Patent Issued for Methods of providing insurance savings based upon telematics and driving behavior identification (USPTO 11565654): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2023 FEB 17 (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 11565654, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are 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).

This patent was filed on October 27, 2020 and was published online on January 31, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Conventional insurance techniques and policies may be subject to inaccuracies due to limited information and/or inadequate risk mitigation or prevention. For example, conventional automobile insurance policies are based upon risk estimates using the age, location, and reported driving history (e.g., reported accidents) of a an insured driver. When such a policy covers multiple drivers (e.g., family members), estimates of risks associated with each driver are used, based upon typical drivers having similar demographic characteristics. Thus, conventional automobile insurance fails to accurately account for different risk levels posed by personal risk preferences and/or driving styles, as well as different risks associated with different usage levels of insured drivers. Conventional insurance techniques may also suffer from the lack of incentivizing the preferred types of behaviors; failure to properly identify risks associated with an individual; inefficient or ineffective customer communications; inadequate or incorrect behavior-based policies; and/or other drawbacks. The present embodiments may overcome these and/or other deficiencies.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters 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 gathered and used to determine risks associated with an insured vehicle or person. 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. The data may further be collected or gathered from other vehicles (either directly or indirectly through vehicle-to-vehicle communication), infrastructure components, and/or other road side equipment. Insurance claims, policies, premiums, rates, discounts, rewards, deductibles, limits, and/or programs may then be adjusted based upon the risks determined from the telematics and/or other collected data. The determined risks may be applied to automobile insurance and/or other types of insurance. In some embodiments, the data may be received, risks determined, and/or insurance policies adjusted at a remote server.

“In accordance with the described embodiments, the disclosure herein generally addresses systems, methods, and computer-readable media for using anonymous driver data to adjust driving risk. The system, method, or media may include (1) collecting anonymous driver data associated with driving behavior of a plurality of drivers; (2) collecting insured driving behavior data associated with the driving behavior of an insured driver; (3) determining a driving risk score associated with the insured driver by comparing the anonymous driver data with the insured driving behavior data; (4) determining an adjustment to an insurance policy associated with the insured driver based upon the determined driving risk score; and/or (5) causing the adjustment to the insurance policy to be implemented.

“The anonymous driver data may indicate anonymous driver behavior associated with one or more road segments. The insured driving behavior data may be associated with the one or more road segments and/or may include telematics data generated by one or more sensors. The one or more road segments may include one or more of the following: a specific road, a specific section of a road, and/or an intersection. In some aspects, comparing the anonymous driver data with the insured driving behavior data may include comparing one or more of the following associated with the one or more road segments for anonymous drivers and the insured driver: vehicle speed, vehicle braking, vehicle acceleration, vehicle turning, vehicle position in a lane, vehicle distance from other vehicles, use of safety equipment, and/or driver alertness.

“In accordance with the described embodiments, the disclosure herein also generally addresses systems, methods, and computer-readable media for generating, adjusting, or updating an insurance policy using telematics data. The system, method, or media may include (1) collecting telematics data associated with driving behavior of an insured driver from one or more sensors; (2) determining one or more driving risk scores associated with the insured driver based upon the collected telematics data; (3) determining a risk aversion score associated with the insured driver based upon the one or more driving risk scores; (4) determining an adjustment to an insurance policy associated with the insured driver based upon the determined risk aversion score; and/or (5) causing the adjustment to the insurance policy to be implemented. In some aspects, the system, method, or media may further include transmitting information regarding the adjustment to the insurance policy to one or more insurance customers associated with the insurance policy for review and/or receiving a confirmation of the adjustment to the insurance policy from at least one of the one or more insurance customers.

“The insurance policy may be an automobile insurance policy or another type of insurance policy, such as a life insurance policy, a health insurance policy, a disability insurance policy, an accident insurance policy, a homeowners insurance policy, a renters insurance policy, and/or an excess liability insurance policy.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method for using telematics data, comprising: collecting, at one or more processors, telematics data associated with driving behavior of an insured driver and biometric data associated with the insured driver from one or more sensors, the telematics data comprising sensor data indicative of visual information and at least one hard braking event; verifying, by the one or more processors based on the visual information, an accuracy of the at least one hard braking event and whether an unexpected action of another vehicle or a pedestrian is a cause of the at least one hard braking event; determining, by the one or more processors, one or more driving risk scores associated with the insured driver based upon the collected telematics data and the verified cause and accuracy of the at least one hard braking event, wherein each driving risk score indicates a level of risk of a vehicle accident; generating, by the one or more processors, a risk aversion score associated with the insured driver based upon the one or more driving risk scores, wherein the risk aversion score indicates risk preferences of the insured driver; determining, by the one or more processors, one or more of physical, mental, or emotional conditions of the insured driver based upon the biometric data and the risk aversion score; and in response to determining, by the one or more processors, that the one or more of the physical, mental, or emotional conditions indicate a high risk of the vehicle accident for the insured driver, transmitting, by the one or more processors, a warning notification to a mobile device of the insured driver or an onboard computer of the insured vehicle in real-time, and limiting, by one or more processors associated with the mobile device or the onboard computer, functionality of the mobile device or at least one component of the insured vehicle for the insured driver.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the one or more driving risk scores includes: analyzing the collected telematics data to determine one or more of the following usage characteristics: (i) driving characteristics associated with the driving behavior of the insured driver, or (ii) driving environments associated with the driving behavior of the insured driver, and determining the one or more driving risk scores based upon the determined usage characteristics.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the driving characteristics include one or more of the following: vehicle speed, vehicle braking, vehicle acceleration, vehicle turning, vehicle position in a lane, vehicle distance from other vehicles, use of safety equipment, or insured driver alertness; and the driving environments include one or more of the following: geographic location, time of day, type of road, weather conditions, traffic conditions, construction conditions, or route traveled.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the driving environment includes a daily commute of the insured driver to and from a workplace.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting an insurance policy associated with the insured driver by adjusting a risk level associated with the insured driver for the insurance policy based upon the determined risk aversion score.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the insurance policy is one or more of the following: an automobile insurance policy, a health insurance policy, a disability insurance policy, an accident insurance policy, or an excess liability insurance policy.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the adjustment to the insurance policy includes one or more of the following: a premium, a rate, a reward, a deductible, or a limit.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising: transmitting, via a communication network, information regarding the adjustment to the insurance policy to one or more insurance customers associated with the insurance policy for review; and receiving, at the one or more processors, a confirmation of the adjustment to the insurance policy from at least one of the one or more insurance customers.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the one or more driving risk scores includes: determining the identity of one or more drivers of one or more insured vehicles, including the insured vehicle; determining usage characteristics of the one or more drivers associated with the one or more insured vehicles, including one or more of the following: (i) an amount that each of the one or more drivers uses each of the one or more insured vehicles, (ii) driving behavior characteristics of each of the one or more drivers with respect to each of the one or more insured vehicles, or (iii) the vehicle environments in which each of the one or more drivers operates the one or more insured vehicles; and determining the one or more driving risk scores based upon the determined usage characteristics.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the one or more driving risk scores is based, at least in part, upon one or more of the following: a location the insured vehicle is parked or an amount of time the insured vehicle is garaged.

“11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the one or more driving risk score is based, at least in part, upon analysis of vehicle maintenance records.

“12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors are disposed within or communicatively connected to one or more of the following: the mobile device or the on-board computer.

“13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the telematics data further includes data generated by one or more of the following: (i) a vehicle other than the insured vehicle associated with the insured driver; (ii) the insured vehicle, based upon vehicle-to-vehicle communication with one or more other vehicles; (iii) an infrastructure component; or (iv) road side equipment.

“14. A computer system for using telematics data, comprising: one or more processors; one or more communication modules adapted to communicate data; and a program memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the computer system to: collect telematics data associated with driving behavior of an insured driver and biometric data associated with the insured driver from one or more sensors via the one or more communication modules, the telematics data comprising sensor data indicative of visual information and at least one hard braking event; verify based on the visual information an accuracy of the at least one hard braking event and whether an unexpected action of another vehicle or a pedestrian is a cause of the at least one hard braking event; determine one or more driving risk scores associated with the insured driver based upon the collected telematics data and the verified cause and accuracy of the at least one hard braking event, wherein each driving risk score indicates a level of risk of a vehicle accident; generate a risk aversion score associated with the insured driver based upon the one or more driving risk scores, wherein the risk aversion score indicates risk preferences of the insured driver; determine one or more of physical, mental, or emotional conditions of the insured driver based upon the biometric data and the risk aversion score; and in response to the one or more of the physical, mental, or emotional conditions indicating a high risk of the vehicle accident for the insured driver, transmit a warning notification to a mobile device of the insured driver or an onboard computer of the insured vehicle in real-time, and limit functionality of the mobile device or at least one component of the insured vehicle for the insured driver.

“15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the executable instructions that cause the computer system to determine the one or more driving risk scores cause the computer system to: adjust an insurance policy associated with the insured driver by adjusting a risk level associated with the insured driver for the insurance policy based upon the risk aversion score.

“16. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the executable instructions that cause the computer system to determine the one or more driving risk scores cause the computer system to: analyze the collected telematics data to determine one or more of the following usage characteristics: (i) driving characteristics associated with the driving behavior of the insured driver, or (ii) driving environments associated with the driving behavior of the insured driver, and determine the one or more driving risk scores based upon the determined usage characteristics.

“17. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the one or more driving risk scores are determined based, at least in part, upon one or more of the following: the identity and usage of an insured vehicle by one or more drivers, a location an insured vehicle is parked, an amount of time the insured vehicle is garaged, or vehicle maintenance records.”

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

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Baumann, Megan Michal. Methods of providing insurance savings based upon telematics and driving behavior identification. U.S. Patent Number 11565654, filed October 27, 2020, and published online on January 31, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11565654)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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