Patent Publication Number: US-2023137962-A1

Title: Systems and methods for restricting the use of a vehicle operator&#39;s terminal

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present application claims priority from U.S. provisional application No. 63/273,244 filed on Oct. 29, 2021, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference. The present application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/711,118 filed on Apr. 1, 2022, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates generally to electronic device management, and more specifically to a method and a device for restricting the use of a vehicle operator&#39;s terminal. 
     BACKGROUND 
     A telematics system may gather asset data using a telematics device. The telematics device may be integrated into or located onboard the asset. The asset may be a vehicle (“vehicular asset”) or some stationary equipment. The telematics device may collect the asset data from the asset through a data connection with the asset. In the case of a vehicular asset, the telematics device may gather the asset data through an onboard diagnostic port (OBD). The gathered asset data may include engine revolutions-per-minute (RPM), battery voltage, fuel level, tire pressure, engine coolant temperature, or any other asset data available through the diagnostic port. Additionally, the telematics device may gather sensor data pertaining to the asset via sensors on the telematics device. For example, the telematics device may have temperature and pressure sensors, inertial measurement units (IMU), optical sensors, and the like. Furthermore, the telematics device may gather location data pertaining to the asset from a location module on the telematics device. When the telematics device is coupled to the asset, the gathered sensor data and location data pertain to the asset. The gathered asset data, sensor data and location data may be received and recorded by a technical infrastructure of the telematics system, such as a telematics server, and used in the provision of fleet management tools, for telematics services, or for further data analysis. 
     SUMMARY 
     In one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method by an operator terminal of an operator registered to operate a vehicle. The method comprises determining that an engine of the vehicle is running, determining that the operator is in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle, and changing a configuration of the operator terminal in response to determining that the engine is running and determining that the operator is in the driver&#39;s seat. 
     Determining that the engine is running may comprise receiving an indication from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle that the engine of the vehicle is running. 
     Receiving the indication from the telematics device may be over a short-range wireless communication connection between the operator terminal and the telematics device. 
     Receiving the indication from the telematics device may be over a short-range wireless communication connection between the operator terminal and an input/output expander coupled to the telematics device. 
     Determining that the operator is in the driver&#39;s seat may be based on hours of service received by a user interface of a driver telematics application running on the operator terminal. 
     Determining that the operator is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise receiving from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle a location of the vehicle, determining that a location of the operator terminal is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle, and determining that the operator terminal is generally stationary. 
     Determining that the location of the operator terminal is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle may comprise computing a distance between the location of the operator terminal and the location of the vehicle and determining that the distance is below a predetermined threshold. 
     Determining that the location of the operator terminal is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle may comprise receiving an indication from the telematics device of a near-field communications (NFC) tap by a tag of the operator within a prior period of time. 
     Determining that the operator terminal is generally stationary may comprise determining that inertial motion unit (IMU) data from an IMU of the operator terminal is below a particular threshold. 
     Determining that the operator is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise receiving an indication from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle that a driver&#39;s seatbelt is fastened. 
     Determining that the operator is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise receiving an indication from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle that that an occupancy sensor has detected that the driver&#39;s seat is occupied. 
     Determining that the operator is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise receiving an indication from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle that that a steering wheel of the vehicle was touched within a prior period of time. 
     Determining that the operator is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise receiving an indication from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle that that a steering wheel of the vehicle was touched for at least a particular length of time. 
     Changing the configuration of the operator terminal may comprise disabling at least one feature of the operator terminal. 
     Disabling at least one feature of the operator terminal may comprise disabling all features of the operator terminal except for an ability to make an emergency call. 
     Disabling at least one feature of the operator terminal may comprise locking a user interface input device thereof. 
     Disabling at least one feature of the operator terminal may comprise disabling certain applications from running. 
     In another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an operator terminal of an operator registered to operate a vehicle. The operator terminal comprises a controller, an inertial measurement unit (IMU) coupled to the controller, a short-range communications module coupled to the controller, and a memory coupled to the controller. The memory stores machine-executable programming instructions which, when executed by the controller, configure the operator terminal to determine that an engine of the vehicle is running, determine that the operator is in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle, and change a configuration of the operator terminal in response to determining that the engine is running and determining that the operator is in the driver&#39;s seat. 
     The machine-executable programming instructions which configure the operator terminal to determine that the operator is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise machine-executable programming instructions which configure the operator terminal to receive from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle a location of the vehicle, determine that a location of the operator terminal provided by the location module is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle, determine that the operator terminal is generally stationary. 
     The machine-executable programming instructions which change the configuration of the operator terminal may comprise machine-executable programming instructions which disable at least one feature of the operator terminal. 
     In another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method includes sending telematics data to a telematics server by a telematics device coupled to a vehicle determining by the telematics server based on the telematics data that a vehicle&#39;s engine of the vehicle is running, determining by the telematics server based on the telematics data that a vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle, sending by the telematics server a message over a network to an operator terminal of the vehicle operator for changing a configuration of the operator terminal in response to determining that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running and determining that the vehicle operator is in the driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle, receiving by the operator terminal the message for changing the configuration of the operator terminal, changing by the operator terminal the configuration of the operator terminal in response to receiving the message for changing the configuration. 
     Determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise determining that a current time is within hours of service (HOS) of the vehicle operator and determining that the operator terminal is generally stationary. 
     Determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise determining that a current time is within hours of service (HOS) of the vehicle operator and receiving, from the telematics device coupled to the vehicle, an indication that a driver&#39;s seatbelt is fastened. 
     Determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise determining that a location of the operator terminal is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle, receiving inertial motion unit (IMU) data from the operator terminal, and determining that the IMU data is below a particular threshold. 
     Determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise determining that a location of the operator terminal is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle, receiving inertial motion unit (IMU) data from the operator terminal, and determining that the IMU data does not match a pattern indicative that the vehicle operator is inspecting the vehicle. 
     Determining that the location of the operator terminal is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle may comprise receiving the location of the operator terminal from the operator terminal, receiving the location of the vehicle from the telematics device deployed in the vehicle, and determining that a distance between the location of the operator terminal and the location of the vehicle is less than a distance threshold. 
     Determining that the location of the operator terminal is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle may comprise receiving an indication from the operator terminal that the operator terminal is connected to the vehicle via a short-range communications connection. 
     Determining that the location of the operator terminal is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle may comprise receiving an indication from the operator terminal that the operator terminal is connected to the telematics device coupled to the vehicle via a short-range communications connection. 
     Determining that the location of the operator terminal is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle may comprise receiving an indication from the telematics device of a near-field communications (NFC) tap by a tag of the vehicle operator within a prior period of time. 
     Changing the configuration of the operator terminal may comprise disabling all features except for an ability to make an emergency call. 
     Changing the configuration of the operator terminal may comprise locking a user interface input device of the operator terminal. 
     Sending, by the telematics server, the message to the operator terminal for changing the configuration of the operator terminal may be done when a location of the vehicle is outside at least one predetermined geofence. 
     Sending, by the telematics server, the message to the operator terminal for changing the configuration of the operator terminal may be done when an image indication received from the vehicle indicates that the vehicle is not at a particular type of location. 
     Sending, by the telematics server, the message to the operator terminal for changing the configuration of the operator terminal may be done after a grace period since cranking of the vehicle&#39;s engine has expired. 
     In another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a telematics server including a telematics server, a network, a telematics device coupled to a vehicle and in communication with the telematics server over the network, and an operator terminal in communication with the telematics server over the network. The telematics device sends telematics data to the telematics server, the telematics server determines based on the telematics data that a vehicle&#39;s engine of the vehicle is running, and the telematics server determines based on the telematics data that a vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. The telematics server sends a message over the network to the operator terminal of the vehicle operator for changing a configuration of the operator terminal in response to determining that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running and determining that the vehicle operator is in the driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle, the operator terminal receives the message for changing the configuration of the operator terminal, and the operator terminal changes the configuration thereof in response to receiving the message for changing the configuration. 
