Patent ID: 7584029

Claim:
A method of acquiring vehicle parameter data from a vehicle data bus, comprising: providing a telematics application on a local telematics unit within a vehicle, the telematics application implemented as a software program including generic requests for vehicle parameter data that are not specific to any particular make or model of the vehicle; providing an abstract software layer operatively disposed between the telematics application and the vehicle data bus; executing the telematics application; retrieving, by the abstract software layer and responsive to a request for vehicle parameter data from the telematics application, vehicle data bus configuration information from a database that stores data bus configuration information for a plurality of different types of data busses, the retrieved vehicle data bus configuration information being associated with the type of data bus used on the vehicle on which the telematics application is executed; extracting vehicle parameter data from the vehicle data bus using the vehicle data bus configuration information retrieved from the database, the vehicle parameter data corresponding to the request for vehicle parameter data; interpreting the retrieved vehicle parameter data; and providing the interpreted vehicle parameter data to the telematics application to satisfy the request for vehicle parameter data.