Vehicle telematics and account management

• US 10,373,257 B1
• Filed: 04/14/2015
• Issued: 08/06/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arity International Limited (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Arity International Limited (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Iqbal, Imran, Gopalan, Srinath, Saban, Yuval
• Primary Examiner(s): Kwong, Cho
• Application Number:
  US14/685,761
• Time in Patent Office: 1,575 Days
• Field of Search: 705 4
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/10 Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time

Abstract

Methods, computer-readable media, software, and apparatuses provide a system that may facilitate communications so that parents or other superiors may monitor driving behavior of a vehicle carrying children or other subordinates. The system may allow communications to be sent from a parent computing device to a particular child computing device to set conditions for notifying the parent or superior of the driving behavior of a vehicle. Child computing devices may collect drive data (e.g., vehicle telematics data) for the system to evaluate and determine whether conditions are met (e.g., whether parental restrictions, like a geo-fence, are violated). Further, the system may send notifications to child computing devices and parent computing devices indicating whether the drive data meets the conditions of an agreement between a parent and teen. The system may also provide a web portal for use in forming the agreement between parents and their teens.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing, by one or more servers, comprising a processor and memory, to a computing device, a template to cause display of the template on a display of the computing device, the template comprising a plurality of fields;

establishing, by the one or more servers and based on a plurality of parameters entered using the plurality of fields, a contract and associating the contract with;

a first telephone number of a first mobile computing device associated with a first user, and an insurance policy associated with a second user;

responsive to completion of the contract, providing, by the one or more servers to the computing device, an access code for the first mobile computing device to activate a computer program that allows the first mobile computing device to transmit, to the one or more servers, drive data representing driving behavior;

receiving, at the one or more servers from the first mobile computing device associated with the first user, first drive data for a first trip of a vehicle driven by the first user and the first telephone number of the first mobile computing device;

identifying, by the one or more servers, the contract based on the first telephone number;

retrieving, by the one or more servers from a database, contract information of the contract;

receiving, at the one or more servers, a request for a challenge;

in response to the request, determining, by the one or more servers, a particular challenge based on the contract information;

transmitting, from the one or more servers to the first mobile computing device, the particular challenge;

receiving, at the one or more servers from the first mobile computing device, second drive data for a second trip of the vehicle driven by the first user and the first telephone number of the first mobile computing device;

determining, by the one or more servers, whether the first user passed the particular challenge based on the second drive data;

determining, by the one or more servers, whether to issue a reward to the first user based on whether the first user passed the particular challenge; and

transmitting, to the first mobile computing device, an indication that the first user has earned the reward.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the request for the challenge comprises at least one of:

receiving a driver request for the challenge from the first mobile computing device;

receiving a guardian request for the challenge from a second mobile computing device associated with a guardian who is a party to the contract;

or

receiving an insurance company request for the challenge from an insurance company computing device associated with an insurance company managing the one or more servers.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the particular challenge based on the contract information comprises:

determining, based on the contract information, that the first user is on probation for violating the contract; and

selecting, as the particular challenge, a challenge designated for users on probation.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking, by the one or more servers, a number of trips that the first user drives,

wherein the particular challenge comprises a challenge to comply with a driving condition for a predetermined number of trips, and

wherein the determining whether the first user passed the particular challenge comprises;

determining that the first user has driven the predetermined number of trips based on a result of the tracking; and

determining whether the first user complied with the driving condition for the predetermined number of trips.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining to issue the reward to the first user, determining the reward based on at least one of the contract information or another reward previously selected by the first user.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking, by the one or more servers, results of a plurality of challenges issued to the first user; and

in response to determining that the first user failed the particular challenge, determining, by the one or more servers, whether the first user breached a term of the contract, wherein the term specifies a maximum number of challenges that the first user is permitted to fail under the contract.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking a tier associated with the first user, the tier representing progress of the first user'"'"'s driving skills,

wherein the determining the particular challenge comprises determining a type of the particular challenge and a difficulty level of the particular challenge,

wherein the difficulty level of the particular challenge is determined based on the tier, and

wherein the difficulty level of the particular challenge is greater than a previous difficulty level of a previous challenge issued to the first user.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing the contract comprises:

initially setting a time range within which the first user agrees to drive;

outputting a warning indicating that the time range violates a law specifying a curfew; and

revising the time range to comply with the law.

