Patent Issued for Mobile device disabling and verification system and method (USPTO 11688016): Hartford Fire Insurance Company

2023 JUL 14 (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 DeLeon, Cindy S. (Ansonia, CT, US), McLaughlin, Kelly J. (Cobalt, CT, US), Opena, Lawrence J. (Cromwell, CT, US), Russo, James A. (Thomaston, CT, US), filed on April 6, 2021, was published online on June 27, 2023.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11688016, is Hartford Fire Insurance Company (Hartford, Connecticut, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Distracted driving or more specifically, using a mobile device for electronic mail, texting, surfing the internet or other uses has become the leading cause of accidents in modern society. Generally, the youngest and most inexperienced drivers are most at risk, with 16% of all distracted driving crashes involving drivers under 20 years of age. At any given moment during daylight hours, over 800,000 vehicles are being driven by someone using a hand-held mobile device. Texting is the most alarming distraction because it involves manual, visual, and cognitive distraction simultaneously while driving. Sending or reading a text takes the driver’s eyes off the road for several seconds, enough to cause a serious accident. Even hands free type systems are not effective as research indicates that the cognitive distraction of having a hands-free phone conversation causes drivers to miss the important visual and audio cues that would ordinarily help one avoid a crash.

“Accidents related to distracted driving due to mobile device usage have been attributed to billions of dollars of damage in the United States. In fact, distracted driving has replaced alcohol as the number one safety concern of the driving public. In fact, distracted driving is the primary killer of American teens now. Commercial transportation companies, including marine transportation providers, are also facing unprecedented liability due to distracted driving accidents. Distraction through cell phone use whether a call comes in, responding to a text or browsing the internet is putting all drivers or anyone on or near the road in danger. Many companies have also instituted distracted driving policies and guidelines. In order to eliminate unnecessary risk behind the wheel, many companies have created policies and guidelines where employees may not engage in activities that distract them from operating a company vehicle at all times, including for personal use and a non-company vehicle while traveling on or conducting company business, for example, travel between company offices or to and from the office if taking a work-related call. Such policies include prohibitions using electronic devices such as mobile or cellular telephones, laptops, handheld organizers, Global Positioning Systems (“GPS”), and tablets. Companies have made managers and employees responsible for adherence to such company policies and guidelines and have stated that failure to do so may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.

“Accordingly, what is needed are effective ways to encourage and promote safe driving for both individuals and companies and their employees and to promote driving without active use of a mobile device.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present invention in some embodiments relates to a system for providing a mobile device related discount to an insurance customer by an insurance company for an automobile insurance policy issued by the insurance company, comprising: one or more data storage devices storing a database having data related to a plurality of mobile device disabling technologies and a plurality of discount levels; and an insurance rules processor configured to: receive data from the insurance customer indicative of the insurance customer’s selection of one of the plurality of mobile device disabling technologies; correlate the insurance customer’s selected mobile device disabling technology to one of the plurality of discount levels; determine an insurance premium for the insurance policy based on the correlated discount level; transmit the determined premium to the insurance customer’s mobile device; and periodically verify use of the selected mobile device disabling technology.

“In embodiments, a computerized method for providing an automobile insurance discount to an insurance customer by an insurance company, includes: storing data in one or more data storage devices related to a plurality of insurance policies, a plurality of mobile device disabling technologies and a plurality of discount levels associated with each of the plurality of mobile device disabling technologies; receiving by a communications interface periodic customer eligibility data related to the insurance customer’s use of a mobile device disabling technology; processing in one or more processors the eligibility data to determine a discount level for the insurance customer from the plurality of discount levels; and transmitting by the communications interface the discount level to a device of the insurance customer.

“In embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores instructions adapted to be executed by a computer processor to perform a method associated with a determining discounts for automobile insurance policies, said method comprising storing data related to mobile device suppression technology data and policy premium discounts; receiving eligibility data related to a mobile device suppressing technology associated with a user; assigning a discount based on the mobile device suppressing technology; determining a policy premium based on the discount assigned; and transmitting the policy premium to the user.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system for providing for implementation and verification of use of a mobile device disabling technology in a vehicle, comprising: a mobile device, wherein the mobile device is configured to: execute instructions of an installed mobile device disabling application, the mobile device disabling application: (a) causing the mobile device to communicate with a vehicle computer system; and (b) disabling one or more communications capabilities of the mobile device; and execute instructions of an installed verification application, the installed verification application: (a) causing the mobile device to compare, to verification rules, results of checking at least an empty text message log, on the mobile device, to verify absence of tampering; and (b) causing the mobile device to transmit results of the verification, the transmitted results of the verification, responsive to determining that the text message log is empty, constituting an indication of tampering; a central computer system, in communication with the mobile device, comprising: one or more data storage devices storing data indicative of: a selected mobile device disabling technology associated with each of remote users and third parties; and correlations between each of a plurality of mobile device disabling technologies and each of a plurality of discount levels; and a rules processor configured to: determine a premium for a risk coverage policy based on the correlated discount level for the mobile device disabling technology used in relation to the risk coverage policy; receive a result of the verification from the mobile device; based on the result of the verification, maintain the determined premium, or modify the determined premium by discontinuing the determined premium or applying a different one of the plurality of discount levels; and transmit, by a communications interface to the mobile device, data indicative of a modified discount level.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the rules processor is further configured to: initiate a communication to a third party system having data indicative of whether one or more of the plurality of mobile device disabling technologies is activated or has been disabled; wherein maintenance or modification of the determined premium is further based upon the data from the third party system indicative of whether the one or more of the plurality of mobile device disabling technologies is activated or has been disabled.

