Patent Issued for Systems and methods for using sensors to determine a holistic vehicle characteristic and/or to generate parameters for a vehicle service (USPTO 11861953): Allstate Insurance Company

2024 JAN 18 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Border, David (Palatine, IL, US), Caraballo Falcon, Jorge (Chicago, IL, US), Greenwell, Ashley (Chicago, IL, US), Hayes, Howard (Glencoe, IL, US), Kumar, Surender (Palatine, IL, US), Moats, John Bradley (Gurnee, IL, US), filed on September 26, 2018, was published online on January 2, 2024.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11861953, is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Car sellers and car buyers may often appraise a vehicle or aspect of a vehicle, for example, to determine a holistic vehicle characteristic, e.g., for a vehicle sale, or to determine parameters that may be used in a vehicle service contract. Current methods of appraisal may factor publicly available information, including dealer transactions, depreciation costs for unique automobiles and market financial data. An appraisal value may also be based on readily available factors pertaining to the type of vehicle, including, the year, make, model, trim, and mileage. Likewise a consumer may desire to confirm the validity of the price of a used vehicle. The consumer may look up publicly available information to determine a valid price for the vehicle, for example, using available sources like Kelly Blue Book or Edmunds. However, current methods may not be objectively specific. At best, current methods for appraising a vehicle may be based on subjective human observations of the condition of the vehicle, e.g., “very good”, “fair”, “rough”, “damaged”, etc. or may be based on a subjective manipulation of tools for gathering data, e.g., misreading an odometer, rounding values, using expired data, etc.

“There is a desire for a framework for assessing a vehicle or aspect of a vehicle objectively, for example, from data collected from electronic sensors found in mobile devices and/or incorporated into automobiles and other types of vehicles. For example, telematics systems, such as on-board diagnostics (OBD) systems may provide information from the vehicle’s on-board computers and sensors, allowing users to monitor a wide variety of information relating to the vehicle systems. Likewise, mobile devices may be equipped with various forms of sensors to obtain data related to automobiles and other vehicles.

“Furthermore, there is a desire for systems and methods for automatically analyzing the data obtained from these sensors to not only appraise various aspects of a vehicle but generate or determine vehicle-specific parameters that may be used in a sale of or service of the vehicle.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. The summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of the disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the description below.

“Aspects of the disclosure relate to methods, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for using sensors to determine a holistic characteristic of a vehicle (e.g., a fair market value, a suggested sale price, a rating, etc.) parameter(s) for a vehicle and/or to generate parameters for a vehicle service. These parameters may be used, for example, to generate an agreement for a vehicle service (e.g., vehicle service contract (VSC)), and/or determine the likelihood that a particular vehicle may require service in the future. Thus, one or more computing devices, systems, or servers (e.g., “management system”) may receive a request from a user to determine a characteristic of a vehicle (e.g., a price of a used car that the user is interested in buying or selling) or to generate or determine parameters that may be used, e.g., in a vehicle service contract. It is contemplated that the characteristic of the vehicle or the generation of parameters may depend on an objective assessment of the vehicle, e.g., based on data collected from sensors. In order to process the request, the management system may establish a connection with computing devices or systems operating the sensors, to drive the sensors toward gathering the appropriate data. For example, a telematics device, may be configured to collect vehicle operational data and transmit the data to a vehicle conditions computer system or server. Vehicle operational data may include various data collected by the vehicle’s internal sensors, computers, and cameras, such as the vehicle’s speed, rates of acceleration, braking, or steering, impacts to the vehicle, usage of vehicle controls, and other vehicle operational data. Additional image data, video data, vehicular sound data, and/or vehicular performance data, acceleration or rotational data, may be received from one or more mobile devices in order to analyze the potentially high-risk or unsafe driving event. The present condition of the vehicle for one or more vehicle features may be calculated or adjusted based on the gathering of the data from their appropriate sensors (vehicle telematics systems, mobile devices, third parties, etc.) and the analysis of the this data. The present condition may be quantified based on the various data metrics obtained from sensors found in the vehicle (on board diagnostics systems, global positioning systems, etc.), mobile devices, or external sources.

