Captured test fleet

Abstract

A system and method for vehicle design and manufacture. The method includes designing a vehicle, building a pilot vehicle of the designed vehicle, installing a telematics units in the pilot vehicle, configuring the telematics unit to monitor systems of the pilot vehicle during vehicle operation, operating the pilot vehicle in a captured test fleet, obtaining data from the telematics unit during the operating in a captured test fleet, altering vehicle design data in response to the obtained data and, building a production vehicle with the design influenced by the altered vehicle design data.

1 . A method of producing and selling vehicles, comprising the steps of: 
 producing an initial design of a vehicle having an integrated telematics unit;    building a first plurality of vehicles according to the initial design, wherein the building step is carried out by a vehicle manufacturer and wherein at least some of the first plurality of vehicles each include the integrated telematics unit installed by the vehicle manufacturer as a part of building the vehicles according to the initial design;    operating vehicles from the first plurality of vehicles in a captured test fleet;    sending data from vehicles in the captured test fleet to the vehicle manufacturer via the telematics unit;    creating a revised design by revising the initial design in response to at least some of the data received by the vehicle manufacturer;    building a second plurality of vehicles according to the revised design, wherein at least some of the second plurality of vehicles each include one of the integrated telematics units; and    selling some or all of the second plurality of vehicles to customers.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising, after the selling step, carrying out the following steps: 
 monitoring at least some of the sold vehicles by collecting data at those vehicles and transmitting it to the vehicle manufacturer via the integrated telematics units;    identifying a vehicle improvement to be made;    designing the vehicle improvement; and    improving at least some of the sold vehicles with the vehicle improvement.    
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein, for each of at least some of the first plurality of vehicles, the sending step further comprises the steps of: 
 monitoring performance of a vehicle system within the vehicle;    storing performance data for the vehicle system;    establishing a wireless telematics connection between the vehicle and a service center;    communicating the performance data to the service center; and    storing the received performance data at the service center.    
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the service center comprises a call center for the vehicle manufacturer.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the sending step further comprises the steps of: 
 providing a database including a list of vehicles, each associated with a captured test fleet identifier;    receiving a request for the data;    determining which vehicles listed in the database have a captured test fleet identifier that corresponds to the request;    transmitting a data retrieval request to the vehicles having the corresponding captured test fleet identifier; and    collecting the data at the vehicle; and    transmitting the collected data to the vehicle manufacturer.    
     
     
         6 . A method of producing and selling a vehicle, comprising the steps of: 
 designing a vehicle including a vehicle system;    building a plurality of pilot vehicles of the designed vehicle such that at least some of the pilot vehicles include both the vehicle system and an integrated telematics unit;    creating a captured test fleet that includes the pilot vehicles;    operating the captured test fleet; and,    for each pilot vehicle of the captured test fleet: 
 monitoring performance of the vehicle system within the pilot vehicles;  
 storing data within a controller in the pilot vehicles in response to the monitoring;  
 automatically triggering within the telematics unit a telematics connection from the pilot vehicles to a service center;  
 communicating the data to the service center; and  
 storing the data in the service center;  
   providing the data for at least some of the pilot vehicles to at least one person capable of influencing design of the monitored vehicle system;    modifying the design of the monitored vehicle system in response to the data;    producing production vehicles that include the vehicle system built according to the modified design; and    selling at least some of the production vehicles.    
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein automatically triggering within the telematics unit a telematics connection from the pilot vehicle to a service center further comprises the steps of receiving an upload trigger from the service center via the telematics unit, and determining occurrence of the upload trigger.  
     
     
         8 . A system for vehicle design and manufacturing, comprising: 
 a captured test fleet comprising a plurality of vehicles having integrated telematics units installed in the vehicles, each vehicle having an identifier that associates the vehicle with the captured test fleet; and    a service center having a first database of vehicles that includes at least some of the vehicles in the captured test fleet and that includes the identifiers for some or all of the vehicles in the first database, the service center having a second database that stores performance data associated with vehicles in the captured test fleet;    wherein said service center communicates with said vehicles via the integrated telematics units, such that requests for performance data are sent from said service center to vehicles in the captured test fleet using identifiers contained in said first database, and wherein each of the vehicles collect and store the requested performance data at the vehicle and then subsequently send the requested performance data to the service center in response to the request.