Some vehicle fleet owners, lessees, or others persons having responsibility for the control of a fleet of vehicles may desire to render the vehicles in their fleet inoperable at certain times, during certain time periods, or when certain conditions are met. For example, a vehicle fleet owner, such as a government entity that provides its employees with government owned vehicles for the purpose of performing work related functions may wish to ensure that its employees do not use the government owned vehicles for personal usage after duty hours. Other vehicle fleet owners, for example, trucking companies that provide large over-the-road trucks to drivers for the purpose of delivering goods to distant customers may wish to ensure that the trucks are not operated for longer than a predetermined number of hours during a work day. Still other vehicle owners, such as taxi-cab companies, may wish to preclude their employees from driving the company owned vehicles beyond a defined geographical boundary.
Owners, lessees or other persons responsible for the control of an individual vehicle may similarly desire to render vehicle in their charge inoperable at certain times or when certain conditions are met. For example, the parents of a teenage driver may wish to ensure that a vehicle provided to the teenage driver is inoperable after a curfew or during a period of time when the parents will be away from the home. In other examples, vehicle owners may wish to render their vehicles inoperable during periods when the vehicle owners will not be driving the vehicle. For instance, when the vehicle owner parks the vehicle in a shopping mall parking lot, he or she may wish to render the vehicle inoperable for the period of time that the owner is inside of the shopping mall. In yet another example, a vehicle owner who leaves his or her vehicle in a long term parking lot at an airport while the vehicle owner travels by airplane to a distant location may desire to ensure that the vehicle cannot be driven while he or she is away.
Some existing systems, such as alarm systems, may disable a vehicle's ignition. However, if the ignition can be circumvented, the vehicle may still be operable. Other existing systems may merely monitor vehicle usage without preventing unauthorized vehicle usage. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system that permits a vehicle owner to control and/or prevent unauthorized vehicle usage. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds