Accident fault determination for autonomous vehicles

• US 10,719,886 B1
• Filed: 05/09/2019
• 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): Liu, I Jung
• Application Number:
  US16/407,238
• Time in Patent Office: 439 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0205 Diagnosing or detecting failures; Failure detection models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• 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 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

Methods and systems for determining fault for an accident involving a vehicle having one or more autonomous and/or semi-autonomous operation features are provided. According to certain aspects, performance data indicative of the performance of the features may be used to determine fault for a vehicle accident, such as a collision, by allocating fault for the accident between a vehicle operator, the autonomous operation features, or a third party. The allocation of fault may be used to determine an adjustment to an insurance policy and/or adjust coverage levels for an insurance policy. The allocation of fault may further be used to adjust risk levels or profiles associated with the autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features, which may be applied to other vehicles having the same or similar features.

Claims

1. A computer system for determining fault for a vehicle collision involving a vehicle, the computer system comprising one or more processors or transceivers of a server configured to:

receive, at the server via a communication network, a vehicle data log including (a) vehicle-mounted sensor data generated by one or more sensors of the vehicle, and (b) autonomous feature data regarding use, configuration, or settings of one or more autonomous features before or during the vehicle collision, the autonomous feature data including a plurality of control signals generated by one or more autonomous vehicle technologies to control the vehicle;

evaluate, by the server, the plurality of control signals indicated by entries of the vehicle data log to identify control actions attempted by the one or more autonomous vehicle technologies;

determine, by the server and based upon the identified control actions, fault contributions for the vehicle collision for each of;

(i) the one or more autonomous features that failed to generate control signals to control the vehicle to avoid the vehicle collision, and (ii) one or more hardware components of the vehicle that failed to implement the control signals generated by the one or more autonomous features; and

determine and assign, by the server, a percentage of fault for the vehicle collision to the one or more autonomous features that were in control of the vehicle at a time of the vehicle collision based upon the determined fault contributions.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is further configured to:

perform, by the server, one or more actions based upon the assigned percentage of fault;

adjust an insurance policy associated with the vehicle, determine a coverage level associated with the insurance policy, present the assigned percentage of fault to a reviewer to verify the assigned percentage of fault, or present the assigned percentage of fault to a customer for review of the assigned percentage of fault.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision is assigned to the one or more autonomous features only after the one or more processors determine that the one or more autonomous features attempted to return control of the vehicle to a vehicle operator prior to the vehicle collision, but failed to provide sufficient time to transfer control.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein determining the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision that is assigned to the one or more autonomous features involves the one or more processors determining a point of impact on the vehicle.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein determining the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision that is assigned to the one or more autonomous features involves the one or more processors determining, based upon control signals or outputs from the one or more autonomous vehicle technologies before or during the vehicle collision, whether the one or more autonomous features were ineffective in controlling the vehicle.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein determining the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision that is assigned to the one or more autonomous features involves the one or more processors determining that the vehicle collision resulted from physical defects in physical components of the one or more autonomous features.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein determining the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision that is assigned to the one or more autonomous features involves the one or more processors determining that the one or more autonomous features had a chance to avoid the vehicle collision, but no action was taken.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein determining the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision that is assigned to the one or more autonomous features involves the one or more processors determining environmental conditions associated with the vehicle before or during the vehicle collision, and using test or known performance of the one or more autonomous features in such environmental conditions.

