Patent Issued for Risk Unit Based Policies (USPTO 10,861,100)

2020 DEC 22 (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. (Glencoe, IL); Irey, Grady (Des Plaines, IL); Styrsky, Caryl M. (Wheeling, IL), filed on April 26, 2016, was published online on December 21, 2020.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 10,861,100, 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, the consumption rate may be displayed to the user, such as via a mobile device of the user or a vehicle display. Further, in some arrangements, one or more driving modifications to reduce a consumption rate may be determined. For instance, the system may identify, based on the received sensor data, one or more modifications or changes to the driving behaviors of the user, environment in which the vehicle is being operated, and the like, that may reduce the consumption rate of the risk units. These recommendations may be provided to the user, e.g., via the mobile device of the user and/or the vehicle display.

“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: at least one vehicle operation sensor arranged in a vehicle, the at least one vehicle operation sensor configured to detect and record operational parameters of the vehicle including driving data associated with at least one of: driving behaviors of a user and an environment in which the vehicle is being operated; an 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: generate a risk unit based insurance policy for the vehicle, the risk unit based insurance policy including a plurality of risk units forming a balance of risk units in a risk unit account, each risk unit representing a cost to insure an average user for a predetermined period of time and the balance of risk units being reduced upon operation of the vehicle; and deposit a predetermined number of risk units into the risk unit account associated with the risk unit based insurance policy; receive, via a communication interface and from the at least one vehicle operation sensor arranged in the vehicle, the driving data associated with at least one of: driving behaviors of the user and an environment in which the vehicle is being operated; analyze, in real-time, the received driving data; determine, in real-time and based on the analyzed received driving data, a consumption rate of the risk units; reduce, in real-time, the balance of risk units in the risk unit account based on the determined consumption rate; determine whether the balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below a predetermined threshold; and responsive to determining that the number of risk units is below the predetermined threshold, transmit a command to the vehicle to modify operation of at least one system of the vehicle based on the determination that the balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below the predetermined threshold.

“2. The risk unit based system of claim 1, wherein modifying operation of the vehicle includes at least one of: flashing headlights of the vehicle, causing a horn to blare, and preventing the vehicle from starting.

“3. 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, further cause the insurance system server to: transmit, via a wireless communication network, the determined consumption rate to a mobile device of the user, wherein the mobile device of the user displays the determined consumption rate.

“4. 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, further cause the insurance system server to: responsive to determining that the number of risk units is below the predetermined threshold, determine at least one refill option for the user; transmit, to a mobile device of the user, the determined at least one refill option, wherein the mobile device of the user displays the at least one refill option.

“5. The risk unit based system of claim 1, wherein the at least one vehicle operation sensor includes a plurality of sensors.

“6. The risk unit based system of claim 5, wherein the plurality of sensors includes at least one of: accelerometer, speedometer, external temperature, and precipitation sensor.

“7. The risk unit based system of claim 1, wherein the driving data associated with driving behaviors of the user includes at least: hard braking, rapid acceleration, rapid deceleration, and swerving.

“8. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause at an insurance system server to: generate a risk unit based insurance policy for a vehicle, the risk unit based insurance policy including a plurality of risk units forming a balance of risk units in a risk unit account, each risk unit representing a cost to insure an average user for a predetermined period of time and the balance of risk units being reduced upon operation of the vehicle; deposit a predetermined number of risk units into the risk unit account associated with the risk unit based insurance policy; receive, from at least one vehicle operation sensor arranged in a vehicle, the vehicle operation sensor detecting and recording operational parameters of the vehicle, driving data associated with at least one of: driving behaviors of a user and an environment in which the vehicle is being operated; analyze, in real-time, the received driving data; determine, in real-time and based on the analyzed received driving data, a consumption rate of the risk units; reduce, in real-time, the balance of risk units in the risk unit account based on the determined consumption rate; determine whether the balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below a predetermined threshold; and responsive to determining that the number of risk units is below the predetermined threshold, transmit a command to the vehicle to modify operation of at least one system of the vehicle based on the determination that the balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below the predetermined threshold.

“9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein modifying operation of the vehicle includes at least one of: flashing headlights of the vehicle, causing a horn to blare, and preventing the vehicle from starting.

“10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the at least one memory of the insurance system server further includes instructions that, when executed, cause the insurance system server to: transmit, via wireless communication network, the determined consumption rate to a mobile device of the user; and display the determined consumption rate on the mobile device of the user.

“11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the at least one memory of the insurance system server further includes instructions that, when executed, cause the insurance system server to: responsive to determining that the number of risk units is below the predetermined threshold, determine at least one refill option for the user; transmit, to a mobile device of the user, the determined at least one refill option; and display, by the mobile device of the user, the at least one refill option.

“12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the at least one vehicle operation sensor includes a plurality of sensors.

“13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the plurality of sensors includes at least one of: accelerometer, speedometer, external temperature, and precipitation sensor.

“14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the driving data associated with driving behaviors of the user includes at least: hard braking, rapid acceleration, rapid deceleration, and swerving.”

For more information, see this patent: Biemer, Edward A.; Irey, Grady; Styrsky, Caryl M. Risk Unit Based Policies. U.S. Patent Number 10,861,100, filed April 26, 2016, and published online on December 21, 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=10,861,100.PN.&OS=PN/10,861,100RS=PN/10,861,100

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