Patent Issued for Autonomous vehicle insurance based upon usage (USPTO 11720968): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2023 AUG 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States) has been issued patent number 11720968, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are 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 A. (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).

This patent was filed on November 27, 2019 and was published online on August 8, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “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.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters 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 affirmatively 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 generating or updating a usage-based insurance policy for one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, 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), an insurance provider (such as a server), or an insurance customer (such as a personal computer, mobile device, or smart phone) may (1) receive a request to generate an insurance policy covering use of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles by an insurance customer; (2) determine one or more risk levels associated with use of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle by the insurance customer; (3) determine one or more aspects of the insurance policy based upon the determined one or more risk levels and the information regarding intended vehicle usage; (4) cause at least a portion of the insurance policy to be presented to the insurance customer for review; (5) receive an indication of acceptance of the insurance policy from the insurance customer; and/or (6) cause the insurance policy to be issued to the insurance customer. The request to generate the insurance policy may include information regarding intended vehicle usage. The information regarding intended vehicle usage may include information regarding frequency of use of the rented autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle. Additionally, or alternatively, the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles may include an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle rented by the insurance customer.

“In some embodiments, the determined one or more aspects of the insurance policy may include a route of operation of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles. In further embodiments, the determined one or more aspects of the insurance policy may include one or more costs based upon the intended usage of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, which intended usage may be measured in distance and/or duration of vehicle operation. The one or more costs may further be based upon one or more of the following: a route of operation, a time of day of operation, a duration of a vehicle trip, a distance of a vehicle trip, weather conditions, traffic conditions, and/or geographic location of a vehicle trip. Additionally, or alternatively, the one or more costs may further be based upon one or more of the following: autonomous operation features of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, versions of the autonomous operation features of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle, and/or use of the autonomous operation features of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles.

“In each of the embodiments or aspects described above, the methods may be provided in corresponding computer systems including at least one or more processors and a non-transitory program memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions. The computer systems may further include or be communicatively connected to one or more sensors, communication components or devices, or other equipment as described herein. In yet another aspect, a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions corresponding to each of the embodiments or aspects described above may be provided. Each of the methods or executable instructions of the computer systems or computer-readable media may include additional, fewer, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method for generating or updating a usage-based insurance policy for one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, the method comprising: receiving, at one or more processors, a request to generate an insurance policy covering use of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles by an insurance customer, wherein the request includes information regarding intended vehicle usage; determining, by the one or more processors, one or more risk levels associated with the use of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles based on the information regarding the intended vehicle usage and environmental conditions in which the vehicle is likely to be operating including at least foreseeable weather conditions; determining, by the one or more processors, the cost of an insurance policy based upon the determined one or more risk levels; causing, by the one or more processors, at least a portion of the insurance policy to be presented to the insurance customer for review; receiving, by the one or more processors, an indication of acceptance of the insurance policy from the insurance customer; causing, by the one or more processors, the insurance policy to be issued to the insurance customer; monitoring, by one or more processors, settings of a plurality of autonomous operation features that autonomously or semi-autonomously perform aspects of vehicle control during operation of the vehicle and current environmental conditions including at least current weather conditions during the use of the vehicle; determining, by the one or more processors, a changed risk level based upon the settings of the autonomous operation features, and changed current environmental conditions, including at least changed current weather conditions compared to the previously determined foreseeable weather conditions; presenting to the insurance customer, by one or more processors, one or more options to select a lower-cost insurance policy for an operating mode with different settings for the plurality of autonomous operation features associated with a lower risk level under the changed current weather conditions; receiving, by one or more processors, a selection by the insurance customer to accept one of the one or more options for a lower-cost insurance policy wherein the selection causes an on-board computer of the vehicle to automatically adjust the settings of the plurality of autonomous operation features to implement the selected operating mode associated with the different settings and the lower risk level under the changed current weather conditions; and adjusting, by the one or more processors, the cost of the insurance policy based upon the selection by the insurance customer.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles include an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle rented by the insurance customer.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the information regarding intended vehicle usage includes information regarding frequency of use of the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the intended vehicle usage includes vehicle usage measured in in distance or duration of vehicle operation.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein determining the one or more risk levels is further based upon one or more of the following: a route of operation, a time of day of operation, a duration of a vehicle trip, a distance of a vehicle trip, weather conditions, traffic conditions, or a geographic location of a vehicle trip.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein determining the one or more risk levels is further based upon one or more of the following: available autonomous operation features of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, versions of the autonomous operation features of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle, or use of the autonomous operation features of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the cost of the insurance policy is further based upon a route of operation of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles.

“8. A computer system for generating or updating a usage-based insurance policy for one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, comprising: one or more processors; 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 request to generate an insurance policy covering use of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles by an insurance customer, wherein the request includes information regarding intended vehicle usage; determine one or more risk levels associated with the use of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles based on the information regarding the intended vehicle usage and environmental conditions in which the vehicle is likely to be operating including at least foreseeable weather conditions; determine the cost of an insurance policy based upon the determined one or more risk levels; cause at least a portion of the insurance policy to be presented to the insurance customer for review; receive an indication of acceptance of the insurance policy from the insurance customer; cause the insurance policy to be issued to the insurance customer; monitor settings of a plurality of autonomous operation features that autonomously or semi-autonomously perform aspects of vehicle control during operation of the vehicle and current environmental conditions including at least current weather conditions during the use of the vehicle; determine a changed risk level based upon the settings of the autonomous operation features, and changed current environmental conditions, including at least changed current weather conditions compared to the previously determined foreseeable weather conditions; present to the insurance customer one or more options to select a lower-cost insurance policy for an operating mode with different settings for the plurality of autonomous operation features associated with a lower risk level under the changed current weather conditions; receive a selection by the insurance customer to accept one of the one or more options for a lower-cost insurance policy wherein the selection causes an on-board computer of the vehicle to automatically adjust the settings of the plurality of autonomous operation features to implement the selected operating mode associated with the different settings and the lower risk level under the changed current weather conditions; and adjust the cost of the insurance policy based upon the selection by the insurance customer.

“9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles include an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle rented by the insurance customer.

“10. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the information regarding intended vehicle usage includes information regarding frequency of use of the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle.

“11. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the intended vehicle usage includes vehicle usage measured in in distance or duration of vehicle operation.

“12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein determining the one or more risk levels is further based upon one or more of the following: a route of operation, a time of day of operation, a duration of a vehicle trip, a distance of a vehicle trip, weather conditions, traffic conditions, or a geographic location of a vehicle trip.

“13. The computer system of claim 11, wherein determining the one or more risk levels is further based upon one or more of the following: available autonomous operation features of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles, versions of the autonomous operation features of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle, or use of the autonomous operation features of the one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles.”

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

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Bennett, Shawn C. Autonomous vehicle insurance based upon usage. U.S. Patent Number 11720968, filed November 27, 2019, and published online on August 8, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11720968)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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