Patent Issued for Autonomous vehicle automatic parking (USPTO 11726763): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2023 AUG 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Bennett, Shawn C. (Le Roy, IL, US), Binion, Todd (Bloomington, IL, US), Bryant, Ronny S. (Bloomington, IL, US), Chan, Aaron Scott (San Jose, CA, US), Cielocha, Steven C. (Bloomington, IL, US), Csanda, Carol Marie (Hudson, IL, US), Fields, Brian Mark (Phoenix, AZ, US), Gorsuch, Stacey (Bloomington, IL, US), Huang, Chien Che (Normal, IL, US), Kohaus, Stephen (Bloomington, IL, US), Main, Craig M. (Allen, TX, US), Novak, Richard A. (Plano, TX, US), Quakenbush, Terry (Bloomington, IL, US), Wazeer, Mohamed A. (Normal, IL, US), Wollenschlager, Torri (Bloomington, IL, US), Wu, Weixin (Normal, IL, US), filed on October 23, 2020, was published online on August 15, 2023, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11726763 is assigned to State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Vehicles are typically operated by a human vehicle operator who controls both steering and motive controls. Operator error, inattention, inexperience, misuse, or distraction leads to many vehicle accidents each year, resulting in injury and damage. Autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles augment vehicle operators’ information or replace vehicle operators’ control commands to operate the vehicle in whole or part with computer systems based upon information from sensors within the vehicle.

“Vehicle or automobile insurance exists to provide financial protection against physical damage and/or bodily injury resulting from traffic accidents and against liability that could arise therefrom. Typically, a customer purchases a vehicle insurance policy for a policy rate having a specified term. In exchange for payments from the insured customer, the insurer pays for damages to the insured which are caused by covered perils, acts, or events as specified by the language of the insurance policy. The payments from the insured are generally referred to as “premiums,” and typically are paid on behalf of the insured over time at periodic intervals. An insurance policy may remain “in-force” while premium payments are made during the term or length of coverage of the policy as indicated in the policy. An insurance policy may “lapse” (or have a status or state of “lapsed”), for example, when premium payments are not being paid or if the insured or the insurer cancels the policy.

“Premiums may be typically determined based upon a selected level of insurance coverage, location of vehicle operation, vehicle model, and characteristics or demographics of the vehicle operator. The characteristics of a vehicle operator that affect premiums may include age, years operating vehicles of the same class, prior incidents involving vehicle operation, and losses reported by the vehicle operator to the insurer or a previous insurer. Past and current premium determination methods do not, however, account for use of autonomous vehicle operating features. The present embodiments may, inter alia, alleviate this and/or other drawbacks associated with conventional techniques.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments may be related to autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle functionality, including driverless operation, accident avoidance, or collision warning systems. These autonomous vehicle operation features may either assist the vehicle operator to more safely or efficiently operate a vehicle or may take full control of vehicle operation under some or all circumstances. The present embodiments may also facilitate risk assessment and premium determination for vehicle insurance policies covering vehicles with autonomous operation features. For instance, a consumer may opt-in to a rewards program that rewards them, such as in the form of insurance discounts, for sharing data related to their vehicles and/or autonomous features with an insurance provider.

“In accordance with the described embodiments, the disclosure herein generally addresses systems and methods for enhancing vehicle operation safety of an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle, which may include one or more sensors. A computer associated with the vehicle (such as an on-board computer, mobile device, or server communicatively connected to the vehicle) may (1) determine that an environmental condition presents a hazard to the vehicle; (2) determine that the vehicle is parked in an unprotected location (such as an unroofed area) (3) determine a protected location to park the vehicle; (4) and/or cause the vehicle to travel automatically to the protected location under the operation of one or more autonomous operation features. In some embodiments, the environmental condition may be a weather condition, such as precipitation or wind. The determination that an environmental condition presents a hazard to the vehicle may be based upon an indication of the environmental condition may be received from an external data source, which indication may be received through a communication component and/or via a network. In some embodiments, the computer may further (5) receive an indication of travel of the vehicle to the protected location and/or (6) adjust one or more costs associated with an insurance policy associated with the vehicle based upon the received indication of travel of the vehicle to the protected location.

