Patent Issued for Distributed ledger system for managing smart vehicle data (USPTO 11756128): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2023 OCT 02 (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 11756128, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Alt, Jacob J. (Downs, IL, US), Bellas, Eric (Bloomington, IL, US), Bryant, Ronny S. (Bloomington, IL, US), Call, Shawn M. (Bloomington, IL, US), Hill, Mitchell J. (Bloomington, IL, US), King, Vicki (Bloomington, IL, US), Magerkurth, Melinda Teresa (Utica, IL, US), McCullough, Stacie A. (Bloomington, IL, US), Skaggs, Jaime (Chenoa, IL, US).

This patent was filed on February 17, 2021 and was published online on September 12, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Generally speaking, companies may utilize centralized databases or servers for a number of purposes. For example, a “smart vehicle” that has sensors and computer systems may have a network connection enabling the smart vehicle to communicate with a centralized server. Generally speaking, this data stored at the centralized server may not be readily accessible by the owner of the smart vehicle and/or by third parties that might otherwise be authorized to access the data.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In one aspect, a computer-implemented method for tracking vehicle events may include any one or more of the following: (A) configuring or implementing a plurality of servers, each of the plurality of servers maintaining a copy of a distributed ledger; (B) performing the following when a vehicle event pertaining to a vehicle is detected: (i) generating, at a first server from the plurality of servers, a transaction record including data corresponding to the vehicle event; (ii) proposing the transaction record to one or more other servers from the plurality of servers; (iii) performing, via the plurality of servers, a consensus analysis of the transaction record utilizing a consensus mechanism; and/or (iv) when the consensus analysis indicates that the plurality of servers have formed a consensus, storing the transaction record at the distributed ledger by storing the transaction record to each copy of the distributed ledger at the plurality of servers; and/or (C) performing an insurance function based upon the transaction record stored to the distributed ledger. The transaction may be stored to a blockchain on the distributed ledger. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“Advantages will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the following description of the preferred aspects, which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present aspects may be capable of other and different aspects, and their details are capable of modification in various respects. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.

“The figures depict aspects of the present embodiments for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternate aspects of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method for tracking changes to statuses of insurance policies or claims pertaining to vehicles, the method comprising: implementing a plurality of servers, each of the plurality of servers maintaining a copy of a distributed ledger; detecting a change in a status of an existing insurance policy or claim pertaining to a vehicle; responding to the detection of the change in the status of the existing insurance policy or claim pertaining to the vehicle, including: (i) generating, via a first server from the plurality of servers, a transaction record for the distributed ledger including data corresponding to the change in the status; (ii) generating a hash value representative of at least the transaction record using at least a generated nonce value; and (iii) storing the transaction record and the hash value to each copy of the distributed ledger at the plurality of servers; and performing an insurance function based upon the transaction record stored to the distributed ledger.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the change in the status represents any one or more of: a generation of a new insurance policy pertaining to the vehicle; a filing of a claim pertaining to the vehicle; an assessment of damage to the vehicle; an estimate of a repair or replacement cost for the vehicle; and a payment to settle the claim.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein responding to the detection further includes: performing, via the plurality of servers, a consensus analysis via a consensus mechanism to form a consensus regarding the validity of the transaction record, wherein storing the transaction record includes storing the transaction record in response to detecting that the consensus has been formed.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein the consensus mechanism is any one or more of: a proof of activity mechanism, a proof of burn mechanism, a proof of capacity mechanism, or a proof of elapsed time mechanism.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the insurance function is a calculation of a premium.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the insurance function is an assessment of damage or an estimate of a repair or replacement cost.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the data corresponding to the change in the status includes any one or more of the following: an identifier for the active insurance policy covering the vehicle; a description of the active insurance policy; an identifier for an individual holding the active insurance policy; an identifier for an insurance provider providing the active insurance policy; a record of one or more claims filed under the active insurance policy; one or more limits and/or premiums for the active insurance policy; a detected speed of the vehicle; a detected acceleration of the vehicle; a detected position of the vehicle; a detected track of the vehicle; a detected braking by the vehicle; a detected turning of the vehicle; a detected proximate vehicle; a detected lane; a detected environmental condition; a detected road condition; and a detected ambient temperature.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data corresponding to the change in the status includes any one or more of the following: a detected opening or closing of a door of the vehicle; a measured engine temperature; a measured oil temperature; a measured cabin temperature; a seatbelt status; a detected weight on a seat; an image or video of the environment surrounding the vehicle; and an image or video of a cabin of the vehicle.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the transaction record at the distributed ledger comprises: storing the transaction to a block.

