Patent Issued for Fleet vehicle feature activation (USPTO 11537146): Allstate Insurance Company

2023 JAN 16 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States) has been issued patent number 11537146, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Hayes, Howard (Glencoe, IL, US), Kumar, Surender (Palatine, IL, US).

This patent was filed on March 12, 2020 and was published online on December 27, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Drivers today have many choices for various routes from a location to a destination. Systems exist for assisting drivers in determining how to get from one place to another. For example, some devices provide turn-by-turn directions to drivers, and other devices alert drivers about points of interest along a travel path. Nevertheless, there remains a need for improved technological systems for guiding drivers to a destination.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The following summary is for illustrative purposes only, and is not intended to limit or constrain the detailed description.

“Aspects of the disclosure provide effective, efficient, and convenient technical solutions that address and overcome the technical problems associated with activating or deactivating a feature of a fleet vehicle. Specifically, aspects of the disclosure relate to devices for determining, based on one or more factors, whether a fleet vehicle is following a recommended route between two or more locations. Based on whether the vehicle is following or not following the recommended route, a system or device may cause one or more features of the vehicle to be activated or deactivated. For example, a fleet management system that includes a processor and memory may receive location information from a global positioning system in the fleet vehicle. Based on the location information of the fleet vehicle, the fleet management system may cause activation or deactivation of a feature of the fleet vehicle based on whether the fleet vehicle is following or not following the recommended route. The feature of the fleet vehicle that is activated or deactivated may be an autonomous or semi-autonomous function of the vehicle. The feature may, for example, be one or more of a speed limiter, a brake, an accelerator, and/or a radio. In some aspects, the fleet vehicle may be turned or caused to follow a particular route (e.g., a self-driving function may be activated that returns the vehicle to the recommended route). In some embodiments, the fleet vehicle may be disabled.

“The system may further determine a recommended route based on one or more factors. The system may use a weighting of one or more factors to determine the recommended route.

“Furthermore, one or more factors specific to a fleet vehicle may be used in determining a recommended route. For example, a fleet of vehicles may include more than one vehicle (e.g., two, twenty, two hundred, two thousand, etc.). A particular factor in a recommended route might not matter to an individual (e.g., saving three minutes or saving insurance cost in a pay-as-you-drive model on a trip by choosing one route over another), but when aggregated over a fleet of multiple vehicles collectively making many trips each day, week, month, or year, small differences in efficiency (e.g., maximizing efficiency), or considering other factors in recommending routes, may add up to a large difference in time saved, money made, money saved, or other benefits to a fleet owner. Thus, the system may consider one or more factors associated with a fleet vehicle (e.g., risk of a route for a particular fleet vehicle type on a particular route segment based on historical or real-time data) in order to determine a recommended route.

“In accordance with one or more embodiments, a system, computer-readable media, device, and/or apparatus may be configured to perform a method that includes determining, by a computing device including a processor and memory, a driving route of the fleet vehicle from a starting location to a destination location, receiving, by the computing device, from a global positioning system device in the fleet vehicle, route information of the fleet vehicle indicating that the fleet vehicle is no longer at the starting location and is along the driving route, determining, by the computing device, that a feature of the fleet vehicle is deactivated, and after receiving the route information of the fleet vehicle and determining that the feature of the fleet vehicle is deactivated, causing, by the computing device, activation of the feature of the fleet vehicle.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: determining, by a computing device comprising a processor and memory, a driving route of a fleet vehicle of a fleet comprising a plurality of fleet vehicles, the driving route being from a starting location to a destination location; parsing, by the computing device, the driving route into one or more segments; calculating, by the computing device and for each segment of the one or more segments, a risk score; calculating, by the computing device and based on the risk score calculated for each segment of the one or more segments, a total risk score for the driving route; comparing, by the computing device, the total risk score to a first predetermined threshold; determining that a first feature of the fleet vehicle is deactivated; and causing, by the computing device, activation of the first feature of the fleet vehicle based on determining that the first feature is deactivated and the total risk score meetings the first predetermined threshold.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the risk score for each segment of the one or more segments is determined based on one or more factors, the one or more factors comprising: a driver score of a driver of the fleet vehicle; a cargo type of the fleet vehicle; historical data indicating a number or frequency of accidents in the segment; a day of a week; or historical traffic data of the segment.

“3. The method of claim 2, wherein the risk score is dynamically updated based on an update to the one or more factors.

“4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: comparing, by the computing device, the total risk score to a second predetermined threshold; and causing, by the computing device and based on a result of the comparing the total risk score to the second predetermined threshold, deactivation of a second feature of the fleet vehicle.

“5. The method of claim 4, wherein causing deactivation of the second feature comprises at least one of: deactivating a speed limiter of the fleet vehicle, deactivating a rotational speed of an engine of the fleet vehicle, deactivating a brake of the fleet vehicle, deactivating an accelerator of the fleet vehicle, turning off hazard lights of the fleet vehicle, turning off wipers of the fleet vehicle, turning off a traction control feature of the fleet vehicle, turning off safety cameras of the fleet vehicle, turning off headlights of the fleet vehicle, deactivating a self-driving function of the fleet vehicle, or disabling the fleet vehicle.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the activation of the first feature comprises at least one of: activating a speed limiter of the fleet vehicle, activating a rotational speed of an engine of the fleet vehicle, activating a brake of the fleet vehicle, activating an accelerator of the fleet vehicle, activating a self-driving function of the fleet vehicle, turning on hazard lights of the fleet vehicle, turning on wipers of the fleet vehicle, turning on a traction control feature of the fleet vehicle, turning on safety cameras of the fleet vehicle, or turning on headlights of the fleet vehicle.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether a road on the driving route comprises at least one sensor or transmitter configured to communicate with an onboard computer of the fleet vehicle to support an autonomous or semi-autonomous functionality of the fleet vehicle, wherein causing the activation of the first feature is further based on whether the road comprises the at least one sensor or transmitter.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the activation of the first feature of the fleet vehicle comprises: transmitting, by the computing device, via a cellular network, to a different computing device that is part of the fleet vehicle, an instruction to activate the first feature of the fleet vehicle.

“9. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a computing device to: determine a driving route of a fleet vehicle of a fleet comprising a plurality of fleet vehicles, the driving route being from a starting location to a destination location; parse the driving route into one or more segments; calculate, for each segment of the one or more segments, a risk score; determining that a first feature of the fleet vehicle is deactivated; and cause, based on determining that the first feature is deactivated and the risk score calculated for each segment of the one or more segments, activation of a first feature of the fleet vehicle.

“10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the risk score for each segment of the one or more segments is determined based on one or more factors, the one or more factors comprising: a driver score of a driver of the fleet vehicle; a cargo type of the fleet vehicle; historical data indicating a number or frequency of accidents in the segment; a day of a week; or historical traffic data of the segment.

“11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the risk score is dynamically updated based on an update to the one or more factors.

“12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9, storing executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to: cause, based on the risk score calculated for each segment of the one or more segments, deactivation of a second feature of the fleet vehicle.

“13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein causing deactivating of the second feature comprises at least one of: deactivating a speed limiter of the fleet vehicle, deactivating a rotational speed of an engine of the fleet vehicle, deactivating a brake of the fleet vehicle, deactivating an accelerator of the fleet vehicle, turning off hazard lights of the fleet vehicle, turning off wipers of the fleet vehicle, turning off a traction control feature of the fleet vehicle, turning off safety cameras of the fleet vehicle, turning off headlights of the fleet vehicle, deactivating a self-driving function of the fleet vehicle, or disabling the fleet vehicle.

“14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein causing the activation of the first feature comprises at least one of: activating a speed limiter of the fleet vehicle, activating a rotational speed of an engine of the fleet vehicle, activating a brake of the fleet vehicle, activating an accelerator of the fleet vehicle, activating a self-driving function of the fleet vehicle, turning on hazard lights of the fleet vehicle, turning on wipers of the fleet vehicle, turning on a traction control feature of the fleet vehicle, turning on safety cameras of the fleet vehicle, or turning on headlights of the fleet vehicle.

“15. A system comprising: a communication interface; and a processor coupled to the communication interface and configured to: determine a driving route of a fleet vehicle, the driving route being from a starting location to a destination location; parse the driving route into one or more segments; calculate, for each segment of the one or more segments, a risk score; determining that a first feature of the fleet vehicle is deactivated; and cause, based on determining that the first feature is deactivated and the risk score calculated for each segment of the one or more segments, activation of a first feature of the fleet vehicle by transmitting an instruction to activate the first feature via the communication interface.

“16. The system of claim 15, wherein the risk score for each segment of the one or more segments is determined based on one or more factors, the one or more factors comprising: a driver score of a driver of the fleet vehicle; a cargo type of the fleet vehicle; historical data indicating a number or frequency of accidents in the segment; a day of a week; or historical traffic data of the segment.

“17. The system of claim 16, wherein the risk score is dynamically updated based on an update to the one or more factors.

“18. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to: cause, based on the risk score calculated for each segment of the one or more segments, deactivation of a second feature of the fleet vehicle.

“19. The system of claim 18, wherein causing deactivation of the second feature comprises at least one of: deactivating a speed limiter of the fleet vehicle, deactivating a rotational speed of an engine of the fleet vehicle, deactivating a brake of the fleet vehicle, deactivating an accelerator of the fleet vehicle, turning off hazard lights of the fleet vehicle, turning off wipers of the fleet vehicle, turning off a traction control feature of the fleet vehicle, turning off safety cameras of the fleet vehicle, turning off headlights of the fleet vehicle, deactivating a self-driving function of the fleet vehicle, or disabling the fleet vehicle.

“20. The system of claim 15, wherein causing the activation of the first feature comprises at least one of: activating a speed limiter of the fleet vehicle, activating a rotational speed of an engine of the fleet vehicle, activating a brake of the fleet vehicle, activating an accelerator of the fleet vehicle, activating a self-driving function of the fleet vehicle, turning on hazard lights of the fleet vehicle, turning on wipers of the fleet vehicle, turning on a traction control feature of the fleet vehicle, turning on safety cameras of the fleet vehicle, or turning on headlights of the fleet vehicle.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Hayes, Howard. Fleet vehicle feature activation. U.S. Patent Number 11537146, filed March 12, 2020, and published online on December 27, 2022. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11537146)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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