Autonomous feature use monitoring and insurance pricing

• US 10,719,885 B1
• Filed: 04/24/2019
• Issued: 07/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Konrardy, Blake, Christensen, Scott T., Hayward, Gregory, Farris, Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Fu, Hao
• Application Number:
  US16/393,184
• Time in Patent Office: 454 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 11/005 for lighting devices, e.g. indicating if lamps are burning or not
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 9/00 Arrangement or adaptation of signal devices not provided for in one of main groups B60Q1/00 - B60Q7/00 , e.g. haptic signalling
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/0027 Post collision measures, e.g. notifying emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/00 Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks safety belts or body harnesses in vehicles B60R22/00; seats constructed to protect the occupant from the effect of abnormal g-forces, e.g. crash or safety seats, B60N2/42; energy-absorbing arrangements for hand wheels for steering vehicles B62D1/11; energy-absorbing arrangements for vehicle steering columns B62D1/19
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2040/0818 Inactivity or incapacity of driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0095 Automatic control mode change
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0096 Control during transition between modes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/16 Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/48 by combining or switching between position solutions derived from the satellite radio beacon positioning system and position solutions derived from a further system
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9318 Controlling the steering
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/15 Vehicle, aircraft or watercraft design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0855 involving a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 : Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 : Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 : Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/597 : Recognising the driver's state or behaviour, e.g. attention or drowsiness
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 : communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 : Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0816 : Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 : using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/06 : indicating a condition of sleep, e.g. anti-dozing alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/08 : using communication transmission lines G08B13/19658, G08B21/0286, G08B25/016 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/005 : including pedestrian guidance indicator
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096725 : where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 : where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09675 : where a selection from the received information takes place in the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096758 : where no selection takes place on the transmitted or the received information
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 : where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096783 : where the origin of the information is a roadside individual element
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096791 : where the origin of the information is another vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/143 : inside the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/147 : where the parking area is within an open public zone, e.g. city centre
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 : Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/165 : for passive traffic, e.g. including static obstacles, trees
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 : for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 : Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 : Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 : for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 : for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 : Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

Methods and systems for monitoring use and determining risk associated with operation of autonomous vehicles are provided. According to certain aspects, autonomous operation features associated with a vehicle may be determined, and operating data regarding vehicle operation may be obtained. The operating data may include information regarding use levels or settings associated with use of the autonomous operation features. Risk levels associated with the features may be determined from test data or actual loss data. The risk levels and operating data may be used to determine a total risk level associated with operation of the vehicle with expected use levels of the autonomous operation features. The total risk level may further be used to determine or adjust aspects of an insurance policy associated with the vehicle.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for evaluating one or more autonomous operation features of a vehicle, the method comprising:

generating, by one or more test units, test results for the one or more autonomous operation features, the one or more test units generating the test results as control commands generated by the one or more autonomous operation features in response to test sensor data of the vehicle operating under a plurality of operating conditions within a virtual test environment;

receiving, at one or more processors, information regarding the one or more autonomous operation features;

collecting, at one or more processors, operating data to monitor operation of the vehicle, the operating data including (i) information regarding movement of the vehicle and objects within an operating environment of the vehicle, and (ii) information regarding operation of the one or more autonomous operation features;

determining, by one or more processors, one or more autonomous operation risk levels associated with operating the vehicle in each of the plurality of operating conditions based upon the information regarding the one or more autonomous operation features and the test results;

determining, by one or more processors, one or more use levels indicating extent of use of each of the one or more autonomous operation features in each of the plurality of operating conditions, and extent of use of a user-adjustable setting for at least one of the one or more autonomous operation features; and

generating, by one or more processors, a total quality metric indicating effectiveness of the one or more autonomous operation features under the plurality of operating conditions based at least in part upon the one or more autonomous operation risk levels, the one or more use levels, and the operating data.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the information regarding the one or more autonomous operation features comprises:

receiving, at one or more processors, information regarding baseline risk levels corresponding to the test results for the one or more autonomous operation features.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein determining the one or more autonomous operation risk levels comprises:

receiving, at one or more processors, loss data regarding a plurality of vehicles having at least one of the one or more autonomous operation features, the loss data including one or more of;

claims for payments under a plurality of vehicle insurance policies related to the plurality of vehicles, actual payments under the plurality of vehicle insurance policies related to the plurality of vehicles, or indications of collisions from sensor data for the plurality of vehicles; and

determining, by one or more processors, the one or more autonomous operation risk levels based upon a correlation between the baseline risk levels and the loss data.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein determining the one or more use levels comprises:

determining, by one or more processors, the one or more use levels of the autonomous operation features based upon the operating data, the one or more use levels including separate levels for at least two alternative values of an adjustable setting of at least one of the one or more autonomous operation features.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein collecting the operating data to monitor the operation of the vehicle comprises:

receiving, at one or more processors, an indication of the operation of the vehicle including one or more times and one or more locations corresponding to an occurrence of the operation of the vehicle; and

receiving, at one or more processors, information regarding settings of the one or more autonomous operation features during the occurrence of the operation of the vehicle.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein collecting the operating data to monitor the operation of the vehicle further comprises:

monitoring, at one or more processors, information regarding the operating environment of the vehicle including one or more of;

road conditions, weather conditions, nearby traffic conditions, type of road, construction conditions, location of pedestrians, movement of pedestrians, movement of other obstacles, signs, traffic signals, or availability of autonomous communications from external sources.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at one or more processors, a request for a quote of a premium associated with a vehicle insurance policy;

determining, by one or more processors, the premium associated with the vehicle insurance policy based at least in part upon a total risk level associated with the total quality metric; and

presenting, by one or more processors, an option to purchase the vehicle insurance policy to a customer associated with the vehicle.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding movement of the vehicle and objects within the operating environment of the vehicle comprises autonomous communications from other vehicles having autonomous operation features.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the one or more autonomous operation features comprises one or more of:

type and version of the one or more autonomous operation features, type and version of control software for the one or more autonomous operation features, or settings of the one or more autonomous operation feature.

