Systems and methods for weather-related vehicle damage prevention

• US 10,354,334 B1
• Filed: 04/20/2016
• Issued: 07/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Chan, Aaron, Mullen, Christina P., Grant, Rosemarie, Nepomuceno, John, Garretson, Cynthia L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Edward
• Application Number:
  US15/133,843
• Time in Patent Office: 1,182 Days
• Field of Search: 705 4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/02 taking into account a variable factor such as distance or time, e.g. for passenger transport, parking systems or car rental systems G07B15/06 takes precedence; taximeters G07B13/00; parking meters per se G07F17/24; car rental systems per se G07B15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/04 comprising devices to free a barrier, turnstile, or the like turnstiles with registering means G07C9/10; coin-freed aspects G07F17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/143 inside the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/146 where the parking area is a limited parking space, e.g. parking garage, restricted space
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/148 Management of a network of parking areas
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/149 coupled to means for restricting the access to the parking space, e.g. authorization, access barriers, indicative lights
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

An insurance computing device is provided. The insurance computing device may include a processor and a memory. The processor may be programmed to receive a registration request from a vehicle computing device associated with a vehicle and/or a covered parking location (CPL) computing device associated with a covered parking location, generate a usage profile associated with at least one of the vehicle and the covered parking location, monitor the vehicle computing device and/or the CPL computing device for any requests to reserve an available parking spot of the covered parking location, update the usage profile, determine if an insurance policy associated with the vehicle and/or the covered parking location is eligible for insurance-related benefits based upon the usage profile.

Claims

1. An insurance computing device comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the processor is programmed to:

receive a registration request from a vehicle computing device associated with a vehicle and a covered parking location (CPL) computing device associated with a covered parking location;

register the vehicle computing device and the CPL computing device, wherein registering the vehicle computing device includes identifying the vehicle and an insurance policy associated with the vehicle, and wherein registering the CPL computing device includes identifying the covered parking location and an insurance policy associated with the covered parking location;

generate a usage profile associated with the vehicle and a usage profile associated with the covered parking location, wherein the usage profile associated with the vehicle includes a frequency of the vehicle being affected by inclement weather and a frequency of the vehicle being parked at a protected parking location during inclement weather, and wherein the usage profile associated with the covered parking location includes a frequency of the covered parking location permitting one or more vehicles to park in the covered parking location during inclement weather;

retrieve weather data of a region that includes the vehicle, the weather data including at least one of current weather data and predicted weather data;

determine from the weather data that the region will experience inclement weather within a predetermined period of time;

transmit information of one or more covered parking locations located nearby the vehicle, the one or more covered parking locations including the covered parking location;

receive a notification message indicating whether access to the covered parking location was permitted to the vehicle and whether the vehicle parked in an available parking spot of the covered parking location;

update, based on the notification message, the usage profile associated with the vehicle and the usage profile associated with the covered parking location; and

determine if (i) the insurance policy associated with the vehicle is eligible for insurance-related benefits based upon the usage profile associated with the vehicle, and (ii) the insurance policy associated with the covered parking location is eligible for insurance-related benefits based upon the usage profile associated with the covered parking location.

2. The insurance computing device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to apply eligible insurance-related benefits to the insurance policy associated with the vehicle and the insurance policy associated with the covered parking location.

3. The insurance computing device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive weather data of at least one region;

determine from the weather data that a region including the vehicle will experience inclement weather; and

identify that at least one of the vehicle and the covered parking location is affected by the inclement weather.

4. The insurance computing device of claim 1, wherein the registration request from the CPL computing device includes a location identifier of the covered parking location and a communication address of the CPL computing device.

5. The insurance computing device of claim 4, wherein the processor is further programmed to transmit at least one of the location identifier and the communication address to the vehicle computing device.

6. The insurance computing device of claim 1, wherein the registration request from the vehicle computing device includes a vehicle user profile.