9. A computer-implemented method of determining fault for a vehicle collision involving a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving, at one or more processors or transceivers of a server via a communication network, a vehicle data log including (a) vehicle-mounted sensor data generated by one or more sensors of the vehicle, and (b) autonomous feature data regarding use, configuration, or settings of one or more autonomous features before or during the vehicle collision, the autonomous feature data including a plurality of control signals generated by one or more autonomous vehicle technologies to control the vehicle;

evaluating, by the one or more processors of the server, the plurality of control signals indicated by entries of the vehicle data log to identify control actions attempted by the one or more autonomous vehicle technologies;

determining, by the one or more processors of the server and based upon the identified control actions, fault contributions for the vehicle collision for each of;

(i) the one or more autonomous features that failed to generate control signals to control the vehicle to avoid the vehicle collision, and (ii) one or more hardware components of the vehicle that failed to implement the control signals generated by the one or more autonomous features; and

determining and assigning, by the one or more processors of the server, a percentage of fault for the vehicle collision to the one or more autonomous features that were in control of the vehicle at a time of the vehicle collision based upon the determined fault contributions.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:

performing, by the one or more processors of the server, one or more actions based upon the assigned percentage of fault;

adjust an insurance policy associated with the vehicle, determine a coverage level associated with the insurance policy, present the assigned percentage of fault to a reviewer to verify the assigned percentage of fault, or present the assigned percentage of fault to a customer for review of the assigned percentage of fault.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision is assigned to the one or more autonomous features only after the one or more processors determine that the one or more autonomous features attempted to return control of the vehicle to a vehicle operator prior to the vehicle collision, but failed to provide sufficient time to transfer control.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein determining the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision that is assigned to the one or more autonomous features involves the one or more processors determining a point of impact on the vehicle.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein determining the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision that is assigned to the one or more autonomous features involves the one or more processors determining, based upon control signals or outputs from the one or more autonomous vehicle technologies before or during the vehicle collision, whether the one or more autonomous features were ineffective in controlling the vehicle.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein determining the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision that is assigned to the one or more autonomous features involves the one or more processors determining that the vehicle collision resulted from physical defects in physical components of the one or more autonomous features.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein determining the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision that is assigned to the one or more autonomous features involves the one or more processors determining that the one or more autonomous features had a chance to avoid the vehicle collision, but no action was taken.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein determining the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision that is assigned to the one or more autonomous features involves the one or more processors determining environmental conditions associated with the vehicle before or during the vehicle collision, and using test or known performance of the one or more autonomous features in such environmental conditions.

17. A computer system for determining fault for a vehicle collision involving a vehicle, the computer system comprising one or more processors or transceivers of a server configured to:

receive, at the server via a communication network, an indication of the vehicle collision involving the vehicle having one or more autonomous vehicle technologies, the indication being transmitted via wireless communication or data transmission;

receive, at the server via the communication network, a vehicle data log including (a) autonomous feature data regarding use, configuration, or settings of one or more autonomous features before or during the vehicle collision, and (b) communication data from one or more external sources, the autonomous feature data including a plurality of control signals generated by the one or more autonomous vehicle technologies to control the vehicle;

evaluate, by the server, the plurality of control signals to identify control actions attempted by the one or more autonomous vehicle technologies;

determine, by the server and based upon the identified control actions, fault contributions for the vehicle collision for each of;

(i) the one or more autonomous features that failed to generate control signals to control the vehicle to avoid the vehicle collision, and (ii) one or more hardware components of the vehicle that failed to implement the control signals generated by the one or more autonomous features; and

determine and assign, by the server, a percentage of fault for the vehicle collision to the one or more autonomous features that were in control of the vehicle at a time of the vehicle collision based upon the determined fault contributions.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the computer system is further configured to:

perform, by the server, one or more actions based upon the assigned percentage of fault;

adjust an insurance policy associated with the vehicle, determine a coverage level associated with the insurance policy, present the assigned percentage of fault to a reviewer to verify the assigned percentage of fault, or present the assigned percentage of fault to a customer for review of the assigned percentage of fault.

19. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision that is assigned to the one or more autonomous features involves the one or more processors determining that the one or more autonomous features had a chance to avoid the vehicle collision, but no action was taken.

20. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the percentage of fault for the vehicle collision that is assigned to the one or more autonomous feature involves the one or more processors determining that the vehicle collision resulted from physical defects in physical components of the one or more autonomous features.