Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Dynamic Auto Insurance Policy Quote Creation Based On Tracked User Data”, for Approval (USPTO 20220215479): Patent Application

2022 JUL 25 (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 Binion, Todd (Bloomington, IL, US); Christensen, Scott T. (Salem, OR, US); Cielocha, Steven (Bloomington, IL, US); Gay, Christopher E. (Dallas, TX, US); Hayward, Gregory (Bloomington, IL, US), filed on March 23, 2022, was made available online on July 7, 2022.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.

“Auto insurance policy rates may be calculated based on a determined risk for the possibility of a claim against the insurance company under the policy. Determining that risk, however, may be difficult. Typically, insurance companies use a number of factors related to the customer, the property to be insured, and environmental factors (e.g., the geographic area the property is located in and the likelihood of claims in that area). However, accurately determining these factors and, thus, determining an accurate measure of risk for a claim, is difficult because the factors are most often reported to the insurance company by the party most likely to benefit under a claim: the customer.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

“Customers may have urgent needs for short or long term auto insurance policies. Traditional methods of purchasing auto insurance may take too much time to complete, and may not provide the customer with the desired coverage term. A dynamic policy module may provide quick and personalized auto insurance options to a potential customer by accurately and quickly communicating possible risk factors to the insurance provider. Additionally, the module may track usage data of a potential customer to provide more accurate policy quotes, audits, and renewals.

“For example, in some embodiments, a computer-implemented method may include, receiving, by one or more processors, a coverage type for the customer vehicle; causing, by the one or more processors, usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle to be tracked; receiving, by the one or more processors, the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle; generating, by the one or more processors, the one or more new insurance policy quotes corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle based upon at least the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle; and causing, by the one or more processors, the one or more new insurance policy quotes to be displayed.

“In other embodiments, a server may include: one or more processors; and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the server to: receive a coverage type for the customer vehicle, cause usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle to be tracked, receive the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle, generate the one or more new insurance policy quotes corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle based upon at least the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle, and cause the one or more new insurance policy quotes to be displayed.

“In still other embodiments, one or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media storing executable instructions for creating one or more new insurance policy quotes for a customer associated with a customer vehicle that when executed, cause a computer to: receive a coverage type for the customer vehicle; cause usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle to be tracked; receive the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle; generate the one or more new insurance policy quotes corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle based upon at least the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle; and cause the one or more new insurance policy quotes to be displayed.

“The features and advantages described in this summary and the following detailed description are not all-inclusive. Many additional features and advantages will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the drawings, specification, and claims hereof.

“The figures depict embodiments of the present invention for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternate embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method for creating one or more new insurance policy quotes for a customer associated with a customer vehicle, the method comprising: receiving, by one or more processors, a coverage type for the customer vehicle; causing, by the one or more processors, usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle to be tracked; receiving, by the one or more processors, the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle; generating, by the one or more processors, the one or more new insurance policy quotes corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle based upon at least the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle; and causing, by the one or more processors, the one or more new insurance policy quotes to be displayed.

