Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Hub For Automated Recovery After A Critical Event In Shared Mobility Services”, for Approval (USPTO 20230013317): Allstate Insurance Company

2023 FEB 07 (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 Gutsell, Christopher Paul (Gurnee, IL, US); Harasymczuk, Rebecca (Chicago, IL, US); Kelsh, John P. (Antioch, IL, US); Walsh, Connor (Lake Forest, IL, US), filed on September 19, 2022, was made available online on January 19, 2023.

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: “In the shared mobility industry, accidents can be a persistent problem. Drivers operating a vehicle for a shared mobility service (e.g., ride sharing services, courier network services (CNS), microtransit services, ride sourcing services, scooter sharing services, alternative transit services, bike sharing services, etc.) may be worried about the consequences of their vehicle facing an accident or other incident (e.g., a critical event). For example, the driver may be concerned about safety, how much the critical event would cost the driver, how the critical event may affect the driver’s rating, and/or whether the driver may end up in a lawsuit as a result of the critical event. Furthermore, a driver may worry about his or her own financial security (e.g., income) in light of the potentially debilitating costs incurred by an accident or incident to the driver’s vehicle.

“When drivers do face a critical event, they may become involved in long and inefficient processes for reporting the accident, collecting requested data, and/or submitting claims for recovery. For example, a driver may need to talk to a number of parties over the phone, e.g., the shared mobility company, an insurance provider, police, etc., and repeat information, which may lead to frustration and added stress. Furthermore, there may a discrepancy of information sent or received from the various parties.

“The present disclosure may address one or more of the shortcomings described above.”

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 features described herein. This summary is not an extensive overview of all of the features described herein. The following summary merely presents some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

“Systems and methods are described for using a centralized contact point (e.g., hub) for a user for automated recovery after a critical event in shared mobility services. By allowing a single point of contact, the centralized contact point or hub may improve the partner driver’s experience seeking insurance claim recovery, may optimize claims efficiency, and may assist in building more scalable and extensible platforms for the shared mobility industry. One example method comprises: receiving, by the computing device from the first user device via the communication network, a notification of a critical event, first vehicle information of a first vehicle associated with the critical event, and second vehicle information of a second vehicle associated with the critical event; receiving, by the computing device from the first user device via the communication network, first damage information related to the critical event; analyzing, by the computing device, the second vehicle information of the second vehicle to identify the second vehicle; determining, by the computing device, a second user device associated with the second vehicle based upon identifying the second vehicle; establishing, by the computing device via the communication network, communication with the second user device; transmitting to the second user device, by the computing device via the communication network, a request for an input wherein the input is second damage information related to the critical event; receiving, by the computing device via the communication network, the second damage information from the second user device; comparing, by the computing device, the first damage information to the second damage information; generating, by the computing device, a response certainty score based on the comparison of the first damage information and the second damage information; determining, by the computing device, that the response certainty score satisfies a confidence value threshold; and determining, by the computing device, a fault assessment for the critical event.

“In accordance with other embodiments of the present disclosure, an example system comprises: computing device. A computing device may comprise: one or more processors and a memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to: communicatively couple to a first user device via a communication network, the first user device configured to generate a user interface; receive, from the first user device via the communication network, a notification of a critical event, first vehicle information of a first vehicle associated with the critical event, and second vehicle information of a second vehicle associated with the critical event; receive, from the first user device, first damage information related to the critical event; analyze the second vehicle information of the second vehicle to identify the second vehicle; identify a second user device associated with the second vehicle based upon identifying the second vehicle; establish, via the communication network, communication with the second user device; transmit, via the communication network, a request for an input to the second user device, wherein the input is second damage information related to the critical event; receive, via the communication network, the second damage information from the second user device; compare the first damage information to the second damage information; generate a response certainty score based on the comparison of the first damage information and the second damage information; determine that the response certainty score satisfies a confidence value threshold; and determine a fault assessment for the critical event.

“In accordance with other embodiments of the present disclosure, one or more non-transitory computer readable media stores computer-executable instructions. When these computer-executable instructions are executed by a computing device, the computing device may perform one or more of the methods described herein.

“Other features and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the additional description provided herein.

“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 are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages will be apparent from the description, drawings, and claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: communicatively coupling a computing device having at least one processor to a first user device via a communication network; receiving, by the computing device from the first user device via the communication network, a notification of a critical event, first vehicle information of a first vehicle associated with the critical event, and second vehicle information of a second vehicle associated with the critical event; receiving, by the computing device from the first user device via the communication network, first damage information related to the critical event; analyzing, by the computing device, the second vehicle information of the second vehicle to identify the second vehicle; determining, by the computing device, a second user device associated with the second vehicle based upon identifying the second vehicle; establishing, by the computing device via the communication network, communication with the second user device; transmitting to the second user device, by the computing device via the communication network, a request for an input wherein the input is second damage information related to the critical event; receiving, by the computing device via the communication network, the second damage information from the second user device; comparing, by the computing device, the first damage information to the second damage information; generating, by the computing device, a response certainty score based on the comparison of the first damage information and the second damage information; determining, by the computing device, that the response certainty score satisfies a confidence value threshold; and determining, by the computing device, a fault assessment for the critical event.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first damage information received is a first natural language input associated with the critical event.

