JP2005071152A - E-mail distribution system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To inform a user of a nearby shop quickly when the user has relocated or the like. <P>SOLUTION: Each shop is provided with a terminal device for e-mail distribution, a user's automobile is provided with an on-vehicle terminal, and the transfer of information including notice e-mails is enabled via an information center between the two parties. The on-vehicle terminal regularly transmits current position information to an information processor at the information center (P2). Once a specified amount of position information has been obtained, the information processor decides an area of high probability of existence, decides an appropriate shop within the area, and transmits change recommendation e-mails to the on-vehicle terminals (Q1 to Q3). When a user desires, registration data are moved by transmitting e-mails of change request to the shop, and change registration is completed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a mail distribution system capable of distributing mail from a terminal device managed by a vehicle dealer to an in-vehicle terminal device of a registered user via a network.

Recently, a terminal device equipped with a communication function is mounted on an automobile, and a configuration in which information can be exchanged with the outside is becoming widespread. For example, in the communication function, there are a function for collecting automatic tolls on toll roads, a function for obtaining various information by connecting to the Internet, and a function for exchanging mail.
Such functions can be used by car dealers to directly send e-mails to in-vehicle devices with communication functions installed in automobiles in order to provide various guidance services to users who have purchased automobiles. This is the basis for providing finely tuned services (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

In view of this, it is considered that the dealers aim to improve the service by automatically delivering a guide mail for maintenance or the like after a certain period of time has passed for each user who has purchased a car.
In this case, at the store, the mail delivery service is set by operating the terminal device. When the person in charge starts the service program, the terminal device first stores data for confirming the date of delivery or the time when maintenance is required for the user who purchased the car or newly registered as a customer of the store. Display a list.

  When a target user is selected from the list, the terminal device displays a screen for setting a distribution condition of guidance mail for the user. This is for setting the distribution conditions for maintenance guidance emails for each user. For example, a questionnaire survey is performed at the time of registration in advance, and the desired conditions are specified. Unless otherwise specified, a predetermined condition is specified.

  Here, for example, conditions such as “one month after delivery” and “one month before vehicle inspection” can be set. Either one can be set, or both can be set. As a result, the terminal device determines that the delivery condition has been met if one month has elapsed from the date of delivery or one month before the registered vehicle inspection scheduled month. Automatically deliver a guide email that prompts you to apply.

The user can recognize that it is time for maintenance by opening and reading the guide mail distributed to the in-vehicle terminal. For example, the user can easily complete the procedure by requesting maintenance from the purchased store. Will be able to.
JP 2003-8655 A

  By the way, as described above, when the user registered at the nearest or the vehicle dealer who purchased the vehicle moves when the user moves, etc., it is inconvenient to perform maintenance at the registered vehicle dealer Comes out. For this reason, it is generally necessary to change the vehicle dealer from which the user requested the maintenance to the vehicle dealer to another vehicle dealer nearest or desired.

  However, it may be inconvenient at the time of maintenance because it is troublesome to find a new destination or move to a new vehicle dealer, and it may be inconvenient for maintenance. In some cases, the store may be used or switched to a completely different maintenance-supported store of a different line that happens to be found at the new location. Such a thing is unwilling to the dealer or manufacturer that sold the vehicle, so I would like the vehicle dealer to change it as much as possible.

  In addition, the information registered in the vehicle dealer before the change can be transferred to the changed vehicle dealer and can be used as it is. Since the store can continuously provide a service based on the transferred registration information, it can provide a detailed service that can satisfy the user.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances. The purpose of the present invention is to find out where the most suitable vehicle dealer is when a user moves to register a vehicle dealer who wants to contact for maintenance or the like. It is an object of the present invention to provide an e-mail distribution system that can accurately obtain information such as whether or not there is, reduce the number of procedures to a vehicle dealer as much as possible, and receive a detailed service.

  According to invention of Claim 1, it is a system which delivers mail to the vehicle-mounted terminal device of a registered user from the terminal device which a vehicle dealer manages via the information center connected to a network, The user who uses this system When the registered vehicle dealer becomes inconvenient to use for moving, the information center can automatically recommend the optimum vehicle dealer.

