Privacy control-adjustable vehicle monitoring system with a wild card mode

摘要

A novel privacy control-adjustable vehicle monitoring system and a related method of operation provide a dynamically-adjustable access grant or denial of privacy-sensitive vehicle information to a vehicle monitoring personnel based on a driver's response to an electronic request made by the vehicle monitoring personnel. In one embodiment, vehicle information is categorized into a mandatory disclosure dataset and a privacy-adjustable dataset, wherein the mandatory disclosure dataset is disclosed to the vehicle monitoring personnel at all times, while the privacy-adjustable dataset is accessible if the driver grants access via a driver's user interface on an onboard vehicle user interface, or on a mobile electronic device. Furthermore, a special wild card mode visible to the driver enables the vehicle monitoring personnel to access an entire set of vehicle information for a limited period per access and for a limited number of accesses per period, based on a pre-arranged consent with the driver.

主权项

1. A privacy control-adjustable vehicle monitoring system with a wild card mode, the privacy control-adjustable vehicle monitoring system comprising:
a privacy control-adjustable onboard vehicle monitoring device capable of storing a vehicle information dataset collected from a vehicle's onboard computer or another vehicle-attached equipment; a computer server with a CPU and a memory unit, wherein the computer server is operated by a vehicle monitoring personnel; a vehicle monitoring software module at least partially executed on the CPU and the memory unit of the computer server operated by the vehicle monitoring personnel, wherein the vehicle monitoring software module includes a mandatory disclosure dataset monitoring sub-module, a privacy-adjustable dataset monitoring sub-module, a privacy-adjustable dataset access request sub-module, and a wild card information sub-module; a wireless transceiver unit either integrated into or operatively connected to the privacy control-adjustable onboard vehicle monitoring device for transmission of at least a portion of the vehicle information dataset from the privacy control-adjustable onboard vehicle monitoring device to the computer server operated by the vehicle monitoring personnel; the vehicle information dataset comprising a mandatory disclosure dataset that includes wild card information, and a privacy-adjustable dataset, wherein the mandatory disclosure dataset is automatically and periodically transmitted to the computer server operated by the vehicle monitoring personnel, and wherein the privacy-adjustable dataset is not transmitted to the computer server, unless the privacy-adjustable dataset is currently flagged by a driver to grant access to the vehicle monitoring personnel; and a driver's user interface device configured to receive, grant, or deny a privacy-adjustable data access request by the computer server operated by the vehicle monitoring personnel.