Patent Issued for Detecting of automatic driving (USPTO 11354952): Avinew Inc.

2022 JUN 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Adams, Randall C. (Malibu, CA, US), Barnes, William Anderson (Los Angeles, CA, US), Bentz, Steven Anthony (Simi Valley, CA, US), Combs, G. Edward (Agoura Hills, CA, US), Peate, Daniel R. (Thousand Oaks, CA, US), filed on May 11, 2020, was published online on June 7, 2022, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11354952 is assigned to Avinew Inc. (Westlake Village, California, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Traditional automobile insurance premium pricing is based on aggregated statistical historical data to produce rating factors. The aggregated statistical historical data typically includes an insured person’s driving record, credit-based insurance score, personal characteristics (age, gender, and marital status), vehicle type, garage location, vehicle use, previous claims, liability limits, and deductibles, among other information. Additionally, discounts on traditional automobile insurance premium pricing are available based on the presence of protection devices (like airbags or antilock brakes) in the vehicle, driving education courses taken by the insured person, and mileage driven by the vehicle, among other considerations. Furthermore, traditional automobile insurance premium pricing is a fixed cost, assessed annually and usually paid for in lump sums on an annual, semi-annual, or quarterly basis.

“Usage Based Insurance (UBI), on the other hand, typically individualizes insurance premium pricing based on the mileage driven by the vehicle as determined by Global Positioning System (GPS) location data obtained for the vehicle. UBI, therefore, attempts to more accurately price insurance based on actual usage of the vehicle, since there is a correlation between claims made against insurance for accidents for a vehicle and the mileage driven by that vehicle. Additionally, recent developments in technology have increased the effectiveness and cost of using telematics devices installed in vehicles, thereby enabling insurers to capture not just how many miles an insured person actually drives, but how and when they drive too. The result has been the growth of several UBI variations, including Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD), Pay-How-You-Drive (PHYD), Pay-As-You-Go, and Distance-Based Insurance.

“The introduction of driver assistance technology, vehicle autopilot, and self-driving vehicles has generally reduced accident risks and claim and loss costs. Nevertheless, traditional and UBI automobile insurance premium pricing has generally not taken into consideration the risk and cost reduction resulting from the usage of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In order to take into consideration driver assistance, autopilot, self-driving, or advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) capabilities (referred to herein as “automatic driving features”) for adjusting a price of an automobile insurance policy, an insurance pricing system needs to have information indicating when one or more of the automatic driving features have been activated during overall usage of the vehicles. However, direct or explicit information indicating whether an automatic driving feature is engaged is not always readily available or obtainable from such vehicles or computer server systems (e.g., typically owned or managed by the vehicle manufacturer, the vehicle seller, or a third party contractor) that are in communication with the vehicles. On the other hand, vehicle operation data (e.g., any appropriate combination of a speed of the vehicle, a power draw/consumption of the vehicle, a heading of the vehicle, and/or a location of the vehicle) is typically readily available or obtainable from the vehicles or the computer server systems. Therefore, in accordance with some embodiments, activation of usage of an automatic driving feature in a vehicle is detected by a system or method obtaining heuristic rules that define a likelihood of an automatic driving feature having been engaged as a function of sequential vehicle performance. Sequential vehicle operation data is provided related to a trip made by a vehicle that has the automatic driving feature. The sequential vehicle operation data includes an indication of operation of the vehicle during a sequence of time intervals of the trip, and the sequential vehicle operation data does not include an explicit indication of whether the automatic driving feature was engaged during any time intervals of the sequence of time intervals. Automatic driving information is generated for the vehicle by evaluating the sequential vehicle operation data against the heuristic rules. The automatic driving information provides an indication of whether the automatic driving feature was engaged during a subset of the time intervals.