     The operator terminal may change the configuration thereof to disable all features except for an ability to make an emergency call. 
     The operator terminal may change the configuration thereof to lock a user interface input device thereof. 
     The telematics server may send the message for changing the configuration of the operator terminal when a location of the vehicle is outside at least one predetermined geofence. 
     The telematics server may send the message for changing the configuration of the operator terminal when an image indication received from the vehicle indicates that the vehicle is not at a particular type of location. 
     The telematics server may send the message for changing the configuration of the operator terminal after a grace period since cranking of the vehicle&#39;s engine has expired. 
     In another aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a method by a telematics server. The method includes determining that a vehicle&#39;s engine in a vehicle is running, determining that a vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle, and sending a message to an electronic device of the vehicle operator disabling at least one feature of the electronic device in response to determining that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running and determining that the vehicle operator is in the driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. 
     Determining that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running may comprise receiving an indication that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running from a telematics device deployed in the vehicle. 
     The indication may comprise a revolutions-per-minute (RPM) which is greater than zero or a signal indicating that an Electric Vehicle (EV) is active. 
     Determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise determining that a current time is within hours of service (HOS) of the vehicle operator and determining that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is generally stationary. 
     Determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise determining that a current time is within hours of service (HOS) of the vehicle operator and detecting a presence of an occupant in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. 
     Detecting a presence of an occupant in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle may comprise receiving, from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle, an indication that a driver&#39;s seatbelt is fastened. 
     Detecting a presence of an occupant in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle may comprise receiving, from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle, an indication of a recent interaction with a steering wheel of the vehicle. 
     Determining that a vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle may comprise receiving, from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle, an indication that a dashboard camera has captured an image of vehicle operator registered with the vehicle. 
     Determining that a vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle may comprise receiving, from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle, an indication that a fingerprint sensor disposed on a steering wheel of the vehicle can detect a fingerprint of the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle. 
     Determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise determining that a location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to a location of the vehicle and determining that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is generally stationary. 
     Determining that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is generally stationary may comprise receiving inertial motion unit (IMU) data from the electronic device and determining that the IMU data is below a particular threshold. The IMU data may comprise accelerometer data. 
     Determining that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is generally stationary may comprise receiving inertial motion unit (IMU) data from the electronic device and determining that the IMU data does not match a pattern indicative that the vehicle operator is inspecting the vehicle. 
     Determining that the IMU data does not match a pattern indicative that the vehicle operator is inspecting the vehicle may involve providing the IMU data to a machine learning model 
     Determining that the location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle may comprise receiving the location of the electronic device from the electronic device; receiving the location of the vehicle from a telematics device deployed in the vehicle and determining that a distance between the location of the electronic device and the location of the vehicle is less than a particular threshold. 
     Determining that the location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle comprises receiving an indication from the electronic device of the vehicle operator that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is connected to the vehicle via a short-range communications connection. 
     Determining that the location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle may comprise receiving an indication from the electronic device of the vehicle operator that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is connected to a telematics device coupled to the vehicle via a short-range communications connection. 
     The short-range communications connection may comprise a Bluetooth connection. 
     Determining that the location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle may comprise receiving an indication from a telematics device of a near-field communications (NFC) tap by a tag of the vehicle operator within a prior period of time 
     Sending a message to an electronic device of the vehicle operator restricting at least one feature of the electronic device may comprise sending a message which causes the electronic device of the vehicle operator to disable all features except for an ability to make an emergency call. 
     Sending a message to an electronic device of the vehicle operator restricting at least one feature of the electronic device comprises sending a message which causes the electronic device of the vehicle operator to securely lock the electronic device. 
     Sending a message to an electronic device of the vehicle operator restricting at least one feature of the electronic device may be done when a location of the vehicle is outside at least one predetermined geofence. 
     Sending a message to an electronic device of the vehicle operator restricting at least one feature of the electronic device may be done when an image indication received from the vehicle indicates that the vehicle is not at a particular type of location. 
     The image indication may comprise an image received from a dashboard camera. 
     Sending a message to an electronic device of the vehicle operator restricting at least one feature of the electronic device may be done after a grace period since cranking of the vehicle&#39;s engine has expired. 
     The grace period may expire in response to detecting motion of the vehicle. 
     Sending a message to an electronic device of the vehicle operator restricting at least one feature of the electronic device may be done when a particular mode is enabled for the vehicle. 
     In another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a telematics server comprising a controller, a network interface coupled to the controller, and a memory coupled to the controller. The memory stores machine-executable instructions which when executed by the controller configure the telematics server to determine that a vehicle&#39;s engine of a vehicle is running, determine that a vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle, and send a message to an electronic device of the vehicle operator, the message restricting at least one feature of the electronic device in response to determining that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running and determining that the vehicle operator is in the driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. 
     In yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method by an electronic device. The method comprises determining that a vehicle&#39;s engine of a vehicle is running, determining that a vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle, and disabling at least one feature of the electronic device in response to determining that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running and determining that the vehicle operator is in the driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. 
     Determining that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running may comprise receiving, over a short-range communications connection from a telematics device deployed in the vehicle an indication that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running. 
     The indication comprises a revolutions-per-minute (RPM) which is greater than zero. 
     Determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise determining that a current time is within hours of service (HOS) of the vehicle operator and determining that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is generally stationary. 
     Determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise determining that a current time is within hours of service (HOS) of the vehicle operator and detecting a presence of an occupant in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. 
     Detecting a presence of an occupant in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle may comprise receiving, from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle, an indication that a driver&#39;s seatbelt is fastened. 
     Determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat may comprise determining that a location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to a location of the vehicle and determining that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is generally stationary. 
     Determining that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is generally stationary may comprise receiving inertial measurement unit (IMU) data from IMU sensors in the electronic device and determining that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is generally stationary if the IMU data is below a particular threshold. 
     Determining that the location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle may comprise determining that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is connected to the vehicle via a short-range communications connection. 
     Determining that the location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle may comprise determining that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is connected to a telematics device coupled to the vehicle via a short-range communications connection. 
     Determining that the location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle may comprise determining that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is connected, via a short-range communications connection to an I/O expansion adapter coupled to a telematics device which is coupled to the vehicle. 
     The short-range communications connection may comprise a Bluetooth connection. 
     Disabling at least one feature of the electronic device may comprise disabling all features of the electronic device except for an ability to make an emergency call. 
     Disabling at least one feature of the electronic device comprises securely locking the electronic device. 
