Patent ID: 8115616

Claim:
A system for alerting a driver of a vehicle that an automatic garage door at a predetermined location has not been signaled to close, the system comprising: an ignition system for starting an engine of the vehicle; an onboard transmitter for activating the automatic garage door; a GPS receiver for determining a current location of the vehicle responsive to the starting of the engine; a processor coupled to the GPS receiver for comparing the current location with the predetermined location and determining whether the vehicle is approximately at the predetermined location when the engine was started; an alert device; and an onboard processor coupled to the onboard transmitter, the GPS receiver, and to the alert device, the onboard processor configured to monitor a distance between the vehicle and the predetermined location when the engine was started approximately at the predetermined location, and to activate the alert device if the distance reaches a predetermined distance from the predetermined location and the onboard transmitter has not been activated to close the automatic garage door.