Modern vehicles offer vehicle occupants the ability to send and receive wireless communications. And modern vehicles can do so in a variety of ways. For example, a vehicle can include a telematics unit that uses cellular communication systems to place and receive telephone calls or to communicate data with a central facility. In addition to communications using cellular systems, the telematics unit can also use short-range wireless communication capabilities as well, such as WiFi or Bluetooth. Short range wireless communication capabilities permit the vehicle telematics unit to communicate with similarly-configured devices within a predetermined distance from the vehicle telematics unit.
But vehicle occupants are not solely reliant on vehicle telematics units to carry out wireless communications. Often, vehicle occupants carry a wireless device, such as a smartphone, that has the capability to send/receive cellular communications even though the vehicle may also be able to similarly communicate. These types of wireless devices are also frequently able to download and operate a wide variety of software applications—sometimes created by third-party developers—that are operated by the devices to provide more features to the user. Given the frequent proximate presence of both the vehicle telematics unit and the wireless device, it would be beneficial to more effectively integrate the capabilities of both of these devices.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds