Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Method And System For Creating Real-Time Driver Telematic Signatures”, for Approval (USPTO 20220327629): Patent Application

2022 OCT 31 (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 inventor Chan, Neil G. (Victoria, CA), filed on June 27, 2022, was made available online on October 13, 2022.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “A “habit” is an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has becomes involuntary. Many drivers of vehicles start driving at a very early age (e.g., 16, etc.) and develop regularly followed driving habits that are practiced each and every time they drive a vehicle.

“For automobile insurers, driver telematics represent a way to quantify risks associated with driver driving specific vehicles. Instead of making insurance pricing and safety decisions on vehicle and driver characteristics, driver telematics gives the automobile insurer and a driver’s parents, guardian, spouse, etc. an opportunity to measure a quantity and quality of a driver’s behavior. This can lead to savings for safe or infrequent drivers, and transition the burden to insurance policies that represent increased liability for drivers exhibiting risky behaviors while driving.

“Statistical evidence supports the argument that drivers perform better and follow safer practices when enrolled in a usage based insurance program, with the understanding that their driving performance is being analyzed. With driver behavior monitoring technology, good driving behavior can be supported in a number of different ways in this type of program, reinforcing habits that can lower the frequency and severity of accidents and claims. For example, if feedback from an On-board diagnostics (OBD) device, or smartphone application can point out to a driver that his or her late-braking behavior is likely to result in rear-ending another vehicle, the driver will often respond to this information by changing this behavior and braking earlier. Recognizing problem driving behaviors and their corresponding relationship to accidents can be a strong motivator to improve driver behavior.

“As another example, speeding is a driving behavior frequently associated with younger, inexperienced drivers. Using an event data recorder that generated in-vehicle alerts to a driver who was speeding and parent notifications of young driver who were speeding reduced a rate of safety-relevant events over 70% in one study. Incidences of speeding by young drivers on routes with fatalities were also reduced by about 15%.

“By identifying problems with driver behavior, insurers and others are then able to address a root cause of a driving problem. For example, if the data shows that a driver has repeated instances of harsh acceleration and then braking, the insurer might conclude that tailgating or distracted driving is an underlying driving issue. After identifying the cause of the driving problem, the insurer and others can then take steps (i.e., notifications, providing information about distracted driving, etc.) to change driving behavior before it leads to a serious incident on the road.

“Better driving habits generally minimizes a severity of accidents when they do occur. Less severe accidents diminish the chances of personal injury and disability claims, one of the most expensive propositions for insurers. So, making positive changes in driving behavior is an important step in cutting the severity of automotive accidents. Such driving habits can be recorded within a vehicle from an On-board diagnostics (OBD) device.

““On-board diagnostics (OBD)” is a term referring to a vehicle’s self-diagnostic and reporting capability. OBD systems give the vehicle owner or repair technician access to the status of the various vehicle sub-systems. The amount of diagnostic information available via OBD has varied widely since its introduction in the early 1980s’ versions of on-board vehicle computers. Early versions of OBD would simply illuminate a malfunction indicator light if a problem was detected but would not provide any information as to the nature of the problem. Modern OBD implementations use a standardized digital communications port to provide real-time data in addition to a standardized series of diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs), which allow one to rapidly identify and remedy malfunctions within the vehicle.

“All cars manufactured after 1996 are required to have an OBD-2 port. The OBD-2 standard specifies the type of diagnostic connector and its pin locations, the electrical signaling protocols available, and the messaging format. It also provides a candidate list of vehicle parameters to monitor along with how to encode the data for each. There is a pin in the connector that provides power for the scan tool from the vehicle battery, which eliminates the need to connect a scan tool to a power source separately. However, some technicians might still connect the scan tool to an auxiliary power source to protect data in the unusual event that a vehicle experiences a loss of electrical power due to a malfunction. As a result of this standardization, a device such as a wireless application can query the on-board computer(s) in any vehicle via the OBD-2.

“OBD-2 ports have been routinely been used for safety purposes. Such OBD-2 devices are used to monitor driving habits, prevent phone use or texting during driving, etc.

“OBD-2 devices have also been routinely used for usage-based insurance, also known as “pay as you drive” (PAYD) and “pay how you drive” (PHYD) and whereby the costs of motor insurance are dependent upon type of vehicle used, measured against time, distance, behavior and place.

