Patent ID: 7142089

Claim:
A vehicle management system for allowing vehicle control by persons including a main user and a sub user, comprising: a vehicle side mobile communication terminal disposed in a vehicle and configured to receive and send transmissions of wireless signals including cellular phone transmissions of signals; a vehicle operation controller disposed in the vehicle and configured to control an operation of the vehicle in response to said signals received by the vehicle side mobile communication terminal; a main operating side mobile communication terminal in the form of a first cellular phone portable by the main user and configured to transmit cellular phone transmissions of an enabling signal and a main terminal operation signal to the vehicle operation controller directly via said vehicle side mobile communication terminal and a cellular phone network from a location outside of said vehicle, the main terminal operation signal controlling operation of said vehicle from outside of said vehicle via said vehicle operation controller; a sub operating side mobile communication terminal in the form of a second cellular portable by the sub user and for transmitting a sub terminal operation signal for controlling operation of the vehicle from outside of said vehicle via said vehicle operation controller and said vehicle side mobile communication terminal; and said vehicle operation controller including: means, responsive to said main terminal operation signal, for effecting control of said vehicle based on receipt of said main terminal operation signal from outside of said vehicle; and enabling means, responsive to receipt of the enabling signal provided in a cellular phone transmission transmitted by said main operating side mobile communication terminal and received by said vehicle side mobile communication terminal directly via said cellular phone network, for allowing the sub terminal operation signal from the sub operating side mobile communication terminal to control vehicle operation from outside of said vehicle when the enabling signal is received from said main operating side mobile communication terminal via said cellular phone network, and for preventing the sub terminal operation signal from the sub operating side mobile communication terminal from controlling vehicle operation when the enabling signal is not previously received.