Patent Issued for Systems and methods of gig-economy fleet mobilization (USPTO 11928738): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
2024 MAR 29 (NewsRx) -- By a
The patent’s inventors are Abella, Elijah (
This patent was filed on
From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Gig-economy work has grown significantly in recent years due to the coordination power of mobile computing networks. Millions of gig-economy workers provide a broad array of gig-economy services, such as on-demand transportation services (e.g., ridesharing or transportation network company (“TNC”) services), distributed goods delivery services, project-based home and office assistance services, and other services on an ad hoc or transactional basis.
“The rapid increase in both supply and demand for such services has drawn in many new service providers, but information resources are lacking. The differences between traditional work and gig-economy work have left gaps in areas such as risk assessment and gig optimization. This results in an increased record-keeping burden on individual gig-economy workers to attempt to track their own activities. Additionally, by the distributed nature of gig-economy work, the supply of gig-economy is the result of many unrelated individual decisions, making it difficult for individual gig-economy workers to determine whether it is worthwhile to offer their services at any given time.
“Certain costs with significant impacts on gig-economy work profitability are also unobservable by even the most sophisticated gig-economy workers. For example, on-demand transportation services are typically in high demand at times and places where risk levels of vehicle accidents are elevated (e.g., during inclement weather, in crowded business districts, and late at night on weekends). However, risk levels associated with on-demand transportation gigs may not be directly observable. Thus, gig-economy workers are left without much-needed information relating to costs of providing gig services relative to the revenue that may be obtained from offering such services. Thus, inefficient use of gig-economy worker effort results from a lack of relevant data. Conventional techniques may have other drawbacks as well.”
Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments relate to, inter alia, detecting, monitoring, and optimizing gig-economy work based upon data associated with a plurality of gig-economy workers and relating to a plurality of gigs performed by such gig-economy workers. Additional, fewer, or alternative features described herein below may be included in some aspects.
“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method for monitoring and evaluating gig-economy work (e.g., commercial driving activity) may be provided. The method may include, via one or more processors, servers, transceivers, and/or sensors, (i) receiving (and/or generating) availability data corresponding to a gig-economy worker; (ii) responsive to receiving the availability data, collecting a set of data indicative of one or more gig-related behaviors (e.g., driving behaviors) of the gig-economy worker; (iii) determining a risk score for each gig-related behavior indicated in the set of data; and/or (iv) determining a gig-economy worker profile (e.g., a commercial driving profile) corresponding to the gig-economy worker by evaluating each risk score. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.
“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method for detecting gig-economy work (e.g., commercial driving activity) may be provided. The method may include, via one or more processors, servers, transceivers, and/or sensors, (i) receiving (and/or generating) movement data representing movement (e.g., movement of a vehicle) associated with a gig-economy worker; (ii) responsive to receiving the movement data, determining likelihoods that portions of the movement data are attributable to gig-economy work (e.g., commercial driving activities) based upon the movement data; and/or (iii) determining an aspect of an insurance policy for the gig-economy work or the gig-economy worker (e.g., insurance for a vehicle) based upon the likelihoods. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.
“In yet another aspect, a computer-implemented method for optimizing gig-economy work (e.g., commercial driving activity) may be provided. The method may include, via one or more processors, servers, transceivers, and/or sensors, (i) receiving, at one or more processors, one or more gig optimization criteria indicating one or more outcome gig metrics to optimize; (ii) obtaining condition data indicating a plurality of conditional values for gig metrics; (iii) selecting one or more gig-economy data models associated with the one or more outcome gig metrics; (iv) generating one or more gig optimization recommendations associated with the one or more gig optimization criteria by applying at least some of the condition data to the one or more gig-economy data models; and/or (v) causing at least one of the one or more gig optimization recommendations to be presented to a gig-economy worker by a display of a mobile computing device associated with the gig-economy worker. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.
“In a still a further aspect, a computer-implemented method for generating a transferable token for a gig-economy worker may be provided. Generating such a transferable token may include: (1) receiving data representing at least one of an activity, a behavior or a work of the gig-economy worker; (2) responsive to receipt of the data, determining at least one of a risk level or a risk profile for the gig-economy worker based upon the data; (3) forming a transferable token that includes the at least one of the risk level or the risk profile; and/or (4) when requested by a third party, providing the transferable token to the third party. The transferable token may be used by the third party to offer a new or updated policy, service, agreement, or account. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.”