“For example, using a small device that connects to an OBD-2 port, ESURANCE DRIVESENSE™ allows policyholders to track a variety of driving habits, from how much time they spend behind the wheel, to unsafe driving habits like speeding and sudden braking. Depending on how safely they drive, DRIVESENSE could save them money on their car insurance.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent application: “In accordance with preferred embodiments of the present invention, some of the problems associated some of the problems associated collecting driver habits creating driver telematic signatures are overcome. A method and system of method and system for creating real-time driver telematic signatures is presented.

“The driver telematic signatures include device-independent vehicle-independent information. The telematics signatures are continuously created and artificial intelligence (AI) analyzed in real-time and with a dynamic Big Data set to provide a calibrated, driver safety scoring system that communicates with a driver’s vehicle or a network device in a driver’s vehicle when it is on and moving. The driver telematics signatures provide current driver performance data, driver habit data and allow determination in real-time of drivers performing normal driver maneuvers and risky driver maneuvers. The driver telematics signature are also used to determine a cost of insurance for drivers of vehicles.

“The foregoing and other features and advantages of preferred embodiments of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description. The detailed description proceeds with references to the accompanying drawings.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method for automatically creating real-time driver telematic signatures, comprising: receiving a set of one or more wireless messages on a cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) on a cloud server network device with one or more processors via a cloud communications network from a vehicle, wherein the first set of one or more wireless message is sent from: (1) a first network device with one or more processors plugged into a port on the vehicle, or (2) from a second network device within the vehicle with one or more processors, wherein the first set of one or more wireless messages indicate an ignition switch in the vehicle is turned on and the vehicle is moving; (a) receiving continuously a subsequent set of one or more wireless messages on the SaaS on the cloud server network device via the cloud communications network from the vehicle, wherein the subsequent set of one or more wireless messages include driver information and vehicle information, wherein the vehicle information includes at least: vehicle tire pressure information, sensor information, Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) information, current weather condition information and elevation or altitude information; (b) creating with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) application in real-time on the SaaS on the cloud server network device, a dynamic driver telematic signature including a set of a plurality of telematic values for the driver of the vehicle, via one or more AI methods on the AI application with a dynamic Big Data set stored the one or more cloud databases associated with the SaaS on the cloud server network device, and with one or more Big Data set analytic methods with the driver information and vehicle information from the subsequent set of the plurality of messages, the dynamic driver telematic signature including a device-independent, vehicle-independent and information source-independent dynamic driver telematics signature; © adding with the SaaS the created driver telematic signature values to the dynamic Big Data set; (d) sending in real-time the created driver telematic signature in another SaaS wireless message from the SaaS from the cloud server network device to the first network deice or the second network device in the vehicle via the cloud communications network; (e) calculating continuously in real-time a dynamic insurance rate for the driver and vehicle; (f) storing with the SaaS the calculated dynamic insurance rate in the one or more cloud databases associated with the SaaS on the cloud server network device; and repeating steps (a) through (f) in real-time as long as the vehicle is on and is moving, thereby providing a device-independent, vehicle-independent, information source-independent, AI analyzed, dynamic Big Data set calibrated, driver safety scoring system, including dynamically created driver telematic signatures and dynamically calculated insurance rates, with the SaaS on the cloud server network device and the cloud communications network.

“2. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of one or more wireless messages sent from the vehicle includes information collected on the first network device plugged into the port on the vehicle comprising: an On-Board-Diagnostic-2 (ODB-2) device plugged into an ODB-2 port on the vehicle.

“3. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of one or more messages sent from the vehicle includes information collected from the second network device within the vehicle comprising: a smartphone, electronic tablet, wearable network device or stand-alone telematic signature network device.

“4. The method of claim 1 wherein the cloud server network device, the first network device plugged into the port on the vehicle and the second network device within the vehicle include one or more wireless communications interfaces comprising: cellular telephone, 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.15.4 (ZigBee), “Wireless Fidelity” (Wi-Fi), Wi-Fi Aware, “Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access” (WiMAX), ETSI High Performance Radio Metropolitan Area Network (HIPERMAN), Near Field Communications (NFC), Machine-to-Machine (M2M), Bluetooth or infra data association (IrDA) wireless communication interfaces.

