Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Autonomous Car Repair”, for Approval (USPTO 20240095686): Allstate Insurance Company

2024 APR 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventors Faga, Mark E. (Evanston, IL, US); Sheetz, Paul Albert (Minneapolis, MN, US), filed on September 25, 2023, was made available online on March 21, 2024.

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

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Vehicles often need routine maintenance, including inspections, tune-up services, and the like to ensure proper operation. Drivers may take their vehicles to an auto shop where technicians or service providers may conduct monthly or yearly inspections or other vehicle services. Furthermore, drivers may need to replace certain car parts that undergo typical wear and tear due to vehicle age, mileage, driving conditions, and the like. Drivers may purchase the car parts that need to be replaced and go to an auto shop where technicians may be able to replace the damaged part by installing a new part.

“In addition to routine maintenance and part replacements, vehicles are also subject to being damaged in roadside incidents such as car accidents. Drivers may once again need to take their vehicles to a repair shop to have the vehicle repaired. In all of these instances of routine inspections, tune-up services, part replacements, and car repairs, the very task of going to an auto shop or car repair shop may be time-consuming for drivers. For example, a driver may need to take a day off from work (e.g., a sick day, a vacation day, a half day, etc.) and spend a significant amount of time waiting at a car repair shop. That is, the driver may spend hours or even an entire day at the car repair shop before his or her car is finally serviced. While the actual car service or repair might not take that long, the driver may have to wait for several hours before a technician is able to work on the vehicle.

“Thus, drivers may dread having to go to the auto shop whether for routine maintenance or for major or minor car repairs. These conventional methods for maintenance or repair services may be an inefficient use of time for drivers. As such, new systems, methods, and devices may be desired to assist in providing vehicle maintenance services to drivers in a timely and convenient manner.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “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 an autonomous car repair system to provide car care to vehicles for drivers in an efficient manner. The disclosure describes a system comprising a telematics device associated with a vehicle, a first computing device, a second computing device associated with a driver of the vehicle, and a server. The server may be configured to receive, from the telematics device, maintenance data regarding a status of the vehicle, determine a repair for the vehicle based on the maintenance data, send, to the first computing device, a request for the repair to be performed for the vehicle by one or more service providers, estimate a period of time the one or more service providers are expected to take to perform the repair, based on the estimate, assign an alternative form of transportation to be provided to the driver associated with the vehicle during the estimated period of time for the repair, and send, to the second computing device, one or more notifications regarding at least one of the repair being performed by the one or more service providers, the estimated period of time for the repair, or the assigned alternative form of transportation to be provided to the driver.

“The disclosure also describes an apparatus comprising at least one processor, a network interface configured to communicate, via a network, with a first computing device and a second computing device, and a memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to receive, from the first computing device, maintenance data regarding a status of a vehicle, determine a repair for a vehicle based on the maintenance data, send, to the second computing device, a request for the repair to be performed for the vehicle by one or more service providers, estimate a period of time to be taken by the one or more service providers to perform the repair, based on the estimate, assign an alternative form of transportation to be provided to a driver associated with the vehicle during the estimated period of time for the repair, and in response to assigning the alternative form of transportation, send, to a third computing device, one or more notifications informing the driver that maintenance service is scheduled to be performed.

“In addition, aspects of this disclosure provide a method that includes receiving, from a telematics device associated with a vehicle, maintenance data regarding a status of the vehicle, determining, by one or more computing devices, a repair for the vehicle based on the maintenance data, sending, to a first computing device, a request for the repair to be performed for the vehicle by one or more service providers, estimating, by the one or more computing devices, a period of time needed by the one or more service providers to perform the repair, based on the estimate, assigning, by the one or more computing devices, an alternative form of transportation to be provided to a driver associated with the vehicle during the estimated period of time for the repair, and sending, to a second computing device associated with a driver of the vehicle, one or more notifications regarding at least one of the repair being performed by the one or more service providers, the estimated period of time for the repair, or the assigned alternative form of transportation to be provided to the driver.

“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 system for determining repairs for a vehicle comprising: a server computer system comprising at least one processor and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the server computer system to: receive, from a car care device, maintenance data, the maintenance data being determined from a comparison of vehicle telematics data from an on-board diagnostic system in a vehicle, with predefined metric data that defines a normal operating condition of the vehicle; determine a repair for the vehicle based on the maintenance data; estimate a period of time for the repair by a vehicle service provider of the vehicle; based on the estimated period of time for the repair, determine alternative transportation for a driver of the vehicle during the estimated period of time for the repair; send, to the car care device one or more repair options notifications regarding repair for the vehicle, the estimated period of time for the repair, and the alternative transportation for the driver of the vehicle; and receive, from the car care device, a captured user indication responsive to the repair options notification.

