Patent Issued for Systems And Methods For Vehicle Configuration Verification Using Smart Contracts (USPTO 10,666,767)

2020 JUN 04 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Floyd, Matthew Lewis (Alpharetta, GA); Smith, Jr., Leroy Luther (Sandy Springs, GA); Benzio, Brittney (Atlanta, GA); Barnard, Nathan (Bloomington, IL); Lowry, Shannon Marie (Atlanta, GA), filed on July 3, 2018, was published online on June 8, 2020.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 10,666,767 is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “In the automotive industry, vehicles may have a multitude of complex software and firmware components. For example, forward collision detection and air temperature control may be implemented in separate software modules. Vehicle manufactures are increasingly implementing autonomous and semi-autonomous driving functionality and/or introducing additional software modules with critical responsibilities. The safety of some vehicles may now be dependent on the integrity of these software modules.

“Existing software verification techniques may be ill-suited for the number of existing vehicles, and possible valid vehicle configurations. For example, during peak times, a highway may have a high flow of vehicles each with a distinct software configuration. Verifying each software module of each vehicle against a centralized database in peak times may be impractical due to processing delays. Additionally, consumers may have a low tolerance for transportation delays.

“Conventional software verification techniques may also be ill-suited for verifying vehicle software configurations, and may have several drawbacks, such as being manually intensive, inefficient, annoying, ineffective, and/or time intensive.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments relate to systems and methods for vehicle configuration verification and/or unauthorized vehicle modification detection. For example, the systems described herein may receive a vehicle image that includes trusted configurations of vehicle software modules. The systems may calculate a configuration hash value of the software modules, and generate a data block including the configuration hash value. In certain embodiments, the data block may be included in a block-chain, such that the data block includes a hash value of a previous data block. The systems may further store and/or transmit the data block to any number of network participants using a distributed or peer-to-peer network. For example, the systems may transmit the data block to smart roadway systems and/or toll plaza computer systems (and/or other remote servers), such that the configuration of vehicles in use may be validated against the stored vehicle configuration hash values.

“In one aspect, a computer system for verifying vehicle software configuration may be provided. In some exemplary embodiments, the computer system may include a processor and a non-transitory, tangible, computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to: (i) retrieve a trusted data block from a memory, the trusted data block including a stored configuration hash value, a smart contract code segment, and a failsafe code segment; (ii) generate a current configuration hash value based on at least one software module by executing the smart contract code segment; (iii) determine that the current configuration hash value is invalid based on the stored configuration hash value by executing the smart contract code segment; and (iv) execute the failsafe code segment, in response to determining that the current configuration hash value is invalid. The computer system may include additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method for verifying vehicle software configuration may be provided. In some exemplary embodiments, the method may include: (i) retrieving a trusted data block from a memory, the trusted data block including a stored configuration hash value, a smart contract code segment, and a failsafe code segment; (ii) generating a current configuration hash value based on at least one software module by executing the smart contract code segment; (iii) determining that the current configuration hash value is invalid based on the stored configuration hash value by executing the smart contract code segment; and (iv) executing the failsafe code segment, in response to determining that the current configuration hash value is invalid. The method may include additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer executable instructions embodied thereon may be provided. In some exemplary embodiments, when executed by a computing device including at least one processor coupled to a memory, the computer executable instructions may cause the computing device to: (i) retrieve a trusted data block from a memory, the trusted data block including a stored configuration hash value, a smart contract code segment, and a failsafe code segment; (ii) generate a current configuration hash value based on at least one software module by executing the smart contract code segment; (iii) determine that the current configuration hash value is invalid based on the stored configuration hash value by executing the smart contract code segment; and (iv) execute the failsafe code segment, in response to determining that the current configuration hash value is invalid. The computer-readable storage medium may include additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“We claim:

“1. A vehicle computer system for verifying software stored on a vehicle computing system of a vehicle, the vehicle computing system comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory, tangible, computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to: retrieve a trusted data block from a memory, the trusted data block including a stored configuration hash value, a smart contract code segment, and a failsafe code segment; generate a current configuration hash value based on at least one software module by executing the smart contract code segment; determine that the current configuration hash value is invalid based on the stored configuration hash value by executing the smart contract code segment; and execute the failsafe code segment, in response to determining that the current configuration hash value is invalid.