“Systems and methods are disclosure for using sensors to determine a holistic characteristic for a vehicle and/or to generate parameter(s) for a vehicle service. One method comprises: receiving, by a computing device having at least one processor and from a user device of a user via a first wireless data connection, a request to generate one or more vehicle service parameters, based on a current condition of at least one of a plurality of features of a vehicle; receiving, by the computing device and from the user device via the first wireless data connection, vehicle-specific identifying information; determining, by the computing device, data for a past condition for each of the plurality of features of the vehicle, using the vehicle-specific identifying information; establishing, by the computing device, a second wireless data connection with electronic system(s) of the vehicle; receiving, by the computing device and from electronic system(s) of the vehicle via the second wireless data connection, data of a current condition for at least one of the plurality of features of the vehicle; comparing, by the computing device, the data of the past condition and the data of the current condition for the at least one of the plurality of features of the vehicle; and generating, by the computing device one or more vehicle service parameters based on the comparison and based on the vehicle-specific identifying information.

“Another method comprises: receiving, by a computing device having at least one processor and from a user device of a user via a first wireless data connection, a request to estimate a current holistic characteristic of a vehicle, wherein the current holistic characteristic is based at least on a current condition of at least one of a plurality of features of the vehicle; receiving, by the computing device and from the user device via the first wireless data connection, vehicle-specific identifying data of the vehicle, and a current condition for at least one of the plurality of features of the vehicle; receiving and storing, by the computing device, an original holistic characteristic value of the vehicle as a hypothesized holistic characteristics value of the vehicle; determining, by the computing device, an original condition for at least one of the plurality of features of the vehicle, using the vehicle-specific identifying data; comparing, by the computing device, the original condition and the current condition, for the at least one of the plurality of features of the vehicle; and updating the hypothesized characteristic value of the vehicle based on the comparison and the vehicle-specific identifying data to determine a value for the current holistic characteristic of the vehicle.

“In accordance with other embodiments of the present disclosure, a system comprises: one or more processors; and memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: receive, from a user device via a first wireless data connection, vehicle-specific identifying information of a vehicle; identify the vehicle as a known vehicle from a database of known vehicles in the memory, using the vehicle-specific identifying information; receive data for a past condition for at least one of a plurality of features of the vehicle; establish a second wireless data connection with electronic system(s) of the vehicle; receive, from electronic system(s) of the vehicle via the second wireless data connection, data of a current condition for at least one of the plurality of features of the vehicle; compare the data of the past condition and the data of the current condition for the at least one of the plurality of features of the vehicle; and store results of the comparison to the memory.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: receiving, by a computing device having at least one processor and from a user, via a user device and a first wireless data connection, a request to generate one or more vehicle service parameters, based on a current condition of a first feature of a vehicle; receiving, by the computing device and from the user device via the first wireless data connection, vehicle-specific identifying information; determining, by the computing device, data of a past condition for the first feature, using the vehicle-specific identifying information; establishing, by the computing device, a second wireless data connection with an electronic system of the vehicle; receiving, by the computing device and from the electronic system of the vehicle via the second wireless data connection, data of the current condition for the first feature of the vehicle; receiving, from the user device of the user via the first wireless data connection, a user request for a vehicle service parameter associated with performing a service on the vehicle, wherein the vehicle service parameter is based on the current condition of the first feature of the vehicle; comparing, by the computing device and responsive to receiving the user request for the vehicle service parameter, the data of the past condition and the data of the current condition for the first feature of the vehicle, wherein comparing the data of the past condition and the data of the current condition includes determining whether a difference between the data of the past condition and the data of the current condition is within a range; entering a negative mark when the difference is not with the range; entering a positive mark when the difference is within the range; generating, by the computing device, based on the comparing and the vehicle-specific identifying information, the vehicle service parameter, the vehicle service parameter being generated based on at least the positive mark or the negative mark; and prompting the user to approve an offer associated with the vehicle service parameter.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the computing device, from the user device, and via the first wireless data connection, second data of a second current condition for a second feature of the vehicle.

