METHOD FOR PROCESSING DATA IN A VEHICLE

Abstract

A method for processing data in a vehicle. The method includes: a) receiving data of components of the vehicle, b) checking the received data with respect their value for the development, further development, and/or the serial operation of vehicles and/or components thereof, c) deciding in consideration of step b) whether the data are to be stored in the vehicle (1) or sent to a vehicle-external location.

Claims

1. A method for processing data in a vehicle, comprising the following steps: a) receiving data of components of the vehicle; b) checking the received data with respect to their value for development and/or further development and/or serial operation of: vehicles and/or components of the vehicle; c) deciding in consideration of step b) whether the data are to be stored in the vehicle or sent to a vehicle-external location.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein steps a), b), and c) are carried out in the vehicle and/or by a control unit of the vehicle.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the vehicle is a development vehicle or a series-production vehicle.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein in step b), the data are assessed with respect to their financial value for the development, and/or the further development, and/or the serial operation.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein in step b), a cost function is used to assess the data.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the check and/or the cost function are adapted.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein a prioritization is carried out with respect to relevance of the data.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable memory medium on which is stored a computer program for processing data in a vehicle, the computer program, when executed by a computer, causing the computer to perform the following steps: a) receiving data of components of the vehicle; b) checking the received data with respect to their value for development and/or further development and/or serial operation of: vehicles and/or components of the vehicle; c) deciding in consideration of step b) whether the data are to be stored in the vehicle or sent to a vehicle-external location.

9. A control unit for a vehicle, configured to process data in a vehicle, the control unit configured to: a) receive data of components of the vehicle; b) check the received data with respect to their value for development and/or further development and/or serial operation of: vehicles and/or components of the vehicle; c) decide in consideration of b) whether the data are to be stored in the vehicle or sent to a vehicle-external location.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0033] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary flowchart of the method according to the present invention, presented herein.

[0034] FIG. 2 shows an exemplary vehicle including a control unit according the present invention, described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

[0035] FIG. 1 schematically shows an exemplary flowchart of the method presented here. The method is used for processing data in a vehicle 1 (cf. FIG. 2). The sequence of steps a), b), and c) represented by blocks 110, 120, and 130 is by way of example and may be run through at least once in the illustrated order to carry out the method, for example.

[0036] In block 110, according to step a), data are received of components, the components being formed in particular by at least one sensor 2, 3 of vehicle 1. In block 220, according to step b), the received data are checked with respect to their value for the development, further development, and/or the serial operation of vehicles and/or components thereof. In block 130, according to step c), it is decided taking into consideration step b) whether the data are to be stored in vehicle 1 or sent to a vehicle-external location.

[0037] One basic feature of the method may be considered that of being able to carry out already in the vehicle an initial preliminary assessment of recorded data, in particular according to its financial value, in order to decide about a preliminary storage or even prompt or immediate transfer. Such a (cost) function for assessing data, as a decision criterion for, for example, the options “send mobile,” “send as soon as possible via WLAN,” “store,” “discard” could take into consideration, for example, as a contribution a “measure of surprise,” thus to what extent the up-to-date data stream deviates from known patterns.

[0038] Using an advantageous cost function, which is expressed as an approximation in euro, on the one hand, the size of the installed memory media may advantageously be improved; on the other hand, it advantageously permits, instead of prematurely ending a trip when the memory is full, overwriting the data sections including the lowest value for the further development with new (more valuable) data and saving memory space.

[0039] Steps a), b), and c) may be carried out, for example, in the vehicle and/or by a control unit 4 for vehicle 1. Furthermore, vehicle 1 may be a development vehicle or a series-production vehicle.

[0040] The present invention may be used both in development vehicles and in series-production vehicles. In development vehicles, more computing power is potentially available for the computation of more complex (cost) functions, while larger amounts of data also arise and a daily data transfer upon return to the factory site may be a standard feature for many vehicles. In series-production vehicles, the (cost) function may take into consideration the more limited computing power and memory availability significantly more strongly and advantageously prioritize data streams which are relevant to operation and further development over others for storage and transfer.

[0041] For example, in step b), the data may be assessed with respect to their financial value for the development, further development, and/or the serial operation. In particular, in step b), a cost function may be used to assess the data.

