System and method for managing on-demand test drives

• US 10,664,808 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2016
• Issued: 05/26/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Shift Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Shift Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Washington, Joel, Areshidze, Irakly George Arison, Russell, Tobias, Ingersoll, Minneola, Ohler, Christian Michael, Benbarak, Hanna Klots, Sobieski, Michal, Ayestaran, Alejandro Cesar, Rozic, Pablo Ignacio Diaz, Isakow, Craig John, Liu, Yu Fei, Paul, Alexander Scott, Gold, Jonathan Alex, Khan, Saud, Vincent, Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Stamber, Eric W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Torrico-Lopez, Alan
• Application Number:
  US15/379,357
• Publication Number:
  US 20170169398A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,259 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment

Abstract

A system and method for on demand test drives that can include managing a set of vehicle and worker resources in a resource management system; monitoring user browsing patterns of a customer on an online vehicle marketplace; receiving a test drive request from the customer, the request specifying a requested vehicle and test drive location; retrieving test drive availability options from the resource management system; setting a test drive appointment for a selected test drive availability option; coordinating worker and vehicle transport to a scheduled location of the test drive appointment; and delivering vehicle information during the test drive appointment.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

at a resource management system operable in connection with an online vehicle marketplace, tracking location and availability information of a set of workers and a set of vehicles equipped with a location tracking system;

at the online vehicle marketplace, monitoring user browsing patterns of customers and determining a vehicle interest level of a set of vehicles for a customer;

at a test drive request interface of a native application or a web-based application of the online vehicle marketplace, receiving a test drive request from the customer, the request specifying a requested vehicle and test drive location;

at the online vehicle marketplace, retrieving test drive availability options from the resource management system for the requested vehicle, wherein the retrieved test drive availability options are based on the test drive location, the availability of the requested vehicle as determined by the resource management system through the equipped the location tracking system, and the availability of a worker to conduct the test drive as determined by the resource management system;

at the online vehicle marketplace, augmenting the test drive availability options based in part on a vehicle interest level of the customer for the requested vehicle and historical trends of test drive demand for the requested vehicle;

updating the test drive request interface with test drive availability options;

at the test drive request interface, selecting by a customer a selected test drive availability option;

at the resource management system, receiving the selected test drive availability option and setting a test drive appointment for the selected test drive availability option; and

at the resource management system, coordinating worker and vehicle transport to a scheduled location of the test drive appointment comprising determining when at least one test drive task should be started based on location information from the location tracking system of the requested vehicle to account for travel time and communicating the test drive task assignment to a user interface of a worker device through a network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the user browsing patterns comprises characterizing browsing patterns of the customer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the user browsing patterns comprises characterizing browsing patterns of multiple users of the vehicle marketplace.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle interest level increases directly related to the amount of interaction with the requested vehicle on the vehicle marketplace.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle interest level decreases with the quantity of vehicle features of the requested vehicle that differ from other vehicles inspected by the customer on the online vehicle marketplace.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein augmenting availability of the requested vehicle comprises augmenting the availability geographic range of a vehicle according to the vehicle interest level of the requested vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein augmenting availability of the requested vehicle comprises artificially limiting schedule availability of the requested vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein coordinating worker and vehicle transport further comprises delivering test drive task assignments to a set of workers, wherein the set of workers includes at least one worker that is delivered a test drive task assignment for acting as the representative during the test drive appointment.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein coordinating worker and vehicle transport comprises selecting at least one worker as a representative at least partially based on the skill profile of the worker.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the set of workers includes a second worker that is delivered a test drive task assignment for vehicle transport from a first vehicle storage facility to a second vehicle storage facility.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein managing a set of vehicle and worker resources comprises identifying a region for a new vehicle storage facility based on a history of test drive appointments.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein managing a set of vehicle and worker resources comprises automatically augmenting worker supply.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein automatically augmenting worker supply comprises managing a current supply of workers through schedule and incentive adjustments.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein automatically augmenting worker supply comprises initiating automated recruitment tasks.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising delivering vehicle information during the test drive appointment, wherein the vehicle information is selected at least partially based on user browsing patterns.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein augmenting the test drive availability options comprises augmenting the retrieved test drive availability options at least partially based on the test drive history of the customer.