     In a further aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic device comprising a controller, a network interface coupled to the controller, and a memory coupled to the controller. The memory stores machine-executable programming instructions which when executed by the controller, configure the electronic device to determine that a vehicle&#39;s engine is running, determine that a vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle, and disable at least one feature of the electronic device in response to determining that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running and determining that the vehicle operator is in the driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Exemplary non-limiting embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: 
         FIG.  1    is a schematic diagram of a telematics system including a plurality of telematics devices coupled to a plurality of assets; 
         FIG.  2 A  is a block diagram showing a telematics device coupled to an asset; 
         FIG.  2 B  is a block diagram showing a telematics device coupled to an asset and to an input/output (I/O) expander; 
         FIG.  3    is a block diagram showing an asset having a telematics device integrated therein and an I/O expander coupled thereto; 
         FIG.  4    is a block diagram of an operator terminal, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; 
         FIG.  5    is a block diagram of a telematics server, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; 
         FIG.  6    is a flow chart of a method, by a telematics server, for restricting the use of a vehicle operator&#39;s electronic device, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; 
         FIG.  7    is a message sequence diagram of a method for restricting the use of a vehicle operator&#39;s electronic device, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; and 
         FIG.  8    is a flow chart of a method, by a vehicle operator&#39;s electronic device, for restricting the use of the vehicle operator&#39;s electronic device, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Telematics System 
     A large telematics system may collect data from a high number of assets, either directly or through telematic devices. A telematics device may refer to a self-contained device installed at an asset, or a telematics device that is integrated into the asset itself. In either case, it may be said that telematics data is being captured or gathered by the telematics device.  FIG.  1    shows a high-level block diagram of a telematics system  101 . The telematics system  101  includes a telematics server  300 , (N) telematics devices shown as telematics device  200 _ 1 , telematics device  200 _ 2  . . . through telematics device  200 _N (“telematics device  200 ”), a network  50 , administration terminals  400 _ 1  and  400 _ 2 , and operator terminals  450 _ 1 ,  450 _ 2  . . . through  450 _N (“operator terminals  450 ”).  FIG.  1    also shows a plurality of (N) assets named as asset  100 _ 1 , asset  100 _ 2  . . . asset  100 _N (“asset  100 ”) coupled to the telematics device  200 _ 1 , telematics device  200 _ 2  . . . telematics device  200 _N, respectively. Additionally,  FIG.  1    shows a plurality of satellites  170 _ 1 ,  170 _ 2  and  170 _ 3  (“satellites  170 ”) in communication with the telematics devices  200  for facilitating navigation. 
     The assets  100  shown are in the form of vehicles. For example, the asset  100 _ 1  is shown as a truck, which may be part of a fleet that delivers goods or provides services. The asset  100 _ 2  is shown as a passenger car that typically runs on an internal combustion engine (ICE). The asset  100 _ 3  is shown as an electric vehicle (EV). Other types of vehicles, which are not shown, are also contemplated in the various embodiments of the present disclosure, including but not limited to, farming vehicles, construction vehicles, military vehicles, and the like. 
     The telematics devices  200  are electronic devices which are coupled to assets  100  and configured to capture asset data from the assets  100 . For example, in  FIG.  1    the telematics device  200 _ 1  is coupled to the asset  100 _ 1 . Similarly, the telematics device  200 _ 2  is coupled to the asset  100 _ 2  and the telematics device  200 _ 3  is coupled to the asset  100 _ 3 . The components of a telematics device  200  are explained in further detail with reference to  FIG.  2 A . 
     The network  50  may be a single network or a combination of networks such as a data cellular network, the Internet, and other network technologies. The network  50  may provide connectivity between the telematics devices  200  and the telematics server  300 , between the administration terminal  400  and the telematics server  300 , between the handheld administration terminal  410  and the telematics server  300 , and between the operator terminals  450  and the telematics server  300 . 
     The telematics server  300  is an electronic device executing machine-executable programming instructions which enable the telematics server  300  to store and analyze telematics data. The telematics server  300  may be a single computer system or a cluster of computers. The telematics server  300  may be running an operating system such as Linux, Windows, Unix, or any other equivalent operating system. Alternatively, the telematics server  300  may be a software component hosted on a cloud service, such as Amazon Web Service (AWS). The telematics server  300  is connected to the network  50  and may receive telematics data from the telematics devices  200 . The telematics server  300  may have a plurality of software modules for performing data analysis and analytics on the telematics data to obtain useful asset information about the assets  100 . The telematics server  300  may be coupled to a telematics database  310  for storing telematics data and/or the results of the analytics which are related to the assets  100 . The asset information stored may include operator information about the operators  10  corresponding to the assets. The telematics server  300  may communicate the asset data and/or the operator information pertaining to an asset  100  to one or more of: the administration terminal  400 , the handheld administration terminal  410 , and the operator terminal  450 . 
     The satellites  170  may be part of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and may provide location information to the telematics devices  200 . The location information may be processed by a location module on the telematics device  200  to provide location data indicating the location of the telematics device  200  (and hence the location of the asset  100  coupled thereto). A telematics device  200  that can periodically report an asset&#39;s location is often termed an “asset tracking device”. 
     The administration terminal  400  is an electronic device, which may be used to connect to the telematics server  300  to retrieve data and analytics related to one or more assets  100  or to issue commands to one or more telematics device  200  via the telematics server  300 . The administration terminal  400  may be a desktop computer, a laptop computer such as the administration terminal  400 , a tablet (not shown), or a smartphone such as the handheld administration terminal  410 . The administration terminal  400  may run a web browser or a custom application which allows retrieving data and analytics, pertaining to one or more assets  100 , from the telematics server  300  via a web interface of the telematics server  300 . The handheld administration terminal  410  may run a mobile application for communicating with the telematics server  300 , the mobile application allowing retrieving data and analytics therefrom. The mobile application of the handheld administration terminal may also be used to issue commands to one or more telematics device  200  via the telematics server  300 . A fleet manager  20  may communicate with the telematics server  300  using the administration terminal  400 , the handheld administration terminal  410 , or another form of administration terminals such as a tablet. In addition to retrieving data and analytics, the administration terminal  400  allows the fleet manager  20  to set alerts and geofences for keeping track of the assets  100 , receiving notifications of deliveries, and so on. 
     The operator terminals  450  are electronic devices, such as smartphones or tablets. The operator terminals  450  are used by operators  10  (for example, vehicle drivers) of the assets  100  to both track and configure the usage of the assets  100 . For example, as shown in  FIG.  1   , the operator  10 _ 1  has the operator terminal  450 _ 1 , the operator  10 _ 2  has the operator terminal  450 _ 2 , and the operator  10 _N has the operator terminal  450 _N. Assuming the operators  10  all belong to a fleet of vehicles, each of the operators  10  may operate any of the assets  100 . For example,  FIG.  1    shows that the operator  10 _ 1  is associated with the asset  100 _ 1 , the operator  10 _ 2  is associated with the asset  100 _ 2 , and the operator  10 _N is associated with the asset  100 _N. However, any operator  10  may operate any asset  100  within a particular group of assets, such as a fleet. The operator terminals  450  are in communication with the telematics server  300  over the network  50 . The operator terminals  450  may run at least one asset configuration application. The asset configuration application may be used by an operator  10  to inform the telematics server  300  that the asset  100  is being currently operated by the operator  10 . For example, the operator  10 _ 2  may use an asset configuration application on the operator terminal  450 _ 2  to indicate that the operator  10 _ 2  is currently using the asset  100 _ 2 . The telematics server  300  updates the telematics database  310  to indicate that the asset  100 _ 2  is currently associated with the operator  10 _ 2 . Additionally, the asset configuration application may be used to report information related to the operation duration of the vehicle, the number of stops made by the operator during their working shift, and so on. Furthermore, the asset configuration application may allow the operator to configure the telematics device  200  coupled to the asset  100  that the operator  10  is operating. 
     In operation, a telematics device  200  is coupled to an asset  100  to capture asset data. The asset data may be combined with location data obtained by the telematics device  200  from a location module in communication with the satellites  170  and/or sensor data gathered from sensors in the telematics device  200  or another device coupled to the telematics device  200 . The combined asset data, location data, and sensor data may be termed “telematics data”. The telematics device  200  sends the telematics data, to the telematics server  300  over the network  50 . The telematics server  300  may process, aggregate, and analyze the telematics data to generate asset information pertaining to the assets  100  or to a fleet of assets. The telematics server  300  may store the telematics data and/or the generated asset information in the telematics database  310 . The administration terminal  400  may connect to the telematics server  300 , over the network  50 , to access the generated asset information. Alternatively, the telematics server  300  may push the generated asset information to the administration terminal  400 . Additionally, the operators  10 , using their operator terminals  450 , may indicate to the telematics server  300  which assets  100  they are associated with. The telematics server  300  updates the telematics database  310  accordingly to associate the operator  10  with the asset  100 . Furthermore, the telematics server  300  may provide additional analytics related to the operators  10  including work time, location, and operating parameters. For example, for vehicle assets, the telematics data may include turning, speeding, and braking information. The telematics server  300  can correlate the telematics data to the vehicle&#39;s driver by querying the asset database  310 . A fleet manager  20  may use the administration terminal  400  to set alerts for certain activities pertaining to the assets  100 . When criteria for an alert is met, the telematics server  300  sends a message to the fleet manager&#39;s administration terminal  400 , and may optionally send alerts to the operator terminal  450  to notify an operator  10  of the alert. For example, a vehicle driver operating the vehicle outside of a service area or hours of service may receive an alert on their operator terminal  450 . A fleet manager  20  may also the administration terminal  400  to configure a telematics device  200  by issuing commands thereto via the telematics server  300 . 
