Patent Issued for Risk Unit Based Policies (USPTO 10,586,288)

2020 MAR 24 (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 Biemer, Edward A. (Eastbourne, GB); Irey, Grady (Des Plaines, IL); Styrsky, Caryl M. (Wheeling, IL), filed on December 14, 2016, was published online on March 23, 2020.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 10,586,288, is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Vehicle insurance policies are generally purchased by insurance customers from various insurance providers. Conventional policies generally provide coverage to the user for a term of the policy based on payment of a premium associated with the policy. Such term based policies might not account for driving behaviors, environmental conditions, or the like. Rather, coverage may be provided for the term, regardless of how, where, when, etc. the driver operates the vehicle.

“Many vehicles include sensors and internal computer systems designed to store and monitor driving data, vehicle operation data, driving conditions, and driving functions. Many vehicles also include one or more communication systems designed to send and receive information from inside or outside the vehicle. Such information can include, for example, vehicle operational data, driving conditions, and communications from other vehicles or systems.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. The summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of the disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the description below.

“Aspects of the disclosure relate to methods, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for determining and implementing risk unit based insurance policies. In some arrangements, a user may receive a plurality of risk units associated with an insurance policy, such as an auto insurance policy. The risk units may be stored in a risk unit account associated with the user, the vehicle, etc. During operation of the vehicle, sensor data may be received. The sensor data may provide information associated with driving behaviors of the user, environmental conditions in which the vehicle is being operated, and the like. A consumption rate of the risk units may be determined based, at least in part, on the received sensor data. Consumption rate may also be based on additional factors, such as driving experience, policy coverage, vehicle features, and the like. In some examples, the consumption rate may be based on a combination of factors or on only sensor data factors or only other factors not determined based on sensor data. Accordingly, as the vehicle is operated, a number or balance of risk units in the risk unit account may be reduced based on the determined consumption rate.

“In some examples, a determination may be made as to whether a number or balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below a predetermined threshold. If so, a notification may be transmitted to the user. In some arrangements, the notification may include a request for user input to purchase additional risk units (e.g., a request for user input identifying a number of additional risk units to purchase, payment information, etc.). In some examples, upon determining that the balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below the predetermined threshold, a predetermined number of risk units may be added to the risk unit account and a cost associated with purchase of the additional risk units may be paid automatically using predetermined or prestored payment information.

“Other features and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the additional description provided herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A risk unit based system, comprising: an on-board vehicle computing device including at least one processor and at least one memory storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the on-board vehicle computing device to: receive, from at least one sensor arranged on a vehicle, real-time driving data associated with at least one of: a user operating a vehicle and an environment in which the vehicle is being operated; analyze, in real-time, the received driving data to determine a consumption rate of risk units associated with an insurance policy associated with the vehicle, each risk unit representing a cost to insure an average user for a predetermined period of time; transmit, to an insurance system server and using a secure transmission protocol, the determined consumption rate of the risk units; the insurance system server having at least one processor and at least one memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the insurance system server to: receive, from the on-board vehicle computing device, the determined consumption rate of the risk units; reduce a balance of risk units in a risk unit account associated with the user based on operation of the vehicle from a first balance of risk units to a second balance of risk units, wherein a rate at which the balance of risk units is reduced is based on the determined consumption rate; determine whether the second balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below a predetermined threshold; responsive to determining that the second balance of risk units is below the predetermined threshold: provide a notification to the user that the second balance of risk units is below the predetermined threshold, wherein providing the notification further includes: requesting user input associated with adding a number of additional risk units to the risk unit account; and requesting user input associated with payment information for paying a cost of purchasing the additional risk units.

“2. The risk unit based system of claim 1, wherein the notification is provided to the user via a mobile device of the user.

“3. The risk unit based system of claim 1, wherein the notification is provided to the user via a vehicle display associated with the on-board vehicle computing device.

“4. The risk unit based system of claim 1, wherein the payment information includes at least one of: credit card information, checking account information, and debit card information.