“10. The method of claim 9, wherein the hash value is a hash value for the block, and further wherein generating the hash value for the block includes generating a transaction hash value for the transaction and utilizing the transaction hash value for the transaction to generate the hash value for the block.

“11. The method of claim 3, wherein the consensus mechanism is: the proof of work mechanism, the proof of stake mechanism, or the proof of activity mechanism.

“12. The method of claim 3, wherein the consensus mechanism is: the proof of burn mechanism, the proof of capacity mechanism, or the proof of elapsed time mechanism.

“13. A system for tracking changes to statuses of insurance policies or claims pertaining to vehicles, the system comprising: a plurality of servers, each including one or more processors and maintaining a copy of a distributed ledger for tracking changes in statuses of insurance policies or claims pertaining to vehicles, wherein the plurality of servers includes a first server and one or more other servers; wherein the first server is configured to respond to a detection of a change in a status of an existing insurance policy or claim pertaining to a vehicle by generating a transaction record for the distributed ledger including data corresponding to the change in the status; and wherein the plurality of servers are configured to: (i) generate a hash value representative of at least the transaction record using at least a generated nonce value; (ii) store the transaction record generated by the first server and the hash value to each copy of the distributed ledger at the plurality of servers; and (iii) perform an insurance function based upon the transaction record stored to the distributed ledger.

“14. The system of claim 13, wherein the change in the status represents any one or more of: a generation of a new insurance policy pertaining to the vehicle; a filing of a claim pertaining to the vehicle; an assessment of damage to the vehicle; an estimate of a repair or replacement cost for the vehicle; and a payment to settle the claim.

“15. The system of claim 13, wherein the first server is configured to broadcast the transaction record to the one or more other servers; wherein the plurality of servers are configured to: perform a consensus analysis via a consensus mechanism to form a consensus regarding the validity of the transaction record; and store the transaction record in response to detecting that the consensus has been formed.

“16. The system of claim 15, wherein the consensus mechanism is any one or more of: a proof of activity mechanism, a proof of burn mechanism, a proof of capacity mechanism, or a proof of elapsed time mechanism.

“17. The system of claim 13, wherein the insurance function is a calculation of a premium.

“18. The system of claim 13, wherein the insurance function is an assessment of damage or an estimate of a repair or replacement cost.

“19. The system of claim 13, wherein the data corresponding to the change in the status includes any one or more of the following: an identifier for the active insurance policy covering the vehicle; a description of the active insurance policy; an identifier for an individual holding the active insurance policy; an identifier for an insurance provider providing the active insurance policy; a record of one or more claims filed under the active insurance policy; one or more limits and/or premiums for the active insurance policy.

“20. The system of claim 13, wherein the data corresponding to the change in the status includes any one or more of the following: a detected speed of the vehicle; a detected acceleration of the vehicle; a detected position of the vehicle; a detected track of the vehicle; a detected braking by the vehicle; a detected turning of the vehicle; a detected proximate vehicle; a detected lane; a detected environmental condition; a detected road condition; a detected ambient temperature; a detected opening or closing of a door of the vehicle; a measured engine temperature; a measured oil temperature; a measured cabin temperature; a seatbelt status; a detected weight on a seat; an image or video of the environment surrounding the vehicle; and an image or video of a cabin of the vehicle.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Alt, Jacob J. Distributed ledger system for managing smart vehicle data. U.S. Patent Number 11756128, filed February 17, 2021, and published online on September 12, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11756128)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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