10. A computer system for evaluating one or more autonomous operation features of a vehicle, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more test units configured to generate test results for the one or more autonomous operation features, the one or more test units generating the test results as control commands generated by the one or more autonomous operation features in response to test sensor data of the vehicle operating under a plurality of operating conditions with a virtual test environment, wherein the test results are communicated to the one or more processors via one or more communication modules; and

a program memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the computer system to;

receive information regarding the one or more autonomous operation features;

collect operating data to monitor operation of the vehicle the operating data including (i) information regarding movement of the vehicle and objects within an operating environment of the vehicle, and (ii) information regarding operation of the one or more autonomous operation features;

determine one or more autonomous operation risk levels associated with operating the vehicle in each of the plurality of operating conditions based upon the information regarding the one or more autonomous operation features and the test results;

determine one or more use levels indicating extent of use of each of the one or more autonomous operation features in each of the plurality of operating conditions, and extent of use of a user-adjustable setting for at least one of the one or more autonomous operation features; and

generate a total quality metric indicating effectiveness of the one or more autonomous operation features under the plurality of operating conditions based at least in part upon the one or more autonomous operation risk levels, the one or more use levels, and the operating data.

11. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the information regarding the one or more autonomous operation features includes information regarding baseline risk levels corresponding to the test results for the one or more autonomous operation features.

12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the executable instructions when executed by the one or more processors further cause the computer system to:

receive loss data regarding a plurality of vehicles having at least one of the one or more autonomous operation features, the loss data including one or more of;

claims for payments under a plurality of vehicle insurance policies related to the plurality of vehicles, actual payments under the plurality of vehicle insurance policies related to the plurality of vehicles, or indications of collisions from sensor data for the plurality of vehicles; and

determine the one or more autonomous operation risk levels based upon a correlation between the baseline risk levels and the loss data.

13. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the operating data further includes an indication of the operation of the vehicle;

including one or more times and one or more locations corresponding to an occurrence of the operation of the vehicle, and information regarding settings of the one or more autonomous operation features during the occurrence of the operation of the vehicle.

14. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the one or more communication modules are adapted to send or receive autonomous communications between the vehicle and one or more of:

other autonomous vehicles, infrastructures, map databases;

weather databases, traffic databases, or accident databases.

15. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for evaluating effectiveness one or more autonomous operation features of a vehicle that, when executed by at least one processor of a computer system, cause the computer system to:

generate test results for the one or more autonomous operation features using one or more test units, the one or more test units generating the test results as control commands generated by the one or more autonomous operation features in response to test sensor data of the vehicle operating under a plurality of operating conditions with a virtual test environment;

receive information regarding the one or more autonomous operation features;

collect operating data to monitor operation of the vehicle, the operating data including (i) information regarding movement of the vehicle and objects within an operating environment of the vehicle, and (ii) information regarding operation of the one or more autonomous operation features;

determine one or more autonomous operation risk levels associated with operating the vehicle in each of the plurality of operating conditions based upon the information regarding the one or more autonomous operation features and the test results;

determine one or more use levels indicating extent of use of each of the one or more autonomous operation features in each of the plurality of operating conditions, and extent of use of a user-adjustable setting for at least one of the one or more autonomous operation features; and

generate a total quality metric indicating effectiveness of the one or more autonomous operation features under the plurality of operating conditions based at least in part upon the one or more autonomous operation risk levels, the one or more use levels, and the operating data.

16. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein:

the information regarding the one or more autonomous operation features includes information regarding baseline risk levels corresponding to the test results for the one or more autonomous operation features;

the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computer system to determine the one or more autonomous operation risk levels further comprise instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computer system to;

receive loss data regarding a plurality of vehicles having at least one of the one or more autonomous operation features, the loss data including one or more of;

claims for payments under a plurality of vehicle insurance policies related to the plurality of vehicles, actual payments under the plurality of vehicle insurance policies related to the plurality of vehicles, or indications of collisions from sensor data for the plurality of vehicles; and

determine the one or more autonomous operation risk levels based upon a correlation between the baseline risk levels and the loss data.

17. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computer system to collect the operating data to monitor the operation of the vehicle further comprise instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computer system to:

receive an indication of the operation of the vehicle;

including one or more times and one or more locations corresponding to an occurrence of the operation of the vehicle;

receive information regarding settings of the one or more autonomous operation features during the occurrence of the operation of the vehicle; and

monitor information regarding the operating environment of the vehicle including one or more of;

road conditions, weather conditions, nearby traffic conditions, type of road, construction conditions, location of pedestrians, movement of pedestrians, movement of other obstacles, signs, traffic signals, or availability of autonomous communications from external sources.

18. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the information regarding the one or more autonomous operation features comprises one or more of:

type and version of the one or more autonomous operation features, type and version of control software for the one or more autonomous operation feature, or settings of the one or more autonomous operation feature.

19. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computer system to:

receive a request for a quote of a premium associated with a vehicle insurance policy;

determine the premium associated with the vehicle insurance policy based upon a total risk level associated with the total quality metric; and

present an option to purchase the vehicle insurance policy to a customer associated with the vehicle.