Patent Issued for System and methods for determining owner’s preferences based on vehicle owners telematics data (USPTO 11325608): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2022 MAY 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Brannan, Joseph Robert (Bloomington, IL, US), Gross, Ryan (Normal, IL, US), Harvey, Brian N. (Bloomington, IL, US), Riley, Sr., Matthew Eric (Heyworth, IL, US), Wilson, J. Lynn (Normal, IL, US), filed on May 21, 2020, was published online on May 10, 2022.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11325608 is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “A peer-to-peer (P2P) car sharing model enables vehicle owners to rent their vehicles to others for short periods of time. Participating vehicle owners typically charge a fee to rent out their vehicles, and participating renters drive the vehicles and pay for the time they need to use them. The participating owners and renters may use a common vehicle-sharing platform, which may be in the form of a website or mobile application, to manage the scheduling of and payment for the vehicles.

“Typically, a participating vehicle owner may use the vehicle-sharing platform to i) describe their vehicle(s), such as the make and model, that are available for rent, ii) set a location for pickup and return of the vehicle(s), and iii) mark available days of the week that their vehicle(s) are available for rent. Participating renters may access the vehicle-sharing platform to search for a vehicle to rent according to their criteria, such as the time period they will need to drive the vehicle, the type of desired vehicle, price, etc. The success of such a vehicle-sharing platform often depends on a sense of trust between the participating vehicle owners and renters. To build trust, vehicle-sharing platforms typically require the participating vehicle owners and renters to verify their identities, such as by entering in their license number and credit card information. Vehicle-sharing platforms may also set general expectations that apply to all participating renters, such as a no smoking policy in the vehicle.

“Despite the high-level trust mechanisms mentioned above that are already in place, conventional vehicle-sharing platforms lack low-level trust mechanisms. For example, recently proposed vehicle-sharing platforms are unable to generate and enforce personal preferences onto participating renters to allow only a subset of the participating renters to rent an owner’s vehicle or, at best, allow only high-level filtering mechanisms (e.g., by only enabling owners to filter according to overall reviews/ratings that other owners have given to the renters in the past). In one scenario, although all verified participating renters have approved driving histories, participating vehicle owners may only trust participating renters that have a higher standard of driving etiquette. Existing vehicle-sharing platforms simply do not include a means for generating and enforcing these sorts of personal preferences onto participating renters. Such shortcomings have to date been inadequately addressed, if at all.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In some aspects, embodiments described herein may predict user preferences for a vehicle owner, by analyzing telematics data indicative of operation of a vehicle by the vehicle owner to identify one or more driving behaviors of the vehicle owner. As an example, a baseline assumption may be made that the vehicle owner would regard as “acceptable” vehicle renters those who exhibit qualities similar to, or more conservative than, the vehicle owner’s driving behaviors. Accordingly, the renter may be required to exhibit similar (or more conservative) driving behavior as that of the vehicle owner to be authorized to rent the owner’s vehicle. The renter’s driving behavior may be known based on telematics data associated with the renter. As an example, if a driving behavior of a particular vehicle owner reflects that the owner routinely drives under the speed limit, a potential renter may exhibit a similar driving behavior.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of predicting a user preference may include (1) receiving, by one or more processors, telematics data collected over a first period of time, wherein the telematics data is indicative of operation of a first vehicle by an owner of the first vehicle during the first period of time; (2) analyzing, by the one or more processors, the telematics data to identify one or more driving behaviors of the owner during the first period of time; (3) predicting, by the one or more processors, one or more user preference values of a vehicle-sharing platform profile of the owner based on the identified one or more driving behaviors, wherein the one or more user preference values define one or more criteria for vehicle renters with whom the first vehicle can be shared; (4) applying, by the one or more processors, the one or more criteria to a potential vehicle renter; and (5) causing, by the one or more processors, an indication of the first vehicle of the owner to be displayed via a mobile device of the potential renter only if the potential vehicle renter satisfies the one or more criteria.

