State Farm Assigned Patent for Determining Abnormal Traffic Conditions

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance, Bloomington, Ill., has been assigned a patent (No. 10,360,794, initially filed July 16, 2018) developed by Gregory L. Hayward, Bloomington, Illinois, for "determining abnormal traffic conditions from a broadcast of telematics data originating from another vehicle."

The full-text of the patent can be found at 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=10,360,794.PN.&OS=PN/10,360,794&RS=PN/10,360,794

The abstract states: "A computer-implemented method of using telematics data at a destination device is provided. The destination device may be a mobile device associated with a driver, or a smart vehicle controller of a destination vehicle. The telematics data is generated by an originating mobile device (i) having a Telematics Application (or "App"), and (ii) associated with a second driver/vehicle, the telematics data including acceleration, braking, speed, heading, and location data associated with an originating vehicle. The telematics data may be broadcast from the originating mobile device to the destination device that (a) analyzes the telematics data received, (b) determines that an abnormal travel condition exists, and (c) automatically take corrective action that alleviates a negative impact of the abnormal travel condition on the destination vehicle to facilitate safer travel. A usage-based or other insurance discount may be provided based upon insured usage of the telematics data-based risk mitigation or prevention functionality."

Written by Ranjan Behera; edited by Sudarshan Harpal.