Patent ID: 8892172

Claim:
A method of providing vehicle telematics functionality to a hand-held, wireless communications device comprising a non-transitory memory device that is capable of storing telematics functionality software for the hand-held, wireless communications device such that when said telematics functionality software is stored in the non-transitory memory device, the hand-held, wireless communications device is capable of providing the vehicle telematics functionality, the method comprising: providing a docking apparatus to the vehicle, which is coupled to the vehicle, and configured to interface with the vehicle, the docking apparatus being additionally configured to wirelessly communicate with the hand-held, wireless communications device using radio frequency signals; wirelessly docking the hand-held, wireless communications device to the docking apparatus via radio frequency signals; after wirelessly docking the hand-held, wireless communications device to the docking apparatus, wirelessly determining whether the non-transitory memory device contains telematics functionality software; and, when said memory device does not contain said telematics functionality software, wirelessly providing said telematics functionality software to said memory device via the hand-held, wireless communications device; wherein the telematics functionality software comprises one or more telematics-related applications, which are specific to the vehicle, the telematics applications being uniquely identified by a vehicle identification number that is wirelessly provided by the docking station to the hand-held, wireless communication device.