“3. The method of claim 2, further comprising, prior to the receiving, from the user device, the second data of the second current condition for the second feature of the vehicle: prompting, by the computing device, the user device to activate, initiate, or enable sensors within the user device to generate the second data of the second current condition for the second feature of the vehicle.

“4. The method of claim 2, further comprising: comparing, by the computing device, the data of the past condition and the data of the second current condition for the second feature of the vehicle; and generating, based on the comparisons and based on the vehicle-specific identifying information, the one or more vehicle service parameters.

“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying, by the computing device, the vehicle as a known vehicle from a database of known vehicles, using the vehicle-specific identifying information.

“6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: updating, by the computing device, the database of known vehicles using one or more vehicle-specific identifying information of other vehicles, received from other user devices.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the computing device and from the user device via the first wireless data connection, a user-specific information of the user from the user device; and generating, by the computing device, the one or more vehicle service parameters based on the comparing, the vehicle-specific identifying information, and the user-specific information.

“8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: forming, by the computing device, a plurality of data structures to store the data of the vehicle service parameter; and entering, by the computing device, the vehicle-specific identifying information into a first data structure of the plurality of data structures, wherein the vehicle service parameter is stored in a second data structure of the plurality of data structures.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle service parameter is associated with one of: a service contracted to be performed on the vehicle, a roadside assistance, a deductible type or amount, a coverage or coverage plan, or an option for a replacement of a vehicle feature.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first feature is an interior, exterior, mechanical, or hardware asset that is a physical part of the vehicle and affects a value of the vehicle.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein the past condition is an original condition.

“12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying whether there remains a second feature for which the computing device has not performed a past and current condition comparison; and comparing, by the computing device and in response to determining that there remains the second feature for which the computing device has not performed the past and current condition comparison, data of a past condition of the second feature and data of a current condition for the second feature, wherein the vehicle service parameter is generated based on the comparison of the data of the past condition of the second feature and the data of the current condition for the second feature.

“13. A system for assessing a current condition of a vehicle comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: receive, from a user, via a user device and a first wireless data connection, vehicle-specific identifying information of a vehicle; identify, using the vehicle-specific identifying information, the vehicle as a known vehicle from a database of known vehicles in the memory; receive data of a past condition for a first feature of the vehicle; establish a second wireless data connection with an electronic system of the vehicle; receive, from the electronic system of the vehicle via the second wireless data connection, data of a current condition for the first feature of the vehicle; receive, from the user device via the first wireless data connection, a user request for a vehicle service parameter associated with performing a service on the vehicle, wherein the vehicle service parameter is based on the current condition of the first feature of the vehicle; compare, responsive to receiving the user request for the vehicle service parameter, the data of the past condition and the data of the current condition for the first feature of the vehicle, wherein comparing the data of the past condition and the data of the current condition includes determining whether a difference between the data of the past condition and the data of the current condition is within a range; enter a negative mark when the difference is not with the range; enter a positive mark when the difference is within the range; generate, based on the comparing and the vehicle-specific identifying information, the vehicle service parameter, the vehicle service parameter being generated based at least on the positive mark or the negative mark; and prompt the user to approve an offer associated with the vehicle service parameter.

“14. The system of claim 13, the memory storing additional computer-executable instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: receive, from the user device via the first wireless data connection, a request to estimate a current holistic characteristic for the vehicle; and determine a value of the current holistic characteristic of the vehicle based on the comparison and the vehicle-specific identifying data.

“15. The system of claim 13, the memory storing additional computer-executable instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: prompt the user device to activate, initiate, or enable sensors within the user device to generate a second data of a current condition for the first feature of the vehicle; and receive, from the user device via the first wireless data connection, the second data of a current condition of the first feature.

“16. The system of claim 13, the memory storing additional computer-executable instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: form a plurality of data structures to store the data of the vehicle service parameter; enter the vehicle-specific identifying information into a first data structure of the plurality of data structures; and enter the vehicle service parameter in a second data structure of the plurality of data structures.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For more information, see this patent: Border, David. Systems and methods for using sensors to determine a holistic vehicle characteristic and/or to generate parameters for a vehicle service. U.S. Patent Number 11861953, filed September 26, 2018, and published online on January 2, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11861953)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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