“In some embodiments, a system or method provides sequential vehicle operation data for a sequence of time intervals for a vehicle that has an automatic driving feature. The sequential vehicle operation data does not include an explicit indication of whether the automatic driving feature was engaged during any time intervals of the sequence of time intervals. First automatic driving information is initialized for the vehicle to indicate that the automatic driving feature was engaged during all of the time intervals. Second automatic driving information is generated for the vehicle by subtracting from the first automatic driving information a first portion of the time intervals for which the sequential vehicle operation data indicate operation of the vehicle outside of first specified operational ranges. The second automatic driving information provides an indication that the automatic driving feature was engaged during a first subset of the time intervals.

“In some embodiments, some time intervals are identified for which the sequential vehicle operation data indicate operation of the vehicle within specified operational ranges that indicate disengagement of the automatic driving feature, and the automatic driving information is updated to indicate that the automatic driving feature was not engaged during these time intervals. In some embodiments, some time intervals are identified for which the sequential vehicle operation data indicate operation of the vehicle within specified operational ranges that indicate engagement of the automatic driving feature, and the automatic driving information is updated to indicate that the automatic driving feature was engaged during these time intervals. In some embodiments, heuristic rules indicative of a high probability of automatic or non-automatic driving are evaluated after heuristic rules indicative of a lower probability of automatic or non-automatic driving.

“In some embodiments, some time intervals that immediately precede or follow a time interval for which the sequential vehicle operation data has been evaluated are treated the same as the evaluated time interval. In some embodiments, a relatively small group of non-automatic-driving time intervals (that is preceded and followed by relatively large groups of automatic-driving time intervals) is treated the same as the preceding and following groups of automatic-driving time intervals, and vice versa.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: providing sequential vehicle operation data for a sequence of time intervals for a vehicle that has an automatic driving feature, the sequential vehicle operation data including primary operation data that includes received primary operation data received from sensors within the vehicle that detect physical operation of the vehicle, and the primary operation data including at least one of: a detected speed of the vehicle, a detected heading of the vehicle, or a detected power consumption of the vehicle; initializing, by a computer system, first automatic driving information for the vehicle to indicate that the automatic driving feature was engaged during all of the time intervals; and generating, by the computer system, second automatic driving information for the vehicle by subtracting from the first automatic driving information a first portion of the time intervals for which the sequential vehicle operation data indicate operation of the vehicle outside of first specified operational ranges, the second automatic driving information providing an indication that the automatic driving feature was engaged during a first subset of the time intervals.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: before the generating of the second automatic driving information, updating, by the computer system, the first automatic driving information to indicate that the automatic driving feature was not engaged during a beginning portion of the time intervals and an ending portion of the time intervals.

“3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the computer system, third automatic driving information for the vehicle by adding to the second automatic driving information a second portion of the time intervals for which the sequential vehicle operation data indicate operation of the vehicle within second specified operational ranges, the third automatic driving information providing an indication that the automatic driving feature was engaged during a second subset of the time intervals.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein: the second portion of the time intervals includes multiple interval segments; each interval segment of the multiple interval segments is adjacent to a preceding interval group that precedes the interval segment and to a following interval group that follows the interval segment; and for each interval segment of the multiple interval segments, the generating of the third automatic driving information further comprises adding to the second automatic driving information the interval segment, the preceding interval group, and the following interval group.

“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the computer system, third automatic driving information for the vehicle by adding to the second automatic driving information at least one first group of time intervals for which the second automatic driving information provides an indication that the automatic driving feature was not engaged during the first subset of the time intervals for a first time limit; and wherein: each of the at least one first group of time intervals is immediately after a preceding second group and immediately before a subsequent second group; the second automatic driving information provides an indication for the preceding second group that the automatic driving feature was engaged during the first subset of the time intervals for a second time limit; the second automatic driving information provides an indication for the subsequent second group that the automatic driving feature was engaged during the first subset of the time intervals for a third time limit; and the third automatic driving information provides an indication that the automatic driving feature was engaged during a second subset of the time intervals.