“3. The system of claim 2, wherein the rules processor is further configured to: periodically or aperiodically poll the mobile device to verify use of the selected mobile device disabling technology and to cause the mobile device to transmit results of the verification to the central computer system; or verify use of the selected mobile device disabling technology by periodically or aperiodically initiating a communication to the third party system having the data indicative of whether the mobile device disabling application is activated or has been disabled and to cause the mobile device to transmit results of the verification to the central computer system.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of mobile device disabling technologies comprises at least two of: (a) a first mobile device disabling technology that completely disables any use of a mobile device while driving; (b) a second mobile device disabling technology that allows use of a mobile device and converts text to speech while driving; © a third mobile device disabling technology that blocks text communications while driving with no blocking of voice or social media; (d) a fourth mobile device disabling technology that automatically sends pre-set replies to incoming text messages, silences all calls, text messages and emails, and blocks a driver from reading or typing; (e) a fifth mobile device disabling technology that disables texting when the vehicle is moving faster than a pre-determined speed; and (f) a sixth mobile device disabling technology that blocks text messages and calls based on at least one of time-of-day and location; wherein each of the plurality of mobile device disabling technologies correlates to a discount level.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the correlations between each of the mobile device disabling technologies and the plurality of discount levels, comprises: (a) a first mobile device disabling technology that completely disables any use of the mobile device while driving corresponds to a first discount level; (b) a second mobile device disabling technology that allows use of the mobile device and converts text to speech while driving corresponds to a second discount level representing a lesser discount than the first discount level; and © a third mobile device disabling technology that blocks text communications while driving with no blocking of voice or social media, corresponds to a third discount level representing a discount between the first discount level and the second discount level.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein the installed verification application further causes the mobile device to compare, to verification rules, results of: checking configuration settings of the mobile device; and checking logs of sent and received calls, text messages, website activity and application activity of the mobile device to check that the mobile device disabling application is installed and operating on the mobile device to verify absence of tampering.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the installed verification application on the mobile device further causes the mobile device to periodically or aperiodically verify use of the selected mobile device disabling technology.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the rules processor is further configured to determine a discount level based on a duration the mobile device disabling technology is active on a trip.

“9. A computerized method for providing for implementation of mobile device disabling technology in a vehicle, the method comprising: by a mobile device, executing instructions of an application program for disabling the mobile device, communicating with a vehicle computer system and disabling one or more communications capabilities of the mobile device; by the mobile device, executing instructions of an installed verification application, verifying absence of tampering at least by checking for one or more empty logs, including at least an empty text message log, on the mobile device; and transmitting to a communications interface results of the verification, the transmitted results of the verification, responsive to determining that the text message log is empty, comprising an indication that the empty text message log has been identified; receiving by one or more processors of a computer server, via the communications interface, mobile device disabling technology usage verification data from the mobile device; storing data in one or more data storage devices related to a plurality of risk coverage policies, a plurality of mobile device disabling technologies and a plurality of discount levels correlated with each of the plurality of mobile device disabling technologies; determining, by the one or more processors, a premium for a risk coverage policy based on the correlated discount level for the mobile device disabling technology used in relation to the risk coverage policy; receiving, by the one or more processors, a result of the verification from the mobile device; based on the verification, maintaining by the one or more processors the correlated discount level, or modifying by the one or more processors the correlated discount level by discontinuing the discount or applying a different one of the plurality of discount levels; and transmitting, by the communications interface to the mobile device, data indicative of a modified discount level.

“10. The method of claim 9, further comprising: initiating by the one or more processors, a communication, via a communications interface, to a third party system, having data indicative of whether the application program for disabling the mobile device is activated or has been disabled; wherein maintenance or modification of the determined premium is further based upon the data from the third party system indicative of whether one or more of the plurality of mobile device disabling technologies is activated or has been disabled.

“11. The computerized method of claim 10, further comprising: periodically or aperiodically polling, by the one or more processors, the mobile device to verify use of a selected mobile device disabling technology and transmitting, by the mobile device, results of the verification to the one or more computer processors; or verifying, by the one or more processors, continuing use of the selected mobile device disabling technology by periodically or aperiodically initiating a communication to the third party system having data indicative of whether the mobile device disabling application is activated or has been disabled and transmitting, by the mobile device, results of the verification to the one or more computer processors.”

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

For more information, see this patent: DeLeon, Cindy S. Mobile device disabling and verification system and method. U.S. Patent Number 11688016, filed April 6, 2021, and published online on June 27, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11688016)&db=USPAT&type=ids

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)