“2. The vehicle computer system of claim 1, wherein the smart contract further includes a failsafe destination, and wherein the failsafe code segment is configured to cause the vehicle computing system to autonomously navigate to the failsafe destination.

“3. The vehicle computer system of claim 2, wherein the failsafe code segment is further configured to cause the vehicle computing system to generate a route to the failsafe destination not including smart roadways.

“4. The vehicle computer system of claim 1, wherein the failsafe code segment is configured to modify the at least one software module in response to determining the current configuration hash value is invalid.

“5. The vehicle computer system of claim 4, wherein the failsafe code segment is configured to cause the vehicle computing system to modify the at least one software module until the current vehicle configuration hash value matches a fallback configuration hash value included in the smart contract.

“6. The vehicle computer system of claim 1, wherein the failsafe code segment is configured to disable at least one autonomous driving functionality on the vehicle computing system.

“7. The vehicle computer system of claim 6, wherein the failsafe code segment is further configured to cause the vehicle to exit a smart roadway before disabling autonomous driving functionality.

“8. A computer-implemented method for verifying software stored on a vehicle computing system of a vehicle, the method implemented using the vehicle computing system having one or more processors, said method comprising: retrieving a trusted data block from a memory, the trusted data block including a stored configuration hash value, a smart contract code segment, and a failsafe code segment; generating a current configuration hash value based on at least one software module by executing the smart contract code segment; determining that the current configuration hash value is invalid based on the stored configuration hash value by executing the smart contract code segment; and executing the failsafe code segment, in response to determining that the current configuration hash value is invalid.

“9. The method of claim 8, wherein the smart contract further includes a failsafe destination, and wherein the failsafe code segment is configured to cause the vehicle computing system to autonomously navigate to the failsafe destination.

“10. The method of claim 9, wherein the failsafe code segment is further configured to cause the vehicle computing system to generate a route to the failsafe destination not including smart roadways.

“11. The method of claim 8, wherein the failsafe code segment is configured to modify the at least one software module in response to determining the current configuration hash value is invalid.

“12. The method of claim 11, wherein the failsafe code segment is configured to cause the vehicle computing system to modify the at least one software module until the current vehicle configuration hash value matches a fallback configuration hash value included in the smart contract.

“13. The method of claim 8, wherein the failsafe code segment is configured to disable at least one autonomous driving functionality on the vehicle computing system.

“14. The method of claim 13, wherein the failsafe code segment is further configured to cause the vehicle to exit a smart roadway before disabling autonomous driving functionality.

“15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer executable instructions embodied thereon, wherein when executed by a vehicle computer device including at least one processor coupled to a memory, the computer-executable instructions cause the computer device to: retrieve a trusted data block from a memory, the trusted data block including a stored configuration hash value, a smart contract code segment, and a failsafe code segment; generate a current configuration hash value based on at least one software module by executing the smart contract code segment; determine that the current configuration hash value is invalid based on the stored configuration hash value by executing the smart contract code segment; and execute the failsafe code segment, in response to determining that the current configuration hash value is invalid.

“16. The computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein the smart contract further includes a failsafe destination, and wherein the failsafe code segment is configured to cause the vehicle computing system to autonomously navigate to the failsafe destination.

“17. The computer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein the failsafe code segment is further configured to cause the vehicle computing system to generate a route to the failsafe destination not including smart roadways.

“18. The computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein the failsafe code segment is configured to modify the at least one software module in response to determining the current configuration hash value is invalid.

“19. The computer-readable storage media of claim 18, wherein the failsafe code segment is configured to cause the vehicle computing system to modify the at least one software module until the current vehicle configuration hash value matches a fallback configuration hash value included in the smart contract.

“20. The computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein the failsafe code segment is configured to disable at least one autonomous driving functionality on the vehicle computing system.

“21. The computer-readable storage media of claim 20, wherein the failsafe code segment is further configured to cause the vehicle to exit a smart roadway before disabling autonomous driving functionality.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Floyd, Matthew Lewis; Smith, Jr., Leroy Luther; Benzio, Brittney; Barnard, Nathan; Lowry, Shannon Marie. Systems And Methods For Vehicle Configuration Verification Using Smart Contracts. U.S. Patent Number 10,666,767, filed July 3, 2018, and published online on June 8, 2020. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,666,767.PN.&OS=PN/10,666,767RS=PN/10,666,767

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