Vehicle monitoring system

DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle monitoring system by which the user to know the condition of the vehicle even when the user is far from the vehicle.
In the first aspect of the present invention, the vehicle monitoring system comprises: an on-vehicle unit (4) provided in a vehicle (1); and a data server (2) for communicating with the on-vehicle unit.
The on-vehicle unit comprises: a vehicle condition monitor (7) for monitoring a condition of the vehicle and outputting vehicle condition data; and an on-vehicle communicator (8) for sending the vehicle condition data output from the vehicle condition monitor, to the data server.
The data server comprises: a server communicator (10) for receiving the vehicle condition data sent from the on-vehicle communicator; a storage section (11) for storing the vehicle condition data received by the server communicator; and an abnormality determining section (12) for determining whether an abnormality has occurred in the vehicle based on the vehicle condition data stored in the storage section, and for outputting an abnormality informing signal when the abnormality has occurred in the vehicle.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the user is far from the vehicle, the user can check the conditions of the vehicle, and can know the abnormality which has occurred in the vehicle.
The vehicle condition data includes image data, data indicating the position of the vehicle, or the like.
The vehicle condition data is transmitted from the on-vehicle communicator of the on-vehicle unit to the server communicator of the data server.
The transmission is provided by a telephone line for example.
Specifically, the vehicle condition data is transmitted from the on-vehicle communicator (for example, an on-vehicle phone) through a base station near the vehicle by radio.
The base station sends the data through the telephone line to the server communicator of the data server.
The data communicator of the data server sends the vehicle condition data to the storage section, and the storage section stores the vehicle condition data in the storage section