Patent Issued for Systems and methods for determining the driver of a vehicle (USPTO 11930129): United Services Automobile Association

2024 APR 01 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Russell, Christopher M. (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on March 1, 2023, was published online on March 12, 2024.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11930129 is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “It is now well understood that a significant number of vehicle accidents occur while drivers are distracted by their personal devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops. Despite many warnings and public service announcements alerting drivers of the risks they are taking by responding to or making telephone calls, reading or sending text messages, or reading communications received via any of the several social media platforms, accidents due to such distracted driving continue to happen at an alarming rate. One possible solution to this issue-disabling all personal devices in a vehicle once the vehicle is in motion-is unsatisfactory because disabling the personal devices of passengers serves no useful purpose. Even less drastic measures, such as precluding making phone calls based upon GPS position may be unsatisfactory because they do not preclude a personal device from being used for texting or accessing social media, for example.

“Instead, in many cases, allowing passengers (but not drivers) to entertain themselves during a long drive makes the trip more pleasurable (or at least more tolerable) for both the driver and the passengers. Also, drivers often may need to use certain apps while they are driving that are sufficiently useful such that their usefulness outweighs any slight increase in the risk posed by any distraction caused by the apps. Examples of such apps include a hands-free app for receiving telephone calls and a navigation app.

“For these reasons, there is a need for systems and methods that limit drivers’ uses of their personal devices, but allow passengers full use of their personal devices.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In one aspect, embodiments include a method for reducing distractions for the driver of a motor vehicle by having a first personal device broadcast pings that include a time stamp identifying when the pings were sent. A second personal device receives the pings, calculates that it is probably collocated with the first personal device, and responds by reporting its position and velocity relative to the first personal device, and the time it received the ping from the first device. The first personal device then determines that the second personal device is proximal to the first personal device and establishes a mesh network with the second personal device. The first personal device and the second personal device then exchange identification of any additional personal devices that might have previously been identified by either of the two devices, eliminate any duplicates, and add the de-duplicated devices to the mesh network. The method then identifies which of the personal devices are associated with the driver of the motor vehicle, and which are associated with passengers, and disables all distracting apps from the driver’s personal devices.

“In another aspect, embodiments include a method for reducing distractions for a driver of a motor vehicle using a first personal device broadcasting pings that include a time stamp identifying the time when the pings were sent, and a second personal device that receives the pings broadcast by the first personal device. The second personal device then calculates the distance from the first personal device to the second personal device based at least in part on the time the pings were received compared to the time identified in the time stamp. The first personal device and the second personal device establish a mesh network between them, and further determine whether any additional personal devices are collocated with the first personal device and the second personal device. The first personal device and the second personal device then add any additional personal devices that have been determined to be collocated with the first personal device and the second personal device within the motor vehicle to the mesh network, identify any personal devices that are associated with the driver of the vehicle, and disable any distracting apps present in the personal devices associated with the driver of the motor vehicle.

“In yet another aspect, embodiments include a method for reducing distractions for a driver of a motor vehicle in which a first personal device broadcasts pings that include time stamps identifying when the pings were sent. A second personal device receives the pings broadcast by the first personal device at specific receiving times, and calculates its position relative to the first personal device based upon differences between the times identified by the time stamps and the specific receiving times. The first personal device then determines that the second personal device is collocated with the first personal device within the motor vehicle, and establishes a mesh network between the first personal device and the second personal device. The first personal device and the second personal device then identify any additional personal devices that may be collocated within the vehicle, identify which of the personal devices are associated with the driver of the vehicle, and disable any distracting apps on the personal devices associated with the driver of the vehicle.

“Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the invention will be, or will become, apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description and this summary, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the following claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method performed by a primary personal device within a motor vehicle for identifying personal devices associated with occupants of the motor vehicle, comprising: detecting when the motor vehicle is moving at a velocity that exceeds a predetermined threshold velocity; broadcasting pings that include a time stamp reporting when each ping was broadcast; and receiving, from at least one secondary personal device associated with an occupant of the motor vehicle, a responsive ping that reports a position of the at least one secondary personal device relative to the primary personal device in response to calculating that it is probable that the secondary personal device is collocated with the primary personal device; wherein one of the occupants of the motor vehicle is a driver of the motor vehicle, and the method further comprises identifying which of the personal devices is associated with the driver of the motor vehicle.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a mesh network of collocated devices that includes at least the primary personal device and the at least one secondary personal device.

“3. The method of claim 2, wherein the secondary personal device calculates that it is probable that the secondary personal device is collocated with the primary personal device based at least in part on information received from monitoring units of the motor vehicle.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondary personal device calculates that it is probable that the secondary personal device is collocated with the primary personal device based at least in part on a determination that the primary personal device and the secondary personal device are travelling at a same speed in a same direction.

“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising disabling distracting apps from the personal devices associated with the driver of the motor vehicle.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting when the vehicle is stopped, receiving notification from a vehicle monitoring unit that a vehicle door has been opened, determining whether the motor vehicle now has a new occupant, and determining whether the new occupant is now driving the motor vehicle.

“7. A system for identifying personal devices associated with occupants of a motor vehicle comprising: a primary personal device configured to: detect when the motor vehicle is moving at a velocity that exceeds a predetermined threshold velocity; broadcast pings that include a time stamp reporting when each ping was broadcast; and receive, from at least one secondary personal device associated with an occupant of the motor vehicle, a responsive ping that reports a position of the at least one secondary personal device relative to the primary personal device in response to calculating that it is probable that the secondary personal device is collocated with the primary personal device.

“8. The system of claim 7, wherein the primary personal device is further configured to establish a mesh network of collocated devices that includes at least the primary personal device and the at least one secondary personal device.

“9. The system of claim 8, wherein the secondary personal device calculates that it is probable that the secondary personal device is collocated with the primary personal device based at least in part on information received from monitoring units of the motor vehicle.

“10. The system of claim 7, wherein the secondary personal device calculates that it is probable that the secondary personal device is collocated with the primary personal device based at least in part on a determination that the primary personal device and the secondary personal device are travelling at a same speed in a same direction.

“11. The system of claim 7, wherein one of the occupants of the motor vehicle is a driver of the motor vehicle, and the primary personal device is further configured to identify which of the personal devices is associated with the driver of the motor vehicle.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein the primary personal device is further configured to disable distracting apps from the personal devices associated with the driver of the motor vehicle.

“13. The system of claim 7, wherein the primary personal device is further configured to detect when the motor vehicle is stopped, receive notification from a vehicle monitoring unit that a vehicle door has been opened, determine whether the motor vehicle now has a new occupant, and determine whether the new occupant is now driving the motor vehicle.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Russell, Christopher M. Systems and methods for determining the driver of a vehicle. U.S. Patent Number 11930129, filed March 1, 2023, and published online on March 12, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11930129)&db=USPAT&type=ids

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)