Patent ID: 9154636
Filing Date: 2015-10-06
Classification: G08B,H04M,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method of sending a message from a vehicle to an emergency call center, the method comprising: determining that a vehicle air bag has deployed; when the vehicle air bag deployed, determining whether a first channel is communicatively coupled to a cellular communication network, the first communication channel configured to preferentially transmit emergency messages to the cellular communication network; when the first communication channel is not communicatively coupled to the cellular communication network, attempting to transmit an emergency message from the vehicle to the emergency call center over at least one of a plurality of available secondary non-cellular communications channels used for communicating over a first of a plurality of different types of communication protocols over which transmission of the emergency message is attempted when the first channel is not coupled to the cellular network, the transmission of the emergency message from the vehicle via a secondary communication channel comprising: receiving from an ordered list stored within the vehicle, at least one configuration parameter and an associated non-cellular modulation scheme to be used on a non-cellular frequency for a first secondary communications channel of said plurality of the different types of secondary non-cellular communication channels, the first secondary communication channel used for communicating over a first of the plurality of different types of communication protocols; configuring the first secondary non-cellular communication channel on the ordered list using the at least one configuration parameter and the associated non-cellular modulation scheme to be used on a non-cellular frequency received for the first secondary communications channel; attempting to transmit the emergency message from the vehicle to the emergency call center over the configured first secondary non-cellular communication channel, wherein, if the emergency message cannot be transmitted over the first secondary non-cellular communication channel to the emergency call center, receiving from the ordered list, at least one configuration parameter and an associated non-cellular modulation scheme to be used on a non-cellular frequency for a second secondary communications channel of said plurality of the different types of secondary non-cellular communication channels, the second secondary communication channel used for communicating over a second of the plurality of different types of communication protocols; configuring the second secondary non-cellular communication channel on the ordered list using the at least one configuration parameter and the associated non-cellular modulation scheme to be used on a non-cellular frequency received for the second secondary communications channel; attempting to transmit the emergency message from the vehicle to the emergency call center over the configured second secondary non-cellular communication channel; and, if the emergency message cannot be transmitted over the second secondary non-cellular communication channel to the emergency call center, repeating the steps above of receiving, configuring and attempting to transmit the emergency message for the other secondary non-cellular communication channels until the emergency message is transmitted to the emergency call center.