Thomas J Forest Deceased34280 Fountain Blvd, Westland, MI 48185

6484082, Nov 19, 2002

May 24, 2000

09/578213

Arnold W. Millsap - Leonard MI
Thomas Michael Forest - Southfield MI
Peter H. G. Hansson - Grastorp, SE
Anthony Anderson - Warren MI
George D Nakis - Holly MI

General Motors Corporation - Detroit MI

B60R 2200

701 48, 701 33, 701 36, 701 49

A network management approach for use in a vehicle to control activation of electronic control units (ECUs) networked together throughout the vehicle. The ECUs are grouped together by function into virtual networks, with each virtual network including those ECUs used in carrying out a particular control task, such as controlling power windows or automatic headlights. The virtual networks are activated using a messaging protocol that specifies which virtual network is being activated. Periodic messages specifying the virtual network are also used to maintain it active. This permits the ECUs to be maintained in a low power quiescent state when the control functions are not needed, while allowing only those needed for a particular control task to be awakened and maintained in an activated state to carry out their associated control task. An ECU can activate one of the virtual networks by transmitting a wake-up signal followed by a message identifying the virtual network. Each of the ECUs receive this message and, if it is a member of the virtual network being initialized, maintains itself in an active state to carry out the control task associated with the virtual network.

7034654, Apr 25, 2006

Jan 13, 2004

10/756729

Thomas M. Forest - Macomb Township MI, US
David T. Proefke - Madison Heights MI, US
Axel Nix - Birmingham MI, US

General Motors Corporation - Detroit MI

H04Q 9/00
B60R 25/00
G06F 7/58
H01H 47/00

340 526, 340 531, 340 572, 34042611, 708250, 708252, 307 107

Methods and apparatus are provided for insuring that a motor vehicle is being operated by an authorized operator. The apparatus includes an electronic control unit (ECU), an engine immobilizer unit, and a shared encryption key. The ECU generates a challenge by combining the output of a pseudo-random number generator and the output of a somewhat random number generator and cycling the combined number through a linear feedback shift register. The ECU sends the challenge to the immobilizer unit where it is encrypted with the shared key and sent back to the ECU as a response. The ECU uses the same key to encrypt the challenge and compares the encrypted challenge to the response. If the response matches the encrypted challenge, engine operation is enabled.

7222006, May 22, 2007

Jan 13, 2004

10/755949

David T. Proefke - Madison Heights MI, US
Thomas M. Forest - Macomb Township MI, US
Thomas W. Pfeffer - Messel, DE

General Motors Corporation - Detroit MI

G06F 7/00

701 32, 701 31, 701 33, 307 103, 307 105, 34042611

Methods and apparatus are provided for determining the duration a motor vehicle engine may operate while operator authorization is verified in response to an ignition request. In one embodiment the method includes the steps of decrementing a pre-authorization timer from a first predetermined time limit and a maximum authorization timer from a second predetermined time limit in response to the ignition request. Also upon receipt of the ignition request an authorization process is initiated. Decrementing of the pre-authorization timer is halted in response to active operation of the starter motor of the motor vehicle, and operation of the motor vehicle is inhibited if either the pre-authorization timer or the maximum authorization timer decrements to zero before completion of the authorization operation.

7231041, Jun 12, 2007

Aug 19, 2003

10/643436

Thomas M. Forest - Macomb Township MI, US
Thomas E. Utter - Royal Oak MI, US

General Motors Corporation - Detroit MI

H04L 9/00
G05B 15/02
G05B 19/18
G05B 9/02
G05B 15/00
G05B 21/00
G05D 7/00

380 44, 380 45, 380278, 380283, 380284, 700 9, 700 65, 700 79, 700 83, 700274, 700282

Methods and apparatus are provided for sending an encrypted command message from a remote keyless entry device to a receiver in a motor vehicle. The method comprises defining a key generating key within the remote keyless entry device, and using that key generating key to generate a working key. The working key is transmitted from the remote keyless entry device to the receiver during a training session without transmitting the key generating key. The working key is modified each time the remote keyless entry device is placed in the training mode. After the training session, a message encrypted with the working key can be transmitted from the remote keyless entry device to the motor vehicle receiver where the encrypted message is decrypted with the working key.