     Telematics Device 
     Further details relating to the telematics device  200  and how it interfaces with an asset  100  are shown with reference to  FIG.  2 A .  FIG.  2 A  depicts an asset  100  and a telematics device  200  coupled thereto. Selected relevant components of each of the asset  100  and the telematics device  200  are shown. 
     The asset  100  may have a plurality of electronic control units (ECUs). An ECU is an electronic module which interfaces with one or more sensors for gathering information from the asset  100 . For example, an oil temperature ECU may contain a temperature sensor and a controller for converting the measured temperature into digital data representative of the oil temperature. Similarly, a battery voltage ECU may contain a voltage sensor for measuring the voltage at the positive battery terminal and a controller for converting the measured voltage into digital data representative of the battery voltage. A vehicle may, for example, have around seventy ECUs. For simplicity, only a few of the ECUs  110  are depicted in  FIG.  2 A . For example, in the depicted embodiment the asset  100  has three electronic control units: ECU  110 A, ECU  1106 , and ECU  110 C (“ECUs  110 ”). The ECU  110 A, the ECU  1106 , and the ECU  110 C are shown to be interconnected via an asset communications bus, such as a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus  150 . ECUs  110  interconnected using the CAN bus  150  send and receive information to one another in CAN data frames by placing the information on the CAN bus  150 . When an ECU places information on the CAN bus  150 , other ECUs  110  receive the information and may or may not consume or use that information. Different protocols may be used to exchange information between the ECUs over a CAN bus. For example, ECUs  110  in trucks and heavy vehicles use the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) J1939 protocol to exchange information over a CAN bus  150 . Most passenger vehicles use the SAE J1979 protocol, which is commonly known as On-Board Diagnostic (OBD) protocol to exchange information between ECUs  110  on their CAN bus  150 . In industrial automation, ECUs use a CANOpen protocol to exchange information over a CAN bus  150 . An asset  100  may allow access to information exchanged over the CAN bus  150  via an interface port  102 . For example, if the asset  100  is a passenger car, then the interface port  102  is most likely an OBD-II port. Data accessible through the interface port  102  is termed the asset data  112 . In some embodiments, the interface port  102  includes a power interface for providing electric power to a telematics device  200  connected thereto. 
     The telematics device  200  includes a controller  230  coupled to a memory  240 , an interface layer  210  and a network interface  220 . The telematics device  200  also includes one or more sensors  204  and a location module  206  coupled to the interface layer  210 . The telematics device  200  may also contain some optional components, shown in dashed lines in  FIG.  2 A . For example, the telematics device  200  may contain one or more of: a near-field communications (NFC) module such as NFC module  260 , a short-range wireless communications module  270 , and a wired communications module such as a serial communications module  280 . In some embodiments (not shown), the telematics device  200  may have a dedicated power source or a battery. In other embodiments, the telematics device  200  may receive power directly from the asset  100 , via the interface port  102 . The telematics device  200  shown is an example. Some of the components shown in solid lines may also be optional and may be implemented in separate modules. For example, some telematics devices (not shown) may not have a location module  206  and may rely on an external location module for obtaining the location data  207 . Some telematics devices may not have any sensors  204  and may rely on external sensors for obtaining sensor data  205 . 
     The controller  230  may include one or any combination of a processor, microprocessor, microcontroller (MCU), central processing unit (CPU), processing core, state machine, logic gate array, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or similar, capable of executing, whether by software, hardware, firmware, or a combination of such, the actions performed by the controller  230  as described herein. The controller  230  may have an internal memory for storing machine-executable programming instructions to carry out the methods described herein. 
     The memory  240  may include read-only-memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), flash memory, magnetic storage, optical storage, and similar, or any combination thereof, for storing machine-executable programming instructions and data to support the functionality described herein. The memory  240  is coupled to the controller  230  thus enabling the controller  230  to execute the machine-executable programming instructions stored in the memory  240  and to access the data stored therein. The memory  240  may contain machine-executable programming instructions, which when executed by the controller  230 , configures the telematics device  200  for receiving asset data  112  from the asset  100  via the asset interface  202 , and for receiving sensor data  205  from the sensors  204  and/or location data  207  from the location module  206  via the sensor interface  208 . The memory  240  may also contain machine-executable programming instructions for combining asset data  112 , sensor data  205  and location data  207  into telematics data  212 . Additionally, the memory  240  may further contain instructions which, when executed by the controller  230 , configures the telematics device  200  to transmit the telematics data  212  via the network interface  220  to a telematics server  300  over a network  50 . In some embodiments, the memory  240  only stores data, and the machine-executable programming instructions for carrying out the aforementioned tasks are stored in an internal memory of the controller  230 . 
     The location module  206  may be a global positioning system (GPS) transceiver or another type of location determination peripheral that may use, for example, wireless network information for location determination. The location module  206  is coupled to the controller  230  and provides location data  207  thereto. The location data  207  may be in the form of a latitude and longitude, for example. 
     The sensors  204  may be one or more of: a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, an optical sensor, a motion sensor such as an accelerometer, a gyroscope, or any other suitable sensor indicating a condition pertaining to the asset  100  to which the telematics device  200  is coupled. The sensors provide sensor data  205  to the controller  230  via the sensor interface  208 . 
     The interface layer  210  may include a sensor interface  208  and an asset interface  202 . The sensor interface  208  is configured for receiving the sensor data  205  from the sensors  204 . For example, the sensor interface  208  interfaces with the sensors  204  and receives the sensor data  205  therefrom. The asset interface  202  receives asset data  112  from the asset  100 . In the depicted embodiment, the asset interface  202  is coupled to the interface port  102  of the asset  100 . The asset data  112 , received at the telematics device  200 , from the asset  100  may be in the form of data messages, such as CAN data frames. The asset data  112  may describe one or more of any of: a property, a state, and an operating condition of the asset  100 . For example, where the asset  100  is a vehicle, the data may describe the speed at which the vehicle is travelling, a state of the vehicle (off, idle, or running), or an engine operating condition (e.g., engine oil temperature, engine revolutions-per-minutes (RPM), or a battery voltage). In addition to receiving the asset data  112 , in some embodiments the asset interface  202  may also receive power from the asset  100  via the interface port  102 . The interface layer  210  is coupled to the controller  230  and provides both the asset data  112  and the sensor data  205  to the controller  230 . 
     The network interface  220  may include a cellular modem, such as an LTE-M modem, CAT-M modem, other cellular modem, Wi-Fi modem, or any other communication device configured for communication via the network  50  with which to communicate with the telematics server  300 . The network interface  220  may be used to transmit telematics data  212  obtained from the asset  100  to the telematics server  300  for a telematics service or other purposes. The network interface  220  may also be used to receive instructions from the telematics server  300  for configuring the telematics device  200  in a certain mode and/or requesting a particular type of the asset data  112  from the asset  100 . 