[0042] A cost function formulated in financial variables (for example euro value for vehicle operators) has the advantage of being able to be incorporated directly and immediately in action decisions and the definition of action rules. By continuous observation of the subsequently established utility of certain data, the cost function may be gradually improved over time, in order to preferably set up the fleet for good further development(s) and/or series operation and/or to maximize the value of the data recording and transfer. Different cost rates may be taken into consideration for WLANs placed along the route, 4G or 5G transfer, and/or various data memory media.

[0043] In particular, such a concept may advantageously enable the attention of the data collection to be deliberately guided onto certain situations in particular situations by adapting the relevant parameters, for example, to be able to collect the required data for ending a driving ban.

[0044] An example from a neighboring industry in this regard: The flight bans for a total of 387 specimens of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft in a period of time of 20 months in 2019/2020 alone resulted in $8.6 billion in compensation by the aircraft producer to its customers, in total over $20 billion direct costs for Boeing. This thus corresponds to approximately $1 billion per month, or $30 million per day. In addition, there were the losses which had to be borne by the airlines themselves.

[0045] Since the automobile industry has more sales than the aircraft industry by approximately an order of magnitude, in perspective a high cluster risk is also to be expected for large L4 fleets due to driving bans (as a result of software or system deficiencies). In the case of ˜€50,000 sales per vehicle and year, for example, a fleet of 100,000 vehicles would result in a loss of >€13 million per day of driving ban, so that high investments would be applied to accelerate the end of a driving ban.

[0046] This represents an example that and possibly how the checking and/or the cost function may be adapted, in particular to guide the focus of the data collection deliberately onto certain situations or aspects, for example, to be able to collect the required data to end a driving ban.

[0047] Many embodiments may also be derived from the basic features described herein. For example, driving KPIs such as time-to-collision or nonfunctional KPIs such as memory utilization or frequency of runtime overruns of individual algorithms could be incorporated into the cost function to assess a driving scene. The sensor raw data of a scene could also be classified as less valuable if both perception and fusion do not observe KPIs having extraordinary values here, and/or as significantly more valuable if deviating or extraordinary assessments of the observed scene arise in perception, fusion, or planning.

[0048] In another advantageous embodiment of the present invention, the cost function may decide not only about storage of data, but may also prioritize which data are possibly also to be wirelessly transferred already live during a test drive. In particular if a large fleet of commercially used vehicles should once have a driving ban due to an irregularity in the software, shortening the data evaluation cycles to reacquire the driving license could have a high financial value.

[0049] This represents an example that and possibly how a prioritization with respect to the relevance of the data may take place.

[0050] In another advantageous embodiment, various vehicles may transfer their (sufficiently valuable) data packets to one another via vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, when they come (sufficiently) close to one another in road traffic. The memory space in the vehicles may thus be better utilized (inter-vehicle storage space load-balancing) and/or particularly urgent or valuable data packets may thus also be conveyed back into the factory site, in particular advantageously earlier or faster and/or without 4G/5G transfer costs, if vehicles are underway, for example, in only partially overlapping shifts.

[0051] In another advantageous embodiment, the check or the cost function for the data also takes into consideration cross-vehicle aspects; for example, if a driving situation of interest was observed and recorded simultaneously by various (experimental) vehicles from different perspectives, this may increase the value of the overall data set. Vice versa, if a new driving situation is observed similarly or identically in rapid succession by multiple vehicles, the novelty value and thus the information content may decrease with each further observation, so that, for example, the prioritization and thus the financial assessment in particular of the same observation may be continuously reduced in following vehicles.

[0052] FIG. 2 schematically shows by way of example a vehicle 1 including a control unit 4, which is configured to carry out a method described here. Control unit 4 may receive data of sensors 2, 3 of vehicle 1. Control unit 4 may check the data with respect to its value for the development, further development, and/or the serial operation of vehicles and/or components thereof. Furthermore, control unit 4 may decide whether the data are to be stored in vehicle 1, for example, in a memory 5, and/or are to be sent, for example, with the aid of a communication device 6 of vehicle 1 to a vehicle-external location, such as a higher-order management device.

[0053] For this purpose, for example, an algorithm for assessing the data (driving data, vehicle data, and/or sensor data) may be executed in control unit 4. The data may originate, for example, from one or multiple of the following components: sensors, PER, FUSION, PLANNER, MAP/LOC, state & error management, motion control, interior sensing, etc.

[0054] The method advantageously contributes to reducing data memory costs and data transfer costs during development and in operation.