GB2498743A - Managing and storing vehicle route data in an external storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus 140 is configured to manage vehicle route data. A data generator is provided for generating a set of vehicle route data relating to a route on which a vehicle is travelling. A data port provides a connection to an external storage device 160. In use, the apparatus 140 is operable to output the set of generated vehicle route data to an external storage device 160 connected to the data port. The data port may provide a wired or wireless connection to the external storage device. The external storage device may be a removable USB memory stick, a cell phone, laptop, tablet computer, or MP3 player. Alternatively, the external storage device may be remote from the vehicle e.g. a remote data centre. The accumulated historic vehicle route data on the storage device may thus be made available to on-board systems in a second vehicle without the need for a new set of route data to be generated by the second vehicle. The invention is particularly suited to use in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs ) whereby an expected route of travel of the vehicle may be utilised to modify an energy management strategy implemented by the vehicle.

Description

MANAGEMENT OF VEHICLE ROUTE DATA

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present application relates to apparatus and a method for managing vehicle route data.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The contents of the Applicant's co-pending applications entitled ROUTE RECOGNITION APPARATUS AND METHOD" and HYBRID VEHICLE CONTROLLER AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING A HYBRID VEHICLE (MOVING SOC)' tiled on the same day as the present application are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference.

The apparatus and methods described in these co-pending applications generate sets of data relating to a route that a vehicle is travelling. The vehicle route data is stored in a local memory in the vehicle to enable real-time access. Over a period of time, however, a large volume of data may be generated and standard Engine Control Units (ECU5) may not have sufficient memory to store the data. Dedicated data storage could be incorporated into the control units of vehicles implementing these techniques, but this will effectively embed the data in that vehicle. If the driver changed to another vehicle, the accumulated historic data The present invention sets out to overcome or ameliorate at least some of the problems

outlined above in respect of the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus configured to manage vehicle route data, the apparatus comprising: a data generator for generating a set of vehicle route data relating to a route that a vehicle is travelling; and a data port for connection to an external storage device; wherein the apparatus is operable to output the set of generated vehicle route data to an external storage device connected to the data port.

By outputting the set of generated vehicle route data to an external storage device, the set of data can be transferred to a second vehicle. A set of vehicle route data is thereby available to the on-board systems in the second vehicle without a new set of data having to be generated.

The external storage device can remain connected to the data port during normal operation.

If the external storage device is connected, the generated vehicle route data can be output to the external storage device substantially in real-time. Alternatively, the generated route data can be output to the external storage device periodically, for example when a journey is completed.

The apparatus can comprise an internal memory for storing the generated vehicle route data.

The internal memory can be integrated into the apparatus and may, for example, also store operating instructions for the apparatus.

The apparatus can also be operable to access a set of historic vehicle route data stored on an external storage device connected to the data port. The apparatus can, for example, load the historic vehicle route data to internal memory.

The present invention also relates to a combination of the apparatus described herein with an external storage device. The external storage device can be a removable storage device, such as a memory stick or other portable storage device. The external storage device can provide operating instructions to cause the apparatus to operate in accordance with the methods described herein. The operating instructions can, for example, transfer a set of generated vehicle route data onto the removable storage device. The operating instructions can configure the external storage device to operate in conjunction with the data generator, for example to upload and/or download vehicle route data.

The data port can comprise at least one wired connector for establishing a wired connection with the external storage device. For example, the data port can comprise a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector.

A wireless connection can be established between the apparatus and the external memory device. The data port can comprise a wireless transmitter for transmitting the generated vehicle route data wirelessly. The data port can also comprise a wireless receiver for receiving the historic route data wirelessly. It will be appreciated that the data port can comprise a transceiver.

The apparatus can be configured to transmit the generated vehicle route data over a network to the external storage device. The external storage device can be located remotely from the apparatus. For example, the external storage device can be a data centre accessed over a network, such as the internet.

The generated vehicle route data can comprise at least one data set selected from: (i) whether a left or right turn is made; (ii) a distance travelled since the last turn was made; (iii) an average vehicle speed between turns; (iv) an average vehicle speed over a whole journey; (v) a variance of vehicle speed between turns; (vi) a variance of vehicle speed over a whole journey; (vii) a deviation from average vehicle speed between turns; (viii) a deviation from average vehicle speed over a whole journey; (ix) a time of day of each turn; (x) a time of day on which a journey commenced; (xi) a time of day on which a journey ended; (xU) a day of a week on which a journey was undertaken; and (xiii) a torque request and/or torque applied during the journey.

