Patent ID: 8346407

Claim:
A method for assigning a first motor vehicle to a second motor vehicle by exchanging electromagnetic signals, comprising the steps of: transmitting and not transmitting electromagnetic signals from the first motor vehicle to a second motor vehicle at predetermined times to form a predetermined temporal signal pattern; receiving, in a receiver in the second motor vehicle starting at a time when the first motor vehicle is coupled to the second motor vehicle, the electromagnetic signals transmitted from the first motor vehicle; comparing, in a control device in the second motor vehicle, an expected time pattern stored in the second motor vehicle with a received time pattern formed by times at which the electromagnetic signals transmitted from the first motor vehicle are received in the second motor vehicle and times at which electromagnetic signals from the first motor vehicle are not received in the second motor vehicle; and assigning the first motor vehicle to the second motor vehicle if the received signal pattern and the expected pattern of transmission times and non-transmission times stored in the second motor vehicle correspond to each other.