Patent Issued for Systems and methods for performing repairs to a vehicle (USPTO 11587046): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
2023 MAR 15 (NewsRx) -- By a
The assignee for this patent, patent number 11587046, is
Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “In most cases of damage to a vehicle, the damage must be reviewed by an individual, such as an appraiser, to determine a cost to repair the damage. This may be done to inform the owner of the vehicle on how much it will cost to repair, or to inform an insurance provider of the cost to repair. In order to determine the cost to repair the owner of the vehicle must either transport the vehicle to the appraiser for inspection, or the appraiser must travel to the vehicle. Depending on the amount of damage to the vehicle, it may not be worthwhile to require either the owner or the appraiser to travel for the inspection. Furthermore, in some cases the appraisers are repair shops that may or may not have capacity to repair the vehicle at the time of the appraisal. Thus, after getting the appraisal, the owner may have to return with the vehicle or take it elsewhere to get it repaired. There exists a need to automate this process to reduce the need for travel and improve the speed of this process.”
In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments may relate to systems and methods for instructing a user on repairing a vehicle. The system may include a repair assistant (RA) computer system, one or more insurer network computer devices, one or more user devices potentially associated with at least one camera, and/or one or more repair facility computer devices. The RA computer system may be associated with an insurance network or may be merely in communication with an insurance network.
“The RA computer system may be configured to: (i) receive, from the user, a request to repair a vehicle, including information about the vehicle, where the user interface is associated with an application on the user computer device, and where the user logs into the application to make the request to repair, where the information about the vehicle includes one or more of a make of the vehicle, a model of the vehicle, a year of the vehicle, a location of the damage on the vehicle, identification of the vehicle, identification of the user, and one or more photographs of the vehicle; (ii) in response to the request to repair, transmit, to the user computer device, a link to the user interface, where the link is transmitted in at least one of a short message service (SMS) message, a multimedia messaging server (MMS) message, and an email message; (iii) present, to the user via the user computer device, a user interface to allow the user to search for a repair facility to repair the vehicle; (iv) receive, from the user via the user interface, a search request including a name of a repair facility; (v) request that the user reenter the name of the repair facility if the name is not recognized; (vi) query one or more databases to recognize the repair facility based on the name; (vii) if the name is recognized, retrieve, from the one or more databases, facility information about the repair facility; (viii) determine, via the one or more databases, whether the repair facility is a select service location based on the facility information; (ix) receive, from the user via the user interface, a search location for a repair facility, where the search location includes at least one of an address, a zip code, a municipality, and a present location of the user computer device; (x) query, one or more databases, to determine a plurality of repair facilities within a predetermined distance of the search location; (xi) filter the plurality of repair facilities to generate a subset of repair facilities, where the subset of repair facilities are select service locations; (xii) present, to the user via the user interface, the subset of repair facilities; (xiii) receive, from the user via the user interface, a selection of one of the repair facilities of the subset of repair facilities; (xiv) determine whether the selected repair facility is a select service location, where a select service location is a pre-authorized repair facility; (xv) if the selected repair facility is a select service location, the at least one processor is further programmed to: (a) transfer the information about the vehicle to a computer device associated with the selected repair facility; (b) request that the user upload one or more photographs of at least one of the vehicle and the damage to the vehicle; © receive the one or more photographs from the user computer device; and/or (d) transmit the one or more photographs to the selected repair facility; and/or (xvi) if the selected repair facility is not a select service location, the at least one processor is further programmed to: (a) request, from the user via the user interface, drivability information including whether or not the vehicle is able to be safely driven; (b) if the determination is that the vehicle is not able to be safely driven, schedule a phone call to continue the repair process; and/or © if the determination is that the vehicle is able to be safely driven, the at least one processor is further programmed to: (1) present, to the user via the user interface, a search interface to search for an inspection site; (2) receive, from the user via the user interface, a selection of an inspection site; (3) present, to the user via the user interface, a calendar to allow the user to set an appointment with the inspection site; and/or (4) determine an appointment based on the user selections in the user interface and appointment information from a computer device associated with the selected inspection site.
