Patent Issued for Methods of pre-generating insurance claims (USPTO 11708050): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2023 AUG 11 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Baumann, Megan Michal (Bloomington, IL, US), Baumann, Nathan W. (Bloomington, IL, US), Bonnom, Atlanta (Bloomington, IL, US), Carter, Dustin Ryan (Normal, IL, US), Clauss, Mark E. (Bloomington, IL, US), Cope, Craig (Bloomington, IL, US), Graff, Douglas Albert (Mountain View, MO, US), Lawyer, Jennifer Luella (Bloomington, IL, US), Potter, Thomas Michael (Normal, IL, US), Simpson, Curtis (Bloomington, IL, US), filed on January 14, 2022, was published online on July 25, 2023, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11708050 is assigned to State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “When a vehicle accident occurs, insured drivers often do not promptly call their insurance providers to report the accident and initiate a claim. For example, a driver may have other pressing concerns, such as seeking medical assistance, finding and contacting a towing company, contacting individuals whom the driver had been on his or her way to meet, and so on. Moreover, the driver may not recall the details of the accident as clearly once some time has passed and he or she has been occupied with other tasks. As a result, the process of determining and making payouts to insured drivers may be delayed, and the payouts (or lack thereof) may not as accurately reflect the circumstances of the accident.

“The present embodiments may overcome these and/or other deficiencies.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments disclose systems and methods that may relate to the intersection of telematics and insurance. In some embodiments, for example, telematics and/or other data may be collected and used to determine a likely severity of a vehicle accident. The data may be gathered from one or more sources, such as mobile devices (e.g., smart phones, smart glasses, smart watches, smart wearable devices, smart contact lenses, and/or other devices capable of wireless communication); smart vehicles; smart vehicle or smart home mounted sensors; third party sensors or sources of data (e.g., other vehicles, public transportation systems, government entities, and/or the Internet); and/or other sources of information. Based upon the likely severity, an estimated claim may be generated based upon the likely severity.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method of generating an insurance claim for an insured owning an insurance policy issued by an insurance provider may include (1) collecting, by one or more remote servers associated with the insurance provider, accident data associated with a vehicle accident involving a driver. The accident data may include vehicle telematics data, and/or the driver may be either the insured or another individual associated with the insurance policy issued by the insurance provider. The method may also include (2) analyzing, by the one or more remote servers, the accident data; (3) determining, by the one or more remote servers and based upon the analysis of the accident data, a likely severity of the vehicle accident; (4) generating, by the one or more remote servers, an estimated insurance claim based upon the determined likely severity of the vehicle accident; (5) transmitting, via wireless communication, the estimated insurance claim from the one or more remote servers to a mobile device associated with the driver or the insured to facilitate presenting all, or a portion of, the estimated insurance claim to the driver or the insured; (6) receiving, at the one or more remote servers, a wireless communication from the driver or the insured indicating approval, rejection, or modification of the estimated insurance claim; and/or (7) handling the estimated insurance claim, at the one or more remote servers, in accordance with the approval, rejection, or modification of the estimated insurance claim. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a system for generating an insurance claim for an insured owning an insurance policy issued by an insurance provider may include one or more processors and one or more memories. The one or more memories may store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to (1) collect accident data associated with a vehicle accident involving a driver. The accident data may include vehicle telematics data, and/or the driver may be either the insured or another individual associated with the insurance policy issued by the insurance provider. The instructions may also cause the one or more processors to (2) analyze the accident data. (3) determine, based upon the analysis of the accident data, a likely severity of the vehicle accident; (4) generate an estimated insurance claim based upon the determined likely severity of the vehicle accident; (5) cause the estimated insurance claim to be transmitted, via wireless communication, to a mobile device associated with the driver or the insured to facilitate presenting all, or a portion of, the estimated insurance claim to the driver or the insured; (6) receive a wireless communication from the driver or the insured indicating approval, rejection, or modification of the estimated insurance claim; and/or (6) handle the estimated insurance claim in accordance with the approval, rejection, or modification of the estimated insurance claim.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method of generating an insurance claim for an insured owning an insurance policy issued by an insurance provider may include (1) collecting, by one or more remote servers associated with the insurance provider, accident data associated with a vehicle accident involving a driver. The accident data may include vehicle telematics data, and/or the driver may be either the insured or another individual associated with the insurance policy issued by the insurance provider. The method may also include (2) analyzing, by the one or more remote servers, the accident data; (3) determining, by the one or more remote servers and based upon the analysis of the accident data, a likely severity of the vehicle accident; (4) generating an estimated insurance claim, at the one or more remote servers, based upon the determined likely severity of the vehicle accident; and/or (5) transmitting, via wireless communication, the estimated insurance claim from the one or more remote servers to the driver or the insured for review, approval, or modification to facilitate prompt handling of the insurance claim. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“Advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiments which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present embodiments may be capable of other and different embodiments, 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 claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method of analyzing mobile device-generated telematics data, the method comprising: generating, by a mobile device communicatively connected to a network and associated with a driver or an insured and located inside an insured vehicle during a vehicle accident, time-stamped accident data associated with the vehicle accident involving the driver, the time-stamped accident data including vehicle telematics data generated before, during, and after the vehicle accident by the mobile device of the driver, and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication data associated with, or generated by, V2V communication between the insured vehicle and at least one additional vehicle; immediately transmitting, from the mobile device to one or more remote servers located remotely from the mobile device and communicatively connected to the network via wireless communication, the time-stamped accident data following the vehicle accident; analyzing, by the one or more remote servers, the time-stamped accident data to determine an indication of a change in speed of the insured vehicle during the vehicle accident based upon the telematics data and a change in speed of the at least one additional vehicle during the vehicle accident based upon the V2V communication data received directly by the insured vehicle from the at least one additional vehicle; and automatically and remotely determining, by the one or more remote servers and based upon the analysis of the accident data, a severity of damage to the insured vehicle based at least upon the change in speed of the insured vehicle as determined by the time-stamped accident data generated by the mobile device located inside the insured vehicle and the change in speed of the at least one additional vehicle as determined by the V2V communication data.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the time-stamped accident data further includes collecting data associated with, or generated by, the insured vehicle or a computer system of the insured vehicle.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the time-stamped accident data further includes collecting data associated with, or generated by, a vehicle other than the insured vehicle.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the time-stamped accident data further includes collecting data associated with, or generated by, roadside equipment or infrastructure located near a location of the vehicle accident.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the method further comprising: generating, by the one or more remote servers, an estimated insurance claim based upon the determined severity of the damage to the insured vehicle.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, the method further comprising: transmitting, via wireless communication, the estimated insurance claim from the one or more remote servers to the mobile device to facilitate presenting all, or a portion of, the estimated insurance claim to the driver or the insured; and receiving, at the one or more remote servers, a wireless communication from the driver or the insured indicating approval, rejection, or modification of the estimated insurance claim.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, the method comprising adjusting, generating, or updating, at the one or more remote servers and based upon the estimated insurance claim, one or more insurance-related items, the one or more insurance related items including one or more of (i) parameters of the insurance policy; (ii) a premium; (iii) a rate; (iv) a discount; or (v) a reward.

