Patent Issued for Virtual carpooling (USPTO 11451595): Allstate Insurance Company

2022 OCT 06 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Kozlowski, Tara Cavallaro (Geneva, IL, US), Thome, Lindsey Jo (Chicago, IL, US), filed on July 20, 2020, was published online on September 20, 2022.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11451595 is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “A driver may experience long drives or long commutes from home to work and vice versa. For example, a driver may live in a suburb outside of a metropolitan area and may work in downtown or in the city. The driver may commute an hour and a half or longer to get to work every morning, as well as an hour and a half or longer to get back home every evening. A commute may also be exacerbated by varying road conditions, such as rush hour traffic or weather-related issues. For instance, a driver may have a longer commute if he or she leaves for work during rush hour when hundreds or thousands of other drivers are also leaving for work at the same time. With a large volume of drivers on the road, a driver’s commute may be even longer than a typical commute time due to greater chances of traffic, road blocks, or road closures due to potential car accidents.

“In another example, a driver may also experience long drives when taking several long distance trips as part of his or her job or for personal interests. For example, a driver may travel regularly or periodically for his job and may drive cross-country multiple times a month or year. Such long commutes may become particularly tedious, especially for a driver who travels alone. It may be beneficial for such a driver to be able to communicate with other drivers in order to pass the time during such trips or during commutes to work.

“Although drivers may wish to talk on a phone to pass the time, making a phone call while driving may be dangerous. For example, a driver may be involved in an accident as a result of being distracted when entering a phone number to make an outgoing call or making a selection to receive an incoming call. As such, new systems, methods, and devices may be desired to assist in establishing communications for drivers while driving.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In light of the foregoing background, the following presents a simplified summary of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

“Aspects of the disclosure address one or more of the issues mentioned above by disclosing computerized methods, systems, devices, and apparatuses for providing a virtual carpool system to assign drivers to virtual carpools based on characteristics of the drivers. The disclosure describes a system comprising a first computing device operated by a first driver, a second computing device operated by a second driver, and a server configured to receive, from the first computing device, a first request for the first driver to participate in conferencing. The server may be configured to determine one or more characteristics of the first driver based on driving behavior data corresponding to a vehicle driven by the first driver, assign the first driver to a conference based on the one or more characteristics of the first driver, receive a second request for the second driver to participate in conferencing from the second computing device, determine that the second driver has at least one characteristic that matches one of the one or more characteristics of the first driver, assign the second driver to the conference with the first driver based on the determination that the second driver has at least one characteristic that matches one of the one or more characteristics of the first driver, and bridge the first computing device operated by the first driver and the second computing device operated by the second driver in the conference.

“The disclosure also describes an apparatus comprising at least one processor, a network interface configured to communicate, via a network, with a virtual carpool device, and a memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to receive, from the virtual carpool device, a request for a first driver to participate in conferencing, determine one or more characteristics of the first driver based on driving behavior data corresponding to a vehicle driven by the first driver, assign the first driver to a conference with one or more drivers based on the one or more characteristics of the first driver, and bridge the first driver and the one or more drivers in the conference.

“In addition, aspects of this disclosure provide a method that includes receiving, by one or more computing devices and from a virtual carpool device operated by a first driver, a request for the first driver to participate in conferencing, determining, by the one or more computing devices, one or more characteristics of the first driver based on driving behavior data corresponding to a vehicle driven by the first driver, assigning, by the one or more computing devices, the first driver to a conference with one or more drivers based on the one or more characteristics of the first driver, and bridging, by the one or more computing devices, the first driver and the one or more drivers in the conference.

“Of course, the methods and systems of the above-referenced embodiments may also include other additional elements, steps, computer-executable instructions or computer-readable data structures. In this regard, other embodiments are disclosed and claimed herein as well. The details of these and other embodiments of the present invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description, drawings, and claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computing system comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing system to: receive, from a first computing device associated with a first driver, a request for the first driver to participate in conferencing, wherein the request comprises preference information indicating whether a preferred number of drivers with whom the first driver wishes to communicate in conferencing is identified; determine, based on driving behavior data formed by real-time driving data collected over a predetermined period of time from at least one of sensors, a telematics device, or a computing device in a vehicle driven by the first driver, one or more characteristics of the first driver; assign, based on the one or more characteristics of the first driver and the preference information, the first driver to a conference; and bridge the first computing device operated by the first driver and computing devices operated by one or more other drivers in the conference based on the preferred number of drivers.

“2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the preference information indicates the preferred number of drivers with whom the first driver wishes to communicate in conferencing, and wherein the assigning the first driver to the conference comprises: randomly assigning, based on the one or more characteristics of the first driver and the preferred number of drivers, the first driver to a conference with the preferred number of drivers.

