Patent Issued for Dynamic auto insurance policy quote creation based on tracked user data (USPTO 11972491): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2024 MAY 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Binion, Todd (Bloomington, IL, US), Christensen, Scott T. (Salem, OR, US), Cielocha, Steven (Bloomington, IL, US), Gay, Christopher E. (Dallas, TX, US), Hayward, Gregory (Bloomington, IL, US), filed on March 23, 2022, was published online on April 30, 2024.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11972491, is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.

“Auto insurance policy rates may be calculated based on a determined risk for the possibility of a claim against the insurance company under the policy. Determining that risk, however, may be difficult. Typically, insurance companies use a number of factors related to the customer, the property to be insured, and environmental factors (e.g., the geographic area the property is located in and the likelihood of claims in that area). However, accurately determining these factors and, thus, determining an accurate measure of risk for a claim, is difficult because the factors are most often reported to the insurance company by the party most likely to benefit under a claim: the customer.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

“Customers may have urgent needs for short or long term auto insurance policies. Traditional methods of purchasing auto insurance may take too much time to complete, and may not provide the customer with the desired coverage term. A dynamic policy module may provide quick and personalized auto insurance options to a potential customer by accurately and quickly communicating possible risk factors to the insurance provider. Additionally, the module may track usage data of a potential customer to provide more accurate policy quotes, audits, and renewals.

“For example, in some embodiments, a computer-implemented method may include, receiving, by one or more processors, a coverage type for the customer vehicle; causing, by the one or more processors, usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle to be tracked; receiving, by the one or more processors, the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle; generating, by the one or more processors, the one or more new insurance policy quotes corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle based upon at least the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle; and causing, by the one or more processors, the one or more new insurance policy quotes to be displayed.

“In other embodiments, a server may include: one or more processors; and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the server to: receive a coverage type for the customer vehicle, cause usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle to be tracked, receive the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle, generate the one or more new insurance policy quotes corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle based upon at least the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle, and cause the one or more new insurance policy quotes to be displayed.

“In still other embodiments, one or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media storing executable instructions for creating one or more new insurance policy quotes for a customer associated with a customer vehicle that when executed, cause a computer to: receive a coverage type for the customer vehicle; cause usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle to be tracked; receive the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle; generate the one or more new insurance policy quotes corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle based upon at least the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle; and cause the one or more new insurance policy quotes to be displayed.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method for creating one or more new insurance policy quotes for a customer associated with a customer vehicle, the method comprising: receiving, by a first software application executing on a computing device, by one or more processors, a coverage type, of a plurality of coverage types, for the customer vehicle; causing, by the first software application executing on the computing device, by the one or more processors, a second software application executing on a mobile computing device in conjunction with one or more sensors to track a particular type of usage data of the customer vehicle based on the received coverage type for the customer vehicle, wherein a first type of usage data is tracked for a first coverage type and a second type of usage data is tracked for a second coverage type, the first type of usage data being distinct from the second type of usage data; receiving, by the first software application executing on the computing device, by the one or more processors from the second software application executing on the mobile computing device, the particular type of usage data; generating, by the first software application executing on the computing device, by the one or more processors, the one or more new insurance policy quotes corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle based upon at least the particular type of usage data; and transmitting, by the first software application executing on the computing device, by the one or more processors to the second software application executing on the mobile computing device, the one or more new insurance policy quotes to cause the second software application executing on the mobile computing device to display the one or more new insurance policy quotes in a user interface of the mobile computing device.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: causing, by the first software application executing on the computing device, by the one or more processors, a prompt to be displayed on the software application executing on the mobile computing device of the customer, the prompt to input the coverage type for the customer vehicle.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the prompt to input the coverage type for the customer vehicle includes, as selectable options, (i) personal vehicle insurance and (ii) commercial vehicle insurance.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein causing the particular type of usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle to be tracked includes: transmitting, by the first software application executing on the computing device, by the one or more processors, to the second software application executing on the mobile computing device of the customer, an indication for the second software application executing on the mobile computing device to track the particular type of usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the particular type of usage data is used to determine one or more of: a number of times the customer enters or exits the customer vehicle, a total idle time for the customer vehicle, a total driving time for the customer vehicle, a number of times the customer vehicle enters and exits a particular location, a frequency of driving events, a severity of driving events, an average miles per gallon the customer vehicle achieves, a carbon footprint the customer vehicle achieves, a location of the customer vehicle, a number or percent of times the customer vehicle surpasses a speed limit, a crime statistic along a travel route, a weather event along the travel route, or an accident report along the travel route.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one of: (i) the coverage type is based on one or more distance thresholds to be traveled by the customer vehicle and the particular type of usage data is used to determine one or more actual distances traveled by the customer vehicle, or (ii) the coverage type is based on one or more amount of time thresholds in which the customer vehicle is to be driven and the particular type of usage data is used to determine one or more actual amounts of time in which the customer vehicle is driven.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the coverage type corresponds to liability insurance.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: sending, by the first software application executing on the computing device, by the one or more processors, a prompt to the second software application executing on the mobile computing device of the customer, the prompt to take a photo of an odometer of the customer vehicle; and analyzing, by the first software application executing on the computing device, by the one or more processors, the photo at one or more of the second software application executing on the mobile computing device or a backend server to determine a set of numbers from the photo, wherein the set of numbers indicates a mileage of the customer vehicle.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the first software application executing on the computing device, by the one or more processors, an indication of permission to begin tracking the particular type of usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the first software application executing on the computing device, by the one or more processors, a purchase transaction of a calculated insurance policy quote from the customer.