“In one aspect, a computer system for instructing a user on repairing a vehicle may be provided. The computer system may include at least one processor (and/or associated transceiver) in communication with at least one memory device. The computer system is in communication with a user computer device associated with the user The at least one processor (and/or associated transceiver) may be configured or programmed to: (i) receive, from the user, a request to repair a vehicle, including information about the vehicle; (ii) present, to the user via the user computer device, a user interface to allow the user to search for a repair facility to repair the vehicle; (iii) receive, from the user via the user interface, a selection of a repair facility; (iv) determine whether the selected repair facility is a select service location, where a select service location is a pre-authorized repair facility; and (v) if the selected repair facility is a select service location, transfer the information about the vehicle to a computer device associated with the selected repair facility to facilitate quickly and efficiently repairing the vehicle. The computer system may have additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.
“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method for instructing a user on repairing a vehicle may be provided. The method may be implemented on a repair assistant (“RA”) computer system including at least one processor in communication with at least one memory device. The RA computer system is further in communication with a user computer device associated with the user. The method may include: (i) receiving, from the user, a request to repair a vehicle, including information about the vehicle; (ii) presenting, to the user via the user computer device, a user interface to allow the user to search for a repair facility to repair the vehicle; (ii) receiving, from user via the user interface, a selection of a repair facility; (iv) determining whether the selected repair facility is a select service location, where a select service location is a pre-authorized repair facility; and (v) if the selected repair facility is a select service location, transferring the information about the vehicle to a computer device associated with the selected repair facility to facilitate quickly and efficiently repairing the vehicle. The method may have additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.
“In at least one further aspect, at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon may be provided. When executed by at least one processor, the computer-executable instructions may cause the processor to: (i) receive, from a user, a request to repair a vehicle, including information about the vehicle; (ii) present, to the user via a user computer device, a user interface to allow the user to search for a repair facility to repair the vehicle; (iii) receive, from the user via the user interface, a selection of a repair facility; (iv) determine whether the selected repair facility is a select service location, where a select service location is a pre-authorized repair facility; (v) if the selected repair facility is a select service location, transfer the information about the vehicle to a computer device associated with the selected repair facility; and (vi) if the selected repair facility is not a select service location, the at least one processor is further programmed to: (a) request, from the user via the user interface, drivability information including whether or not the vehicle is able to be safely driven; (b) if the determination is that the vehicle is not able to be safely driven, schedule a phone call to continue the repair process; and © if the determination is that the vehicle is able to be safely driven, the at least one processor is further programmed to: (1) present, to the user via the user interface, a search interface to search for an inspection site; and (2) receive, from the user via the user interface, a selection of an inspection site to facilitate quickly and efficiently repairing the vehicle. The computer-executable instructions may have additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.”