17. The method of claim 1,

wherein the establishing the contract comprises:

setting a geo-fence within which the first user agrees to drive; and

setting a second telephone number to send a notification to in case the first user drives outside of the geo-fence, and

wherein the method further comprises;

determining, based on the contract and the first drive data, that the first user drove outside the geo-fence; and

transmitting, to a guardian of the first user and using the second telephone number, the notification.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to providing the template, determining that the first user is a child of the second user associated with the insurance policy and that the first user is old enough to drive; and

based on the determining that the first user is the child of the second user associated with the insurance policy and that the first user is old enough to drive, outputting a webpage comprising a link to another webpage for establishing the contract.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the first drive data is collected, by the first mobile computing device, based on the first mobile computing device having a battery level above a threshold.

8. A system comprising:

a database storing information for each of a plurality of contracts;

a first mobile computing device associated with a first user driving a vehicle, the first mobile computing device configured to;

collect drive data representing a driving behavior associated with the vehicle;

transmit the drive data and a telephone number of the first mobile computing device;

receive a particular challenge; and

transmit additional drive data pertaining to the particular challenge; and

one or more servers comprising a processor and memory, the one or more servers configured to;

provide, to a computing device, a template to cause display of the template on a display of the computing device, the template comprising a plurality of fields;

establish, based on a plurality of parameters entered using the plurality of fields, a contract and associate the contract with;

the telephone number of the first mobile computing device associated with the first user, and an insurance policy associated with a second user;

responsive to completion of the contract, provide, to the computing device, an access code for the first mobile computing device to activate a computer program that allows the first mobile computing device to transmit, to the one or more servers, the drive data;

receive the drive data and the telephone number of the first mobile computing device;

identify the contract based on the telephone number;

retrieve, from the database, contract information of the contract;

receive a request for a challenge;

in response to the request, determine the particular challenge based on the contract information;

transmit, to the first mobile computing device, the particular challenge;

receive, from the first mobile computing device, the additional drive data and the telephone number of the first mobile computing device;

determine whether the first user passed the particular challenge based on the additional drive data; and

determine whether to issue a reward to the first user based on whether the first user passed the particular challenge.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more servers are configured to:

determine, based on the contract information, that the first user is on probation for violating the contract; and

select, as the particular challenge, a challenge designated for users on probation.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more servers are further configured to:

track results of a plurality of challenges issued to the first user;

in response to determining that the first user failed the particular challenge, assign a probation status to the first user; and

transmit, to the first mobile computing device, a probation challenge designated for users with the probation status.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more servers are configured to:

determine the particular challenge further based on a location of the vehicle and a route that the vehicle is set to travel.

19. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a push notification service server configured to transmit a token to the first mobile computing device,

wherein the first mobile computing device is further configured to store the token and transmit the token to the one or more servers to configure the one or more servers to send push notifications to the first mobile computing device, and

wherein the one or more servers are further configured to transmit a push notification to the first mobile computing device, the push notification indicating that the first user earned the reward.

12. A computing system comprising:

a network interface configured to communicate with one or more mobile computing devices and one or more additional computing devices;

one or more processors connected to the network interface; and

memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to;

provide, to a particular computing device of the one or more additional computing devices, a template to cause display of the template on a display of the particular computing device, the template comprising a plurality of fields;

establish, based on a plurality of parameters entered using the plurality of fields, a contract and associate the contract with;

a telephone number of a first mobile computing device associated with a first user, and an insurance policy associated with a second user;

responsive to completion of the contract, provide, to the particular computing device, an access code for the first mobile computing device to activate a computer program that allows the first mobile computing device to transmit, to the computing system, drive data representing driving behavior;

receive, via the network interface from a first mobile computing device associated with the first user, first drive data for a first trip of a vehicle driven by the first user and the telephone number of the first mobile computing device;

identify the contract based on the telephone number;

retrieve, from a database in communication with the computing device, contract information of the contract;

receive a request for a challenge;

in response to the request, determine a particular challenge based on the contract information;

transmit, via the network interface to the first mobile computing device, the particular challenge;

receive, via the network interface from the first mobile computing device, second drive data for a second trip of the vehicle driven by the first user and the telephone number of the first mobile computing device;

determine whether the first user passed the particular challenge based on the second drive data; and

determine whether to issue a reward to the first user in response to determining that the first user passed the particular challenge.

13. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to:

in response to determining to issue the reward to the first user, retrieve, from an insurance company database, an insurance premium associated with the insurance policy, and determine an amount by which to decrease the insurance premium.

14. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to:

prior to transmitting the particular challenge, receive, from a second computing device associated with the second user, a request to issue a challenge to the first user.

15. The computing system of claim 14, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to:

track results of a plurality of challenges issued to the first user; and

in response to determining that the first user passed the particular challenge, determine whether the first user met a term of the contract specifying a number of challenges that the first user must pass to earn a reward.