Patent Issued for Transportation analytics systems and methods using a mobility device embedded within a vehicle (USPTO 11769206): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2023 OCT 17 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Cope, Craig (Bloomington, IL, US), filed on September 29, 2020, was published online on September 26, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11769206 is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Individuals use mobile devices (e.g., mobile telephones) for a variety of purposes and often carry mobile devices while traveling. Such usage may be source of data. For example, mobile devices may be equipped to generate data (e.g., telematics data) using instruments built into the mobile device, such as an accelerometer or global positioning system (GPS) device. This data obtained from mobile devices may be useful for a variety of applications.

“However, there may be current limitations in the ability of computing devices to utilize such data in automated processes. For example, known usage-based insurance applications may have several drawbacks or limitations. In order to implement these applications, different forms of information may need to be reconciled by human beings, which may result in lack of timeliness, inaccuracies, inconvenience, or other drawbacks. Further, the premium may vary from period to period, which increases the complexity of the payment process for insured users, insurers, and/or other entities related to the insurance transaction.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments may relate to, inter alia, systems and methods for generating transportation analytics using a mobility device embedded within a vehicle. In one aspect, an improved system and method may provide usage-based insurance (UBI) based upon an individual driver’s actual driving behavior determined from telematics data. UBI may include insurance that is paid for by time or distance. For instance, UBI may provide insurance coverage by mile traveled, or by period of time-such as hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly insurance or insurance by the hour, day, week, month, or other time period.

“In exemplary embodiments, the systems and methods may be performed by a transportation analytics (“TA”) computing device. The TA computing device may collect and analyze telematics data (e.g., acceleration, position, velocity, orientation, etc.) gathered by a mobile device of a user during a trip of the user. For example, the user may use the mobile device to obtain a ride via a transportation platform (e.g., a rideshare, bike share, and/or powered scooter share platform), and the TA computing device may receive telematics data collected by the mobile device during the ride. Additionally, the user may obtain a ride using a transportation device (e.g., a motor vehicle, bicycle, powered scooter, and/or other transportation device) capable of communicatively linking to the mobile device of the user, and the TA computing device may receive telematics data from the mobile device collected during the trip taken using the linked vehicle. The TA computing device may identify trips based upon the telematics data and use the telematics data to analyze the transportation behavior of the user, for example, to calculate an insurance premium. An insurer and/or transportation platform may provide an insurance subscription to the user that may have a premium that is calculated based upon use of the transportation platform. The TA computing device may, in response to calculating the insurance premium, automatically transfer the insurance premium from the insured user to the insurer.

“In one aspect, a transportation analytics (TA) computing device may be provided. The TA computing device may include at least one processor and/or associated transceiver in communication with at least one memory device. The at least one processor and/or associated transceiver may be configured to: (1) receive, from a user mobile device corresponding to a user, telematics data corresponding to a trip taken using a transportation platform; (2) store, for each trip, the telematics data in a database in association with a trip identifier and a timestamp; (3) perform a lookup in the database to identify, based upon the timestamps, telematics data corresponding to a time period; (4) calculate, in response to identifying the telematics data, based upon the identified telematics data, a premium amount; and/or (5) transfer, in response to calculating the premium amount, the premium amount from a transportation platform account associated with the transportation platform to an insurer account associated with an insurer. The TA computing device may include additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method for transportation analytics may be provided. The computer-implemented method may be performed by a transportation analytics (TA) computing device including at least one processor and/or associated transceiver in communication with at least one memory device. The computer-implemented method may include (1) receiving, by the TA computing device, from a user mobile device corresponding to a user, telematics data corresponding to a trip taken using a transportation platform; (2) storing, by the TA computing device, for each trip, the telematics data in a database in association with a trip identifier and a timestamp; (3) performing, by the TA computing device, a lookup in the database to identify, based upon the timestamps, telematics data corresponding to a time period; (4) calculating, by the TA computing device, in response to identifying the telematics data, based upon the identified telematics data, a premium amount; and/or (5) transferring, by the TA computing device, in response to calculating the premium amount, the premium amount from a transportation platform account associated with the transportation platform to an insurer account associated with an insurer. The computer-implemented method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, at least one non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon may be provided. When executed by a transportation analytics (TA) computing device including at least one processor and/or associated transceiver in communication with at least one memory device, the computer-executable instructions may cause the at least one processor and/or associated transceiver to (1) receive, from a user mobile device corresponding to a user, telematics data corresponding to a trip taken using a transportation platform; (2) store, for each trip, the telematics data in a database in association with a trip identifier and a timestamp; (3) perform a lookup in the database to identify, based upon the timestamps, telematics data corresponding to a time period; (4) calculate, in response to identifying the telematics data, based upon the identified telematics data, a premium amount; and/or (5) transfer, in response to calculating the premium amount, the premium amount from a transportation platform account associated with the transportation platform to an insurer account associated with an insurer. The computer-executable instructions may direct additional, less, or alternate functionality, including that discussed elsewhere herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A transportation analytics (TA) computing device comprising at least one processor in communication with at least one memory device, a user mobile device corresponding to a user and configured to be communicatively linked to a transportation device, and at least one transportation network computing device associated with a transportation network, the at least one processor configured to: receive, from the user mobile device, a request to initiate a trip using a mobile application executing on the user mobile device; receive, from the user mobile device used to initiate the trip, in response to the trip being initiated, telematics data corresponding to a trip taken by the user as a rider using the mobile application executing on the user mobile device, the telematics data generated using at least one sensor onboard the user mobile device, the telematics data including data identifying a vehicle of a plurality of vehicles of the transportation network used for the initiated trip; store, for each of a plurality of trips including the initiated trip, telematics data in a database in association with a trip identifier and a timestamp, wherein at least one of the plurality of trips correspond to rides taken by the user using the transportation device; periodically perform a lookup in the database to identify, based upon the timestamps, telematics data corresponding to a time period; periodically calculate, in response to identifying the telematics data, based upon the identified telematics data for the corresponding time period, a premium amount for the corresponding time period for an insurance policy covering the user using the transportation network as a rider; and transfer, in response to calculating the premium amount, the premium amount from a transportation network account associated with the transportation network using the transportation network computing device to an insurer account associated with an insurer providing the insurance policy.

