“Driver Classification Systems And Methods For Obtaining An Insurance Rate For A Vehicle” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20230061846): Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc.

2023 MAR 21 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent application by the inventors Gupta, Rohit (Santa Clara, CA, US); Han, Kyungtae (Palo Alto, CA, US); Tiwari, Prashant (Santa Clara, CA, US); Wang, Ziran (San Jose, CA, US), filed on August 24, 2021, was made available online on March 2, 2023, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents.

This patent application is assigned to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. (Plano, Texas, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Insurance providers calculate insurance rates for drivers of vehicles based on a number of parameters and characteristics. For example, insurance providers typically take into consideration data specific to the driver of the vehicle such as, for example, age, gender, ethnicity, and the like, as well as a driving history of the driver. However, user privacy is a big concern, especially given the recent increase in the number of data breaches in companies that collect this type of information. Therefore, it is desired to obtain an insurance rate without providing this type of personal user-specific information. Rather, it is desired to obtain an insurance rate based solely on a categorized driver classification of a driver of a vehicle.

“Accordingly, a need exists for improved systems and methods for obtaining an insurance rate for a vehicle that without providing user date for a driver of the vehicle.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “In one embodiment, a method includes: collecting first vehicle driving data from a first vehicle; processing the first vehicle driving data using a driver classification learning model including a machine learning algorithm at one of an edge server and the first vehicle to assign a driver classification to the first vehicle; updating the driver classification learning model based on additional driver classification learning models received from a plurality of additional vehicles; sending the driver classification to an insurance provider; receiving an insurance rate for the first vehicle from the insurance provider based on the driver classification of the first vehicle; and providing the insurance rate to the first vehicle.

“In another embodiment, a driver classification system includes: a controller configured to: collect first vehicle driving data from a first vehicle; process the first vehicle driving data using a driver classification learning model including a machine learning algorithm to assign a driver classification to the first vehicle; receive additional driver classification learning models from a plurality of additional vehicles; update the driver classification learning model of the first vehicle based on the additional driver classification learning models received from the plurality of additional vehicles; receive an insurance rate for the first vehicle from an insurance provider based on the driver classification of the first vehicle; and provide the insurance rate and the updated driver classification learning model to the first vehicle.

“These and additional features provided by the embodiments described herein will be more fully understood in view of the following detailed description, in conjunction with the drawings.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: collecting first vehicle driving data from a first vehicle; processing the first vehicle driving data using a driver classification learning model including a machine learning algorithm at the first vehicle to assign a driver classification to the first vehicle; updating the driver classification learning model based on additional driver classification learning models received from a plurality of additional vehicles to create an optimized driver classification learning model by calculating a weighted average of the additional driver classification learning models; sending the driver classification to an insurance provider; receiving an insurance rate for the first vehicle from the insurance provider based on the driver classification of the first vehicle; and providing the insurance rate to the first vehicle.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the driver classification is selected from one of an expert classification, a competent classification, and a reckless classification.

“3. The method of claim 2, wherein the driver classification of the first vehicle is subject to change over time based on supplemental first vehicle driving data being collected from the first vehicle and sent to the insurance provider.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein: the insurance rate associated with the first vehicle is increased in response to determining that the driver classification changes from one of the expert classification and the competent classification to one of the competent classification and the reckless classification; and the insurance rate associated with the first vehicle is decreased in response to determining that the driver classification changes from one of the reckless classification and the competent classification to one of the competent classification and the reckless classification.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first vehicle driving data includes one or more of a frequency of a speed in excess of a speed threshold, a frequency of braking in excess of a deceleration threshold, a frequency of detected accidents, and a frequency of lane changes.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a request that user data of a driver of the first vehicle be collected, the user data including one or more of a gender of the driver, an age of the driver, and an ethnicity of the driver.

“7. The method of claim 6, wherein the insurance rate is decreased in response to identifying that the first vehicle approves the request to permit user data of the driver of the first vehicle to be collected.

“8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining the driver classification at the first vehicle; sending the driver classification and the driver classification learning model from the first vehicle to an edge server; and receiving, at the edge server, the additional driver classification learning models from the plurality of additional vehicles.

“9-10. (canceled)

“11. A driver classification system comprising: a controller configured to: collect first vehicle driving data from a first vehicle; process the first vehicle driving data at the first vehicle using a driver classification learning model including a machine learning algorithm to assign a driver classification to the first vehicle; receive additional driver classification learning models from a plurality of additional vehicles; update the driver classification learning model of the first vehicle based on the additional driver classification learning models received from the plurality of additional vehicles to create an optimized driver classification learning model by calculating a weighted average of the additional driver classification learning models; receive an insurance rate for the first vehicle from an insurance provider based on the driver classification of the first vehicle; and provide the insurance rate and the updated driver classification learning model to the first vehicle.

“12. The driver classification system of claim 11, wherein the driver classification is selected from one of an expert classification, a competent classification, and a reckless classification.

“13. The driver classification system of claim 12, wherein the driver classification of the first vehicle is subject to change over time based on supplemental first vehicle driving data being collected from the first vehicle and sent to the insurance provider.

“14. The driver classification system of claim 13, wherein: the insurance rate associated with the first vehicle is increased in response to determining that the driver classification changes from one of the expert classification and the competent classification to one of the competent classification and the reckless classification; and the insurance rate associated with the first vehicle is decreased in response to determining that the driver classification changes from one of the reckless classification and the competent classification to one of the competent classification and the reckless classification.

“15. The driver classification system of claim 11, wherein the first vehicle driving data includes one or more of a frequency of a speed in excess of a speed threshold, a frequency of braking in excess of a deceleration threshold, a frequency of detected accidents, and a frequency of lane changes.

“16. The driver classification system of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to instruct the first vehicle to display a request that user data of a driver of the first vehicle be collected, the user data including one or more of a gender of the driver, an age of the driver, and an ethnicity of the driver.

“17. The driver classification system of claim 16, wherein the insurance rate is decreased in response to identifying that the first vehicle approves the request to permit user data of the driver of the first vehicle to be collected.

“18. (canceled)

“19. The driver classification system of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to: send the driver classification learning model of the first vehicle and the additional driver classification learning models from the additional vehicles to a central server; receive a global classification learning model from the central server; and send the global classification learning model to the first vehicle.

“20. The driver classification system of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to: receive the additional driver classification learning models only from the additional vehicles located within a predetermined geographic region; and communicate with edge servers located in different geographic regions.”

URL and more information on this patent application, see: Gupta, Rohit; Han, Kyungtae; Tiwari, Prashant; Wang, Ziran. Driver Classification Systems And Methods For Obtaining An Insurance Rate For A Vehicle. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230061846, filed August 24, 2021 and posted March 2, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230061846)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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