     The NFC module  260  may be an NFC reader which can read information stored on an NFC tag. The NFC module  260  may be used to confirm the identity of the operator  10  by having the operator  10  tap an NFC tag onto the telematics device  200  such that the NFC tag is read by the NFC module  260 . The information read from the NFC tag may be included in the telematics data  212  sent by the telematics device  200  to the telematics server  300 . 
     The short-range wireless communications module  270  is a component intended for providing short-range wireless communication capability to the telematics device  200 . The short-range wireless communications module  270  may be a Bluetooth™ wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), Zigbee™, or any other short-range wireless communications module. The short-range wireless communications module  270  allows other devices to communicate with the telematics device  200  over a short-range wireless network. 
     The serial communications module  280  is an example of a wired communications module. The serial communications module  280  is an electronic peripheral for providing serial wired communications to the telematics device  200 . For example, the serial communications module  280  may include a universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART) providing serial communications per the RS-232 protocol. Alternatively, the serial communications module  280  may be a serial peripheral interface (SPI) bus, or an inter-integrated circuit (I2C) bus. As another example, the serial communications module  280  may be a universal serial bus (USB) transceiver. 
     In operation, an ECU  110 , such as the ECU  110 A, the ECU  110 B, or the ECU  110 C communicates asset data over the CAN bus  150 . The asset data exchanged, between the ECUs  110 , over the CAN bus  150  are accessible via the interface port  102  and may be retrieved as the asset data  112  by the telematics device  200 . The controller  230  of the telematics device  200  receives the asset data  112  via the asset interface  202 . The controller  230  may also receive sensor data  205  from the sensors  204  over the sensor interface  208 . Furthermore, the controller  230  may receive location data  207  from the location module  206 . The controller  230  combines the asset data  112  with the sensor data  205  and the location data  207  to obtain the telematics data  212 . The controller  230  transmits the telematics data  212  to the telematics server  300  over the network  50  via the network interface  220 . Optionally, an operator  10  may tap an NFC tag to the NFC module  260  to identify themself as the operator  10  of the asset  100 . Additionally, an external peripheral, such as a GPS receiver, may connect with the telematics device  200  via the short-range wireless communications module  270  or the serial communications module  280  for providing location information thereto. In some embodiments, the telematics device  200  may receive, via the network interface  220 , commands from the telematics server  300 . The received commands instruct the telematics device  200  to be configured in a particular way. For example, the received commands may configure the way in which the telematics device gathers asset data  112  from the asset  100  as will be described in further detail below. 
     The telematics data  212  which is comprised of asset data  112  gathered from the asset  100  combined with the sensor data  205  and the location data  207  may be used to derive useful data and analytics, by the telematics server  300 . However, there are times when additional data, which is not provided by the asset  100 , the sensors  204  or the location module  206  may be needed. The telematics device  200  may have a limited number of sensors  204  such as accelerometers or gyroscopes providing limited information about the motion of the asset  100  on which the telematics device  200  is deployed. The location module  206  may provide location and direction information. However, in some cases, more information may be needed to derive useful data and analytics pertaining to the asset  100 . One example of information that is not typically provided by the telematics device  200  is video capture data. Another example of information that is not typically provided by the telematics device  200  is any proprietary signaling provided by devices which does not follow any of the standard protocols (OBD-II, J1939 or CANOpen). Some equipment may not have a CAN bus and may provide proprietary digital and/or analog signals. Examples of such devices include industrial equipment, winter maintenance equipment such as salt spreaders, farming equipment, and the like. Additionally, the telematics device  200  may not have an NFC module  260  or a short-range wireless communications module  270  thus limiting its connectivity capabilities. 
     Input/Output Expander 
     To capture and provide information or services not provided by the asset  100  or the telematics device, to produce an output, or to perform an action not supported by the telematics device, the telematics device  200  may be modified to allow an input/output expander device (“I/O expander”) to connect thereto, as shown in  FIG.  2 B .  FIG.  2 B  shows a telematics device  200 ′ coupled to an asset  100 . An I/O expander  500  is coupled to the telematics device  200 ′. 
     The asset  100  is similar to the asset  100  of  FIG.  2 A  and therefore the internal components thereof are not shown in  FIG.  2 B  for simplicity. 
     The telematics device  200 ′ has a somewhat similar configuration as the telematics device  200  of  FIG.  2 A , but some of the optional components have been removed. Furthermore, the telematics device  200 ′ adds an I/O expander interface  250  for interfacing with the I/O expander  500 . The I/O expander interface  250  is coupled to the controller  230  and may be configured for exchanging I/O expander data  512  with the I/O expander  500 . 
     The I/O expander  500  of  FIG.  2 B  is an example I/O expander which is designed to provide additional connectivity options to a telematics device  200 , which has more limited features than the one shown in  FIG.  2 A . For example, the telematics device  200 ′ shown in  FIG.  2 B  does not have an NFC module, a short-range wireless communications module, or a serial communications module. Instead, the telematics device  200 ′ has an I/O expander interface  250 . 
     The I/O expander  500  may be an input device configured to capture additional data such as video frames, audio frames, or proprietary signals and provide that data to the telematics device  200 ′. Alternatively, or additionally, the I/O expander  500  may be configured as an output device and may include a display for displaying information and/or an audio output device for broadcasting messages pertaining to the asset  100 . 
     An I/O expander  500 , which connects with the telematics device  200 ′, varies in complexity depending on the purpose thereof.  FIG.  2 B  shows an I/O expander  500  containing several components which may or may not all be present in other I/O expanders. For example, the I/O expander  500  includes a controller  530 , an NFC module  260 , an output device  540 , a short-range communications module  570 , an image sensor (not shown), a serial communications module  580 , an uplink interface  550  and a downlink interface  520 . 
     The controller  530  may be similar to the controller  230 . In some embodiments, the controller  530  is a microcontroller with versatile I/O capabilities. For example, the controller  530  may be a microcontroller which has a plurality of I/O ports such as general-purpose inputs and outputs (GPIOs), serial ports, analog inputs, and the like. In some embodiments, the controller  530  may have built-in persistent memory such as flash memory on which machine-executable programming instructions for carrying out the functionality of the I/O expander  500  may be stored. In other embodiments, the controller  530  may be coupled to a persistent memory module (not shown) that contains the machine-executable programming instructions for carrying out the functionality of the I/O expander  500 . The controller  530  may also have built-in volatile memory, such as random-access memory (RAM) for storing data. Alternatively, the I/O expander  500  may be connected to an external volatile memory for storing data. 
     The output device  540  receives data from the controller  530  and performs an output function. For example, the output device  540  may include a display for displaying information received from the controller  530 . As another example, the output device  540  may include a speech synthesizer and a speaker for displaying audible information received from the controller  530 . As yet another example, the output device  540  may be an output interface to a hardware device. For example, the output device  540  may be a motor controller that interfaces to an electric motor. 
     The NFC module  560 , short-range communications module  570 , and the serial communications module  580  are similar to the NFC module  260 , short-range wireless communications module  270 , and the serial communications module  280  described above with reference to  FIG.  2 A . 
     The uplink interface  550  is an electronic peripheral interface coupled to the controller  530  and is used to provide data exchange and/or power capabilities to the I/O expander  500 . The uplink interface  550  allows the I/O expander  500  to transmit and receive I/O expander data. The uplink interface  550  is configured to use the same protocol and signaling as the I/O expander interface  250  of the telematics device  200 ′. Accordingly, the I/O expander  500  may exchange the I/O expander data with the telematics device  200 ′. In some embodiments, the uplink interface  550  may also include power pins connected to corresponding power pins in the I/O expander interface  250 , thus allowing the I/O expander  500  to be powered via the telematics device  200 ′. In other embodiments (not shown), the I/O expander  500  may have its own power source instead of or in addition to the power provided by the telematics device  200 ′ via the uplink interface  550 . 