“5. The risk unit based system of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory of the insurance system server further stores computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the insurance system server to: receive user input requesting postponement of addressing the balance of risk units being below the predetermined threshold; and after a predetermined time period, transmit a second notification to the user that the balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below the predetermined threshold.

“6. The risk unit based system of claim 5, wherein the second notification is transmitted to a mobile device of the user.

“7. The risk unit based system of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below a predetermined threshold is performed after reducing the balance of risk units in the risk unit account based on the determined consumption rate.

“8. A risk unit based system, comprising: a mobile device including at least one processor and at least one memory storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the mobile device to: receive, from at least one sensor sensing operational parameters of a vehicle, real-time driving data associated with at least one of: a user operating a vehicle and an environment in which the vehicle is being operated; analyze, in real-time, the received driving data to determine a consumption rate of risk units associated with an insurance policy associated with the vehicle, each risk unit representing a cost to insure an average user for a predetermined period of time; transmit, to an insurance system server and via a secure transmission protocol, the determined consumption rate of the risk units; the insurance system server having at least one processor and at least one memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the insurance system server to: receive, from the mobile device, the determined consumption rate of the risk units; reduce a balance of risk units in a risk unit account associated with the user based on operation of the vehicle from a first balance of risk units to a second balance of risk units, wherein a rate at which the balance of risk units is reduced is based on the determined consumption rate; determine whether the second balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below a predetermined threshold; responsive to determining that the second balance of risk units is below the predetermined threshold: provide a notification to the user that the balance of risk units is below the predetermined threshold, wherein providing the notification further includes: requesting user input associated with adding a number of additional risk units to the risk unit account; and requesting user input associated with payment information for paying a cost of purchasing the additional risk units.

“9. The risk unit based system of claim 8, wherein the notification is provided to the user via the mobile device.

“10. The risk unit based system of claim 8, wherein the notification is provided to the user via a vehicle display associated with an on-board vehicle computing device.

“11. The risk unit based system of claim 8, wherein the payment information includes at least one of: credit card information, checking account information, and debit card information.

“12. The risk unit based system of claim 8, wherein the at least one memory of the insurance system server further stores computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the insurance system server to: receive user input requesting postponement of addressing the balance of risk units being below the predetermined threshold; and after a predetermined time period, transmit a second notification to the user that the balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below the predetermined threshold.

“13. The risk unit based system of claim 12, wherein the second notification is transmitted to the mobile device.

“14. The risk unit based system of claim 8, wherein the determining whether the balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below a predetermined threshold is performed after reducing the balance of risk units in the risk unit account based on the determined consumption rate.

“15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to: receive, from at least one sensor arranged on a vehicle, real-time driving data associated with at least one of: a user operating a vehicle and an environment in which the vehicle is being operated; analyze, in real-time, the received driving data to determine a consumption rate of risk units associated with an insurance policy associated with the vehicle, each risk unit representing a cost to insure an average user for a predetermined period of time; reduce a balance of risk units in a risk unit account associated with the user based on operation of the vehicle from a first balance of risk units to a second balance of risk units, wherein a rate at which the balance of risk units is reduced is based on the determined consumption rate; determine whether a balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below a predetermined threshold; responsive to determining that the balance of risk units is below the predetermined threshold: provide a notification to the user that the balance of risk units is below the predetermined threshold, wherein providing the notification further includes: requesting user input associated with adding a number of additional risk units to the risk unit account; and requesting user input associated with payment information for paying a cost of purchasing the additional risk units.

“16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the notification is provided to the user via a mobile device of the user.

“17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the payment information includes at least one of: credit card information, checking account information, and debit card information.”

For more information, see this patent: Biemer, Edward A.; Irey, Grady; Styrsky, Caryl M. Risk Unit Based Policies. U.S. Patent Number 10,586,288, filed December 14, 2016, and published online on March 23, 2020. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,586,288.PN.&OS=PN/10,586,288RS=PN/10,586,288

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