7430261, Sep 30, 2008

Jul 7, 2003

10/613039

Thomas Forest - Macomb MI, US
Bernd Hedenetz - Denkendorf, DE
Mathias Rausch - Marktschwaben, DE
Christopher Temple - Munich, DE
Harald Eisele - Pinneberg, DE
Bernd Elend - Hamburg, DE
Jörn Ungermann - Aachen, DE
Matthias Kühlewein - Tübingen, DE
Ralf Belschner - Pliezhausen, DE
Peter Lohrmann - Eislingen, DE
Florian Bogenberger - Munich, DE
Thomas Wuerz - Poing, DE
Arnold Millsap - Leonard MI, US
Patrick Heuts - Malden, NL
Robert Hugel - Karlsruhe, DE
Thomas Führer - Gerlingen, DE
Bernd Müller - Leonberg, DE
Florian Hartwich - Reutlingen, DE
Manfred Zinke - Aachen, DE
Josef Berwanger - Poing, DE
Christian Ebner - Munich, DE
Harald Weiler - Göppingen, DE
Peter Fuhrmann - Aachen, DE
Anton Schedl - Munich, DE
Martin Peller - Munich, DE

Robert Bosch GmbH - Stuttgart
DaimlerChrysler AG - Stuttgart
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG - Munich
General Motors Corp. - Warren MI
Motorola Inc. - Schaumburg IL
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. - Eindhoven

H04L 7/06

375364, 370392, 370442

A method and a bit stream decoding unit for bit stream decoding has a bit stream comprising a number of consecutive samples. In order to provide for rapid and, in particular, reliable decoding of the bit stream, a detection window comprising a number of samples is defined and the detection window is positioned at certain positions on the bit stream in order to comprise certain samples with respective sample values. A majority voting is applied to the sample values in the detection window and, in dependence on the result of the majority voting, the bit stream is decoded and respective bit values are generated.

7464203, Dec 9, 2008

Jul 27, 2006

11/460338

Kerfegar K. Katrak - Fenton MI, US
Thomas M. Forest - Macomb Township MI, US
James K. Thomas - Northville MI, US

GM Global Technology Operations, Inc. - Detroit MI

G06F 15/00

710 70, 710 8, 710 9, 710 10, 710 67, 710 68, 710 69, 701 1, 701 29, 701 34, 358 118

A method and apparatus is provided for validating a plurality of variable data transmitted in an automobile, comprising generating a control copy and a redundant copy of the variable data, calculating a pre-transmittal cross-check measure using the redundant copy of the variable data, and generating a transmittal message using the control copy of the data and the pre-transmittal cross-check measure.

7467029, Dec 16, 2008

Feb 9, 2005

11/054571

Thomas M. Forest - Macomb Township MI, US
Kerfegar K. Katrak - Fenton MI, US

General Motors Corporation - Detroit MI

G06F 11/08

701 1, 701 29, 701 33, 340507, 340508

A vehicle control module for controlling an actuator unit in response to an input having a first processor, a first communication link coupled to the first processor, and a second processor coupled to the first processor via the first communication link. The first processor is configured to generate a first value based on the input, transmit the first value to the actuator unit, and receive a second value from the actuator unit based on a data received by the actuator unit from the first processor. The first communication link is configured to transfer the input and the second value to the second processor. The second processor is configured to determine a third value based on the input, and verify the first value based on a comparison of the second value with the third value.

7586933, Sep 8, 2009

Apr 4, 2003

10/510390

Ing Ralf Belschner - Pliezhausen, DE
Bernd Hedenetz - Denkendorf, DE
Christopher Temple - München, DE
Anton Schedl - München, DE
Josef Berwanger - Poing, DE
Martin Peller - München, DE
Thomas Führer - Gerlingen, DE
Arnold Millsap - Leonard MI, US
Thomas Forest - Macomb MI, US
Gregor Pokorny - Vienna, AT
Peter Fuhrmann - Aachen, DE

Robert Bosch GmbH - Stuttgart
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG - Munich
DaimlerChrysler AG - Stuttgart
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. - Austin TX
GM Global Technology Operations, Inc. - Detroit MI
NXP B.V. - Eindhoven
DECOMSYS—Dependable Computer Systems, Hardware und Software Entwicklung GmbH - Vienna

H04L 12/413

370447, 370254, 370257

The invention concerns a network comprising an interconnecting network and several network nodes that are coupled to said interconnecting network and are designed to adapt their local communication time schedule to the communication time schedule of at least one other network mode, prior to being integrated as active network nodes. A network node to be integrated checks the activity of other network nodes and if no activity is identified, sends out positional messages for other network nodes, said message being fixed by predetermination in its communication time schedule. If a network node cannot be integrated as a reference node, it can only be integrated as an active node if it adapts its local communication time schedule to that of the reference node after receiving positional messages and if a check as to whether its own communication time schedule agrees with the communication time schedules of at least some of the active network nodes proves positive.