Patent Issued for Systems and methods for configuring a vehicle (USPTO 11186292): United Services Automobile Association

2021 DEC 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Braun, Florian (San Antonio, TX, US), Buentello, Andre Rene (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on February 21, 2019, was published online on November 30, 2021, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11186292 is assigned to United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Insurance companies often base vehicle insurance rates on numerous factors, such as driving history, age, type of vehicle, amount of coverage, and location. The more risk the insurance company incurs by insuring the vehicle, the higher the premium. Some factors are environmental factors and cannot be controlled by the insured. For example, insurance is more expensive in certain states because more accidents occur in those states.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Various embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to vehicles. More specifically, various embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods and systems for configuring a vehicle.

“Today, some insurance companies offer products that monitor driving habits of the driver to determine a risk of insuring the driver. Insurance rates can then be adjusted to account for this risk (e.g., the higher the risk, the higher the rate). For example, a speed or brake sensor may monitor and transmit the insured’s average speed or pressure applied to brake to the insurance company. If the insured keeps speeds low and does not slam on the brakes, the insured may be offered lower insurance rates. This approach, while helpful in rewarding good drivers, does not prevent dangerous driving or improve driving habits.

“Methods and systems disclosed herein allow users and/or insurance companies to configure a vehicle to prevent high risk driving, allowing for lower insurance rates. For example, a driver may select vehicle configurations, which, if accepted by the insurance company, become part of the vehicle insurance policy. The policy rate for the vehicle may depend on the vehicle configurations designated in the policy. The vehicle may then be configured such that the driver is prevented from changing the level of the features as designated in the policy. Features that can be configured include stereo volume limit, speed limit (e.g., based on speed limit on particular street), gas light indication level, lights, number of passengers, radius or location of travel, distance from other vehicles, driving after a certain time or darkness level, and temperature. The driver will be prevented from violating the configured vehicle settings. The vehicle and/or server may monitor the vehicle to record instances of the driver attempting to override one of the configured parameters. In some embodiments, when there is an attempted override (i.e., driver is within a threshold of exceeding the vehicle setting), a message may be sent to the policyholder alerting them policyholder and/or asking whether the policy owner wants to change the policy. A message may also be sent to the driver (e.g., via the vehicle or a mobile device) alerting the driver about the vehicle setting.

“In some embodiments, more than one driver may be insured to drive the vehicle. Each driver may have their own profile with their individual configurations. Thus, before beginning to drive the vehicle, the driver may be identified (e.g., via a key, biometrics, weight), and the vehicle can be configured for the appropriate driver. In some embodiments, the driver may be identified using the driver’s mobile device (e.g., mobile device is synced with vehicle and flail collects a fingerprint). In some embodiments, the vehicle is a self-driving vehicle (i.e., no human driver required). The insurance premiums may depend on the configurations set for the self-driving vehicle.

“In some embodiments, some configurable features may be identified as over-ridable features in the insurance policy such that the driver can override the feature, but it will result in a breach of the insurance policy and either a rate increase or a lack of coverage for a period of time or in a particular geographical location. Such features may be helpful in decreasing insurance rates for drivers who do not need as much insurance because the driver drives only a limited amount. For example, the insurance policy may be tailored to a particular driver’s habits such as a teenager who is supposed to drive particular routes or not drive outside of a predetermined geographical region (e.g., school, sports practices, home). If the teenager drives the vehicle outside of the route or geographical region, the vehicle may allow the user to override the configuration (i.e., the vehicle will not shut off if driven outside of the predefined area), but the incident will be reported to the insurance company. In some embodiments, the driver may be given a warning (e.g., via the vehicle, via a user device) that the user is approaching a breach of the insurance contract or that the user will not be insured outside of a certain area. In some embodiments, the policyholder may be asked whether to increase the policy for a fee if the policy does not automatically increase.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: identifying a human operator of a vehicle, the human operator having a profile indicating vehicle settings, wherein the vehicle is covered by an insurance policy based at least in part on the vehicle settings, wherein the human operator is not a policyholder of the insurance policy; wherein the human operator of the vehicle is identified by collecting unique identification information associated with the human operator; generating, by a processor, an insurance rate in the insurance policy for insuring the vehicle based at least in part on the vehicle settings in the profile; detecting that the human operator has overridden one or more individual settings of the vehicle settings; and in response to detecting that the human operator has overridden the one or more individual settings of the vehicle settings: adjusting, by the processor, insurance coverage or the insurance rate in the insurance policy in real-time to reflect the override of the one or more individual settings, and sending a message to a device associated with the policyholder regarding the override of the one or more individual settings, wherein the message includes an option for the policyholder to update the vehicle settings for the human operator.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle settings include at least one of: headlight status, maximum speed limit, maximum stereo volume, maximum temperature, number of passengers, or geographical limitations.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle settings include a maximum temperature inside the vehicle.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle settings include at least one non-over-rideable vehicle setting, wherein the non-over-rideable vehicle setting cannot be overridden by the human operator.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the human operator of the vehicle comprises receiving, from the vehicle, biometric information collected from the human operator.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein when the human operator cannot be identified or does not have the profile: assigning a default profile to the human operator; and configuring the vehicle with the vehicle settings in the default profile.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the vehicle settings in the profile from the policyholder of the insurance policy via a graphical user interface, wherein the graphical user interface displays configurable vehicle settings and insurance rates, wherein the insurance rates increase or decrease when the configurable vehicle settings are configured.