  For this reason, the information center stores the current position information transmitted from the in-vehicle terminal device, the process of estimating the range having a high existence probability based on the collected current position information of the vehicle, and the position information in advance. The process of determining a vehicle dealer that exists in or near the range with a high probability of existence estimated in the above process, and the determined vehicle dealer as the recommended vehicle dealer By executing the process of transmitting guidance information to the in-vehicle terminal device to the user, it becomes possible to automatically introduce the optimal vehicle dealer to the user, and the user does not have to search for himself / herself. It is possible to know the optimal vehicle dealer, and the vehicle dealer also introduces an appropriate vehicle dealer to prevent the user from leaving. It is possible, it becomes possible to apply a high utility value system.

  According to the invention of claim 2, in the above invention, the in-vehicle terminal device has a function of inputting the current position information from the means for acquiring the current position information provided in the vehicle and transmitting it to the information center. Therefore, the current position information of the own vehicle can be automatically transmitted to the information center side, and this makes it possible to know the optimum vehicle dealer without having to go through troublesome procedures such as operating the vehicle. .

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the above configuration, a setting switch for requesting the on-vehicle terminal device to determine the appropriate vehicle dealer is provided, and the current position information is acquired from the means for acquiring the current position information according to the operation of the setting switch. Since it has a function to input location information and send current location information to the information center at a relatively short time interval, the amount of data required to make a vehicle store recommendation determination by the information center is reduced for a short period of time. Thus, it becomes possible to quickly know the vehicle dealer to which the user has moved or moved.

Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a mail distribution system of a car dealer will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 schematically shows the overall configuration of a mail distribution system. A plurality of terminal devices 2a and 2b are provided at automobile sales stores 1a and 1b, which are vehicle sales stores. It also functions as a terminal device that distributes. Here, for the sake of convenience, the description will be made with two dealers 1a and 1b, but it is of course applicable to a system including three or more dealers.

The terminal devices 2 a and 2 b can be connected to the information center 4 via the network 3. The information center 4 wirelessly communicates with an in-vehicle terminal 6 as an in-vehicle terminal device mounted on each automobile 5, and performs an after-mentioned process and mediates connection to the Internet by the information processing apparatus 4 a. It is configured to send and receive mail.
Each of the terminal devices 2a and 2b of the above-mentioned dealers 1a and 1b is a terminal device that distributes mail according to the present invention, and is configured to execute a guidance mail distribution program to be described later. Further, the execution target of the program is an automobile 5 equipped with an in-vehicle terminal 6, and the in-vehicle terminal 6 performs a user registration process with respect to the terminal devices 2 a and 2 b of the purchased stores 1 a and 1 b. It is necessary to have done.

  The in-vehicle terminal 6 has an electrical configuration as shown in FIG. A control circuit 7 composed of a CPU, ROM, RAM, and the like performs various communication controls such as mail transmission / reception, connection to the Internet, and communication processing with a road device described later. The control circuit 7 is connected to a communication device 8, a GPS receiver 9, and a display device 10, and is connected to an ECU 11 and other devices 12 disposed in the vehicle via an interface (I / F) 13. Has been.

  The communication device 8 performs communication with the information center 4 described above via an antenna 8a. The GPS receiver 9 receives a GPS signal by the GPS antenna 9a, generates current position information, and outputs it to the control circuit 7. The display 10 is composed of a liquid crystal panel or the like, and a touch panel 10a for performing operation input while touching the display screen is integrally provided on the front surface portion.

  As will be described later, the touch panel 10a is configured to display a switch capable of setting the “moving mode” as a software switch. When the user performs a setting operation, the information center of the current position information is displayed. A function to increase the frequency of transmission to the network is executed. The moving mode setting switch is not limited to a software setting, and a switch as hardware may be directly provided.

In addition, the control circuit 7 can obtain, for example, data related to a travel distance, travel state, and other information as various information from the ECU 11 and other devices 12 in the vehicle via the I / F 13. In this embodiment, the current position information is set to be periodically sent to the information center 4 side.
In the above configuration, the in-vehicle terminal 6 can communicate with the terminal devices 2a and 2b of the store 1a and 1b via the information center 4 and receives a guide mail distributed from the terminal devices 2a and 2b side. It is configured to be able to.

Next, with reference to FIG. 3 to FIG. 5, the following description will be focused on the user registration process and the process when the user changes to the nearest store by moving or the like. First, with reference to FIG. 3, a flow of processing in which a user performs user registration in the store 1a will be schematically described.
The in-vehicle terminal 6 that receives the guidance mail needs to perform this registration process in advance. This registration process can be performed at the store 1a at the time of purchase of the vehicle, but can also be performed by the user performing an operation for registration after purchase. Here, a case where the user performs the registration process himself will be described.

