Elwha Assigned Patent for Systems for Insurance

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 4 -- Elwha, Bellevue, Washington, has been assigned a patent (No. 10,169,821, initially filed Sept. 20, 2013) developed by eight co-inventors for "systems and methods for insurance based upon status of vehicle software." The co-inventors are Jeffrey A. Bowers, Bellevue, Washington, Peter L. Hagelstein, Carlisle, Massachusetts, Roderick A. Hyde, Redmond, Washington, Muriel Y. Ishikawa, Livermore, California, Jordin T. Kare, Seattle, Washington, Clarence T. Tegreene, Mercer Island, Washington, Lowell L. Wood Jr., Bellevue, Washington, and Victoria Y.H. Wood, Livermore, California.

The full-text of the patent can be found at 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=10,169,821.PN.&OS=PN/10,169,821&RS=PN/10,169,821

The abstract states: "A vehicle may be configured to determine a characteristic of a software program operating on the vehicle. The characteristic may be provided to an insurer, and the insurer may determine a property of an insurance policy based on the characteristic. The characteristic may be, for example, a feature, a setting, and/or a version of the software program. The insurer may indicate to a vehicle operator and/or owner how changing the characteristic may affect the property of the insurance policy. The insurance policy may be formalized and agreed to by the insurer and/or the insured. The vehicle may also or instead save pre-collision status data, such adjustable parameters, internal variables, dynamic decisions, and/or identification of a software program, when a collision is detected. The pre-collision status data may be used to diagnose problems with the software program, determine fault, and/or determine future properties of insurance policies."

Written by Gangadhar Sethi; edited by Sudarshan Harpal.