“In one aspect, a vehicle-sharing platform may include (1) one or more processors and (2) memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the vehicle-sharing platform to: (a) receive telematics data collected over a first period of time, wherein the telematics data is indicative of operation of a first vehicle by an owner of the first vehicle during the first period of time; (b) analyze the telematics data to identify one or more driving behaviors of the owner during the first period of time; © predict one or more user preference values of a vehicle-sharing platform profile of the owner based on the identified one or more driving behaviors, wherein the one or more user preference values define one or more criteria for vehicle renters with whom the first vehicle can be shared; (d) apply the one or more criteria to a potential vehicle renter; and (e) cause an indication of the first vehicle of the owner to be displayed via a mobile device of the potential renter only if the potential vehicle renter satisfies the one or more criteria.

“In one aspect, a non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium storing machine readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, may cause the one or more processors to (1) receive telematics data collected over a first period of time, wherein the telematics data is indicative of operation of a first vehicle by an owner of the first vehicle during the first period of time; (2) analyze the telematics data to identify one or more driving behaviors of the owner during the first period of time; (3) predict one or more user preference values of a vehicle-sharing platform profile of the owner based on the identified one or more driving behaviors, wherein the one or more user preference values define one or more criteria for vehicle renters with whom the first vehicle can be shared; (4) apply the one or more criteria to a potential vehicle renter; and (5) cause an indication of the first vehicle of the owner to be displayed via a mobile device of the potential renter only if the potential vehicle renter satisfies the one or more criteria.

“Although the following text sets forth a detailed description of numerous different aspects, it should be understood that the legal scope of the description is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible aspect since describing every possible aspect would be impractical, if not impossible. Numerous alternative aspects may be implemented, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method implemented at least in part by a server device associated with a vehicle-sharing platform, the method comprising: accessing, by one or more processors, data associated with a historical operation of a first vehicle; generating, by the one or more processors and based at least in part on the data, a user preference value comprising a threshold corresponding to a preferred driving behavior for potential renters of the first vehicle; identifying, by the one or more processors, a potential renter that previously rented a second vehicle; accessing, by the one or more processors, user data indicating driving behavior of the potential renter while operating the second vehicle; determining, by the one or more processors and based at least in part on the user data, a driving behavior value associated with the potential renter; determining, by the one or more processors, that the driving behavior value is equal to or less than the user preference value; and based at least in part on determining that the driving behavior value is equal to or less than the user preference value, causing, by the one or more processors, an indication of the first vehicle to be displayed via a mobile device of the potential renter.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the mobile device of the potential renter and via an instance of an application managed by the vehicle sharing platform, a request to view one or more vehicles available for rent, wherein the user data is stored in a user profile associated with the potential renter, and wherein causing the indication of the vehicle to be displayed is further based at least in part on the request to view the one or more vehicles available for rent.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the driving behavior value comprises a first driving behavior value, the method further comprising: receiving sensor data captured by a sensor located on the first vehicle during operation of the first vehicle; and determining, based at least in part on the sensor data, a second driving behavior value associated with an owner of the first vehicle, wherein the user preference value is generated based at least in part on the value associated with the second driving behavior value.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user data further comprises rental history data associated with previous rentals of the first vehicle via the vehicle sharing platform, the method further comprising: accessing the rental history data associated with the first vehicle, the rental history data comprising at least one driving behavior value associated with at least one previous renter of the first vehicle; and determining, based at least in part on the rental history data, a first rental history data associated with a first rental that was previously approved by an owner of the first vehicle, wherein the user preference value is generated based at least in part on the first rental history data that was previously approved by the owner of the first vehicle.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the potential renter comprises: accessing a feedback submission associated with a previous vehicle rental corresponding to the potential renter; and determining that the feedback submission includes data associated with the potential renter having the driving behavior value equal to or less than the user preference value during the previous vehicle rental.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user data comprises sensor data captured by a sensor located on the second vehicle, the sensor data corresponding to a time period during which the potential renter rented the second vehicle.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the potential renter comprises a first potential renter, the mobile device comprises a first mobile device, the driving behavior value comprises a first driving behavior value, and the indication comprises a first indication, the method further comprising: receiving, from a second mobile device of a second potential renter and via an instance of an application managed by the vehicle sharing platform, a request to view one or more vehicles available for rent; accessing user data stored in a user profile associated with the second potential renter, the user data comprising at least one of a feedback or a complaint associated with the second potential renter; determining, based at least in part on the at least one of the feedback or the complaint, that a second driving behavior value associated with the second potential renter is equal to or less than the user preference value; and causing a second indication of a third vehicle associated with the vehicle-sharing platform to be displayed via the second mobile device of the second potential renter based at least in part on the second driving behavior value being equal to or less than the user preference value.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user preference value is indicative of at least one of: an acceleration; a deceleration; a speed; or a lateral force.

