Patent Issued for Social journey (USPTO 11410248): Allstate Insurance Company

2022 AUG 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States) has been issued patent number 11410248, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Hayes, Howard (Glencoe, IL, US), Johnson, Robert H. (Hoffman Estates, IL, US), Norena, Moises (Northbrook, IL, US).

This patent was filed on October 24, 2019 and was published online on August 9, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “A driver on a journey from point A to point B is often traveling along the same route as other drivers. Drivers on the route, may desire information, for example, about the route ahead or about traffic or road conditions or tips that other drivers might know. However, there is currently no way for a driver to communicate with others on such a shared route, other than the inefficient waving through a vehicle window as they pass each other. Citizens band radio has been used for communications between drivers in a region, but the communications of citizens band radio are broadcast to anyone listening in the region, including those not on a shared route.

“Therefore, improved systems and methods to address these and other shortcomings in the art are desired.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters 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 relate to apparatuses, computer implemented methods and computer readable media for identifying users who a share a route. Drivers often share a route with other drivers, although they may not realize it. They may be going from one particular area to another and may be on the same route or different routes to the same destination. Some drivers may be going from point A to point B while others are going from point B to point A. Each driver may have information, such as information about the route, which may be helpful or useful to another driver.

“In accordance with aspects of the disclosure, a system may be provided to connect users for communication or to provide communications among the users sharing a route. The system may provide the users with the ability to query each other or to query others on a route. The system may provide for route sharing and destination recommendations. In some aspects of the disclosure, the system may provide users the ability to request shared rides or other services from other drivers. In some embodiments, the system may recommend routes, destinations or merchants, who may offer coupons or discounts. The system may provide information to one or more users along a route. In some embodiments, the system may incorporate user driver records or intersection or route accident claim history in recommendations or in relation to other services.

“Of course, the methods and systems of the above-referenced embodiments may also include other additional elements, steps, computer-executable instructions, or computer-readable data structures. In this regard, other embodiments are disclosed and claimed herein as well. The details of these and other embodiments of the present invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description, drawings, and claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: receiving, by an application server, data indicating a first route from a first computing device, wherein the data indicating the first route comprises coordinates of a current location of the first computing device and one or more coordinates of one or more points on a planned route stored by the first computing device; receiving, from a second computing device, data indicating a second route comprising one or more coordinates of one or more points on a planned route stored by the second computing device; based on the first route and the second route, determining, by the application server, that a first vehicle corresponding to the first computing device and a second vehicle associated with the second computing device are associated with a shared route; receiving, from the second computing device, a request for a ride by a user of the second computing device; determining a driver safety rating associated with the first vehicle; responsive to determining that the first vehicle and the second vehicle are associated with the shared route and responsive to determining that the driver safety rating meets a threshold, selecting the first vehicle for ride sharing; and transmitting, by the application server, a communication to the second computing device informing the user that the first vehicle has been selected for ride sharing, wherein fuel consumed by the first vehicle by transporting the user over the shared route is less than the fuel consumed by the first vehicle and the second vehicle separately traversing, respectively, the first route and the second route.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the first vehicle and the second vehicle are associated with the shared route comprises determining that at least one of a start location, a destination location, a waypoint, an intersection or a route segment is common among the first route and the second route.

“3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying, by the application server, a third route comprising one or more coordinates of one or more points on a planned route stored by a third computing device; determining that a third vehicle corresponding to the third computing device is associated with the shared route; in response to determining, creating a community comprising a user associated with the first computing device, the user associated with the second computing device, and a user associated with the third computing device; receiving, by the application server, a message from the first computing device; and providing the message to the second computing device and the third computing device based on the user associated with the first computing device, the user associated with the second computing device, and the user associated with the third computing device being part of the community.

“4. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the request to the first computing device.

“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the application server, the data indicating the first route to the second computing device.

“6. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining, by the application server, a safety rating for the first route, wherein the transmitting the first route to the second computing device is responsive to the safety rating meeting a threshold.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving information indicative of a first personal interest of the user; and transmitting, to a user associated with the first computing device, the information indicative of the first personal interest.

“8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: receiving information indicative of a second personal interest of the user associated with the first computing device; and creating, by the application server, a community comprising the user associated with the second computing device and the user associated with the first computing device based on the first personal interest and the second personal interest being related.

“9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving information from a social networking service, wherein the information identifies a social connection between the user and a driver of the first vehicle; and creating, by the application server, a community comprising the user and the driver, based on the information.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the first vehicle and the second vehicle are associated with the shared route comprises determining that the first route and the second route have a common destination, and wherein the method further comprises enabling communications between the first computing device and the second computing device based on the first route and the second route having the common destination.

“11. A computer system comprising: one or more processors; and a non-volatile hardware memory unit storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to: receive data indicating a first route from a first computing device, wherein the data indicating the first route comprises coordinates of a current location of the first computing device and coordinates of one or more points on a planned route stored by the first computing device; receive, from a second computing device, data indicating a second route comprising one or more coordinates of one or more points on a planned route stored by the second computing device; based on the first route and the second route, determine that a first vehicle corresponding to the first computing device and a second vehicle corresponding to the second computing device are associated with a shared route; receive, from the second computing device, a request by a user for a ride; determine a driver safety rating associated with the first vehicle; responsive to determining that the first vehicle and the second vehicle are associated with the shared route and responsive to determining that the driver safety rating meets a threshold, select the first vehicle for ride sharing; and transmit a communication to the second computing device informing the user that the first vehicle has been selected for ride sharing, wherein fuel consumed by the first vehicle by transporting the user over the shared route is less than the fuel consumed by the first vehicle and the second vehicle separately traversing, respectively, the first route and the second route.

“12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein, to determine that the first vehicle and the second vehicle are associated with the shared route, the computer-executable instructions causes the computer system to determine that the first route and the second route have a common destination, and wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the computer system to enable communications between the first computing device and the second computing device based on the first route and the second route having the common destination.

“13. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the computer system to: identify a third route comprising one or more coordinates of one or more points on a planned route stored by a third computing device; determine that a third vehicle corresponding to the third computing device is associated with the shared route; in response to determining that the third vehicle is associated with the shared route, create a community comprising a user associated with the first computing device, the user associated with the second computing device, and a user associated with the third computing device; receive a message from the first computing device; and provide the message to the second computing device and the third computing device.

“14. The computer system of claim 11, wherein, to determine that the first vehicle and the second vehicle are associated with the shared route, the computer-executable instructions cause the computer system to determine that at least one of a start location, a destination location, a waypoint, an intersection or a route segment is common among the first route and the second route.

“15. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the computer system to transmit the request to the first computing device.

“16. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the computer system to transmit the data indicating the first route to the second computing device.

“17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the computer system to determine a safety rating for the first route, wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the computer system to transmit the data indicating the first route to the second computing device responsive to the safety rating meeting a threshold.

“18. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the computer system to: receive information indicative of a first personal interest of the user; and transmit, to a user associated with the first computing device, the information indicative of the first personal interest.

“19. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the computer system to: receive information indicative of a second personal interest of the user associated with the first computing device; and create a community comprising the user associated with the first computing device and the user associated with the second computing device based on the first personal interest and the second personal interest being related.”

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

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Hayes, Howard. Social journey. U.S. Patent Number 11410248, filed October 24, 2019, and published online on August 9, 2022. 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=11410248.PN.&OS=PN/11410248RS=PN/11410248

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