The vehicle route data can be generated by one or more of the following: a satellite global positioning system (GPS); one or more accelerometers; one or more vehicle sensors, for example wheel speed sensors; a torque request signal; and a braking signal.

The apparatus can be configured to generate at least one set of vehicle route data corresponding to one or more journeys travelled by the vehicle.

The apparatus can be configured to require a user input to initiate the transfer of generated vehicle route data to the external storage device. Alternatively, the apparatus can be configured to output the set of generated vehicle route data to the external storage device automatically when the external storage device is connected to the data port.

The external storage device can be configured to store one or more sets of vehicle route data each relating to at least one route. The external storage device can be pre-programmed to copy the set(s) of vehicle route data from the apparatus when connected to the data port. The external storage device can be configured to communicate with the apparatus when connected to the apparatus, for example to provide identification data and/or request a data transfer. The external storage device may also provide instructions to configure the data in an appropriate format for storage.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of managing vehicle route data, the method comprising: generating a set of data relating to a route that a first vehicle is travelling; and outputting the set of generated vehicle route data to an external storage device.

The method can further comprise connecting the external storage device to a second vehicle and transferring the set of generated vehicle route data to the second vehicle. The set of generated vehicle route data can thereby be transferred to the second vehicle. The generated vehicle route data is typically driver-and/or vehicle-specific and can be built up over a period of time with a view to obtaining an overview of the typical journeys completed.

By transferring the data, the on-board systems in the second vehicle can utilise a set of historic data generated by the first vehicle.

The external storage device can be a removable storage device. The method can comprise outputting the generated data via a wired connection.

The method can comprise transmitting the set of generated vehicle route data to the external storage device via a wireless connection. For example, the apparatus may communicate with the external storage device over a network, such as the internet. The external storage device can be remote from the first vehicle.

The set of generated vehicle route data can be transferred to the external storage device automatically when the external storage device is connected.

The method(s) described herein can be implemented on a computational device comprising one or more processors, such as an electronic microprocessor. The processor(s) can be configured to perform computational instructions stored in memory or in a storage device.

The controllers and/or control units described herein can comprise one or more processors configured to perform computational instructions.

The present invention also relates to a computer program for controlling a processor, the computer program being executable to cause the processor to operate in accordance with the method(s) described herein. The processor can be provided in the apparatus in accordance with the present invention.

The present invention has particular application in a motor vehicle.

Within the scope of this application it is envisaged that the various aspects, embodiments, examples, features and alternatives set out in the preceding paragraphs, in the claims and/or in the following description and drawings may be taken independently or in any combination thereof. For example, features described in connection with one embodiment are applicable to all embodiments, unless such features are incompatible.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying figures, in which: FIGURE 1 is a schematic illustration of a hybrid electric vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention; and FIGURE 2 shows an example of route data generated in respect of a journey.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Figure 1 shows a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The vehicle 100 has an internal combustion engine 121 releasably coupled to a crankshaft integrated motor/generator (01MG) 123 by means of a clutch 122.

The 01MG 123 is in turn coupled to an automatic transmission 124. The vehicle 100 is operable to provide drive torque to the transmission 124 by means of the engine 121 alone, the 01MG 123 alone orthe engine 121 and 01MG 123 in parallel.

The vehicle 100 has a battery 150 connected to an inverter 151 that generates a three-phase electrical supply that is supplied to the 01MG 123 when the 01MG 123 is operated as a motor. The battery 150 is arranged to receive charge from the 01MG 123 when the 01MG 123 is operated as a generator.

The vehicle 100 is configured to operate in one of a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) mode, an internal combustion engine mode and a selectable electric vehicle only (EV-only) mode according to the state of a HEV mode selector 169.

In the HEV mode of operation the vehicle 100 is arranged to operate in one of a parallel boost mode, a parallel recharge mode, a parallel idle mode and a vehicle-selected EV mode.

