Patent ID: 8095263

Claim:
An electronic control unit provided in a vehicle and configured to be coupled with a peripheral electronic control unit for storing failure information of the vehicle, comprising: storing means for storing vehicle identification information unique to the vehicle; rewriting means for rewriting the vehicle identification information into new vehicle identification information when the rewriting means receive a rewriting request of the vehicle identification information; a memory configured to store data regardless of an on-off state of a power source of the electronic control unit; state information control means for writing state information in the memory, the state information indicating a state of rewriting the vehicle identification information, the state information including renewing information and non-request information, the renewing information indicating a state where the vehicle identification information is being rewritten, the non-request information indicating a state where the vehicle identification information is not being rewritten; erasing order sending means for sending an erasing order to the peripheral electronic control unit when the state information stored in the memory is the renewing information so as to control the peripheral electronic control unit to erase the failure information; determining means for determining whether the peripheral electronic control unit sends an erasing completion signal indicating that the erasing of the failure information in the peripheral electronic control unit is completed, wherein: the state information control means writes the renewing information in the memory when the rewriting means receives the rewriting request; and the state information control means includes renewing means for rewriting the renewing information into the non-request information when the rewriting means completes the rewriting of the vehicle identification information and the determining means determines that the peripheral electronic control unit sends the erasing completion signal.