Patent Issued for System For Identifying High Risk Parking Lots (USPTO 10,204,518)

2019 FEB 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Nepomuceno, John A. (Bloomington, IL); Chan, Leo Nelson (Normal, IL); Cielocha, Steven C. (Bloomington, IL); Lyons, Roxane (Chenoa, IL); Megyese, Matthew S. (Bloomington, IL); Leise, William J. (Normal, IL); Kellett, Jennifer Criswell (Lincoln, IL); Gaudin, Kristopher Keith (Bloomington, IL); Crawford, Jennifer L. (Normal, IL); Myers, Jeremy (Normal, IL); Matesevac, III, Edward P. (Normal, IL); Shah, Rajiv C. (Bloomington, IL), filed on April 12, 2018, was published online on February 25, 2019, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 10,204,518 is assigned to State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Drivers and passengers assume a certain degree of risk of injury or property damage when travelling by vehicle. This risk may be mitigated by reducing or eliminating certain contributing factors. For example, a driver may avoid risky behavior, such as driving while intoxicated, driving while tired, or driving while texting. As another example, a driver may mitigate the risk of serious injury by driving a car with safety features such as airbags, seatbelts, and antilock brakes.

“However, certain risk factors may not be mitigated. For example, the very nature of a vehicle may present certain inherent risks. A typical car may weigh thousands of pounds and may not always maneuver or stop quickly. When travelling at even a moderate speed, a collision may result in serious damage to the vehicle and serious injury to the occupants. Further, a driver may have no control over perhaps the greatest risk factor involved with driving: other drivers. Furthermore, a vehicle, particularly an unattended vehicle, may at any time be at risk of theft and/or vandalism.

“These risks are particularly present in the case of parking lots. In addition to the collision risks faced by a vehicle entering or existing a parking lot, a vehicle within a parking lot may continue to be at risk of collision as a result of insufficient turning radii along circulating roads and parking aisles, constrained or minimally-sized parking spaces available for each vehicle, that result in close proximity to other vehicles, and visual obstruction caused by structural columns and features, landscaping or other parked vehicles. Further, a vehicle within a parking lot, by its very nature, is known to likely be unattended, placing the vehicle at a potentially increased risk of theft and/or vandalism.

“Vehicle collisions and theft may result in significant damages to, or even total losses of, vehicles. Vehicle collision and theft may require extensive resources to rectify, such as monies and time. The vehicle damage may negatively impact those involved, and may be time consuming and lead to annoyance or inconvenience. Vehicle collisions and theft may also suffer from other drawbacks, such as requiring public resources to facilitate a response, such as police and medical personal. The present embodiments may overcome these and/or other deficiencies.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments disclose systems and methods that may relate to, inter alia, vehicle collisions, and/or identifying hazardous areas, in particular parking lots, that are associated with an above average amount of vehicle collisions and/or theft. Systems and methods may use historical auto insurance claim data and/or other data (such as vehicle collision data, mobile device data, telematics data, vehicle mounted-sensor or image data, autonomous vehicle sensor or image data, and/or smart infrastructure sensor or image data) to determine hazardous areas that are prone to induce, or be associated with, vehicle collisions.

“In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method may be provided. The method may include (1) analyzing, via one or more processors, auto insurance claim data to identify hazardous areas, the hazardous area being defined, at least in part, by GPS location or GPS coordinates; (2) building or generating, via the one or more processors, a virtual navigation map of roads within the hazardous area, the virtual navigation map being visually depicted; (3) identifying, via the one or more processors, public parking lots within the virtual navigation map, and determining whether each public parking lot is associated with a hazardous area or not; (4) determining, via the one or more processors, that a vehicle is approaching or parking in a public parking lot associated with a hazardous area; (5) selecting, via the one or more processors, a nearby public parking lot that is not associated with a hazardous area; (6) generating, via the one or more processors, a route from the current position to the nearby public parking lot that is not associated with a hazardous area; and/or (7) routing, via one or more transceivers and/or the one or more processors, the vehicle to the nearby public parking lot using the generated route. Additional, fewer, or modified elements of the method may be possible.

“In another embodiment, a computer system may be provided. The system may comprise (1) one or more processors; and (2) one or more memories storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to: (i) analyze auto insurance claim data to identify hazardous areas, the hazardous areas being defined, at least in part, by GPS location or GPS coordinates, (ii) build or generate a virtual navigation map of roads within the hazardous area, the virtual navigation map being visually depicted, (iii) identify public parking lots within the virtual navigation map, and determine whether each parking lot is associated with a hazardous area or not; (iv) determine that a vehicle is approaching or parking in a public parking lot associated with a hazardous area; (v) select a nearby public parking lot that is not associated with a hazardous area; (vi) generate a route from a current position to the nearby public parking lot that is not associated with a hazardous area; and/or (vii) route or reroute the vehicle to the nearby public parking lot using the generated route. Additional, fewer, or modified system components may be possible.

“Advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiments which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present embodiments may be capable of other and different embodiments, and their details are capable of modification in various respects. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“The invention claimed is:

“1. A computer-implemented method, the method comprising: identifying, via the one or more processors, public parking lots within a virtual navigation map, and determining whether each public parking lot is associated with a hazardous area or not; determining, via the one or more processors, that a vehicle is approaching or parking in a public parking lot associated with a hazardous area along, or near to, a preexisting navigation route to an ultimate destination; in response to determining that the vehicle is approaching or parking in the public parking lot associated with a hazardous area, automatically selecting, via the one or more processors, a nearby public parking lot that is along, or within a predetermined vicinity of, a preexisting navigation route, wherein the nearby public parking lot is not associated with a hazardous area; generating, via the one or more processors, a route from a current position of the vehicle to the nearby public parking lot that is not associated with a hazardous area; and routing, via one or more transceivers and/or the one or more processors, the vehicle to the nearby public parking lot using the generated route.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising generating, via the one or more processors, an audio alert and/or an haptic alert when the vehicle is approaching or parking in the public parking lot associated with a hazardous area.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising generating, via the one or more processors, a visual alert when the vehicle is approaching or parking in the public parking lot associated with a hazardous area.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the hazardous area is an area associated with a higher risk of vehicle collision and/or theft compared to a normal level of risk.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the nearby public parking lot that is not associated with a hazardous area is a public parking lot associated with a lower risk of vehicle collision.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the nearby public parking lot that is not associated with a hazardous area is a public parking lot associated with a lower risk of theft.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the nearby public parking lot is within a predetermined distance of the public parking lot associated with a hazardous area.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining, via the one or more processors, one or more risk averse behaviors performed by an operator of the vehicle during operation of the vehicle, and updating, via the one or more processors, an insurance premium or discount based upon the one or more risk averse behaviors.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the one or more risk averse behaviors include a following of the generated route to the nearby public parking lot that is not associated with a hazardous area.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: analyzing, via one or more processors, auto insurance claim data to identify hazardous areas, the hazardous areas being defined, at least in part, by GPS location or GPS coordinates; and building or generating, via the one or more processors, a virtual navigation map of roads within the hazardous areas.

“11. A computer system comprising: one or more processors; and one or more memories storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to: identify public parking lots within a virtual navigation map, and determine whether each public parking lot is associated with a hazardous area or not; determine that a vehicle is approaching or parking in a public parking lot associated with a hazardous area along, or near to, a preexisting navigation route to an ultimate destination; in response to determining that the vehicle is approaching or parking in the public parking lot associated with a hazardous area, select a nearby public parking lot that is along, or within a predetermined vicinity of, the preexisting navigation route, wherein the nearby public parking lot is not associated with a hazardous area; generate a route from a current position of the vehicle to the nearby public parking lot that is not associated with a hazardous area; and route or reroute the vehicle to the nearby public parking lot using the generated route.

“12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the processor routes or reroutes the vehicle further using one or more transceivers.

“13. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed on the processor, further cause the processor to generate an audio alert and/or a haptic alert when the vehicle is approaching or parking in the public parking lot associated with a hazardous area.

“14. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed on the processor, further cause the processor to generate visual alert when the vehicle is approaching or parking in the public parking lot associated with a hazardous area.

“15. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the hazardous area is an area associated with a higher risk of vehicle collision and/or theft compared to a normal level of risk.

“16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the nearby public parking lot that is not associated with a hazardous area is a public parking lot associated wi a lower risk of vehicle collision.

“17. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the nearby public parking lot that is not associated with a hazardous area is a public parking lot associated with a lower risk of theft.

“18. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the nearby public parking lot is within a predetermined distance of the public parking lot associated with a hazardous area.

“19. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed on the processor, further cause the processor to: determine one or more risk averse behaviors performed by an operator of the vehicle during operation of the vehicle, and update an insurance premium or discount based upon the one or more risk averse behaviors.

“20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the one or more risk averse behaviors include a following of the generated route to the nearby public parking lot that is not associated with a hazardous area.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Nepomuceno, John A.; Chan, Leo Nelson; Cielocha, Steven C.; Lyons, Roxane; Megyese, Matthew S.; Leise, William J.; Kellett, Jennifer Criswell; Gaudin, Kristopher Keith; Crawford, Jennifer L.; Myers, Jeremy; Matesevac, III, Edward P.; Shah, Rajiv C. System For Identifying High Risk Parking Lots. U.S. Patent Number 10,204,518, filed April 12, 2018, and published online on February 25, 2019. 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=10,204,518.PN.&OS=PN/10,204,518RS=PN/10,204,518

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