In the parallel boost mode the engine 121 and 01MG 123 both apply positive torque to the transmission 124 (i.e. clutch 122 is closed) to drive the vehicle 100. In the parallel recharge mode the engine 121 applies a positive torque whilst the 01MG 123 applies a negative torque whereby charge is generated by the 01MG 123 to charge the battery 150. In the parallel idle mode the engine 121 applies a positive torque whilst the 01MG 123 applies substantially no torque. In the vehicle-selected EV mode (and in the driver selected EV-only mode) the clutch 122 is opened and the engine 121 is switched off.

The vehicle has a controller 140 configured to control the vehicle 100 to operate in the parallel boost mode, parallel charge mode or EV mode according to an energy management strategy implemented by the controller 140. The energy management strategy may also be referred to as a HEV control methodology.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1 the controller 140 is operable to modify the energy management strategy responsive to data in respect of an expected route of travel of the vehicle 100.

When available, the expected route of travel is determined responsive to an indication received from a driver in respect of the expected destination of the vehicle 100. The indication may be provided by means of a graphical interface 180 by means of which the driver selects the intended destination. The driver may also input a route. In some embodiments the controller 140 (or a separate route calculation apparatus) is arranged to calculate a route once the destination has been selected.

In the absence of an indication of vehicle destination the controller 140 is arranged to predict the route that the vehicle 100 is travelling once the driver commences the journey, i.e. once the vehicle 100 is moving and to control operation of the vehicle 100 responsive to the predicted route.

If data in respect of a location of the vehicle 100 is available to the controller 140 (such as that provided by a satellite global positioning system (GPS) apparatus), the controller 140 tracks the actual route of travel of the vehicle 100 and compares the route with data stored in memory in respect of previous journeys travelled by the vehicle 100. The controller 140 is configured to determine whether the current journey corresponds to a journey the vehicle has previously made. If the controller 140 determines that the current route does correspond to a previous route, the controller 140 applies a predictive optimisation methodology in respect of the route in order to determine an optimum mode of operation of the vehicle 100 along the route as described in more detail below.

In the absence of data in respect of vehicle location, the controller 140 predicts the route by comparing data in respect of a direction of turns (left or right) performed by the vehicle 100 and the distance travelled between turns as the journey progresses with corresponding stored data in respect of previous journeys made by the vehicle 100. The controller 140 applies a pattern recognition methodology to determine whether the route currently being travelled by the vehicle 100 corresponds to a journey previously made by the vehicle 100.

That is, the controller 140 determines whether the journey currently being made by the vehicle 100 may be the same as ajourney previously made by the vehicle 100.

The controller 140 characterises a route of travel of a vehicle in segments', each segment being a portion of the route between detected turns.

In some embodiments, if the vehicle determines that an average speed of the vehicle is different along two or more different respective portions of a route between turns, the controller 140 is configured to store the journey in a form in which the two or more different portions of the route correspond to different respective segments.

If the controller 140 is able to identify a route of a previous journey as one which may be the same as that which the vehicle 100 is currently following, as noted above the controller 140 is arranged to determine which hybrid mode should be assumed by the vehicle 100 along each remaining segment of the journey by means of a predictive optimisation methodology in order to optimise vehicle operation. The controller 140 is operable subsequently to control the vehicle 100 to assume the determined mode as the journey progresses.

It is to be understood that the energy management strategy is arranged to control the vehicle so as to achieve a suitable balance between one or more vehicle drivability parameters, such as noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) and one or more vehicle performance parameters such as a rate of emission of a gas by the vehicle 100, a rate of consumption of fuel or any other suitable performance parameter. The strategy is also arranged to take into account preferred (or legislated) modes of operation of the vehicle in respect of particular segments of a route. Thus the strategy may control the vehicle 100 to assume the EV mode when operating in an urban area where possible, or on a road where the average speed is below a prescribed value. Where vehicle location data is available the controller 140 may be arranged to control the vehicle 100 to assume EV mode whenever operating on a road for which EV mode is required by law, or at a time when EV mode is required on a particular road.

If the controller 140 determines that there are a plurality of different journeys stored in the controller database that may correspond to the current journey, the controller 140 is configured to compare data in respect of the current time and day of the week with corresponding data in respect of the plurality of previous journeys. If a time and/or day of the week of a previous journey is found to correspond to that of the current journey the controller is configured to select the journey corresponding most closely in time and day of the week.