“3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the preference information does not indicate the preferred number of drivers with whom the first driver wishes to communicate in conferencing, and wherein the assigning the first driver to the conference comprises: randomly assigning, based on the one or more characteristics of the first driver, the first driver to a conference with a random number of drivers.

“4. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the request is submitted by a speech input from the first driver.

“5. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the one or more characteristics of the first driver comprise listening preferences, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing system to determine the listening preferences based on audio played in the vehicle driven by the first driver.

“6. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing system to determine the one or more characteristics of the first driver based on real-time data that is collected by sensors in the vehicle driven by the first driver while the first driver is driving.

“7. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing system to: collect the driving behavior data corresponding to the vehicle driven by the first driver over a predetermined period of time; determine one or more driving patterns of the first driver based on the driving behavior data collected over the predetermined period of time; and determine the one or more characteristics of the first driver based on the one or more driving patterns of the first driver.

“8. A method comprising: receiving, by a computing system, from a first computing device associated with a first driver, a request for the first driver to participate in conferencing, wherein the request comprises preference information indicating whether a preferred number of drivers with whom the first driver wishes to communicate in conferencing is identified; determining, based on driving behavior data formed by real-time driving data collected over a predetermined period of time from at least one of sensors, a telematics device, or a computing device in a vehicle driven by the first driver, one or more characteristics of the first driver; assigning, based on the one or more characteristics of the first driver and the preference information, the first driver to a conference; and bridging the first computing device operated by the first driver and computing devices operated by one or more other drivers in the conference based on the preferred number of drivers.

“9. The method of claim 8, wherein the preference information indicates the preferred number of drivers with whom the first driver wishes to communicate in conferencing, and wherein the assigning the first driver to the conference comprises: randomly assigning, based on the one or more characteristics of the first driver and the preferred number of drivers, the first driver to a conference with the preferred number of drivers.

“10. The method of claim 8, wherein the preference information does not indicate the preferred number of drivers with whom the first driver wishes to communicate in conferencing, and wherein the assigning the first driver to the conference comprises: randomly assigning, based on the one or more characteristics of the first driver, the first driver to a conference with a random number of drivers.

“11. The method of claim 8, wherein the request is submitted by a speech input from the first driver.

“12. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more characteristics of the first driver comprise listening preferences, and the method further comprising: determining the listening preferences based on audio played in the vehicle driven by the first driver.

“13. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining the one or more characteristics of the first driver is based on real-time data that is collected by sensors in the vehicle driven by the first driver while the first driver is driving.

“14. The method of claim 8, further comprising: collecting the driving behavior data corresponding to the vehicle driven by the first driver over a predetermined period of time; determining one or more driving patterns of the first driver based on the driving behavior data collected over the predetermined period of time; and determining the one or more characteristics of the first driver based on the one or more driving patterns of the first driver.

“15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by a computing system comprising at least one processor and at least one memory, cause the computing system to: receive, from a first computing device associated with a first driver, a request for the first driver to participate in conferencing, wherein the request comprises preference information indicating whether a preferred number of drivers with whom the first driver wishes to communicate in conferencing is identified; determine, based on driving behavior data formed by real-time driving data collected over a predetermined period of time from at least one of sensors, a telematics device, or a computing device in a vehicle driven by the first driver, one or more characteristics of the first driver; assign, based on the one or more characteristics of the first driver and the preference information, the first driver to a conference; and bridge the first computing device operated by the first driver and computing devices operated by one or more other drivers in the conference based on the preferred number of drivers.

“16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the preference information indicates the preferred number of drivers with whom the first driver wishes to communicate in conferencing, and wherein the assigning the first driver to the conference comprises: randomly assigning, based on the one or more characteristics of the first driver and the preferred number of drivers, the first driver to a conference with the preferred number of drivers.

“17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the preference information does not indicate the preferred number of drivers with whom the first driver wishes to communicate in conferencing, and wherein the assigning the first driver to the conference comprises: randomly assigning, based on the one or more characteristics of the first driver, the first driver to a conference with a random number of drivers.

“18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the request is submitted by a speech input from the first driver.

“19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the one or more characteristics of the first driver comprise listening preferences, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the computing system to determine the listening preferences based on audio played in the vehicle driven by the first driver.

“20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing system to determine the one or more characteristics of the first driver based on real-time data that is collected by sensors in the vehicle driven by the first driver while the first driver is driving.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Kozlowski, Tara Cavallaro. Virtual carpooling. U.S. Patent Number 11451595, filed July 20, 2020, and published online on September 20, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11451595.PN.&OS=PN/11451595RS=PN/11451595

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