“5. The method of claim 1 wherein the cloud server network devices includes a plurality of cloud applications communicating with the first network device plugged into the port on the vehicle or the second network device within the vehicle via the cloud communications network, the plurality of cloud applications providing a plurality of driver telematic signature creation cloud services including: a cloud computing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), a cloud computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) and a specific real-time driver telematic signature creation service as the Software as a Service (SaaS).

“6. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more cloud databases include one or more cloud storage objects comprising one or more of a REpresentational State Transfer (REST) or Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) cloud storage objects, portions thereof, or combinations thereof, stored in the one or more cloud databases.

“7. The method of claim 1 wherein the driver information in the subsequent set of wireless messages includes: breaking, turning, acceleration, de-acceleration, rotation, velocity, speed, speed limit, driving time, driving distance, time-of-day, Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) information and Global Positioning System (GPS) location information, collected for the driver of the vehicle.

“8. The method of claim 1 wherein the subsequent set of wireless messages sent from the vehicle further system components in the vehicle from systems comprising: airbag system, suspension system, vehicle transmission control system, engine management control system, rollover detection system, vehicle seat comfort system, vehicle navigation system, Global Positioning System (GPS), accelerometer systems, gyroscope systems, electronic parking brake system, maintenance systems, diagnostic code systems or antitheft systems.

“9. The method of claim 1 wherein the first network device plugged into a port on the vehicle and the second network device within the vehicle include an accelerometer component, a gyroscope component and a Global Positioning System (GPS) component.

“10. The method of claim 1 wherein the driver of the vehicle is an automated autonomous driver, wherein the vehicle comprises a self-driving vehicle and the SaaS creates real-time driver telematic signatures for the automated autonomous driver.

“11. The method of claim 1 wherein the created driver telematic signatures include weighted and normalized or actuarial-based driver telematic signature values.

“12. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more AI methods include knowledge-based AI systems including time series analyses for eliminating variations ire vehicle type, device type and information source type, used to collected driver data from vehicles and for multivariate tabular analysis.

“13. The method of claim 1 wherein the calculated dynamic insurance rate are calculated using the one or more AI methods and the Big Data set.

“14. The method of claim 1 wherein the created driver telematic signatures calculated dynamic insurance rates are displayed visually on the cloud server network device.

“15. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of calculating continuously in real-time the dynamic insurance rate for the driver and the vehicle includes using demographic information for the driver of the vehicle and vehicle safety information for the vehicle.

“16. The method of claim 15 wherein the demographic information for the driver of the vehicle includes: an age, gender, zip code, accident history, credit history, type of driver’s license, current insurance policy information and previous insurance policy information for the driver.

“17. The method of claim 15 wherein the vehicle safety information includes vehicle trouble codes generated, vehicle age, vehicle type, vehicle use classification information, vehicle accident history, type of tire, vehicle maintenance completed and vehicle recall information.

“18. The method of claim 15 wherein the step of calculating continuously in real-time the dynamic insurance rate for the driver and the vehicle includes calculating the dynamic insurance rate for the driver with actuarial methods to reduce rating errors and mis-pricing insurance rates for both personal and commercial drivers.

“19. The method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving a plurality of initial sets of one or more wireless messages on the cloud SaaS on the cloud server network device via the cloud communications network from a plurality of initial vehicles, wherein the plurality of initial vehicles are turned on and are moving; creating in real-time with the SaaS a plurality of initial driver telematic signatures for a plurality of drivers for the plurality of initial vehicles on the SaaS on the cloud server network device, the plurality of initial driver telematic signatures created on the SaaS with the information from plurality of initial sets of one or more wireless messages, the AI application, and the plurality of Big Data set analytic methods, to create the initial Big Data set; and storing with the SaaS the plurality of initial driver telematic signature and the initial Big Data set in the one or more cloud databases associated with the cloud server network device.

“20. The method of claim 1 further including an Application Program Interface (API) for accessing the cloud SaaS or a non-cloud application for dynamically creating driver telematic signatures and dynamically calculating vehicle insurance rates.”

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

For additional information on this patent application, see: Chan, Neil G. Method And System For Creating Real-Time Driver Telematic Signatures. Filed June 27, 2022 and posted October 13, 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=%2220220327629%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20220327629&RS=DN/20220327629

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