Other arrangements are also useful. In some embodiments, in the event that a plurality of different previous journeys may correspond to the current journey and one of the journeys has been travelled more than once, the controller 140 is configured to select the journey that has been travelled the most. In the event this method is still unable to select a single journey route, then the time of day and day of the week on which the two or more most likely previous journeys were made may be compared with that of the current journey. If one of the previous journeys was made on the same day of the week it may be selected as the most likely journey.

According to the present embodiment, the controller 140 is arranged to determine a route that the vehicle 100 is following on a given journey and subsequently to determine in which hybrid mode the vehicle 100 should be operated over a given segment of the route. The determination in which mode the vehicle 100 should be operated is made responsive to data in respect of (i) whether or not the given portion is a built-up area; (ii) a road type over the given portion; (iii) an expected average vehicle speed over the given portion; and (iv) a length of the given portion.

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of example data stored in memory of the apparatus in respect of a route the vehicle is to follow. The route has been broken down into a number of segments, each segment being identified by a unique segment number (1, 2, 3, etc). A parameter Built up is set to 1 if the area through which the segment passes is a built-up area and set to zero if it is not. The parameter Road Type is given a value corresponding to a type of the road (FC1, FC2, FC3, etc). A parameter Avg_Spd provides an indication of an expected average speed of the vehicle 100 over the segment and a parameter Length provides an indication of the length of the segment. In some embodiments the parameter Avg Spd is given a value corresponding to the expected average speed of the vehicle 100 at the time at which the vehicle is expected to travel the particular segment. Thus data in respect of average speed over a given segment is stored together with a time and in some embodiments a date on which the segment was previously driven.

The value of parameters Built up and Road Type for a given segment are determined based on a value of the variance of vehicle speed over the segment and a value of the parameter Avg Spd for that segment. Variance of average speed may also be measured and stored.

S

For each new journey made by the vehicle 100, the controller 140 is configured to determine the destination of the vehicle 100 after the journey has commenced by comparing data in respect of a route the vehicle 100 is taking with stored data in respect of routes the vehicle may follow. In the present embodiment the stored data corresponds to a description of journeys made previously by the vehicle 100. In some embodiments the stored data may in addition or instead correspond to one or more destinations previously indicated by a user or preset by a third party to be destinations the vehicle 100 may be driven to even if the vehicle has not actually made a journey to that destination yet.

The controller 140 is configured to generate data in respect of a route the vehicle 100 is following by reference to data in respect of steering wheel angle or steerable road wheel angle and a differential wheel speed. By differential wheel speed is meant a difference between a speed of an inner wheel and a speed of an outer wheel of the vehicle 100 such as a difference in speed between a left wheel and a right wheel of the vehicle. The controller 140 is configured to detect when the vehicle 100 makes a turn responsive to this data and to determine that a new segment has begun if a turn is detected. The controller 140 stores in a database data in respect of (i) whether the last turn was a left or right turn; (ii) distance between the last turn and the next turn; (iii) average vehicle speed between the turns; (iv) variance of vehicle speed between the turns; (v) deviation from average vehicle speed between the turns; (vi) time of day; and (vii) day of the week.

When the vehicle 100 is next powered down (key off'), a dataset in respect of the journey is stored in memory (such as a flash memory) of the controller 140. When the vehicle 100 is next powered up (key on') the dataset in respect of that (immediately preceding) journey is stored in a historical database of the controller 140. The dataset is either stored in a form indicating the dataset corresponds to a completed journey, or in a form indicating the dataset corresponds to a journey in respect of which the next journey is a continuation. In the latter case an identifier is stored in the database at the end of a given dataset to indicate that subsequent data corresponds to continuation data.

In some embodiments, if the battery 150 is recharged whilst the vehicle 100 is powered down by more than a prescribed amount of charge, or if the period of time for which the vehicle 100 is powered down exceeds a prescribed period, the controller 140 is configured to store data in respect of the route travelled before power down and data in respect of the route travelled after power down as separate journey datasets. That is, the controller 140 does not store the data in the form of a single journey dataset. Other arrangements are also useful in some embodiments.

When storing data in respect of a new journey, for which the controller 140 has determined that a subsequent journey is not a continuation of the previous journey, in some embodiments the vehicle is arranged not to store turn by turn data in respect of the last 1km of the journey. This portion of the journey may be referred to as an end of journey dead band'. In some embodiments the controller 140 stores an average speed of the vehicle over this portion but not turn by turn data.

