Patent Issued for Pre-license development tool (USPTO 11568755): Allstate Insurance Company

2023 FEB 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Dornadic, Alicia (Belmont, CA, US), Gibbs, Evan (Daly City, CA, US), Hsu-Hoffman, Chienlan (Palo Alto, CA, US), Madigan, Regina (Mountain View, CA, US), Parsell, Taylor (Berkeley, CA, US), Zahedi, Maryam (Portola Valley, CA, US), filed on December 22, 2020, was published online on January 31, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11568755 is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Car accidents are a common cause of injury and damage, and the costs resulting from car accidents can be significant. The frequency of car accidents is especially high for young and/or novice drivers. There is a demand to reduce the number of accidents among this group of drivers. In the United States, many states require mandatory training for new drivers. This training may include attending classes and/or taking a driving course with a certified instructor. Further, in many states, prior to obtaining a driver’s license, users may receive a driving permit that allows them to drive as long as another person with a valid driver’s license is in the vehicle. Often this other person is asked or desires to teach the driver to drive. However, this other person might not know how to teach the driver or might want advice on how to teach the driver.

“Accordingly, new systems, devices, methodologies, and software are desired to provide teaching assistance to passengers, such as parents, driving coaches, etc., to aid in teaching novice drivers, such as teenagers, how to drive. New systems, devices, methodologies, and software are likewise desired to teach drivers to drive better and more safely.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In light of the foregoing background, the following presents a simplified summary of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

“Aspects of the disclosure address one or more of the issues mentioned above by disclosing methods, computer readable storage media, software, systems, and apparatuses for providing a tool that tracks progression of driving skills and experience of a student (e.g., a teenager) as he/she learns to drive. The tool further presents coaching advice to coaches (e.g., parents, friends, etc.) in real-time while the student is driving and feedback to students for their review after driving.

“Aspects of this disclosure provide computer readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computing device (e.g., a parent’s smartphone) to collect drive data (e.g., acceleration, deceleration, g-force, time of day, etc.) while a driver is driving a vehicle, detect a drive event based on the drive data, and present coaching information associated with the drive event in response to detecting the drive event. A drive event may be, for example, a brake event or turn event or any behavior or pattern exhibited by a driver while driving. The computer-executable instructions may further cause the computing device to determine the coaching information based on driver information associated with the driver and/or information associated with the coach (e.g., information indicating whether a coach overreacts and/or a degree to which the coach overreacts). In some cases, this driver information may be retrieved from another computing device associated with the driver (e.g., a smartphone of the driver). During the drive, the computer-executable instructions may further cause the computing device to receive a user request for coaching information and may present the requested coaching information. Also during the drive, the computer-executable instructions may further cause the computing device to predict a future drive event, such as an upcoming brake event and/or upcoming turn event. In response to predicting a future drive event, the computer-executable instructions may cause the computing device to present coaching information for the predicted future drive event. After the drive, the coach’s (e.g., parent’s) smartphone may transmit the coaching information to the driver’s smartphone, so the driver may review the coaching information. Aspects of the disclosure also provide the computing device or apparatus including the computer readable media storing such computer-executable instructions. The computing device or apparatus may be a smartphone, tablet, laptop, vehicle’s computing device (including a vehicle’s in-dash display screen), etc.

“Aspects of the disclosure further provide a method of collecting drive data while a driver is driving a vehicle, detecting a drive event (e.g., brake event, turn event, etc.) based on the drive data, and presenting coaching information associated with the drive event in response to detecting the drive event. This method may further include retrieving driver information from another computing device associated with the driver (e.g., a driver’s smartphone), determining the coaching information based on the driver information associated with the driver, and transmitting the coaching information to the driver’s smartphone. The method may also include receiving a user request for a second piece of coaching information, and presenting the second piece of coaching information. Further, the method may include providing a suggested route, predicting a future drive event using map information of the suggested route, and presenting additional coaching information associated with the future drive event in response to predicting the future drive event. Still, in some examples, the method may also include recording audio within the vehicle while the driver is driving, and transmitting the recording to another computing device after the drive.

“In addition, aspects of this disclosure provide a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a pre-license program. The pre-license program may include computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computing device to receive a target driver’s license test date (e.g., a date on which a student/teen aims to take a driver’s license test provided by, for example, a department of motor vehicles (DMV) of a state); determine a total number of days until the target driver’s license test date; and indicate whether a driver is on track to reach a target skill level by the target driver’s license test date. The instructions, when executed, may also cause the computing device to prompt a user for the target driver’s license test date during registration of the computer-executable instructions. The instructions, when executed, may also cause the computing device to divide the total number of days into a plurality of groups, wherein each of the plurality of groups is associated with a skill level (e.g., level one, level two, etc.). The total number of days may be divided according to an algorithm that sets forth percentages (e.g., ratios, fractions, etc.) of the total number of days to be assigned to the plurality of groups, respectively. For example, the algorithm may cause the first 10% of the total number of days to be assigned to level one, the next 25% (e.g., the 25% after the 10%) of the total number of days to be assigned to level two, and so on until all days are assigned to one of the levels. Any number of levels may be implemented.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: determine a set of days from an initial date until a test date; assign, to each day of the set of days, one of a plurality of levels as an expected level for that day; in response to detecting a driving start event on a particular day: initiate a connection and establish a reference time with an additional computing device, receive, via one or more sensors, first driving data associated with a driver, wherein the one or more sensors comprise at least one of an accelerometer, a gyroscope, or a global positioning system of the apparatus, of another apparatus associated with a vehicle or the driver, or of the vehicle in which the apparatus is located, and receive, via the connection from the additional computing device, second driving data associated with the driver; determine, based on correlating the first driving data and the second driving data using the reference time, a present level of the driver for the particular day; and output, via a graphical user interface, the present level of the driver for the particular day and the expected level for the particular day.

