Patent ID: 7584025

Claim:
An in-vehicle device for executing a predetermined process based on data, comprising: a hard disk drive for storing the data; a communication element for transmitting a message to an user; an input element for receiving an instruction from the user; a communication control element for obtaining altitude information relating to an altitude of a current position of a vehicle and for transmitting the message to the user via the communication element; and an activation control element for controlling activation of the hard disk drive, wherein the communication control element obtains the altitude information before the hard disk drive is activated when the in-vehicle device is activated for the first time since standby power supply stopped while the in-vehicle device was not activated, wherein the standby power is supplied to the in-vehicle device from a battery of the vehicle so that a working memory in the in-vehicle device holds data therein, wherein the communication control element transmits the message when the altitude information shows that the current position is equal to or higher than a predetermined altitude, wherein the message provides to ask the user whether the user permits the activation of the hard disk drive, wherein the activation control element provides permission to activate the hard disk drive when the input element receives the instruction that the user permits the activation of the hard disk drive in response to the message from the communication element, and wherein the activation control element starts to read the data from the hard disk drive when the activation control element provides the permission.