“8. A computer system for analyzing mobile device-generated telematics data, the system comprising: a mobile device communicatively connected to a network, the mobile device associated with a driver or an insured and located inside an insured vehicle during a vehicle accident, wherein the mobile device is configured to: generate time-stamped accident data associated with the vehicle accident involving the driver, the time-stamped accident data including vehicle telematics data and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication data associated with, or generated by, V2V communication between the insured vehicle and at least one additional vehicle, and cause the time-stamped accident data to be transmitted from the mobile device to a remote server immediately following the vehicle accident; one or more processors of the remote server located remotely from the mobile device and communicatively connected to the network; and one or more memories storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receive the time-stamped accident data from the mobile device, analyze the time-stamped accident data to determine an indication of a change in speed of the insured vehicle during the vehicle accident based upon the telematics data and a change in speed of the at least one additional vehicle during the vehicle accident based upon the V2V communication data received directly by the insured vehicle from the at least one additional vehicle, and automatically and remotely determine, based upon the analysis of the time-stamped accident data, a severity of a damage to the insured vehicle based upon the change in speed of the insured vehicle as determined by the time-stamped accident data generated by the mobile device and the change in speed of the at least one additional vehicle as determined by the V2V communication data.

“9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to: generate an estimated insurance claim based upon the determined severity of the damage to the insured vehicle.

“10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to: cause the estimated insurance claim to be transmitted, via wireless communication, to the mobile device to facilitate presenting all, or a portion of, the estimated insurance claim to the driver or the insured, and receive a wireless communication from the driver or the insured indicating approval, rejection, or modification of the estimated insurance claim.

“11. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to: adjust, generate, or update one or more insurance-related items based upon the estimated insurance claim, the one or more insurance-related items including one or more of (i) parameters of the insurance policy; (ii) a premium; (iii) a rate; (iv) a discount; or (v) a reward.

“12. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the time-stamped accident data further includes data associated with, or generated by, the insured vehicle or a computer system of the insured vehicle.

“13. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the time-stamped accident data further includes data associated with, or generated by, a vehicle other than the insured vehicle.

“14. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the time-stamped accident data further includes data associated with, or generated by, roadside equipment or infrastructure located near a location of the vehicle accident.

“15. A computer-implemented method of generating an estimated insurance claim from analysis of mobile device-generated telematics data, the method comprising: generating, by a mobile device communicatively connected to a network and associated with a driver or an insured and located inside the insured vehicle during a vehicle accident, time-stamped accident data associated with the vehicle accident involving the driver, the time-stamped accident data including vehicle telematics data generated by the mobile device of the driver, and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication data associated with, or generated by, V2V communication between the insured vehicle and at least one additional vehicle; immediately transmitting, from the mobile device to a remote server located remotely from the mobile device and communicatively connected to the network via wireless communication, the time-stamped accident data following the vehicle accident; analyzing, by the one or more remote servers, the time-stamped accident data to determine an indication of a change in speed of the insured vehicle during the vehicle accident based upon the telematics data and a change in speed of the at least one additional vehicle during the vehicle accident based upon the V2V communication data received directly by the insured vehicle from the at least one additional vehicle; automatically and remotely determining, by the one or more remote servers and based upon the analysis of the time-stamped accident data, a severity of the vehicle accident based upon the change in speed of the insured vehicle as determined by the time-stamped accident data generated by the mobile device associated with the insured vehicle and the change in speed of the at least one additional vehicle as determined by the V2V communication data; and generating an estimated insurance claim, at the one or more remote servers, based at least upon the determined severity of the vehicle accident.

“16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, the method further comprising: transmitting, via wireless communication, the estimated insurance claim from the one or more remote servers to a mobile device of the driver or the insured for review, approval, or modification to facilitate prompt handling of the insurance claim.

“17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, the method further comprising receiving, at the one or more remote servers and from the mobile device of the driver or the insured, a wireless communication indicating rejection, approval, or modification of the estimated insurance claim.”

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

URL and more information on this patent, see: Baumann, Megan Michal. Methods of pre-generating insurance claims. U.S. Patent Number 11708050, filed January 14, 2022, and published online on July 25, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11708050)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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