Automated vehicle ownership support

• US 10,134,042 B1
• Filed: 10/09/2015
• Issued: 11/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United Services Automobile Association
• Original Assignee: United Services Automobile Association
• Inventors: Prasad, Bharat, Oakes, III, Charles L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Boswell, Beth V
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Folashade
• Application Number:
  US14/879,828
• Time in Patent Office: 1,138 Days
• Field of Search: 705 735
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C

Abstract

A computer system for processing vehicle ownership support data includes an infrastructure platform which includes a plurality of hardware and software components, infrastructure services, APIs, and SDKs adapted to communicate in a communication network. The infrastructure platform receives telematics data such as vehicle identification data, driving performance data, vehicle operation data and vehicle sensor data for a corresponding vehicle. Such telematics data can be received from a vehicle device (Onboard Device (OBD)), or from a cloud-based telematics platform. The infrastructure platform identifies vehicle ownership support services associated with the at least one vehicle and analyzes the received telematics data associated with the identified services. The infrastructure platform provides vehicle ownership support services to a mobile application accessible at a customer'"'"'s mobile device associated with the vehicle or the customer. Such services may include, without limitations, automated fuel dispensing, emergency roadside assistance, vehicle maintenance and repair assistance, and the like.

Claims

1. A computer system for processing vehicle ownership support data, the computer system comprising:

an infrastructure platform comprising a plurality of hardware and software components, infrastructure services, Application Program Interfaces (APIs), and Software Development Kits (SDKs) adapted to communicate in a communication network, the communication network comprising a plurality of web services for interacting with a plurality of vendors, wherein the plurality of vendors includes at least one fuel dispensing apparatus;

a memory configured to store one or more processes;

a processor adapted to execute the one or more processes using the infrastructure platform, the processor when executing the one or more processes, is operable to;

receive telematics data regarding at least one vehicle from at least one of a vehicle device and a cloud-based telematics platform associated with the vehicle wherein the telematics data includes at least one of vehicle identification data, driving performance data, vehicle operation data and vehicle sensor data;

identify one or more vehicle ownership support services associated with the at least one vehicle, wherein the one or more vehicle ownership support services include fuel dispensing services, and wherein the one or more vehicle ownership support services are accessible using a mobile application at a mobile device associated with the vehicle or a vehicle driver via the infrastructure platform;

analyze the telematics data associated with the one or more vehicle ownership support services;

determine a low fuel condition below a predetermined threshold based on analysis of the telematics data;

determine a location of the vehicle based on at least one of the telematics data and a location of the mobile device associated with the vehicle;

in response to determining the low fuel condition, identify one or more fuel dispensing stations in proximity to the location of the vehicle;

provide information related to the one or more fuel dispensing stations to the mobile application;

determine that the vehicle is within a predetermined distance of one of the one or more fuel dispensing stations;

in response to determining that the vehicle is within the predetermined distance of one of the one or more fuel dispensing stations, determine a scope of fueling permissions associated with the vehicle identification data at the one of the one or more fuel dispensing stations; and

automatically initiate a fueling session at the one of the one or more fuel dispensing stations contingent upon the scope of fueling permission.

2. The computer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of web services comprising a plurality of representational state transfer conforming (RESTful) interfaces.

3. The computer system as recited in claim 2, wherein the infrastructure platform further comprises a push notification interface for providing a plurality of vendor specific notifications related to the vehicle ownership support services to the mobile application.

4. The computer system as recited in claim 3, wherein the processor operable to provide the one or more vehicle ownership support services is further operable to send one or more notifications to the mobile application using the push notification interface based upon at least one of the vehicle sensor data, vehicle operation data and the driving performance data.

5. The computer system as recited in claim 3, wherein the telematics data further comprises vehicle diagnostics data and wherein the processor operable to provide the one or more vehicle ownership support services is further operable to send one or more maintenance notifications associated with the vehicle to the mobile application using the push notification interface based upon the vehicle diagnostics data.

6. The computer system as recited in claim 5, wherein the plurality of vendors comprises a plurality of vehicle repair service providers and wherein the processor is further operable to:

identify one or more repair needs based on the vehicle diagnostics data;

estimate repair cost associated with the one or more repair needs based on a data provided by the plurality of vehicle repair service providers; and

cause display of the one or more repair needs and the estimated repair cost associated therewith on the mobile device.

7. The computer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the APIs comprise an open authorization application programming interface (Oauth API) configured to provide access of a predefined scope to the telematics data to the mobile application and wherein the processor is further operable to register the mobile application with the infrastructure platform in response to receiving an Oauth authorization request.

8. The computer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the telematics data further comprises trip history data associated with the vehicle, wherein the processor is further operable to cause display of the trip history data on the mobile device.

9. The computer system recited in claim 8, wherein the processor operable to provide the one or more vehicle ownership support services is further operable to filter the trip history data based on a user-specified criteria and further operable to cause display of the filtered trip history data.

10. The computer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the predetermined threshold relates to a remaining amount of fuel.

11. The computer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the predetermined threshold relates to a distance to empty.

12. The computer system as recited in claim 11, wherein the distance to empty is based on fuel consumption related information, the fuel consumption related information is at least a portion of the driving performance data.

13. A method for processing vehicle ownership support data, the method comprising:

receiving telematics data regarding at least one vehicle from at least one of a vehicle device and a an infrastructure platform, wherein the telematics data includes at least one of a vehicle identification data, driving performance data, vehicle operation data, and vehicle sensor data, wherein the infrastructure platform comprises a plurality of hardware and software components, infrastructure services, Application Program Interacts (APIs) and Software Development Kits (SDKs) adapted to communicate in a communication network, and wherein the infrastructure platform further comprises an application layer of the communications network comprising a plurality of web services for interacting with a plurality of vendors, wherein the plurality of vendors includes at least one fuel dispensing apparatus;

identifying one or more vehicle ownership support services associated with the at least one vehicle, wherein the one or more vehicle ownership support services comprises providing fuel dispenses services, and wherein the one or more vehicle ownership support services are accessible using a mobile application at a mobile device associated with the vehicle or a vehicle driver via the infrastructure platform;

analyzing the telematics data associated with the one or more vehicle ownership support services;

determining a low fuel condition below a predetermined threshold based on analysis of the telematics data;

determining a location of the vehicle based on at least one of the telematics data and a location of the mobile device associated with the vehicle;

in response to determining the low fuel condition, identifying one or more fuel dispensing stations in proximity to the location of the vehicle;

providing information related to the one or more fuel dispensing stations to the mobile application;

determining that the vehicle is within a predetermined distance of one of the one or more fuel dispensing stations;

in response to determining that the vehicle is within the predetermined distance of one of the one or more fuel dispensing stations, determining a scope of fueling permissions associated with the vehicle identification data at the one of the one or more fuel dispensing stations; and

automatically initiating a fueling session at the one of the one or more fuel dispensing stations contingent upon the scope of fueling permission.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of web services comprises a plurality of representational state transfer conforming (RESTful) interfaces.