Patent Issued for Vehicle control systems (USPTO 11726437): Allstate Insurance Company

2023 AUG 01 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States) has been issued patent number 11726437, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Chintakindi, Sunil (Menlo Park, CA, US).

This patent was filed on August 28, 2020 and was published online on August 15, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Each year vehicle accidents account for thousands of deaths and millions of serious injuries. While autonomous and semi-autonomous car systems are poised to significantly reduce the number of vehicle accidents and, by extension, the number of accident related fatalities and injuries, such systems are often insufficient with respect to the early detection of adverse driving scenarios in the near short term and providing responses (e.g., driver alerts and vehicle actions) following the detection of such adverse driving scenarios. Thus, arrangements for the early detection of near short term adverse scenarios and providing responses to the detection of such scenarios may be advantageous in preventing accidents and furthering motor vehicle safety.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The following presents a simplified summary of various aspects described herein. This summary is not an extensive overview, and is not intended to identify key or critical elements or to delineate the scope of the claims. The following summary merely presents some concepts in a simplified form as an introductory prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

“To overcome limitations such as those described above, and to overcome other limitations that will be apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, aspects described herein are directed to apparatuses, systems, and methods for using vehicle control systems to cause a vehicle to take to take preventative actions responsive to the detection of near short term adverse driving scenarios.

“A first aspect described herein provides a vehicle control system configured to receive vehicle operation data associated with a vehicle and ancillary data associated with one or more additional vehicles and the surrounding environment of the vehicle. Based on the received vehicle operation data and the received ancillary data, a multi-dimensional risk score module included in the vehicle control system may calculate the risk associated with the received vehicle operation data and the received ancillary data. Responsive to calculating the associated risks, the vehicle control computer may cause the vehicle to perform at least one of a close call detection action and a close call detection alert in order to lessen the calculated or determined risks associated with the received vehicle operation data and the received ancillary data.

“A second aspect described herein provides a vehicle control system configured to receive vehicle operation data associated with a vehicle and ancillary data associated with one or more additional vehicles and the surrounding environment of the vehicle. Based on the received vehicle operation data and the received ancillary data, a multi-dimensional risk score module included in the vehicle control system may calculate the risk associated with the received vehicle operation data and the received ancillary data. The vehicle control system may populate a near short term logical table with the calculated risk associated with the received vehicle operation data and the received ancillary data. Subsequently, the vehicle control system may configure computer executable instructions with the near short term logical table. The configured computer executable instructions which, when executed by the vehicle control computer, may cause the vehicle to perform at least one of a close call detection action and a close call detection alert in order to lessen the risks associated with the received vehicle operation data and the received ancillary data.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: determining, by a computing device, a current autonomy level of an autonomous vehicle configured to operate in accordance with a plurality of autonomy levels, wherein each autonomy level corresponds to a different set of one or more autonomous control functions; receiving vehicle property data corresponding to the autonomous vehicle and ancillary data associated with surroundings of the autonomous vehicle; receiving historical data corresponding to the current autonomy level of the autonomous vehicle; calculating, based on the historical data corresponding to the current autonomy level of the autonomous vehicle, one or more risk scores for the vehicle property data and the ancillary data; causing, based on the one or more risk scores, a close call detection action to alter the current autonomy level of the autonomous vehicle from a first level to a second level in accordance with a preprogrammed setting associated with the autonomous vehicle, wherein the second level is associated with a lower risk level than the first level; performing a set of autonomous control functions corresponding to the second level based on the alteration to the current autonomy level; and causing, based on the close call detection action, a close call detection alert to be performed.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the close call detection alert includes transmitting a report to a remote computing device; and further comprising receiving, from the remote computing device, one or more vehicle control instructions, wherein performing the set of autonomous control functions is further based on the one or more vehicle control instructions.

