Patent Issued for Autonomous car repair (USPTO 11769119): Allstate Insurance Company

2023 OCT 13 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Faga, Mark E. (Evanston, IL, US), Sheetz, Paul Albert (Minneapolis, MN, US), filed on April 15, 2015, was published online on September 26, 2023, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11769119 is assigned to Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Vehicles often need routine maintenance, including inspections, tune-up services, and the like to ensure proper operation. Drivers may take their vehicles to an auto shop where technicians or service providers may conduct monthly or yearly inspections or other vehicle services. Furthermore, drivers may need to replace certain car parts that undergo typical wear and tear due to vehicle age, mileage, driving conditions, and the like. Drivers may purchase the car parts that need to be replaced and go to an auto shop where technicians may be able to replace the damaged part by installing a new part.

“In addition to routine maintenance and part replacements, vehicles are also subject to being damaged in roadside incidents such as car accidents. Drivers may once again need to take their vehicles to a repair shop to have the vehicle repaired. In all of these instances of routine inspections, tune-up services, part replacements, and car repairs, the very task of going to an auto shop or car repair shop may be time-consuming for drivers. For example, a driver may need to take a day off from work (e.g., a sick day, a vacation day, a half day, etc.) and spend a significant amount of time waiting at a car repair shop. That is, the driver may spend hours or even an entire day at the car repair shop before his or her car is finally serviced. While the actual car service or repair might not take that long, the driver may have to wait for several hours before a technician is able to work on the vehicle.

“Thus, drivers may dread having to go to the auto shop whether for routine maintenance or for major or minor car repairs. These conventional methods for maintenance or repair services may be an inefficient use of time for drivers. As such, new systems, methods, and devices may be desired to assist in providing vehicle maintenance services to drivers in a timely and convenient manner.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In light of the foregoing background, the following presents a simplified summary of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

“Aspects of the disclosure address one or more of the issues mentioned above by disclosing computerized methods, systems, devices, and apparatuses for providing an autonomous car repair system to provide car care to vehicles for drivers in an efficient manner. The disclosure describes a system comprising a telematics device associated with a vehicle, a first computing device, a second computing device associated with a driver of the vehicle, and a server. The server may be configured to receive, from the telematics device, maintenance data regarding a status of the vehicle, determine a repair for the vehicle based on the maintenance data, send, to the first computing device, a request for the repair to be performed for the vehicle by one or more service providers, estimate a period of time the one or more service providers are expected to take to perform the repair, based on the estimate, assign an alternative form of transportation to be provided to the driver associated with the vehicle during the estimated period of time for the repair, and send, to the second computing device, one or more notifications regarding at least one of the repair being performed by the one or more service providers, the estimated period of time for the repair, or the assigned alternative form of transportation to be provided to the driver.

“The disclosure also describes an apparatus comprising at least one processor, a network interface configured to communicate, via a network, with a first computing device and a second computing device, and a memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to receive, from the first computing device, maintenance data regarding a status of a vehicle, determine a repair for a vehicle based on the maintenance data, send, to the second computing device, a request for the repair to be performed for the vehicle by one or more service providers, estimate a period of time to be taken by the one or more service providers to perform the repair, based on the estimate, assign an alternative form of transportation to be provided to a driver associated with the vehicle during the estimated period of time for the repair, and in response to assigning the alternative form of transportation, send, to a third computing device, one or more notifications informing the driver that maintenance service is scheduled to be performed.

“In addition, aspects of this disclosure provide a method that includes receiving, from a telematics device associated with a vehicle, maintenance data regarding a status of the vehicle, determining, by one or more computing devices, a repair for the vehicle based on the maintenance data, sending, to a first computing device, a request for the repair to be performed for the vehicle by one or more service providers, estimating, by the one or more computing devices, a period of time needed by the one or more service providers to perform the repair, based on the estimate, assigning, by the one or more computing devices, an alternative form of transportation to be provided to a driver associated with the vehicle during the estimated period of time for the repair, and sending, to a second computing device associated with a driver of the vehicle, one or more notifications regarding at least one of the repair being performed by the one or more service providers, the estimated period of time for the repair, or the assigned alternative form of transportation to be provided to the driver.