“In further embodiments, the computer may cause the vehicle to travel automatically to the protected location by causing a motor or engine of the vehicle to automatically start, determining a route from the unprotected location to the protected location, causing the vehicle to drive itself along the determined route to the protected location using the one or more autonomous operation features, and/or causing the vehicle to park at a suitable position at the protected location. The one or more autonomous operation features may include the following: steering, accelerating, braking, parking, pedestrian detection, artificial intelligence, a navigation system, a positioning system, and/or remote vehicle location determination.

“In accordance with additional described embodiments, the disclosure herein further generally addresses further systems and methods for enhancing vehicle operation safety of an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle, which may include one or more sensors. A computer associated with the vehicle (such as an on-board computer, mobile device, or server communicatively connected to the vehicle) may (1) determine a preferred parking spot for the vehicle; (2) determine a route to the preferred parking spot from a driver drop off point; and/or (3) cause the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle to travel from the driver drop off point to the preferred parking spot following the route controlled by one or more autonomous operation features. The preferred parking spot may be a covered parking spot, a parking spot in a parking structure, and/or a parking spot in a residential garage. The one or more autonomous operation features may be related to one or more of the following: steering, accelerating, braking, monitoring blind spots, presenting a collision warning, adaptive cruise control, parking, driver alertness monitoring, driver responsiveness monitoring, pedestrian detection, artificial intelligence, a back-up system, a navigation system, a positioning system, a security system, an anti-hacking measure, a theft prevention system, and/or remote vehicle location determination.

“In some embodiments, the computer may further adjust one or more costs associated with an insurance policy associated with the vehicle based upon the vehicle traveling to the preferred parking spot controlled by the one or more autonomous operation features. The one or more costs associated with the insurance policy may include a premium, a rate, a reward program benefit, a reward program point, and/or a discount.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method for enhancing vehicle operation safety, the method comprising: receiving, at one or more processors via a communication network, a message including an indication of one or more available parking spots within a parking garage from a server; obtaining, by the one or more processors, the indication of the one or more available parking spots within the parking garage; determining, by the one or more processors, a vehicle of a user is currently parked in an unprotected location; determining, by the one or more processors, a protected location to park the vehicle from the indication of the one or more available parking spots within the parking garage; presenting to the user, by the one or more processors, options to reduce one or more costs of an insurance policy associated with the vehicle based upon the protected location; obtaining, by the one or more processors, an indication of permission from the user for the vehicle to move from the unprotected location to the protected location; and causing, by the one or more processors, the vehicle to travel automatically to the protected location under full control of one or more autonomous operation features; receiving, at the one or more processors, an indication of travel of the vehicle to the protected location; and adjusting, by the one or more processors, the one or more costs of the insurance policy associated with the vehicle based upon the received indication of travel of the vehicle to the protected location; receiving, by the one or more processors, a request from the user that the vehicle be returned to a selected location; and causing, by the one or more processors, the vehicle to travel automatically from the protected location to the selected location under the full control of the one or more autonomous operation features.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the one or more processors, that an environmental condition presents a hazard to the vehicle; and sending, by the one or more processors via the communication network, a communication message to the server, wherein the environmental condition includes a weather condition.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the unprotected location includes an unroofed area.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein causing the vehicle to travel automatically to the protected location includes: causing a motor or engine of the vehicle to automatically start; determining a route to the protected location; causing the vehicle to drive itself along the determined route to the protected location using the one or more autonomous operation features; and causing the vehicle to park at the protected location.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein determining that the environmental condition presents a hazard to the vehicle includes receiving an indication regarding the environmental condition from an external data source.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle perform at least one of the following functions: steering; accelerating; braking; parking; pedestrian detection; artificial intelligence; vehicle navigation; vehicle positioning; or remote vehicle location determination.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein: the message is an encoded message, wherein the encoded message is encoded to require a key associated with an authorized subscription account to decode the message; and obtaining the indication of the one or more available parking spots includes decoding, by the one or more processors, the encoded message to obtain the indication of the one or more available parking spots.