“3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: generating, by the computing device, a list of aspects corresponding to the critical event; converting, by the computing device, the first natural language input to first natural language data; analyzing, by the computing device, the first natural language data to identify portions of the first natural language data corresponding to the critical event; and mapping, by the computing device, the portions of the first natural language data to at least one aspect from the list of aspects, the at least one aspect being a damage-related aspect.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second damage information received by the computing device from the second user device is a second natural language input.

“5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: converting, via the computing device, the second natural language input to second natural language data; analyzing, by the computing device, the second natural language data to identify portions of the second natural language data corresponding to the critical event; and mapping, by the computing device, the portions of the second natural language data to at least one aspect from the list of aspects, the at least one aspect being a damage related aspect.

“6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: comparing, by the computing device, the first natural language data to the second natural language data converted from the second natural language input received by the second user device; and adjusting, by the computing device, the response certainty score based on the comparison of the first natural language data to the second natural language data.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the computing device from the first user device via the communication network, first multimedia content associated with the critical event; receiving, by the computing device from the second user device via the communication network, second multimedia content associated with the critical event; comparing, by the computing device, the first multimedia content to the second multimedia content; and adjusting, by the computing device, the response certainty score based on the comparison of the first multimedia content to the second multimedia content.

“8. A system comprising a computing device comprising: one or more processors; and a memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to: communicatively couple to a first user device via a communication network, the first user device configured to generate a user interface; receive, from the first user device via the communication network, a notification of a critical event, first vehicle information of a first vehicle associated with the critical event, and second vehicle information of a second vehicle associated with the critical event; receive, from the first user device, first damage information related to the critical event; analyze the second vehicle information of the second vehicle to identify the second vehicle; identify a second user device associated with the second vehicle based upon identifying the second vehicle; establish, via the communication network, communication with the second user device; transmit, via the communication network, a request for an input to the second user device, wherein the input is second damage information related to the critical event; receive, via the communication network, the second damage information from the second user device; compare the first damage information to the second damage information; generate a response certainty score based on the comparison of the first damage information and the second damage information; determine that the response certainty score satisfies a confidence value threshold; and determine a fault assessment for the critical event.

“9. The system of claim 8, wherein the first damage information received is a first natural language input associated with the critical event.

“10. The system of claim 9, wherein the computing device is further caused to: generate a list of aspects corresponding to the critical event; convert, via a the computing device, the first natural language input to a first natural language data; analyze the first natural language data to identify portions of the first natural language data corresponding to the critical event; and map the portions of the first natural language data to at least one aspect from the list of aspects, the at least one aspect corresponding to a damage related aspect.

“11. The system of claim 10, wherein the second damage information received by the computing device from the second user device is a second natural language input.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein the computing device is further caused to: convert, via the computing device, the second natural language input to second natural language data; analyze the second natural language data to identify portions of the second natural language data corresponding to the critical event; and map the portions of the second natural language data to at least one aspect from the list of aspects, the at least one aspect being a damage-related aspect.

“13. The system of claim 12, wherein the computing device is further caused to: compare the first natural language data to the second natural language data; and adjust the response certainty score based on the comparison of the first natural language data to the second natural language data.

“14. The system of claim 8, the wherein the computing device is further caused to: receive, from the first user device via the communication network, first multimedia content associated with the critical event; receive, from the second user device via the communication network, second multimedia content associated with the critical event; compare the first multimedia content to the second multimedia content; and adjust the response certainty score based on the comparison of the first multimedia content to the second multimedia content.

“15. One or more non-transitory media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform steps comprising: communicatively coupling, a computing device having at least one processor to a first user device via a communication network, the first user device configured to generate a user interface; receiving, by the computing device from the first user device via the communication network, a notification of a critical event, first vehicle information of a first vehicle associated with the critical event, and second vehicle information of a second vehicle associated with the critical event; receiving, by the computing device from the first user device via the communication network, first damage information related to the critical event; analyzing, by the computing device, the second vehicle information of the second vehicle to identify the second vehicle; identifying, by the computing device, a second user device associated with the second vehicle based upon identifying the second vehicle; establishing, by the computing device via the communication network, communication with the second user device; transmitting, by the computing device via the communication network, a request for an input to the second user device, wherein the input is second damage information related to the critical event; receiving, by the computing device via the communication network, the second damage information from the second user device; comparing, by the computing device, the first damage information to the second damage information; generating, by the computing device, a response certainty score based on the comparison of the first damage information and the second damage information; determining, by the computing device, that the response certainty score satisfies a confidence value threshold; and determining, by the computing device, a fault assessment for the critical event.”

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

For additional information on this patent application, see: Gutsell, Christopher Paul; Harasymczuk, Rebecca; Kelsh, John P.; Walsh, Connor. Hub For Automated Recovery After A Critical Event In Shared Mobility Services. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230013317, filed September 19, 2022 and posted January 19, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230013317)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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