Patent ID: 8607015

Claim:
An onboard system for a vehicle, comprising: a portable storage device that receives an initialization command, and performs an initialization operation for adjusting a position of a mechanical unit of the portable storage device to a default position in response to said initialization command; a storage unit that stores a plurality of flags associated with different conditions for issuing said initialization command to the portable storage device, each of the flags being set to have a value indicating whether or not to issue the initialization command to the portable storage device; and a control unit that analyzes vehicle state information in combination with the values of the plurality of flags, said vehicle state information determinative of which of the plurality of flags is effective to cause the initialization command to be issued, and issues the initialization command to the portable storage device when the effective flag has a value indicating issuance of the initialization command, and, when finishing issuing the initialization command, updates said effective flag to have a value indicating a prohibition of issuing the initialization command.