“8. A configurable vehicle comprising: a network of detectors configured to: monitor vehicle operations relating to vehicle settings of the configurable vehicle, and send vehicle operational information related to the vehicle operations to a configuration system; and the configuration system comprising: a memory, a processor, and a vehicle configuration module, running on the processor, to: configure the configurable vehicle with the vehicle settings according to an identity of a human operator, wherein the configurable vehicle is covered by an insurance policy based at least in part on the vehicle settings, wherein the human operator is not a policyholder of the insurance policy, wherein the human operator of the vehicle is identified by collecting unique identification information associated with the human operator, process the vehicle operational information from the network of detectors, detect that the human operator has overridden one or more individual settings of the vehicle settings; in response to detecting that the human operator has overridden the one or more individual settings of the vehicle settings: adjust insurance coverage or an insurance rate in the insurance policy in real-time to reflect the override of the one or more individual settings, and send a message to a device associated with the policyholder regarding the override of the one or more individual settings, wherein the message includes an option for the policyholder to update the vehicle settings for the human operator.

“9. The configurable vehicle of claim 8, wherein the vehicle settings include at least one of a number of passengers or a headlight status.

“10. The configurable vehicle of claim 8, wherein the insurance policy covering the configurable vehicle is priced according to the vehicle settings.

“11. The configurable vehicle of claim 8, further comprising a human operator identification system, running on the processor, to: send the identifying information to a server, and receive the vehicle settings from the server.

“12. The configurable vehicle of claim 8, wherein the vehicle settings include a maximum stereo volume.

“13. The configurable vehicle of claim 12, wherein the vehicle configuration module further: selects the maximum stereo volume by adjusting the stereo volume; and indicates a change in the insurance policy as the stereo volume is adjusted.

“14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: configure a vehicle with vehicle settings according to an identity of a human operator, wherein the vehicle is covered by an insurance policy based at least in part on the vehicle settings, wherein the human operator is not a policyholder of the insurance policy, wherein the human operator of the vehicle is identified by collecting unique identification information associated with the human operator, detect that the human operator has overridden one or more individual settings of the vehicle settings, in response to detecting that the human operator has overridden the one or more individual settings of the vehicle settings: adjust insurance coverage or an insurance rate in the insurance policy in real-time to reflect the override of the one or more individual settings, and send a message to a device associated with the policyholder regarding the override of the one or more individual settings, wherein the message includes an option for the policyholder to update the vehicle settings for the human operator.

“15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to compare vehicle operational information with the vehicle settings to determine whether the vehicle is operating within a threshold of the vehicle settings.

“16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the set of instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to notify the human operator or the policyholder of the insurance policy covering the vehicle that the vehicle is operating within the threshold of the vehicle settings in response to determining that the vehicle is operating within the threshold of the vehicle settings.

“17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the vehicle can have multiple possible human operators, each human operator of the multiple possible human operators of the vehicle having separate vehicle settings for the vehicle.

“18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the vehicle settings includes a maximum number of passengers.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Braun, Florian. Systems and methods for configuring a vehicle. U.S. Patent Number 11186292, filed February 21, 2019, and published online on November 30, 2021. 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=11186292.PN.&OS=PN/11186292RS=PN/11186292

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