During the course of a new journey, in addition to storing data in respect of the journey as described above, the vehicle 100 compares repeatedly data recorded in respect of the current journey with data stored in the database in respect of previous journeys. As noted above a pattern recognition methodology is employed to identify any similar previous journeys for which the controller 140 can access data.

The controller 140 performs the comparison over an initial start of journey dead band' being the first 1km of the new journey.

Turn information is compared with the corresponding start of journey dead band of each of the journeys stored by the controller 140 in respect of previous journeys made by the vehicle 100 or for which the controller 140 has journey data. If a matching journey is found, the controller 140 determines that the current journey corresponds to the matching journey stored in the database. As noted above, if the controller 140 determines that the journey may correspond to two or more different journeys for which data is stored, the controller 140 may perform a comparison in respect of the time of day and/or day of the week of the current and previous journeys to determine which of the previous journeys most likely corresponds to the current journey.

If the vehicle subsequently repeats a journey, the controller 140 compares turn by turn data in respect of the new journey from start to finish with stored data, and determines that over the start of journey dead band the journeys are substantially identical and therefore determines that the vehicle 100 is likely travelling the same route. The controller 140 is therefore able to determine an optimum control strategy in respect of selection of a hybrid mode in which the vehicle 100 is to be operated over a remainder of the journey.

In some embodiments the controller 140, may also be operable to compare data in respect of a new journey over the course of a start of journey dead band of the new journey with data in respect of a portion of an end of a journey stored in a database thereby to detect that a new journey corresponds to the reverse of a previous journey such as the immediately previous journey.

In some embodiments the controller 140 is operable to determine whether the battery 150 of the vehicle 100 will be recharged at the destination by means of a recharging facility. The controller 140 controls the vehicle to arrive at the destination with a battery SoC of a prescribed value responsive to this determination._The controller 140 is configured to store data in respect of the locations where the vehicle 100 is recharged.

The controller 140 outputs the dataset to a removable storage device 160. The dataset is typically output to the removable storage device 160 at least substantially in real time. In the present embodiment the removable storage device 160 is a Universal Serial Bus (USB) memory stick. The removable storage device 160 is connected to the controller 140 via a data port (not shown) and the stored dataset is transferred to the removable storage device 160. In the present embodiment, the data port establishes a wired connection, for example via a USB port, between the controller 140 and the removable storage device 160.

The controller 140 is configured to copy the dataset to the removable storage device 160 when the connection is established. Thus, the driver can connect the removable storage device 160 to the controller 140 to collect one or more historical datasets relating to journeys completed by the vehicle. The removable storage device 160 can provide a back-up of the dataset and/or can be employed as a storage means for transferring the dataset. If, for example, a driver starts to drive a second vehicle, the stored dataset can be accessed from the removable storage device 160 by the second vehicle for access by a controller 140. The on-board navigation system in the second vehicle can then access the stored dataset to improve or optimise vehicle performance based on the stored historical dataset without the need to establish a new dataset. Equally, the dataset could be transferred to a personal computer or other computational device for analysis and/or customisation.

The removable storage device 160 can be configured to provide additional functionality. For example, the removable storage device 160 could also store compressed music or video data to be played over the vehicle's entertainment system. The removable storage device could be configured to continue to play music while a dataset is transferred to or from the controller 140. If appropriate, the electrical architecture of the vehicle can be configured to provide gateways to enable the historical journey dataset to be stored/recovered for processing by the controller 140.

In an alternative embodiment, rather than provide a dedicated removable storage device 160, the controller 140 can be configured to road and write journey data to and from a consumer electronics device, such as a cellular telephone, a laptop, a tablet computer, or a personal music player (for example an MP3 player). A computer program could be provided (for example stored on a physical medium such as an optical or magnetic disk or downloaded from a network) to configure the consumer electronics device to allocate data storage and/or communicate with the controller 140. Thus, the present invention could be implemented on a consumer electronics device.

The present embodiment has been described with reference to establishing a wired connection between the controller 140 and the removable storage device 160. In alternate embodiments, the controller 140 can be connected to a wireless transceiver for the wireless transferral of data between the controller 140 and the external data storage device 160. The controller 140 could, for example, connect to a wireless local area network, or establish a Bluetooth® wireless connection with an enabled device. Alternatively, the controller 140 could connect directly to a cellular network. The dataset could be transmitted to a remote storage device, such as a data centre (so-called Cloud computing). In such an arrangement, the dataset would be stored remotely from the vehicle and accessed over a network, such as the internet.