     The downlink interface  520  is an electronic peripheral interface coupled to the uplink interface  550 . The downlink interface  520  is configured to interface with the uplink interface  550  of another I/O expander  500  (as will be described below). Allowing the uplink interface  550  to connect to the downlink interface  520  of another I/O expander  500  allows the daisy chaining of I/O expanders  500 . 
     Integrated Telematics Device 
     In the above-mentioned figures, a telematics device is shown as a separate entity connected with a corresponding asset. The telematics device, however, may have its components integrated into the asset  100  at the time of manufacture of the asset  100 . This may be the case when the asset  100  is a connected car having an asset network interface. For example, with reference to  FIG.  3   , there is shown an asset  100 ′ with the components of a telematics device integrated therein, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. The asset  100 ′ is similar to the asset  100  but, being a connected asset such as a connected car, it has an asset network interface  122 . In the depicted embodiment, the controller  230  is directly connected to the asset communications bus, which is a CAN bus  150  and may directly obtain the asset data  112  therefrom. The sensors  204  and the location module  206  are also integrated into the asset  100  and provide the sensor data  205  and the location data  207  to the controller  230  as described above. The asset network interface  122  belongs to the asset  100 ′ and may be used by the asset  100  to communicate with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) server, to a roadside assistance server, or for other purposes. The controller  230  may utilize the asset network interface  122  for the transmission of telematics data  212  provided by the controller  230 . In order to support further not provided by the integrated peripherals such as the sensors  204  and the location module  206 , the asset has an I/O expander interface  250  coupled to the controller  230  so that an I/O expander  500  may be connected to the asset  100 ′ therethrough. The asset  100 ′ may have an interface port  102  for connecting other devices other than a telematics device  200 , such as a diagnostic tool including, but not limited to, an OBD-II reader device. 
     Electronic Device Use Restrictions 
     In some jurisdictions, there are by-laws which restrict the use of an electronic device such as a smartphone or a tablet while behind the wheel of a vehicle and the engine is running. While most vehicle operators may comply with the by-laws, some will not. It is, therefore, advantageous to provide methods and systems for restricting features of a vehicle operator&#39;s electronic device. 
     The present disclosure provides methods and systems for restricting features of an electronic device of a vehicle&#39;s operator when the vehicle&#39;s operator is behind the wheel and the vehicle&#39;s engine is running. 
     An electronic device may be a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop computer, or the like.  FIG.  4    depicts an example of an electronic device in the form of a vehicle operator terminal (“operator terminal”)  450 , in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. The operator terminal  450  comprises a controller  430 , a network interface  420  coupled to the controller  430 , an IMU  404  comprising one or more sensors coupled to the controller  430 , a short-range wireless communications module  470 , and a memory  440  coupled to the controller  430 . 
     The controller  430  is similar to the controller  430  of the telematics device  200 . 
     The network interface  420  is similar to the network interface  220  of the telematics device  200  and it enables the operator terminal  450  to communicate with the telematics server  300 . 
     The location module  406  is similar to the location module  206  of the telematics device. The location module  406  reports the location of the operator terminal  450  to the controller  430 . 
     The inertial measurement unit (IMU)  404  may comprise one or more sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, or magnetometers. The IMU  404  provide an indication to the controller  430  as to whether the operator terminal  450  is generally stationary or in motion. 
     The short-range wireless communications module  470  is a component intended for providing short-range wireless communication capability to the operator terminal  450 . The short-range wireless communications module  470  may be a Bluetooth™ wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), Zigbee™, or any other short-range wireless communications module. The short-range wireless communications module  470  allows the operator terminal to communicate with other devices over a short-range wireless network. For example, the operator terminal  450  may exchange information with a telematics device  200  over a short-range wireless network such as a Bluetooth network. 
     The memory  440  is similar to the memory  240  of the telematics device  200 . The memory  440  stores a number of software or firmware modules including an operating system  401 , an applications permission module  411 , a phone application  427 , a driver telematics application  455 , and other applications  460 . 
     The operating system  401  configures the operator terminal for context switching between applications, may include firmware drivers, user interfaces, and other modules. Examples of the operating system  401  include Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile. 
     The driver telematics application  455  allows a vehicle operator to register with a particular vehicle and report the registration to the telematics server  300 . Accordingly, the telematics server  300  may correlate the telematics data  212  collected by the telematics device  200  coupled to the particular vehicle with the vehicle operator. 
     The phone application  427  allows making telephone calls including emergency calls from the operator terminal  450 . 
     The application permission module  411  may disable certain applications from running based on a command from the operating system  401 . In some embodiments, the application permission module  411  may be an integral part of the operating system  401  or a standalone component coupled to the operating system  401 . 
     The other applications  460  may be any type of application such as a calendar, email application, a web browser, a chat program, a social networking application, and the like. 
     A block diagram of the telematics server  300  is shown in  FIG.  5   . The telematics server  300  includes a controller  330 , a network interface  320  and a memory  340 . The telematics server  300  may also be coupled to a telematics database  310  as shown in  FIG.  1   . 
     The controller  330  is similar to the controllers  230  and  430  discussed above with reference to the telematics device  200 , and the operator terminal  450 . 
     The network interface  320  is similar to the network interfaces  220  and  420  discussed above with reference to the telematics device  200 , and the operator terminal  450 . The network interface  320  allows the telematics server  300  to communicate with both a telematics device  200  and an operator terminal  450  over a network such as the network  50  as shown in  FIG.  1   . 
     The memory  340  is similar to the memory  240  and the memory  440  discussed above with reference to the telematics device  200  and the operator terminal  450 . The memory  340  stores software modules including the operating system  301 , the driver telematics module  355 , the vehicle telematics module  322 , and the applications permission module  311 . 
     The operating system  301  manages task scheduling and hardware interfacing on the telematics server  300 . Examples of the operating system include Unix, Linux, and Windows. 
     The driver telematics module  355  communicates with one or more operator terminals  450  to gather driver telematics information. The driver telematics information includes a registration of the driver with a particular vehicle, the hours-of-service (HOS) for the driver on the vehicle, as well as information from the operator terminal  450  including location information and IMU data. The driver telematics module  355  may receive the driver telematics information, via the network interface  320 , from an operator terminal  450  of a vehicle operator. The registration may include an identifier of the driver and/or an identifier of the operator terminal  450  of the driver. The HOS information may include the start time at which the operator will start to use the vehicle, the estimated end time at which their use of the vehicle is completed, and any breaks in-between. The location information may be the location of the operator terminal  450  as reported by a GPS module disposed in the operator terminal  450 . The IMU data may be accelerometer data or other sensor data indicating whether the operator terminal  450  is in motion. The driver telematics module  355  may store the registration information in the telematics database  310 . The driver telematics module  355  may also make the gathered driver telematics available to the applications permission module  311  as will be described below. 
