Patent Issued for Determining acceptable driving behavior based on vehicle specific characteristics (USPTO 11981335): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
2024 JUN 04 (NewsRx) -- By a
The assignee for this patent, patent number 11981335, is
Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Current technologies make use of vehicle telematics data to assess driving behavior. For example, the telematics data may be collected and analyzed to determine the acceleration, braking and/or cornering habits of a driver of a vehicle, and the results of the analysis may be used to measure the performance of the driver over time. The telematics data may be generated by sensors on the vehicle, or by a mobile device (e.g., smart phone) carried by the driver, for example. The measured performance may then be used for various purposes, such as modifying an insurance rating of the driver. More recently, it has been proposed that telematics data also be used in connection with car rental services, including peer-to-peer car rentals, to score potential renters (e.g., so that vehicle owners may avoid renting their vehicles to certain types of drivers).
“Typically, car rental services utilize terms of a rental agreement to constrain renter use of the rented vehicle. However, such terms are not able to constrain or limit many driving behaviors of a renter while the renter is operating a vehicle. This may occur because car rental services are not able to detect such driving behaviors, and as a result the car rental services cannot incorporate such driving behaviors into a rental agreement. Thus, car rental services may rely on the vehicle owner trusting the renter to not misuse the rented vehicle. However, vehicle owners may hesitate to trust renters they do not personally know. Unconstrained use of the rented vehicle on the part of the renter may result in increased maintenance and the associated costs and time for the vehicle owner. For example, frequent hard braking by renters may require that the owner replace the brake pads and rotors more often. This is especially problematic for vehicle owners in peer-to-peer vehicle rental services. For these vehicle owners, the rented vehicle may be their primary vehicle, and associated costs and times of maintenance may be unmanageable.
“For these reasons, there is a need for systems and methods that mitigate the problems of vehicle owner hesitation with respect to renting a vehicle and facilitate the rental of more vehicles for the vehicle renters with less risk to the vehicle owners.”
In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments may, inter alia, utilize telematics data indicative of operation of a rented vehicle by the driver/renter during a period of time to apply one or more penalties and/or incentives to the driver, as agreed upon in the terms for renting the vehicle from the owner. In this way, the embodiments may establish trust between the owner of the vehicle and renter (or at least, provide the owner with a certain comfort level even if the renter cannot be fully trusted) by detecting and incentivizing or penalizing driving behaviors.
“In one aspect, a method of incentivizing and/or penalizing vehicle renters may include receiving, at one or more processors, an indication that a driver has agreed to terms for renting a vehicle from an owner of the vehicle. The terms may include potential application of penalties or incentives to the driver based on driving behavior. The method may also include receiving, at the one or more processors, telematics data collected over a period of time. The telematics data may be indicative of operation of the rented vehicle by the driver during the period of time. The method may also include identifying, by the one or more processors analyzing the telematics data, one or more driving behaviors of the driver during the period of time. The method may further include identifying, by the one or more processors, one or more characteristics of the rented vehicle. The method may also include causing, by the one or more processors, one or more penalties or incentives to be applied to the driver. The one or more penalties may be based on the one or more driving behaviors and the one or more characteristics of the rented vehicle.
“In another aspect, a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium may store instructions that, when executing by one or more processors, cause one or more processors to receive an indication that a driver has agreed to terms for renting a vehicle from an owner of the vehicle. The terms may include potential application of penalties or incentives to the driver based on driving behavior. The instructions may also cause the one or more processors to receive telematics data collected over a period of time. The telematics data may be indicative of operation of the rented vehicle by the driver during the period of time. The instructions may also cause the one or more processors to identify one or more driving behaviors of the driver during the period of time. The instructions may also cause the one or more processors to identify one or more characteristics of the rented vehicle. The instructions may also cause the one or more processors to cause one or more penalties or incentives to be applied to the driver. The one or more penalties may be based on the one or more driving behaviors and the one or more characteristics of the rented vehicle.”
The claims supplied by the inventors are:
“1. A system comprising: one or more processors; and computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving sensor data captured by a sensor carried by a vehicle, the vehicle being associated with a unique identifier; determining, based at least in part on the unique identifier, one or more characteristics of the vehicle; determining, based at least in part on the sensor data, a driving behavior associated with a driver of the vehicle, the driving behavior being characterized by at least one value; receiving, from an individual other than the driver, an input indicating a preferred driving behavior unique to the vehicle, and different from other vehicles; determining, based on the input and the one or more characteristics of the vehicle, a threshold value corresponding to the driving behavior; determining that the at least one value is less than the threshold value; and applying an incentive to a record associated with the driver based at least in part on the at least one value being less than the threshold value.
“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor is a first sensor, and the one or more characteristics of the vehicle are determined based on one or more of: telematics data associated with the vehicle; vehicle maintenance data stored on a server; or data from a second sensor carried by the vehicle and monitoring a condition of the vehicle.
“3. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of the first sensor or the second sensor is: mounted on the vehicle, or comprises a component of a mobile device of the driver.
“4. The system of claim 2, wherein the second sensor monitors a condition of a tire of the vehicle, and the data from the second sensor comprises at least one of: an air pressure in the tire; a rate of spin of the tire; or a number of miles driven since last replacement of the tire.