First, the in-vehicle terminal 6 is activated, the touch panel 10a is operated to select a registration processing program, various application data input processes are performed, and the like are transmitted to the terminal device 2a of the store 1a through the information center 4 ( Step S1). At this time, a form is set in which the user's wish can be entered for the mail delivery conditions and the like.
Here, for example, for the guide mail distributed from the store 1a, the user can select and specify the importance level and the desired type, or if necessary, input this if necessary. Can be done. Further, unless otherwise specified, automatic distribution is performed under distribution conditions set in advance as standard on the store 1a side.

The terminal device 2a (mail delivery terminal) of the store 1a performs a registration process in response to an application for user registration from the in-vehicle terminal 6 of the user (step S2). Thereby, it is registered in the mail delivery user list on the display screen of the terminal device 2a.
Next, the terminal device 2a performs mail delivery condition setting processing (step S3). Here, in the terminal device 2, for example, a distribution condition setting screen as shown in the display example on the right side of FIG. 5A is displayed. If there is a condition specified at the time of registration application, follow that condition. If there are no specified conditions, general delivery conditions set in advance are set. The setting method can be easily performed by checking the ones to be specified from the specified conditions displayed on the screen.

Thereafter, the terminal device 2a creates a mail to the effect that the user registration process has been completed, and transmits it to the user's in-vehicle terminal 6 for notification (step S4). The user's in-vehicle terminal 6 can confirm that the user registration is completed by receiving this mail (step S5).
In this embodiment, the automatically-delivered guidance e-mail guides the maintenance time for the sold vehicle, such as a notification that the half-year inspection time has come, an oil change time notification, etc. It is. And since such a guide mail naturally has different importance depending on its contents, it is possible to set delivery conditions according to the degree.

  For example, in the notification of the oil change time, etc., the user can be made aware of the importance by re-notifying the number of mileage from the time of the first delivery to a small number. In addition, since the half-year inspection is voluntary by the user, it is possible to prevent the user from becoming bothered by re-notifying the user for a longer distance from the first distribution.

  When the registration process is performed as described above, thereafter, a guide mail for maintenance or the like is automatically distributed by the terminal device 2a of the store 1a. This is because the terminal device 2a executes an automatic distribution program at an appropriate timing, determines whether or not the distribution conditions set as described above are matched, and if they match, a preset maintenance is performed. Is transmitted to the in-vehicle terminal 6 on the registered user side.

  Further, the terminal device 2a can recognize whether or not the user has opened the distributed guide mail through a server provided in the information center 4. When the user opens the guide mail, The program is terminated because it has achieved the purpose of having the user read it, but if it is unopened, it is also possible to deliver a re-notification guide email by an artificial or automatic method. ing.

  Next, processing when the user who has registered as a user in the store 1a wants to change to the nearest store with moving or the like will be described. In this explanation, the case of making a change with the user being registered first is taken as an example, but the case where the user is not registered in advance and is newly registered is also applicable. It is something that can be done.

  FIG. 4 is a chart showing a series of processes in which the information terminal device 4a of the information center 4 determines the optimum store 1 and makes recommended guidance, and will be described below with reference to this. As described above, when the user registers with the terminal device 2a of the store 1a using the in-vehicle terminal device 6 (steps P1 and R1), the terminal device 2a that performs automatic mail distribution has an automatic distribution condition. Whether or not they match is checked at an appropriate timing, and a guide mail is distributed at a step (not shown).

In this way, the user has registered as a user in the store 1a. However, when the geographical condition becomes more convenient for the other store 1b in the new location than the store 1a due to a subsequent move or the like. The relocation process to the store 1b is performed as follows.
First, when the user operates the moving button of the touch panel 10a to set the “moving mode” for the support store change input by the in-vehicle terminal device 6, the in-vehicle terminal device 6 receives the input information ( In step P2), the transmission frequency of the current position information to the information center 4 is transmitted at an interval shorter than the normal transmission time interval (step P2). Note that, as described above, even when the moving button is not operated, the current position information is periodically transmitted, and the optimum store 1 determination process described later is performed.