“2. The computing-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: causing, by the one or more processors, a prompt to be displayed on a software application executing on a mobile computing device of the customer, the prompt to input the coverage type for the customer vehicle.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the prompt to input the coverage type for the customer vehicle includes, as selectable options, (i) personal vehicle insurance and (ii) commercial vehicle insurance.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein causing the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle to be tracked includes: transmitting, by the one or more processors, to a software application executing on a mobile computing device of the customer, an indication for the software application executing on the mobile computing device to track the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the usage data is used to determine one or more of: a number of times the customer enters or exits the customer vehicle, a total idle time for the customer vehicle, a total driving time for the customer vehicle, a number of times the customer vehicle enters and exits a particular location, a frequency of driving events, a severity of driving events, an average miles per gallon the customer vehicle achieves, a carbon footprint the customer vehicle achieves, a location of the customer vehicle, a number or percent of times the customer vehicle surpasses a speed limit, a crime statistic along a travel route, a weather event along the travel route, or an accident report along the travel route.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one of: (i) the coverage type is based on one or more distance thresholds to be traveled by the customer vehicle and the usage data is used to determine one or more actual distances traveled by the customer vehicle, or (ii) the coverage type is based on one or more amount of time thresholds in which the customer vehicle is to be driven and the usage data is used to determine one or more actual amounts of time in which the customer vehicle is driven.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the coverage type corresponds to liability insurance.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: sending, by the one or more processors, a prompt to a software application executing on a mobile computing device of the customer, the prompt to take a photo of the odometer of the customer vehicle; and analyzing, by the one or more processors, the photo at one or more of the software application executing on the mobile computing device or a backend server to determine a set of numbers from the photo, wherein the set of numbers indicates a mileage of the customer vehicle.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the one or more processors, an indication of permission to begin tracking the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the one or more processors, a purchase transaction of a calculated insurance policy quote from the customer.

“11. A server comprising: one or more processors; and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the server to: receive a coverage type for the customer vehicle, cause usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle to be tracked, receive the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle, generate the one or more new insurance policy quotes corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle based upon at least the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle, and cause the one or more new insurance policy quotes to be displayed.

“12. The server of claim 11, the memory storing further instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the server to: cause a prompt to be displayed on a software application executing on a mobile computing device of the customer, the prompt to input the coverage type for the customer vehicle.

“13. The server of claim 12, wherein the prompt to input the coverage type for the customer vehicle includes, as selectable options, (i) personal vehicle insurance and (ii) commercial vehicle insurance.

“14. The server of claim 11, wherein the instructions stored in the memory that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the server to: transmit to a software application executing on a mobile computing device of the customer, an indication for the software application executing on the mobile computing device to track the usage data.

“15. The server of claim 11, wherein the usage data is used to determine one or more of: wherein the usage data is used to determine one or more of: a number of times the customer enters or exits the customer vehicle, a total idle time for the customer vehicle, a total driving time for the customer vehicle, a number of times the customer vehicle enters and exits a particular location, a frequency of driving events, a severity of driving events, an average miles per gallon the customer vehicle achieves, a carbon footprint the customer vehicle achieves, a location of the customer vehicle, a number or percent of times the customer vehicle surpasses a speed limit, a crime statistic along a travel route, a weather event along the travel route, or an accident report along the travel route.

“16. The server of claim 11, wherein at least one of: (i) the coverage type is based on one or more distance thresholds to be traveled by the customer vehicle and the usage data is used to determine one or more actual distances traveled by the customer vehicle, or (ii) the coverage type is based on one or more amount of time thresholds in which the customer vehicle is to be driven and the usage data is used to determine one or more actual amounts of time in which the customer vehicle is driven.

“17. The server of claim 11, wherein the coverage type corresponds to liability insurance.

“18. One or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media storing executable instructions for creating one or more new insurance policy quotes for a customer associated with a customer vehicle that when executed, cause a computer to: receive a coverage type for the customer vehicle; cause usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle to be tracked; receive the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle; generate the one or more new insurance policy quotes corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle based upon at least the usage data corresponding to the coverage type for the customer vehicle; and cause the one or more new insurance policy quotes to be displayed.

“19. The one or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18 storing further executable instructions that when executed, cause a computer to: cause a prompt to be displayed on a software application executing on a mobile computing device of the customer, the prompt to input the coverage type for the customer vehicle.

“20. The one or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the prompt to input the coverage type for the customer vehicle includes, as selectable options, (i) personal vehicle insurance and (ii) commercial vehicle insurance.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Binion, Todd; Christensen, Scott T.; Cielocha, Steven; Gay, Christopher E.; Hayward, Gregory. Dynamic Auto Insurance Policy Quote Creation Based On Tracked User Data. Filed March 23, 2022 and posted July 7, 2022. Patent URL: https://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220220215479%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20220215479&RS=DN/20220215479

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