“2. A system comprising: a telematics device associated with a vehicle, the telematics device comprising an on-board diagnostic system in the vehicle and one or more sensors, the telematics device being configured to: collect, from the on-board diagnostic system in the vehicle and from one or more sensors, vehicle telematics data associated with an operating status of the vehicle; a mobile device, the mobile device comprising a processor, memory and computer-executable instructions stored in the memory, the instructions, when executed by the processor, being configured to: communicatively couple to the telematics device; receive telematics data collected by the telematics device; compare the vehicle telematics data with predefined metric data that defines a normal operating condition of the vehicle; based on the comparison of the vehicle telematics data and the predefined metric data, determine maintenance data; send to a server computer system the maintenance data; receive, from the server computer system, at least one proposed repair options notification; and generate and display at least one graphical user interface comprising the repair options notification indicating a repair for the vehicle, an estimated period of time for the repair, and alternative transportation associated with the repair.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory of the server computer system stores additional instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the server computer system to: receive, from the car care device, information regarding one or more issues that the driver has experienced or is experiencing with the vehicle.

“4. The system of claim 3, wherein the memory of the server computer system stores additional instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the server computer system to: determine the repair for the vehicle further based on the information regarding the one or more issues that the driver has experienced or is experiencing with the vehicle.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle telematics data comprises data related to events occurring during a vehicle trip.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein the predefined metric data indicates one or more vehicle metrics associated with one or more of the vehicle’s battery, brakes, engine, fuel economy, radiator, transmission, or tires.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory of the server computer system stores additional instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the server computer system to: parse and analyze information in a database of previous repairs of the vehicle service provider.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the car care device is associated with an individual who is enrolled in a car care service.

“9. The system of claim 2, wherein the memory of the mobile device stores additional instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the mobile device to: receive information regarding one or more issues that an individual associated with the vehicle has experienced or is experiencing with the vehicle.

“10. The system of claim 2, wherein the vehicle telematics data comprises data related to events occurring during a vehicle trip.

“11. The system of claim 2, wherein the predefined metric data indicates one or more vehicle metrics associated with one or more of the vehicle’s battery, brakes, engine, fuel economy, radiator, transmission, or tires.

“12. The system of claim 2, wherein the mobile device is associated with an individual who is enrolled in a car care service.

“13. The system of claim 2, wherein the memory of the mobile device stores additional instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the mobile device to: receive a captured user indication responsive to the repair options notification.

“14. A method for determining repairs for a vehicle comprising: receiving, from a car care device, maintenance data, the maintenance data being determined from a comparison of vehicle telematics data from an on-board diagnostic system in a vehicle, with predefined metric data that defines a normal operating condition of the vehicle; determining a repair for the vehicle based on the maintenance data; estimating a period of time for the repair by a vehicle service provider of the vehicle; based on the estimated period of time for the repair, determining alternative transportation for a driver of the vehicle during the estimated period of time for the repair; and sending, to the car care device one or more repair options notification regarding repair for the vehicle, the estimated period of time for the repair, and the alternative transportation for the driver of the vehicle.

“15. The method of claim 14, further comprising: receiving, from the car care device, information regarding one or more issues that the driver has experienced or is experiencing with the vehicle.

“16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: determining the repair for the vehicle further based on the information regarding the one or more issues that the driver has experienced or is experiencing with the vehicle.

“17. The method of claim 14, wherein the vehicle telematics data comprises data related to events occurring during a vehicle trip.

“18. The method of claim 14, wherein the predefined metric data indicates one or more vehicle metrics associated with one or more of the vehicle’s battery, brakes, engine, fuel economy, radiator, transmission, or tires.

“19. The method of claim 14, further comprising: parsing and analyzing information in a database of previous repairs of the vehicle service provider.

“20. The method of claim 14, further comprising: receiving a captured user indication responsive to the repair options notification.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Faga, Mark E.; Sheetz, Paul Albert. Autonomous Car Repair. U.S. Patent Application Number 20240095686, filed September 25, 2023 and posted March 21, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20240095686)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)