     The vehicle telematics module  322  communicates with one or more telematics devices  200  to gather telematics data  212 . The telematics data  212  may be comprised of asset data  112 , location data, sensor data, connectivity data, and in some cases I/O expansion data. For example, the asset data of the telematics data may include RPM data indicating whether the vehicle&#39;s engine is running. The asset data may also include an indication as to whether a driver&#39;s seatbelt is fastened. The location data may include GPS location in the form of a latitude and a longitude, or a location based on a connection to a network. The sensor data may include IMU data. The connectivity data may include the status and identity of devices connected with the telematics device  200 . For example, if a device such as the operator terminal  450  is connected to the telematics device via the short-range wireless communications module  270  or the serial communications module  280 , then an operator terminal  450  identifier and the status of the connection may form part of the connectivity data received by the vehicle telematics module  322  from the telematics device. The connectivity data may also include an indication of a tap by an NFC tag on the NFC module  260  and a vehicle operator identifier corresponding to the NFC tag. In this case, the vehicle telematics module  322  may forward the vehicle operator identifier and a vehicle identifier (obtained as part of the asset data) to the driver telematics module  355 . The indication of the tap may include a timestamp of the tap. The I/O expansion data may include a type of I/O expander  500  connected to the telematics device  200  and the identifier of an operator terminal  450  connected to the I/O expander  500 . For example, the I/O expansion data may include the identifier of any operator terminal  450  connected with the short-range communications module  570  and the serial communication module. Alternatively, or additionally, the I/O expansion data may contain the identifier of an NFC tag that was tapped at the NFC module  560 . The identifier of the NFC tag may be a vehicle operator identifier corresponding to the NFC tag. The vehicle telematics module  322  may forward the vehicle operator identifier and a vehicle identifier to the driver telematics module  355   
     The methods and systems for restricting or disabling features of an electronic device, such as an operator terminal, may be performed by a telematics server or by an operator terminal.  FIG.  6    depicts a method  600  by a telematics server. At step  610 , the telematics server  300  determines that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running. In some embodiments, the telematics server  300  determines that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running by receiving an indication from a telematics device deployed in the vehicle. The indication that the engine is running may be an RPM which is greater than zero for vehicles including an internal combustion engine or a signal indicating that EV is active for EVs. 
     At step  620 , the telematics server  300  determines that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. 
     In some embodiments, determining that wherein determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat comprises determining that the current time is within the hours of service (HOS) of the vehicle operator and determining that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is generally stationary. For example, the telematics server  300  may maintain, for example in the telematics database  310 , a schedule of the currently registered driver with the vehicle including their HOS. In this case, if the current time is within the driver&#39;s HOS and the electronic device of the operator is generally stationary, then it is determined the registered vehicle operator is within the driver&#39;s seat. 
     In other embodiments, determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat comprises determining that the current time is within the hours of service (HOS) of the vehicle operator and detecting a presence of an occupant in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. Detecting a presence of an occupant in the driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle may comprise receiving an indication from a telematics device  200  coupled to the vehicle that the driver&#39;s seatbelt is fastened. For example, seatbelts may include sensors that are connected to ECUs that send the sensor status on the CAN bus. The telematics device  200  may read the status of the seatbelt sensor for the driver-side seatbelt and send that information to the telematics server as part of the telematics data  212 . In some examples, a driver&#39;s seat occupancy sensor (not shown) may be deployed in the vehicle and connected to the telematics device  200  either directly or via an I/O expander. The driver&#39;s seat occupancy sensor may send an indication to the telematics device  200  that the driver&#39;s seat is occupied. The telematics device  200  may forward the indication to the telematics server  300  for detecting the presence of an occupant in the driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. Additionally, or alternatively, the telematics device may send the indication that the driver&#39;s seat is occupied to the operator terminal  450  of the vehicle operator. 
     In some embodiments, the steering wheel of the vehicle may include one or more hand sensors which detect a vehicle operator&#39;s hands. The hand sensors may be in communication with the telematics device  200  either directly or via an I/O expander. The hand sensors may send an indication, to the telematics device  200 , that a user&#39;s hands are touching the steering wheel thus indicating the presence of an occupant in a driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. In some embodiments, the telematics device  200  may forward the indication to the telematics server  300  for detecting the presence of an occupant in the driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. In some embodiments, the telematics device  200  may forward the indication to an operator terminal  450  of the operator of the vehicle operator. In some embodiments, the indication of the presence of an occupant in the driver&#39;s seat is only sent if the hand sensors indicate that the steering wheel was touched within a prior period of time. This excludes cases where the driver has touched the steering wheel briefly then moved away from the vehicle, and thus ensures that only recent interactions with the steering wheel are an indication of the presence of an occupant in the driver&#39;s seat. In some embodiments, the presence indication of the presence of an occupant in the driver&#39;s seat is only sent if the hand sensors indicate that the steering wheel was touched for at least a particular length of time. This excludes the accidental touching of the steering wheel by a passenger who is not in the driver&#39;s seat. 
     In some embodiments, determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat comprises receiving, from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle, an indication that a dashboard camera has captured an image of vehicle operator registered with the vehicle. For example, an I/O expander  500  may have an image sensor  590  in the form of a driver-facing dashboard camera. The telematics device  200  may receive the image of the vehicle operator as I/O expander data  512  from the I/O expander  500  and send it as part of the telematics data  212  sent to the telematics server  300 . The telematics server  300  may perform an image recognition method that compares the received image of the vehicle operator with a stored image of the registered vehicle operator for the vehicle. 
     In some embodiments, determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat comprises receiving, from a telematics device coupled to the vehicle, an indication that a fingerprint sensor on a steering wheel of the vehicle has detected the registered vehicle operator&#39;s fingerprint on the steering wheel. Similar to other sensors, such as the seatbelt sensor, the fingerprint sensor may send the detected fingerprint over the CAN bus and is captured by the telematics device  200  and sent over to the telematics server  300 . 
     In some embodiments, determining that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat comprises determining that a location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to a location of the vehicle and determining that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is generally stationary. In some embodiments, determining that the location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to a location of the vehicle comprises receiving the location of the electronic device from the electronic device, receiving the location of the vehicle from a telematics device deployed in the vehicle, and determining that distance between the location of the electronic device and the location of the vehicle is less than a distance threshold. For example, the location of the electronic device may be received, at the telematics server, from the driver telematics application  455  over the network interface  420  and the network  50 . The location of the vehicle may be received from the telematics device  200  as part of the telematics data as discussed above. 
     In some embodiments, determining that the location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to a location of the vehicle comprises receiving an indication from the electronic device of the vehicle operator that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is connected to the vehicle via a short-range communications connection. For example, the driver telematics application  455  may query the operating system of the operator terminal  450  and determine that the operator terminal  450  is connected to a vehicle Bluetooth system via a Bluetooth connection. The driver telematics application  455  may send an indication to the telematics server  300  that the operator terminal  450  is connected to the vehicle Bluetooth system. As a result, the telematics server  300  determines that the location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle. As another example, the telematics device  200  may send an indication to the telematics server  300  that the operator terminal  450  is connected to the short-range wireless communications module  270  or that the operator terminal  450  is connected to the short-range communications module  570  of the I/O expander  500 . In some embodiments, the operator terminal is connected to the telematics device over a Bluetooth connection. In either case, the telematics server  300  determines that the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to the vehicle. 
     Determining that the location of the electronic device of the vehicle operator is in close proximity to the location of the vehicle may comprise receiving an indication from the telematics device of a near-field communications (NFC) tap by a tag of the vehicle operator within a prior period of time. For example, the vehicle operator may tap an NFC tag on the NFC module  260  of the telematics device or an NFC module  560  on an I/O expander  500 . The NFC tap indicates that the vehicle operator is in close proximity to the vehicle at the time of the tap. The tap may be sent to the telematics server  300  by the telematics device  200 . The tap may include a unique identifier specific to the vehicle operator. The telematics server  300  may determine that the vehicle operator is in close proximity to the vehicle at the time of the tap and for a period of time thereafter. In some embodiments, the NFC tap may indicate that the vehicle operator is behind the wheel of the vehicle if the NFC tap is not followed by an indication that the vehicle operator has moved. 
     Determining that the electronic device (e.g., the operator terminal  450 ) of the vehicle operator is generally stationary may comprise receiving IMU data from the electronic device and determining that the IMU data is below a particular threshold. For example, the IMU data may be accelerometer data. Short-range motion that is detected when the vehicle operator is handling the electronic device is considered below the threshold. The IMU data threshold indicative that the device is not generally stationary may include IMU data that indicates that the vehicle operator is moving distances of a few feet or more. This may indicate that the vehicle operator is walking around the vehicle performing an inspection. In this case, it may not be desirable to disable features on the operator terminal  450  that the vehicle operator may need while performing the inspection. The IMU data may be accelerometer data from a 3-axis accelerometer deployed in the operator terminal  450 . 