“6. The method of claim 5, wherein: the first time limit is shorter than a lower limit; the second time limit is longer than a first upper limit; and the third time limit is longer than a second upper limit.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the computer system, third automatic driving information for the vehicle by subtracting from the second automatic driving information at least one first group of time intervals for which the second automatic driving information provides an indication that the automatic driving feature was engaged during the first subset of the time intervals for a first time limit; and wherein: each of the at least one first group of time intervals is immediately after a preceding second group and immediately before a subsequent second group; the second automatic driving information provides an indication for the preceding second group that the automatic driving feature was not engaged during the first subset of the time intervals for a second time limit; the second automatic driving information provides an indication for the subsequent second group that the automatic driving feature was not engaged during the first subset of the time intervals for a third time limit; and the third automatic driving information provides an indication that the automatic driving feature was engaged during a second subset of the time intervals.

“8. The method of claim 7, wherein: the first time limit is shorter than a lower limit; the second time limit is longer than a first upper limit; and the third time limit is longer than a second upper limit.

“9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the computer system, third automatic driving information for the vehicle by adding to the second automatic driving information a second portion of the time intervals for which the sequential vehicle operation data indicate operation of the vehicle at a constant speed within second specified operational ranges, the third automatic driving information providing an indication that the automatic driving feature was engaged during a second subset of the time intervals.

“10. The method of claim 9, wherein: the constant speed occurs for at least a minimum period of time.

“11. The method of claim 10, wherein: the constant speed is greater than a minimum speed value.

“12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the computer system, third automatic driving information for the vehicle by adding to the second automatic driving information a second portion of the time intervals for which the sequential vehicle operation data indicate operation of the vehicle at a constant heading within second specified operational ranges, the third automatic driving information providing an indication that the automatic driving feature was engaged during a second subset of the time intervals.

“13. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the computer system, third automatic driving information for the vehicle by subtracting from the second automatic driving information a second portion of the time intervals for which the sequential vehicle operation data indicate operation of the vehicle with a heading change outside of second specified operational ranges, the third automatic driving information providing an indication that the automatic driving feature was engaged during a second subset of the time intervals.

“14. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the computer system, third automatic driving information for the vehicle by subtracting from the second automatic driving information a second portion of the time intervals for which the sequential vehicle operation data indicate operation of the vehicle with a ratio of a first type of vehicle operation data to a second type of vehicle operation data outside of second specified operational ranges, the third automatic driving information providing an indication that the automatic driving feature was engaged during a second subset of the time intervals.

“15. The method of claim 14, wherein: the first type of vehicle operation data is a rate of change of power consumption of the vehicle; and the second type of vehicle operation data is a speed of the vehicle.

“16. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the computer system, third automatic driving information for the vehicle by subtracting from the second automatic driving information a second portion of the time intervals for which the sequential vehicle operation data indicate operation of the vehicle with a type of vehicle operation data that is outside of second specified operational ranges more than a predetermined number of times within a predetermined number of consecutive time intervals, the third automatic driving information providing an indication that the automatic driving feature was engaged during a second subset of the time intervals.

“17. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the computer system, third automatic driving information for the vehicle by subtracting from the second automatic driving information a second portion of the time intervals for which the sequential vehicle operation data indicate operation of the vehicle with an acceleration outside of second specified operational ranges, the third automatic driving information providing an indication that the automatic driving feature was engaged during a second subset of the time intervals.

“18. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the computer system, third automatic driving information for the vehicle by subtracting from the second automatic driving information a second portion of the time intervals for which the sequential vehicle operation data indicate operation of the vehicle with a speed over a maximum allowable limit, the third automatic driving information providing an indication that the automatic driving feature was engaged during a second subset of the time intervals.”

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

URL and more information on this patent, see: Adams, Randall C. Detecting of automatic driving. U.S. Patent Number 11354952, filed May 11, 2020, and published online on June 7, 2022. Patent URL: 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=11354952.PN.&OS=PN/11354952RS=PN/11354952

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