed by a hardware-based processing unit, determines, based on the intra-vehicle thermal data, an activity or state of one or more vehicle occupants. The storage device may also include: an action module that, when executed, determines an output action based on the activity or state; and an output-interface module that, when executed, initiates performing the output action. The storage device may also include In various embodiments, the hardware-based storage device includes a database module that, when executed, obtains pre-stored occupant data corresponding to an occupant, and determining the output action is based on the pre-stored occupant data and occupant activity or state determined.

An apparatus and methods for rotating a console display device of a vehicle are disclosed. The apparatus includes a display device; a rotation mechanism connected to the display device and configured to rotate the display device between a portrait orientation and a landscape orientation; a touch bar having at least one button; and a memory storing instructions. The instructions include receiving a request from a user via the touch bar to rotate the display device from the portrait orientation to the landscape orientation; sending a message to the user via the display device providing a time for the user to cancel the request; executing, via the rotation mechanism, a rotation of the display device from the portrait orientation to the landscape orientation after the provided time to cancel the request elapses; and sending a signal to disable vehicle movement.

The invention relates to the transmission of multimedia data, which is to be output, from a computer device to a vehicle multimedia device. The vehicle multimedia device has a control device which is designed to determine a piece of vehicle status information in order to transmit said information to the computer device. On the basis of the vehicle status information, the computer device generates release data which determines to what extent the multimedia data is to be output. The computer device transmits the multimedia data and the release data to the vehicle multimedia device, which multimedia device outputs, by means of an output device, the maximum multimedia data to the extent defined by the release data.