7. The insurance computing device of claim 6, wherein the processor is further programmed to transmit the vehicle user profile to the CPL computing device when the CPL computing device receives a request to reserve the available parking spot of the covered parking location.

8. The insurance computing device of claim 1, wherein the usage profile associated with the vehicle indicates a frequency of the vehicle computing device requesting to park at covered parking locations during inclement weather.

9. The insurance computing device of claim 1, wherein the usage profile associated with the vehicle indicates a frequency of the vehicle being parked in covered parking locations when a request to reserve a parking spot is approved.

10. The insurance computing device of claim 1, wherein the usage profile associated with the covered parking location indicates a frequency in which the CPL computing device associated with the covered parking location receives one or more requests to park at the covered parking location during inclement weather.

11. The insurance computing device of claim 1, wherein the usage profile associated with the covered parking location indicates a frequency in which the CPL computing device associated with the covered parking location approves one or more requests to park at the covered parking location.

12. A computer-implemented method for identifying a covered parking location, the method implemented using a vehicle computing device associated with a vehicle, the method comprising:

transmitting, from the vehicle computing device to an insurance computing device, a registration request requesting that the insurance computing device register the vehicle with the insurance computing device as a possible vehicle requiring a protected parking location during inclement weather;

receiving, in response to the registration request, a registration confirmation of the vehicle from the insurance computing device, wherein the registration confirmation includes an identification of an insurance policy associated with the vehicle and generation of a usage profile associated with the vehicle, wherein the usage profile includes a frequency of the vehicle being affected by inclement weather;

receiving, by the vehicle comp ting device, weather data of a region that includes the vehicle, the weather data including at least one of current weather data and predicted weather data;

determining from the weather data that the region will experience inclement weather within a predetermined period of time;

receiving information of one or more covered parking locations located nearby the vehicle, the one or more covered parking locations located nearby the vehicle including the covered parking location;

identifying the covered parking location, wherein the covered parking location includes an available parking spot;

transmitting, by the vehicle computing device, a request to reserve the available parking spot to a CPL computing device associated with the covered parking location;

receiving, by the vehicle computing device, a notification message granting access to the covered parking location for the vehicle; and

transmitting the notification message to the insurance computing device, wherein the notification message prompts the insurance computing device to update the usage profile of the vehicle and determine if the insurance policy of the vehicle is eligible for insurance-related benefits based upon the updated usage profile of the vehicle.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein receiving the notification message granting access to the covered parking location includes receiving an access code.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the access code is at least one of a text code, a quick recognition (QR) code, a biometric code, a bar code, a radio frequency identification (RFID) code, an audible code, and an electronic token.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 further comprising presenting the access code to an access terminal of the covered parking location, wherein presenting the access code causes a barricade of the covered parking location to actuate from a closed position to an open position.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein identifying the covered parking location further comprises:

receiving a location identifier and a communication address associated with the covered parking location and the CPL computing device;

determining that the covered parking location is within a predefined distance from the vehicle based upon the location identifier;

communicate with the CPL computing device in response to determining the covered parking location is within the predefined distance using the communication address; and

receiving information about the covered parking location from the CPL computing device, the information about the covered parking location including a number of available parking spots.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the location identifier and the communication address are received from at least one of the CPL computing device, the insurance computing device, and a remote computing device.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the information about the covered parking location further includes at least one of a price to park in the covered parking location, a capacity of the covered parking location, and a type of the covered parking location.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 further comprising:

transmitting the registration request to the insurance computing device, the registration request including an insurance policy identifier associated with the vehicle, wherein the insurance computing device is configured to generate a usage profile associated with a policyholder of the vehicle; and

receiving, from the insurance computing device, a notification indicating that an insurance-related benefit is applied to the insurance policy associated with the insurance policy identifier based upon the usage profile associated with the policyholder of the vehicle.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the registration request further comprises a vehicle user profile associated with a user of the vehicle.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the usage profile indicates a frequency in which the vehicle computing device locates a covered parking location during inclement weather.