“8. A computer system for enhancing vehicle operation safety, comprising: one or more processors; one or more sensors communicatively connected to the one or more processors; and a program memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the computer system to: receive a message including an indication of one or more available parking spots within a parking garage from a server via a communication network; obtain from the message the indication of the one or more available parking spots within the parking garage; determine a vehicle of a user is currently parked in an unprotected location; determine a protected location to park the vehicle from the indication of the one or more available parking spots within the parking garage; present to the user options to reduce one or more costs of an insurance policy associated with the vehicle based upon the protected location; obtain an indication of permission from the user for the vehicle to move from the unprotected location to the protected location; and cause the vehicle to travel automatically to the protected location under full control of one or more autonomous operation features; receive an indication of travel of the vehicle to the protected location; and adjust the one or more costs of the insurance policy associated with the vehicle based upon the received indication of travel of the vehicle to the protected location; receive a request from the user of vehicle that the vehicle be returned to a selected location; and cause the vehicle to travel automatically from the protected location to the selected location under the full control of the one or more autonomous operation features.

“9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the executable instructions further cause the system to: determine, by one or more processors, that an environmental condition presents a hazard to the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle; and send, by the one or more processors via the communication network, a communication message to the server, wherein the environmental condition includes a weather condition.

“10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the unprotected location includes an unroofed area.

“11. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the executable instructions that cause the vehicle to travel automatically to the protected location include executable instructions that: cause a motor or engine of the vehicle to automatically start; determine a route to the protected location; cause the vehicle to drive itself along the determined route to the protected location using the one or more autonomous operation features; and cause the vehicle to park at the protected location.

“12. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising a communication component communicatively connected to the one or more processors, wherein the executable instructions that cause the computer system to determine that the environmental condition presents a hazard to the vehicle further include executable instructions that cause the computer system to receive an indication regarding the environmental condition from an external data source via the communication component.

“13. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle perform at least one of the following functions: steering; accelerating; braking; parking; pedestrian detection; artificial intelligence; vehicle navigation; vehicle positioning; or remote vehicle location determination.

“14. The computer system of claim 8 wherein: the message is an encoded message, wherein the encoded message is encoded to require a key associated with an authorized subscription account to decode the message; and obtaining the indication of the one or more available parking spots includes decoding the encoded message to obtain the indication of the one or more available parking spots.

“15. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing executable instructions for enhancing vehicle operation safety that, when executed by at least one processor of a computer system, cause the computer system to: receive a message including an indication of one or more available parking spots within a parking garage from a server via a communication network; obtain from the message the indication of the one or more available parking spots within the parking garage; determine a vehicle of a user is currently parked in an unprotected location; determine a protected location to park the vehicle from the indication of the one or more available parking spots within the parking garage; present to the user options to reduce one or more costs of an insurance policy associated with the vehicle based upon the protected location; obtain an indication of permission from the user for the vehicle to move from the unprotected location to the protected location; and cause the vehicle to travel automatically to the protected location under full control of one or more autonomous operation features; receive an indication of travel of the vehicle to the protected location; and adjust the one or more costs of the insurance policy associated with the vehicle based upon the received indication of travel of the vehicle to the protected location; receive a request from the user of the vehicle that the vehicle be returned to a selected location; and cause the vehicle to travel automatically from the protected location to the selected location under the full control of the one or more autonomous operation features.

“16. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the executable instructions further cause the system to: determine, by one or more processors, that an environmental condition presents a hazard to the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle; and send, by the one or more processors via the communication network, a communication message to the server, wherein the environmental condition includes a weather condition.

“17. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the unprotected location includes an unroofed area.”

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

URL and more information on this patent, see: Bennett, Shawn C. Autonomous vehicle automatic parking. U.S. Patent Number 11726763, filed October 23, 2020, and published online on August 15, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11726763)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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