“2. The TA computing device of claim 1, wherein the insurance policy is a periodic insurance subscription.

“3. The TA computing device of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: generate, at the user mobile device, a user interface including at least one of a plurality of coverage types and a plurality of coverage amounts; and display, at the user mobile device, the user interface.

“4. The TA computing device of claim 3, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive, from the user via the user interface, a user input including a selection of at least one of a coverage type of the plurality of coverage types or a coverage amount from the plurality of coverage amounts; and calculate the premium amount further based upon the user input.

“5. The TA computing device of claim 4, wherein the user input includes a coverage amount.

“6. The TA computing device of claim 1, wherein the transportation network corresponds to a transportation network company (TNC), and wherein at least some of the trips correspond to rides taken by the user with the TNC.

“7. The TA computing device of claim 1, wherein the transportation device includes at least one of a motor vehicle, a bicycle, or powered scooter.

“8. A computer-implemented method for transportation analytics performed by a transportation analytics (TA) computing device including at least one processor in communication with at least one memory device, a user mobile device corresponding to a user and configured to be communicatively linked to a transportation device, and at least one transportation network computing device associated with a transportation network, said computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by the TA computing device from the user mobile device, a request to initiate a trip using a mobile application executing on the user mobile device; receiving, by the TA computing device, from the user mobile device used to initiate the trip, in response to the trip being initiated, telematics data corresponding to a trip taken by the user as a rider using the mobile application executing on the user mobile device, the telematics data generated using at least one sensor onboard the user mobile device, the telematics data including data identifying a vehicle of a plurality of vehicles of the transportation network used for the initiated trip; storing, by the TA computing device, for each of a plurality of trips including the initiated trip, telematics data in a database in association with a trip identifier and a timestamp, wherein at least one of the plurality of trips correspond to rides taken by the user using the transportation device; periodically performing, by the TA computing device, a lookup in the database to identify, based upon the timestamps, telematics data corresponding to a time period; periodically calculating, by the TA computing device, in response to identifying the telematics data for the corresponding time period, based upon the identified telematics data, a premium amount for the corresponding time period for an insurance policy covering the user using the transportation network; and transferring, by the TA computing device, in response to calculating the premium amount, the premium amount from a transportation network account associated with the transportation network using the transportation network computing device to an insurer account associated with an insurer providing the insurance policy.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the insurance policy is a periodic insurance subscription.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising: generating, by the TA computing device, at the user mobile device, a user interface including at least one of a plurality of coverage types and a plurality of coverage amounts; and displaying, by the TA computing device, at the user mobile device, the user interface.

“11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising: receiving, by the TA computing device, from the user via the user interface, a user input including a selection of at least one of a coverage type of the plurality of coverage types or a coverage amount from the plurality of coverage amounts; and calculating, by the TA computing device the premium amount further based upon the user input.

“12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the user input includes a coverage amount.

“13. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the transportation network corresponds to a transportation network company (TNC), and wherein at least some of the trips correspond to rides taken by the user with the TNC.

“14. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the transportation device includes at least one of a motor vehicle, a bicycle, or powered scooter.

“15. At least one non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon, wherein when executed by a transportation analytics (TA) computing device including at least one processor in communication with at least one memory device, a user mobile device corresponding to a user and configured to be communicatively linked to a transportation device, and at least one transportation network computing device associated with a transportation network, the computer-executable instructions cause the at least one processor to: receive, from the user mobile device, a request to initiate a trip using a mobile application executing on the user mobile device; receive, from the user mobile device used to initiate the trip, in response to the trip being initiated, telematics data corresponding to a trip taken by the user as a rider using the mobile application executing on the user mobile device, the telematics data generated using at least one sensor onboard the user mobile device, the telematics data including data identifying a vehicle of a plurality of vehicles of the transportation network used for the initiated trip; store, for each of a plurality of trips including the initiated trip, telematics data in a database in association with a trip identifier and a timestamp, wherein at least one of the plurality of trips correspond to rides taken by the user using the transportation device; periodically perform a lookup in the database to identify, based upon the timestamps, telematics data corresponding to a time period; periodically calculate, in response to identifying the telematics data, based upon the identified telematics data for the corresponding time period, a premium amount for the corresponding time period for an insurance policy covering the user using the transportation network; and transfer, in response to calculating the premium amount, the premium amount from a transportation network account associated with the transportation network using the transportation network computing device to an insurer account associated with an insurer providing the insurance policy.

“16. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the insurance policy is a periodic insurance subscription.

“17. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to: generate, at the user mobile device, a user interface including at least one of a plurality of coverage types and a plurality of coverage amounts; and display, at the user mobile device, the user interface.

“18. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to: receive, from the user via the user interface, a user input including a selection of at least one of a coverage type of the plurality of coverage types or a coverage amount from the plurality of coverage amounts; and calculate the premium amount further based upon the user input.”

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

For additional information on this patent, see: Cope, Craig. Transportation analytics systems and methods using a mobility device embedded within a vehicle. U.S. Patent Number 11769206, filed September 29, 2020, and published online on September 26, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11769206)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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