  When the current position information is transmitted from the user in this way, the information processing apparatus 4a of the information center 4 registers the received data in the database as a history of the user's car (FIG. 5). Current position data is displayed with stars). Then, when the number of registered location information data reaches a certain amount, the information processing device 4a executes a compatible store determination process (step Q1).

In this compatible store determination process, the information processing device 4a obtains a range where a predetermined percentage (XX%) of the registered location information history exists as a dense area (in FIG. 5, a broken circle). It is determined that there is a store 1b, for example, within this range. Here, it is determined that the dealer 1b is suitable among the registered dealers 1b and 1c.
Next, the information processing apparatus 4a determines the recommended change based on the fact that the determined store 1b is different from the store 1a that the user has registered so far, so that it is more convenient to change it. (Step Q2), and sends a store change recommendation mail to the in-vehicle terminal device 6 of the user (Step Q3).

  On the user side, if the user wishes to make a change based on the recommendation mail transmitted to the in-vehicle terminal device 6, when the input is made, the in-vehicle terminal device 6 sends a change request email to the store 1 a and 1b is processed so that it is transmitted to both of them (step P4 is executed after “YES” in step P3). If the user does not want to change the change recommendation, the process ends as it is (determined as “NO” in step P3).

  When the change request e-mail is transmitted in this way, the change registration process is performed when the change is accepted in both the stores 1a and 1b (step R2), and the change is made from the store 1a before the change. The registration data is transferred to the subsequent store 1b and a new registration process is performed. As a result, the change setting process is automatically performed without the user newly performing a registration procedure, and thereafter, a guide mail regarding maintenance etc. is automatically distributed from the store 1b. Become.

  In the above-mentioned case, when the moving switch is operated and the moving mode is set, the execution timing of the suitable dealer determination process (step Q1) by the information processing apparatus 4a of the information center 4 is performed in a short period. Therefore, after the user moves, it is possible to promptly determine an appropriate store and provide information. Even when the moving mode is not set, the information processing device 4a automatically performs the determination process when a longer period of time has elapsed, so that it is possible to receive a recommendation email for changing the store. It is.

  According to this embodiment, when the user wants to change the registered store 1a to the nearest store 1b for reasons such as moving, the current position information is automatically obtained by the information processing device 4a of the information center 4. It is possible to determine the dealer 1b existing in the area having a high probability of existence and notify the user of the result, so that the user is automatically introduced to the nearest dealer 1b. It is possible to easily and quickly process change registration by receiving the information, and for the dealers 1a and 12b, the dealer 1 can smoothly perform the movement process and move the registration data to cooperate with each other without imposing a burden on the user. The movement process can be performed between the two.

1 is an overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. Electrical configuration diagram of in-vehicle terminal Chart showing the flow of registration process Chart showing the flow of processing for determining the appropriate dealer Explanatory diagram when determining a compatible store from current location information

Explanation of symbols

1a and 1b are dealers (vehicle dealers), 2a and 2b are terminal devices, 3 is a network, 4 is an information center, 4a is an information processing device, 5 is a vehicle, 6 is an in-vehicle terminal device, 7 is a control circuit, 8 Is a communication device, 9 is a GPS receiver, and 10 is a display.

Claims (3)

In a mail distribution system capable of distributing mail from a terminal device managed by a vehicle dealer to an in-vehicle terminal device of a registered user via an information center connected to a network,
The information center
Collecting current location information transmitted from the in-vehicle terminal device;
A process of estimating a range having a high probability of existence based on the collected current position information of the vehicle,
Among vehicle dealers stored together with position information in advance, a process of determining a vehicle dealer that exists in the vicinity of the high probability of existence estimated in the above process or in the vicinity thereof,
A mail delivery system comprising a step of transmitting guidance information to an in-vehicle terminal device to a user of the vehicle with the determined vehicle dealer as a recommended vehicle dealer. In the mail delivery system according to claim 1,
The in-vehicle terminal device has a function of inputting current position information from a means for acquiring current position information provided in a vehicle and transmitting the current position information to the information center. In the mail delivery system according to claim 2,
The in-vehicle terminal device is
It has a setting switch for requesting the determination of an appropriate vehicle dealer,
When this setting switch is operated, it has a function of inputting the current position information from the means for acquiring the current position information and transmitting the current position information to the information center at a relatively short time interval. Mail delivery system.

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