Patent ID: 7898401

Claim:
In a vehicle that includes a display for presenting information to a vehicle operator, a method of providing a countdown to shutdown of power-consuming devices, the method comprising: receiving input from the vehicle operator to initiate the countdown, wherein the input is a manually-activated hardware-based control to initiate the countdown, and wherein initiating the countdown allows a vehicle ignition system to transition to an inactive state while a vehicle ignition bus is in an active state; maintaining a countdown value to reflect the passage of time, wherein the vehicle ignition bus is maintained in the active state before expiration of the countdown value; presenting the current countdown value that reflects the time to shutdown of the power-consuming devices on a graphical display; in response to expiration of the countdown, allowing the vehicle ignition bus to transition into an inactive state; and wherein the countdown value is modifiable both incrementally and decrementally in time, after initiation, by a user anytime prior to expiration of the countdown value without being required to actuate the vehicle ignition.