“2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to: output, via the graphical user interface and in response to determining that the present level of the driver is behind the expected level for the particular day by more than a threshold, a notification indicating that the driver is behind the expected level.

“3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to: calculate, based on correlating the first driving data and the second driving data using the reference time, a score for a particular driving skill, of a plurality of skills associated with the expected level; and determine, based at least on the score for the particular driving skill, a skill level of the driver with respect to the particular driving skill.

“4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to: determine, based on detecting the driving start event, a begin time for a drive; and determine, based on detecting from the first driving data a driving end event, an end time for the drive, and wherein the skill level of the driver with respect to the particular driving skill is further determined based on a duration of the drive determined from the begin time for the drive and the end time for the drive.

“5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to: output, via the graphical user interface, a pie chart comprising a pie slice associated with the particular driving skill, wherein the pie slice is shaded or filled according to the skill level of the driver.

“6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to compare the present level with the expected level to determine a percentage of the expected level reached by the driver, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to output the present level and the expected level by outputting, via the graphical user interface, a graph illustrating the percentage.

“7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to determine the present level of the driver for the particular day by: determining a plurality of driving skills associated with the expected level for the particular day; calculating a plurality of scores for the plurality of driving skills, respectively; and determining the present level based on the plurality of scores.

“8. A method, comprising: determining, by a computing device, a set of days from an initial date until a test date; assigning, by the computing device and to each day of the set of days, one of a plurality of levels as an expected level for that day; in response to detecting a driving start event on a particular day: initiating a connection and establishing a reference time, by the computing device, with an additional computing device, receiving, by the computing device and via one or more sensors, first driving data associated with a driver, wherein the one or more sensors comprise at least one of an accelerometer, a gyroscope, or a global positioning system of an apparatus, of another apparatus associated with a vehicle or the driver, or of the vehicle in which the apparatus is located, and receiving, by the computing device from the additional computing device via the connection, second driving data associated with the driver; determining, by the computing device and based on correlating the first driving data and the second driving data using the reference time, a present level of the driver for the particular day; and outputting, by the computing device via a graphical user interface, the present level of the driver for the particular day and the expected level for the particular day.

“9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: outputting, via the graphical user interface, in response to determining that the present level of the driver is behind the expected level for the particular day by more than a threshold, a notification indicating that the driver is behind the expected level.

“10. The method of claim 8, further comprising: calculating, based on correlating the first driving data with the second driving data using the reference time, a score for a particular driving skill of a plurality of skills associated with the expected level; and determining, based at least on the score for the particular driving skill, a skill level of the driver with respect to the particular driving skill.

“11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: determining, based on detecting the driving start event, a begin time for a drive; and determining, based on detecting from the first driving data a driving end event, an end time for the drive, and wherein determining the skill level of the driver with respect to the particular driving skill is further based on a duration of the drive determined from the begin time for the drive and the end time for the drive.

“12. The method of claim 10, further comprising: outputting, via the graphical user interface, a pie chart comprising a pie slice associated with the particular driving skill, wherein the pie slice is shaded or filled according to the skill level of the driver.

“13. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the present level of the driver for the particular day comprises: determining a plurality of driving skills associated with the expected level for the particular day; calculating a plurality of scores for the plurality of driving skills, respectively; and determining the present level based on the plurality of scores.

“14. The method of claim 8, wherein the computing device comprises a mobile device.

“15. A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a computing device to: determine a set of days from an initial date until a test date; assign, to each day of the set of days, one of a plurality of levels as an expected level for that day; in response to detecting a driving start event on a particular day: initiate a connection and establish a reference time with an additional computing device, receive, via one or more sensors, first driving data associated with a driver wherein the one or more sensors comprise at least one of an accelerometer, a gyroscope, or a global positioning system of an apparatus, of another apparatus associated with a vehicle or the driver, or of the vehicle in which the apparatus is located, and receive, via the connection from the additional computing device, second driving data associated with the driver; determine, based on correlating the first driving data and the second driving data using the reference time, a present level of the driver for the particular day; and output, via an input/output (I/O) interface, the present level of the driver for the particular day and the expected level for the particular day.

“16. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to: output, via the input/output (I/O) interface and in response to determining that the present level of the driver is behind the expected level for the particular day by more than a threshold, a notification indicating that the driver is behind the expected level.

“17. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to: calculate, based on correlating the first driving data and the second driving data using the reference time, a score for a particular driving skill of a plurality of skills associated with the expected level; and determine, based at least on the score for the particular driving skill, a skill level of the driver with respect to the particular driving skill.

“18. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to: determine, based on detecting the driving start event, a begin time for a drive; and determine, based on detecting from the first driving data a driving end event, an end time for the drive, and wherein the skill level of the driver with respect to the particular driving skill is further determined based on a duration of the drive determined from the begin time for the drive and the end time for the drive.”

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

For additional information on this patent, see: Dornadic, Alicia. Pre-license development tool. U.S. Patent Number 11568755, filed December 22, 2020, and published online on January 31, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11568755)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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