“9. A system performed at least in part by a vehicle-sharing platform, the system comprising: one or more processors; and non-transitory computer-readable media storing first computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: determining data associated with a historical operation of a first vehicle; generating, based at least in part on the data, a user preference value comprising a threshold corresponding to a preferred driving behavior for potential renters of the first vehicle; identifying a potential renter that previously rented a second vehicle; accessing user data indicating driving behavior of the potential renter while operating the second vehicle; determining, based at least in part on the user data, a driving behavior value associated with the potential renter; determining that the driving behavior value is equal to or less than the user preference value; and based at least in part on determining that the driving behavior value is equal to or less than the user preference value, causing an indication of the first vehicle to be displayed via a mobile device of the potential renter.

“10. The system of claim 9, wherein the driving behavior value comprises a first driving behavior value, the operations further comprising: receiving sensor data captured by a sensor located on the first vehicle; and determining, based at least in part on the sensor data, a second driving behavior value associated with an owner of the first vehicle, wherein the user preference value is predicted based at least in part on the second driving behavior value associated with the owner of the first vehicle.

“11. The system of claim 9, the operations further comprising: receiving, from the mobile device of the potential renter and via an instance of an application managed by the vehicle sharing platform, a request to view one or more vehicles available for rent, wherein the user data is stored in a user profile associated with the potential renter, and wherein causing the indication of the vehicle to be displayed is further based at least in part on the request to view the one or more vehicles available for rent.

“12. The system of claim 9, wherein the user data comprises sensor data captured by a sensor located on the second vehicle, the sensor data corresponding to a time period during which the potential renter rented the second vehicle.

“13. The system of claim 9, the operations further comprising: determining, based at least in part on the user data, a risk value associated with the potential renter, wherein identifying the potential renter is based at least in part on the risk value.

“14. The system of claim 9, wherein the potential renter comprises a first potential renter, the mobile device comprises a first mobile device, the driving behavior value comprises a first driving behavior value, and the indication comprises a first indication, the operations further comprising: receiving, from a second mobile device of a second potential renter and via an instance of an application managed by the vehicle sharing platform, a request to view one or more vehicles available for rent; accessing user data stored in a user profile associated with the second potential renter, the user data comprising at least one of a feedback or a complaint associated with the second potential renter; determining, based at least in part on the at least one of the feedback or the complaint, that a second driving behavior value associated with the second potential renter is equal to or less than the user preference value; and causing a second indication of a third vehicle associated with the vehicle-sharing platform to be displayed via the second mobile device of the second potential renter based at least in part on the second driving behavior value being equal to or less than the user preference value.”

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For additional information on this patent, see: Brannan, Joseph Robert. System and methods for determining owner’s preferences based on vehicle owners telematics data. U.S. Patent Number 11325608, filed May 21, 2020, and published online on May 10, 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=11325608.PN.&OS=PN/11325608RS=PN/11325608

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