The claims supplied by the inventors are:
“1. A computer system for instructing a user on repairing a vehicle, the computer system including at least one processor in communication with at least one memory device, the computer system in communication with a user computer device associated with the user, the at least one processor is programmed to: receive, by the at least one processor from the user, a request to repair a vehicle, including information about the vehicle; generate, by the at least one processor, a plurality of questions about current conditions of the vehicle; transmit, from the at least one processor to the user computer device, an electronic message including instructions to display a link to a user interface to be displayed on the user computer device, wherein when the link is activated by the user the link causes additional instructions to be transmitted to the user computer device to display the user interface to be presented to the user of the user computer device; transmit, from the at least one processor to the user computer device, a plurality of instructions to cause the user interface of the user computer device to display the plurality of questions about the current conditions of the vehicle; receive, by the at least one processor from the user computer device via the user interface of the user computer device, a plurality of answers about the current conditions of the vehicle in response to the plurality of questions; request, by the at least one processor from the user computer device via the user interface, one or more images of the vehicle based on the plurality of answers, wherein the request includes instructions for taking the one or more images of the vehicle; receive, by the at least one processor from the user computer device via the user interface, the one or more images of the vehicle captured by a camera of the user computer device; transmit, from the at least one processor to the user computer device, a plurality of instructions to cause the user interface of the user computer device to allow the user to search for a repair facility to repair the vehicle; receive, by the at least one processor from the user computer device via the user interface, a selection of a repair facility; automatically determine, by the processor, whether the selected repair facility is a select service location, wherein a select service location is a pre-authorized repair facility; if the selected repair facility is a select service location, the at least one processor is programmed to: retrieve, by the at least one processor, a calendar of appointments from a repair facility computer device associated with the selected repair facility; receive, by the at least one processor via the user interface, a user selection of a date and time for an appointment; compare, by the at least one processor, the user selection of a date and time for the appointment to the calendar of appointments from the repair facility computer device; determine, by the at least one processor, whether there is a conflict based on the comparison; if there is a conflict, transmit, from the at least one processor to the user computer device, a suggested time based on the user selection and the calendar of appointments to be presented to the user via the user interface; transfer the information about the vehicle, the selected date and time, the one or more images of the vehicle, and the plurality of answers about the current conditions of the vehicle to the repair facility computer device; and receive, by the at least one processor, a confirmation of the appointment from the repair facility computer device; and if the selected repair facility is not a select service location, the at least one processor is programmed to: request, by the at least one processor from the user computer device via the user interface, drivability information including whether or not the vehicle is able to be safely driven; if the determination is that the vehicle is not able to be safely driven, schedule, by the at least one processor, a phone call to continue the repair process; and if the determination is that the vehicle is able to be safely driven, the at least one processor is further programmed to: transmit, by the at least one processor to the user computer device via the user interface, instructions to display a search interface to search for an inspection site; and receive, by the at least one processor from the user computer device via the user interface, a selection of an inspection site.
“2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further programmed to: if the selected repair facility is not a select service location and if the determination is that the vehicle is able to be safely driven, the at least one processor is further programmed to: retrieve, by the at least one processor, a calendar of appointments from an inspection facility computer device associated with the selected inspection facility; receive, by the at least one processor via the user interface, a user selection of a date and time for an appointment; present, by the at least one processor to the user computer device via the user interface, a calendar to allow the user to set an inspection appointment with the inspection site; and determine the inspection appointment based on user selections in the user interface and appointment information from the inspection facility computer device associated with the selected inspection site.
“3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further programmed to: receive, from the user computer device via the user interface, a search request including a name of a repair facility; query one or more databases to recognize the repair facility based on the name; if the name is recognized, retrieve, from the one or more databases, facility information about the repair facility; determine, via the one or more databases, whether the repair facility is a select service location based on the facility information; and request that the user reenter the name of the repair facility if the name is not recognized.
“4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further programmed to: receive, from the user computer device via the user interface, a search location for a repair facility, wherein the search location includes at least one of an address, a zip code, a municipality, and a present location of the user computer device; query, one or more databases, to determine a plurality of repair facilities within a predetermined distance of the search location; filter the plurality of repair facilities to generate a subset of repair facilities, wherein the subset of repair facilities are select service locations; present, to the user computer device via the user interface, the subset of repair facilities; and receive, from the user computer device via the user interface, a selection of one of the repair facilities of the subset of repair facilities.
“5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein in response to the request to repair the vehicle, the at least one processor is further programmed to generate the link to the user interface, wherein the link is transmitted to the user computer device in at least one of a short message service (SMS) message, a multimedia messaging server (MMS) message, and an email message.
“6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the information about the vehicle includes one or more of a make of the vehicle, a model of the vehicle, a year of the vehicle, a location of damage on the vehicle, identification of the vehicle, identification of the user, and the one or more images of the vehicle.”
There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.
For more information, see this patent: Beckman, Jason. Systems and methods for performing repairs to a vehicle.
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