     Determining that the electronic device (e.g., the operator terminal  450 ) of the vehicle operator is generally stationary may comprise receiving IMU data from the electronic device and determining that the IMU data does not match a pattern indicative that the vehicle operator is inspecting the vehicle. For example, the IMU data may represent motion in certain directions. Upon receiving the IMU data from the operator terminal  450 , the telematics server  300  may perform some pattern matching against a path around a vehicle indicative of a vehicle operator inspecting the vehicle. For example, the IMU data may be fed into a machine learning model that has been trained with IMU data collected from operator terminals  450  while the vehicle operator was performing an inspection. Accordingly, the ML model may predict, based on input IMU data, whether the vehicle operator may be conducting an inspection around the vehicle. 
     At step  630 , the telematics server  300  sends a message to the electronic device (e.g., the operator terminal  450 ) of the vehicle operator for changing the configuration of the electronic device in response to determining that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running and determining that the vehicle operator is in the driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. 
     In some embodiments, sending the message for changing the configuration of the electronic device comprises sending a message which causes the electronic device of the vehicle operator to disable all features except for the ability to make an emergency call. In one example, the telematics server  300  sends a message to the driver telematics application  455 . The driver telematics application  455  notifies the applications permission module  411 , which in turn disables all applications except a phone application  427 . Other applications  460  may be disabled. In some examples, the phone application  427  may be disabled except for the ability to make emergency calls. 
     In some embodiments, changing the configuration of the operator terminal comprises locking a user input peripheral (user interface device) thereof, such as a keypad, a touchpad, or a touchscreen. In other examples, the driver telematics application  455  notifies the operating system  401  of the message for changing the configuration of the operator terminal  450 . The operating system  401  may securely lock some user input peripherals, such as the touchscreen, thus causing the user not to be able to use the operator terminal until the password is entered. 
     In some examples, the telematics server  300  only sends the message for changing the configuration of the operator terminal  450  when the location of the vehicle is outside predetermined geofences. For example, the telematics server  300  may have predetermined geofences defined for the particular vehicle, the geofences each representing a warehouse, an inspection station, or a gas station. In this case, the telematics server  300  first checks if the vehicle is outside such geofences before sending the message that changes the configuration of the operator terminal  450 . 
     In some embodiments, the telematics server  300  does not send a message for changing the configuration of the operator terminal within a grace period that has elapsed since the cranking of the engine. For example, there may be a 2-minute or a 5-minute period during which the operator terminal  450  is not sent a message restricting features thereon. The grace period may start with the cranking of the engine. In some embodiments if the vehicle is in motion or starts moving, the grace period expires. 
     In some embodiments, the telematics server  300  does not send a message for changing the configuration of the operator terminal unless an image indication received from the vehicle indicates that the vehicle is not at a particular type of location. For example, the vehicle may have a road-facing dashboard camera, in the form of an image sensor  590 . The image sensor  590  captures images and the I/O expander  500  sends the captured images to the telematics device as I/O expander data  512 . The telematics device  200  may send the captured images to the telematics server  300 . The telematics server  300  may compare the captured images with images of certain types of locations such as gas stations and inspection stations. The telematics server  300  may only send a message for changing the configuration of the operator terminal when the vehicle is not a particular type of location such as an inspection station as indicated by the captured image. 
     In some embodiments, the driver telematics application  455  may allow the enabling or disabling of a particular mode that allows changing the configuration of the operator terminal  450  as described above. For example, the vehicle operator may choose to disable a feature that allows the driver telematics application  455  to receive from the telematics server  300 , messages which may change the configuration of the operator terminal  450 . 
       FIG.  7    depicts a sequence diagram  800  of an embodiment of the present disclosure. At step  802 , the telematics device provides asset data to the telematics server  300  including an indication that the engine is running, or an EV is active. At step  804 , the telematics server determines whether the engine of the vehicle coupled to the telematics device  200  is running. For example, if the asset data contained an RPM on a vehicle with an internal combustion engine (ICE), the telematics server determines that the engine is running if the RPM is above a certain value, such as 0. At step  806 , the operator terminal  450  sends the vehicle operator&#39;s HOS and the operator terminal&#39;s IMU data to the telematics server. At step  808 , the telematics server  300  determines whether the operator is in the driver&#39;s seat based on the HOS and the IMU data. If the engine is running and the operator is in the driver&#39;s seat, then at step  820 , the telematics server  300  sends a message to the operator terminal  450  for changing the configuration of the operator terminal  450 . 
     In other embodiments of the present disclosure,  FIG.  8    depicts a method  900  performed by an electronic device, such as the operator terminal  450 . The method  900  is for changing the configuration of the electronic device. At step  910 , the electronic device determines that the engine is running. 
     In one embodiment, determining that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running comprises receiving, over a short-range communications connection, from a telematics device deployed in the vehicle, an indication that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running. For example, the operator terminal  450  may be connected, via the short-range wireless communications module  470 , to a telematics device  200  via the short-range wireless communications module  270 . As another example, the operator terminal may be connected to an I/O expander  500  over the short-range communications module  570  thereof. In either case, the driver telematics application  455  of the operator terminal receives an indication from the telematics device  200  that the engine of the vehicle in which the telematics device  200  is deployed is running. 
     At step  920 , the electronic device determines that the vehicle operator registered with the vehicle is in the driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. In some embodiments, the driver telematics application  455  determines that the vehicle operator is in the driver&#39;s seat based on the hours of service (HOS) entered by the vehicle operator and received by a user interface of the driver telematics application  455 . 
     In other embodiments, the operator terminal  450  receives location data from the telematics device  200 , the location information indicating the location of the vehicle to which the telematics device  200  is coupled. The operator terminal  450  may receive the location data from the telematics device  200  over a short-range wireless communications connection as discussed above. The operator terminal  450  determines that the operator is in the driver&#39;s seat if the operator terminal  450  is in close proximity to the vehicle and the operator terminal  450  is generally stationary (i.e., the operator is not walking around the vehicle performing an inspection, for example). The operator terminal  450  determines that the operator terminal  450  is in close proximity to the vehicle if the location of the operator terminal, as determined by the location module  406  is close to the location of the vehicle received from the telematics device  200 . Determining that the location of the operator terminal  450  is close to the location of the vehicle may comprise computing a distance between the two locations and determining that the distance is below a predetermined threshold. 
     In some embodiments, determining that the operator terminal  450  is generally stationary comprises the driver telematics application  455  reading IMU data from the IMU  404  and comparing the IMU data with a particular threshold. If the IMU data is below the particular threshold, then the movement of the operator terminal  450  indicate that the operator terminal  450  is generally stationary. 
     In some embodiments, the operator terminal  450  and in particular the driver telematics application  455  may receive, from the telematics device, an indication that the driver&#39;s seatbelt is fastened. Accordingly, the operator terminal  450  determines the presence of an occupant in the driver&#39;s seat for each of the vehicles as discussed above. 
     At step  930 , the electronic device changes the configuration thereof in response to determining that the vehicle&#39;s engine is running, and that the vehicle operator is in the driver&#39;s seat of the vehicle. In some embodiments, a driver telematics application may send a message to the operating system of the vehicle operator requesting that certain features be restricted. In some embodiments, a user interface input device, such as a touchscreen or a keypad, is disabled at the operator terminal in response to receiving the message for changing the configuration thereof. 
     The methods described herein may be performed by machine-executable programming instructions stored in non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by a controller. 
     It should be recognized that features and aspects of the various examples provided above can be combined into further examples that also fall within the scope of the present disclosure. The scope of the claims should not be limited by the above examples but should be given the broadest interpretation consistent with the description as a whole.