Patent Issued for Risk Unit Based Policies (USPTO 9569798)

Journal of Engineering

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Journal of Engineering -- From Alexandria, Virginia, VerticalNews journalists report that a patent by the inventors Biemer, Edward A. (Eastbourne, GB); Irey, Grady (Des Plaines, IL); Styrsky, Caryl M. (Wheeling, IL), filed on June 1, 2016, was published online on February 14, 2017.

The patent's assignee for patent number 9569798 is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, IL).

News editors 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."

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, VerticalNews correspondents 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."

For additional information on this patent, see: Biemer, Edward A.; Irey, Grady; Styrsky, Caryl M.. Risk Unit Based Policies. U.S. Patent Number 9569798, filed June 1, 2016, and published online on February 14, 2017. 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=9569798.PN.&OS=PN/9569798RS=PN/9569798

Keywords for this news article include: Insurance Companies, Allstate Insurance Company.