“3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, to a remote computing device associated with a second vehicle, instructions to perform a second close call alert.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle property data comprises at least one of: vehicle performance and operation data for the autonomous vehicle, internal vehicle conditions data for the autonomous vehicle, and route data for the autonomous vehicle, and wherein the ancillary data comprises at least one of: performance and operation data for one or more additional vehicles different from the autonomous vehicle, internal vehicle conditions data for the one or more additional vehicles, route data for the one or more additional vehicles, environmental conditions data associated with the surroundings of the autonomous vehicle, and traffic data associated with the surroundings of the autonomous vehicle.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the close call detection action further comprises at least one of: activating brakes of the autonomous vehicle, causing the autonomous vehicle to change lanes, disabling a mobile device of a driver of the autonomous vehicle, disabling acceleration of the autonomous vehicle, turning on vehicle headlights, reducing a speed of the autonomous vehicle, and turning on emergency lights of the autonomous vehicle.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the close call detection alert comprises at least one of: flashing interior lights of the autonomous vehicle, producing an audible sound in an interior of the autonomous vehicle, suggesting an alternate route for the autonomous vehicle, and providing an indication of upcoming traffic on a dashboard and/or heads-up display unit of the autonomous vehicle.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle property data comprises a first plurality of variables, wherein the ancillary data comprises a second plurality of variables, and wherein calculating the one or more risk scores comprises calculating a risk score for each of the first plurality of variables of the vehicle property data and each of the second plurality of variables of the ancillary data.

“8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: populating a near short term logical table with the one or more risk scores; and configuring, based on the near short term logical table, a vehicle control computer of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the close call detection action is performed by the vehicle control computer in accordance with the configuration based on the near short term logical table.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device comprises a vehicle control computer or a mobile device.

“10. A computing device comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to: determine a current autonomy level of an autonomous vehicle configured to operate in accordance with a plurality of autonomy levels, wherein each autonomy level corresponds to a different set of one or more autonomous control functions; receive vehicle property data corresponding to the autonomous vehicle and ancillary data associated with surroundings of the autonomous vehicle; receive historical data corresponding to the current autonomy level of the autonomous vehicle; calculate, based on the historical data corresponding to the current autonomy level of the autonomous vehicle, one or more risk scores for the vehicle property data and the ancillary data; cause, based on the one or more risk scores, a close call detection action to alter the current autonomy level of the autonomous vehicle from a first level to a second level in accordance with a preprogrammed setting associated with the autonomous vehicle, wherein the second level is associated with a lower risk level than the first level; performing a set of autonomous control functions corresponding to the second level based on the alteration to the current autonomy level; and cause, based on the close call detection action, a close call detection alert to be performed.

“11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the computing device to: perform the close call detection action by transmitting a report to a remote computing device; and receive, from the remote computing device, one or more vehicle control instructions, wherein performing the set of autonomous control functions is further based on the one or more vehicle control instructions.

“12. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the computing device to: transmit, to a remote computing device associated with a second vehicle, instructions to perform a second close call alert.

“13. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the vehicle property data comprises at least one of: vehicle performance and operation data for the autonomous vehicle, internal vehicle conditions data for the autonomous vehicle, and route data for the autonomous vehicle, and wherein the ancillary data comprises at least one of: performance and operation data for one or more additional vehicles different from the autonomous vehicle, internal vehicle conditions data for the one or more additional vehicles, route data for the one or more additional vehicles, environmental conditions data associated with the surroundings of the autonomous vehicle, and traffic data associated with the surroundings of the autonomous vehicle.

“14. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the close call detection action further comprises at least one of: activating brakes of the autonomous vehicle, causing the autonomous vehicle to change lanes, disabling a mobile device of a driver of the autonomous vehicle, disabling acceleration of the autonomous vehicle, turning on vehicle headlights, reducing a speed of the autonomous vehicle, and turning on emergency lights of the autonomous vehicle, and wherein the close call detection alert comprises at least one of: flashing interior lights of the autonomous vehicle, producing an audible sound in an interior of the autonomous vehicle, suggesting an alternate route for the autonomous vehicle, and providing an indication of upcoming traffic on a dashboard and/or heads-up display unit of the autonomous vehicle.

“15. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the vehicle property data comprises a first plurality of variables, wherein the ancillary data comprises a second plurality of variables, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the computing device to calculate the one or more risk scores by calculating a risk score for each of the first plurality of variables of the vehicle property data and each of the second plurality of variables of the ancillary data.

“16. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the computing device to: populate a near short term logical table with the one or more risk scores; configure, based on the near short term logical table, a vehicle control computer of the autonomous vehicle, wherein the close call detection action is performed by the autonomous vehicle control computer in accordance with the configuration based on the near short term logical table.

“17. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the computing device comprises a vehicle control computer or a mobile device.”

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

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Chintakindi, Sunil. Vehicle control systems. U.S. Patent Number 11726437, filed August 28, 2020, and published online on August 15, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11726437)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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