“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor data comprises first sensor data captured by the sensor while the vehicle is in motion, the driving behavior comprises a first driving behavior, the at least one value comprises a first value, the threshold value comprises a first threshold value, and the operations further comprise: receiving second sensor data captured by the sensor; determining, based at least in part on the second sensor data, a second driving behavior associated with the driver of the vehicle, the second driving behavior being characterized by a second value; determining that the second value meets or exceeds a second threshold value, wherein the second threshold value is based on the one or more characteristics of the vehicle; and applying a penalty to the record associated with the driver based at least in part on the second value meeting or exceeding the second threshold value.
“6. The system of claim 5, the operations further comprising: receiving an indication that the driver has agreed to terms of a contract corresponding to renting the vehicle, wherein the incentive or the penalty is applied to the record based at least in part on the indication.
“7. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising: determining, based at least in part on the sensor data, a time during which the vehicle is stopped; and sending an indication of the incentive to a computing device associated with the driver during the time.
“8. The system of claim 1, the operations further comprising: sending an indication of the threshold value to a computing device associated with an owner of the vehicle; receiving, from the computing device and based at least in part on the indication, a request to modify the threshold value; generating a modified threshold value based at least in part on the request; and determining that the at least one value is less than the modified threshold value, wherein the incentive is applied based at least in part on the at least one value being less than the modified threshold value.
“9. The system of claim 1, wherein the driving behavior is associated with at least one of: turning of the vehicle while under control of the driver; braking of the vehicle while under control of the driver; or acceleration of the vehicle while under control of the driver.
“10. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more characteristics of the vehicle comprise: an age of the vehicle; a number of miles traversed by the vehicle; or a maintenance record associated with the vehicle, and wherein the operations further comprise: updating the one or more characteristics of the vehicle after a period of time.
“11. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving sensor data captured by a sensor carried by a vehicle, the vehicle being associated with a unique identifier; determining, based at least in part on the unique identifier, one or more characteristics of the vehicle; determining, based at least in part on the sensor data, a driving behavior associated with a driver of the vehicle, the driving behavior being characterized by at least one value; receiving, from an individual other than the driver, an input indicating a preferred driving behavior unique to the vehicle, and different from other vehicles; determining, based on the input and the one or more characteristics of the vehicle, a threshold value corresponding to the driving behavior; determining that the at least one value is less than the threshold value; and applying at least one of an incentive or a penalty to a record associated with the driver based at least in part on comparing the at least one value and the threshold value.
“12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising: determining, based on the driving behavior and the one or more characteristics of the vehicle, a driving score associated with the driver, wherein the at least one of the incentive or the penalty is applied based at least in part on the driving score.
“13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising: receiving an indication that the driver has agreed to terms of a contract corresponding to renting the vehicle, wherein the terms include potential application of penalties or incentives to the driver based on the driving behavior, and the at least one of the penalty or the incentive is applied based at least in part on the indication.
“14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising: receiving, based at least in part on the unique identifier, a maintenance record associated with the vehicle; and updating, based on the maintenance record, at least one of the one or more characteristics of the vehicle.
“15. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising: sending a notification of the incentive or the penalty to at least one of a first computing device associated with the driver or a second computing device associated with an owner of the vehicle.
“16. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more characteristics of the vehicle comprises at least one of: an age of the vehicle; a number of miles traversed by the vehicle; or a feature associated with a maintenance record of the vehicle.
“17. The method of claim 11, the method further comprising: sending an indication of the threshold value to a computing device associated with an owner of the vehicle; receiving, from the computing device and based at least in part on the indication, a request to modify the threshold value; and updating, based at least in part on the request, the threshold value.
“18. One or more non-transitory computer readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a computing device associated with a peer-to-peer vehicle-sharing platform, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising: receiving sensor data captured by a sensor carried by a vehicle, the vehicle being associated with a unique identifier; determining, based at least in part on the unique identifier, one or more characteristics of the vehicle indicative of a driving performance of the vehicle; determining, based at least in part on the sensor data, a driving behavior associated with a driver of the vehicle, the driving behavior being characterized by at least one value; receiving, from an individual other than the driver, an input indicating a preferred driving behavior unique to the vehicle, and different from other vehicles; determining, based on the input and the one or more characteristics of the vehicle, a threshold value corresponding to the driving behavior; determining that the at least one value is less than the threshold value; and applying an incentive or a penalty to a record associated with the driver based on the at least one value and the threshold value.
“19. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 18, wherein: the driving behavior comprises one of: a turning behavior, a braking behavior, or an accelerating behavior, the incentive is applied based at least in part on the at least one value being less than the threshold value, and the penalty is applied based at least in part on the at least one value meeting or exceeding the threshold value.
“20. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 18, the operations further comprising: receiving an indication that the driver has agreed to terms of a contract corresponding to renting the vehicle, wherein the incentive or the penalty is applied based at least in part on the indication; and sending a notification of the incentive or the penalty to at least one of a first computing device of the driver or a second computing device of an owner of the vehicle.”
For more information, see this patent: Brannan,
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