“11. A server comprising: one or more processors; and a memory storing a first software application including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the server to: receive a coverage type, of a plurality of coverage types, for a customer vehicle; cause a second software application executing on a mobile computing device in conjunction with one or more sensors to track a particular type of usage data of the customer vehicle based on the received coverage type for the customer vehicle, wherein a first type of usage data is tracked for a first coverage type and a second type of usage data is tracked for a second coverage type, the first type of usage data being distinct from the second type of usage data; receive, from the second software application executing on the mobile computing device, the particular type of usage data; generate one or more new insurance policy quotes for a customer associated with the customer vehicle corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle based upon at least the particular type of usage data; and transmitting, to the second software application executing on the mobile computing device, the one or more new insurance policy quotes to cause the second software application executing on the mobile computing device to display the one or more new insurance policy quotes in a user interface of the mobile computing device.

“12. The server of claim 11, the memory storing further instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the server to: cause a prompt to be displayed on the second software application executing on the mobile computing device of the customer, the prompt to input the coverage type for the customer vehicle.

“13. The server of claim 12, wherein the prompt to input the coverage type for the customer vehicle includes, as selectable options, (i) personal vehicle insurance and (ii) commercial vehicle insurance.

“14. The server of claim 11, wherein the instructions stored in the memory that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the server to: transmit to the second software application executing on the mobile computing device of the customer, an indication for the second software application executing on the mobile computing device to track the particular type of usage data.

“15. The server of claim 11, wherein the particular type of usage data is used to determine one or more of: a number of times the customer enters or exits the customer vehicle, a total idle time for the customer vehicle, a total driving time for the customer vehicle, a number of times the customer vehicle enters and exits a particular location, a frequency of driving events, a severity of driving events, an average miles per gallon the customer vehicle achieves, a carbon footprint the customer vehicle achieves, a location of the customer vehicle, a number or percent of times the customer vehicle surpasses a speed limit, a crime statistic along a travel route, a weather event along the travel route, or an accident report along the travel route.

“16. The server of claim 11, wherein at least one of: (i) the coverage type is based on one or more distance thresholds to be traveled by the customer vehicle and the particular type of usage data is used to determine one or more actual distances traveled by the customer vehicle, or (ii) the coverage type is based on one or more amount of time thresholds in which the customer vehicle is to be driven and the particular type of usage data is used to determine one or more actual amounts of time in which the customer vehicle is driven.

“17. The server of claim 11, wherein the coverage type corresponds to liability insurance.”

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

For more information, see this patent: Binion, Todd. Dynamic auto insurance policy quote creation based on tracked user data. U.S. Patent Number 11972491, filed March 23, 2022, and published online on April 30, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11972491)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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