The claims supplied by the inventors are:
“1. A computer-implemented method for coordination of gig-economy services, the method comprising: obtaining, by one or more processors, an indication of a triggering event associated with an elevated level of current demand for a type of gig-economy service associated with an emergency condition occurring in an area, which emergency condition is unplanned and requires an immediate response, wherein the elevated level of current demand is associated with a plurality of gig-economy service consumers associated with the area; generating, by the one or more processors, a demand profile including parameters indicating a demand quantity of the type of gig-economy service; communicating, by the one or more processors via a network, demand data associated with the demand profile to one or more gig-economy platforms via corresponding application programming interfaces (APIs) of the one or more gig-economy platforms; receiving, at the one or more processors via the network, availability data regarding current availability of a plurality of gig-economy workers for the type of gig-economy service based upon the demand profile; and coordinating, by the one or more processors, performance of the type of gig-economy service by at least some of the plurality of gig-economy workers for at least some of the plurality of gig-economy service consumers, wherein coordinating the performance of the type of gig-economy service includes: identifying a plurality of inactive gig-economy workers of the plurality of gig-economy workers based at least in part upon each of such inactive gig-economy workers matching parameters associated with the elevated level of current demand, wherein each of the plurality of inactive gig-economy workers is not engaged in the type of gig-economy service and is logged out of a gig-economy platform application associated with at least one of the one or more gig-economy platforms at the time of the triggering event associated with the emergency condition; and controlling one or more servers associated with the one or more gig-economy platforms to transmit an alert to respective computing devices of each of the plurality of inactive gig-economy workers to indicate the elevated level of current demand, wherein the alert causes the respective computing device associated with each of the plurality of inactive gig-economy workers to present a notification of the elevated level of current demand while the respective inactive gig-economy worker is not engaged in the type of gig-economy service and is logged out of the gig-economy platform application during occurrence of the emergency condition, wherein transmitting the alert causes a display of each of the respective computing devices to present visual notifications to a corresponding inactive gig-economy worker.
“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the indication of the triggering event comprises: obtaining, by the one or more processors, event data from one or more external data sources; determining, by the one or more processors, occurrence of the triggering event based upon the event data; and generating, by the one or more processors, the indication of the triggering event.
“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising: identifying, by the one or more processors, the plurality of gig-economy service consumers based upon an association between the area and each of the plurality of gig-economy service consumers.
“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein: the type of gig-economy services includes on-demand transportation services.
“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying, by the one or more processors, the plurality of gig-economy service consumers based upon an association between the area associated with the triggering event and each of the plurality of gig-economy service consumers.
“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the one or more processors, the elevated level of current demand for the type of gig-economy service exceeds the current availability of the plurality of gig-economy workers for the type of gig-economy service.
“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein coordinating the performance of the type of gig-economy service includes communicating, to the plurality of gig-economy workers via the APIs of the one or more gig-economy platforms, an indication of a bonus payment for providing the type of gig-economy service to the plurality of gig-economy service consumers.
“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein coordinating the performance of the type of gig-economy service includes: obtaining, from the one or more gig-economy platforms via the corresponding APIs, one or more user discount codes for the plurality of gig-economy service consumers, wherein the one or more discount codes reduce in whole or part a cost of obtaining the performance of the type of gig-economy service; and communicating, to the plurality of gig-economy service consumers, the one or more user discount codes for use in obtaining the performance of the type of gig-economy service.
“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein controlling the one or more servers associated with the one or more gig-economy platforms comprises communicating, via the network, an alert request to the one or more gig-economy platforms via the corresponding APIs to cause the one or more servers to transmit the alert to each of the plurality of inactive gig-economy workers.
“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the parameters of the demand profile further indicate a predicted duration of the demand quantity based upon the emergency condition occurring in the area.
“11. A computer system for coordination of gig-economy services, the computer system comprising: one or more processors; a program memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to: obtain an indication of a triggering event associated with an elevated level of current demand for a type of gig-economy service associated with an emergency condition occurring in an area, which emergency condition is unplanned and requires an immediate response, wherein the elevated level of current demand is associated with a plurality of gig-economy service consumers associated with the area; generate a demand profile including parameters indicating a demand quantity of the type of gig-economy service; communicate demand data associated with the demand profile to one or more gig-economy platforms via corresponding application programming interfaces (APIs) of the one or more gig-economy platforms; receive availability data regarding current availability of a plurality of gig-economy workers for the type of gig-economy service based upon the demand profile; and coordinate performance of the type of gig-economy service by at least some of the plurality of gig-economy workers for at least some of the plurality of gig-economy service consumers, wherein coordinating the performance of the type of gig-economy service includes: identifying a plurality of inactive gig-economy workers of the plurality of gig-economy workers based at least in part upon each of such inactive gig-economy workers matching parameters associated with the elevated level of current demand, wherein each of the plurality of inactive gig-economy workers is not engaged in the type of gig-economy service and is logged out of a gig-economy platform application associated with at least one of the one or more gig-economy platforms at the time of the triggering event associated with the emergency condition; controlling one or more servers associated with the one or more gig-economy platforms to transmit an alert to respective computing devices of each of the plurality of inactive gig-economy workers to indicate the elevated level of current demand, wherein the alert causes the respective computing device associated with each of the plurality of inactive gig-economy workers to present a notification of the elevated level of current demand while the respective inactive gig-economy worker is not engaged in the type of gig-economy service and is logged out of the gig-economy platform application during occurrence of the emergency condition, wherein transmitting the alert causes a display of each of the respective computing devices to present visual notifications to a corresponding inactive gig-economy worker.
“12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein: the type of gig-economy services includes on-demand transportation services.
“13. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the executable instructions further cause the computer system to identify the plurality of gig-economy service consumers based upon an association between the area associated with the triggering event and each of the plurality of gig-economy service consumers.
“14. The computer system of claim 11, wherein: the executable instructions further cause the computer system to determine the elevated level of current demand for the type of gig-economy service exceeds the current availability of the plurality of gig-economy workers for the type of gig-economy service.”
There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.
For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Abella, Elijah. Systems and methods of gig-economy fleet mobilization.
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