In some embodiments where GPS navigation data is available the controller 140 may be configured to store location data in respect of each turn made by the vehicle 100. This location data may be employed to improve a speed and/or accuracy of route predication since the controller 140 is able more reliably to determine whether a new journey corresponds to a previous journey. The controller 140 may therefore employ stored data in respect of average speed along a given route segment with stored speed data to determine an optimum hybrid mode for each remaining segment of the journey.

Throughout the description and claims of this specification, the words "comprise" and "contain" and variations of the words, for example "comprising" and "comprises", means "including but not limited to", and is not intended to (and does not) exclude other moieties, additives, components, integers or steps.

Throughout the description and claims of this specification, the singular encompasses the plural unless the context otherwise requires. In particular, where the indefinite article is used, the specification is to be understood as contemplating plurality as well as singularity, unless the context requires otherwise.

Features, integers, characteristics, compounds, chemical moieties or groups described in conjunction with a particular aspect, embodiment or example of the invention are to be understood to be applicable to any other aspect, embodiment or example described herein unless incompatible therewith.

Claims (1)

1. <claim-text>CLAIMS: 1. An apparatus configured to manage vehicle route data, the apparatus comprising: a data generator for generating a set of vehicle route data relating to a route that a vehicle is travelling; and a data port for connection to an external storage device; wherein the apparatus is operable to output the set of generated vehicle route data to an external storage device connected to the data port.</claim-text> <claim-text>2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the apparatus is also operable to access a set of historic vehicle route data stored on an external storage device connected to the data port.</claim-text> <claim-text>3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the data port comprises at least one wired connector for establishing a wired connection with the external storage device.</claim-text> <claim-text>4. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1, 2 or 3 in combination with an external storage device, wherein the external storage device provides operating instructions for controlling the output of the set of generated vehicle route data to the external storage device.</claim-text> <claim-text>5. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the data port comprises a wireless transmitter and/or a wireless receiver for establishing a wireless connection with the external storage device.</claim-text> <claim-text>6. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the apparatus is configured to transmit the generated vehicle route data over a network to the external storage device.</claim-text> <claim-text>7. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the generated vehicle route data comprises at least one data set selected from: (i) whether a left or right turn is made; (ii) a distance travelled since the last turn was made; (hi) an average vehicle speed between turns; (iv) an average vehicle speed over a whole journey; (v) a variance of vehicle speed between turns; (vi) a variance of vehicle speed over a whole journey; (vii) a deviation from average vehicle speed between turns; (viii) a deviation from average vehicle speed over a whole journey; (ix) a time of day of each turn; (x) a time of day on which a journey commenced; (xi) a time of day on which a journey ended; (xii) a day of a week on which a journey was undertaken; and (xUi) a torque request and/or torque applied during the journey.</claim-text> <claim-text>8. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims further configured to generate one or more sets of vehicle route data corresponding to one or more journeys travelled by the vehicle.</claim-text> <claim-text>9. An apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims further configured automatically to output the set of generated vehicle route data when the external storage device is connected to the data port.</claim-text> <claim-text>10. An external storage device for connection to an apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the external storage device is configured to store one or more sets of vehicle route data relating to at least one route, wherein the external storage device is preconfigured to transfer said one or more sets of vehicle route data when the external storage device is connected to the data port.</claim-text> <claim-text>11. A method of managing vehicle route data, the method comprising: generating a set of data relating to a route that a first vehicle is travelling; and outputting the set of generated vehicle route data to an external storage device.</claim-text> <claim-text>12. A method as claimed in claim 11 further comprising connecting the external storage device to a second vehicle and transferring the set of generated vehicle route data to the second vehicle.</claim-text> <claim-text>13. A method as claimed in claim 11 or claim 12, wherein the set of generated vehicle route data is transmitted to the external storage device via a wired connection; or via a wireless connection.</claim-text> <claim-text>14. A method as claimed in any one of claims 11, 12 or 13, wherein the set of generated vehicle route data is transferred to the external storage device automatically when the external storage device is connected.</claim-text> <claim-text>15. An apparatus, a method or a vehicle constructed and/or arranged substantially as described herein with reference to one or more of the accompanying drawings</claim-text>