“Of course, the methods and systems of the above-referenced embodiments may also include other additional elements, steps, computer-executable instructions or computer-readable data structures. In this regard, other embodiments are disclosed and claimed herein as well. The details of these and other embodiments of the present invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description, drawings, and claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: in a network environment comprising: a telematics device associated with a vehicle, the telematics device comprising an on-board diagnostic system in the vehicle and one or more sensors, the telematics device being configured to: collect, from an on-board diagnostic system in the vehicle and from the one or more sensors, maintenance data associated with an operating status of the vehicle; a computing device of a vehicle service provider; a mobile device of a driver of the vehicle, the mobile device comprising a processor, memory and computer-executable instructions stored in the memory, the instructions, when executed by the processor, being configured to: cause the mobile device to communicatively couple to the telematics device via a wireless connection; cause the mobile device to receive the vehicle telematics data from the telematics device; cause the mobile device to receive maintenance data regarding the operating status of the vehicle and the events during the vehicle trip from the telematics device via the wireless connection; cause the mobile device to compare the vehicle telematics data with predefined metric data that defines a normal operating condition of the vehicle to determine events occurring during a vehicle trip; receive a proposed repair notification; generate and display, by the mobile device, at least one graphical user interface comprising repair options notification and insurance account information associated with the vehicle and comprising information identifying an account holder, one or more insured individuals, an insurance policy number, an insurance premium amount, an insurance deductible amount, and a car care service deductible amount; and capture, by the mobile device via the at least one graphical user interface, a user response to the repair options notification; and a server computer system comprising at least one processor and memory, at the server computer system: receiving, by the at least one processor, from the mobile device of the driver of the vehicle, the maintenance data regarding the operating status of the vehicle received by the mobile device of the driver of the vehicle from the telematics device; determining, by the at least one processor, a repair for the vehicle based on the maintenance data from the mobile device of the driver of the vehicle; based on determining the repair for the vehicle, sending, by the at least one processor, to the computing device of the vehicle service provider, a request for the repair for the vehicle to be performed on the vehicle by the vehicle service provider; parsing a database accessible to the server computing system to identify a previous repair record of insured vehicles; based on the previous repair record of insured vehicles, estimating, by the at least one processor, a period of time the vehicle service provider is expected to take to perform the repair, wherein the insured vehicles in the previous repair record have received a type of repair similar to a type of repair currently requested in the request; based on the estimated period of time, assigning, by the at least one processor, a rental car to be provided to the driver of the vehicle during the estimated period of time for the repair; sending, by the at least one processor, to the mobile device of the driver of the vehicle, one or more notifications regarding at least one of the repair being performed by the vehicle service provider, the estimated period of time for the repair, or the rental car to be provided to the driver; and responsive to receiving, from the mobile device, the captured user response comprising a selection of an item from the repair options notification, sending, by the at least one processor, to the computing device of the vehicle service provider, a second notification directing the vehicle service provider to drop off the rental car to be provided to the driver in a same spot as where the vehicle is parked, wherein sending the second notification to the computing device of the vehicle service provider causes the computing device of the vehicle service provider to display the second notification directing the vehicle service provider to drop off the rental car to be provided to the driver in the same spot as where the vehicle is parked.

“2. The method of claim 1, comprising: after sending the request for the repair to the computing device of the vehicle service provider, receiving, by the at least one processor, from the computing device of the vehicle service provider, a confirmation indicating that the vehicle service provider will pick up and transport the vehicle to a repair shop.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the request for the repair to the computing device of the vehicle service provider comprises sending location information of the vehicle to the computing device of the vehicle service provider.

“4. The method of claim 1, comprising: receiving, by the at least one processor, from the mobile device of the driver of the vehicle, information regarding one or more issues that the driver has experienced or is experiencing with the vehicle.

“5. The method of claim 4, comprising: determining, by the at least one processor, the repair for the vehicle further based on the information regarding the one or more issues that the driver has experienced or is experiencing with the vehicle.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the events occurring during the vehicle trip comprise an impact to a part of the vehicle or a deployed airbag.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the maintenance data indicates one or more vehicle metrics associated with one or more of the vehicle’s battery, brakes, engine, fuel economy, radiator, transmission, or tires.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the operating status of the vehicle is determined based on one or more of mileage, driving behaviors, road conditions, or vehicle type.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one user interface of the car care application executed on the mobile device of the driver of the vehicle comprises an option to view car care notifications, an option to view repair information, an option to view service provider information, an option to view rental car services information, an option to view account information, and an option to view settings and preferences.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one user interface of the car care application executed on the mobile device of the driver of the vehicle comprises an option to submit the driver’s recommendations on the repair for the vehicle to modify the repair for the vehicle determined by the server computer system.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one user interface of the car care application executed on the mobile device of the driver of the vehicle comprises information identifying the estimated period of time for the repair.

“12. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one user interface of the car care application executed on the mobile device of the driver of the vehicle comprises a picture of the rental car to be provided to the driver, information identifying a make and a model of the rental car to be provided to the driver, and an option for the driver to update a rental time for the rental car to be provided to the driver.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

URL and more information on this patent, see: Faga, Mark E. Autonomous car repair. U.S. Patent Number 11769119, filed April 15, 2015, and published online on September 26, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11769119)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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