System and Method for Evaluating Driver Behavior

• US 20080255722A1
• Filed: 05/30/2007
• Published: 10/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Inthinc Technology Solutions Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Inthinc Technology Solutions Incorporated
• Inventors: McClellan, Scott, Follmer, Todd
• Granted Patent: US 9,067,565 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/29
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/102 a signal being sent to a remote location, e.g. a radio signal being transmitted to a police station, a security company or the owner
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/302 using recording means, e.g. black box
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0841 Registering performance data recording measured values G01D; information storage G11B
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

System and method for evaluating driver performance, comprising detecting operations of a vehicle using an on-board vehicle monitoring system, comparing the operations to predetermined criteria, identifying violations of the predetermined criteria, tracking violations that occur during an evaluation period, and, at the end of the evaluation period, calculating a grade associated with operation of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method for evaluating driver performance, comprising:

detecting operations of a vehicle using an on-board vehicle monitoring system;

comparing the operations to predetermined criteria;

identifying violations of the predetermined criteria;

tracking violations that occur during an evaluation period; and

at the end of the evaluation period, calculating a grade associated with operation of the vehicle by a driver.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the grade is an alphabetical letter grade.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the grade is a numerical grade.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the on-board vehicle monitoring system performs the calculating a grade.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forwarding the violations to a central server, wherein the central server performs the calculating a grade.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forwarding the grade to the driver.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forwarding the grade to a parent of the driver.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forwarding the grade to an insurance company.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

setting insurance rates for the driver based, at least in part, upon the grade.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating an interim grade during the evaluation period.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

displaying the interim grade to the driver.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

sending the interim grade to a parent or insurance company.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein a format of the grade is selected based upon a grading system for a school attended by the driver.

14. A method for setting insurance rates for a driver, comprising:

receiving a grade for the driver'"'"'s driving performance; and

selecting an insurance rate for the driver based upon the grade.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the grade for the driver'"'"'s driving performance is based, at least in part, upon observations of the driver'"'"'s performance by an on-board vehicle monitoring system.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

installing a vehicle monitoring system in the driver'"'"'s vehicle;

receiving information from the vehicle monitoring system regarding violations of predetermined driving criteria; and

calculating the grade based upon the violations.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving information from an on-board vehicle monitoring system regarding violations of predetermined driving criteria; and

calculating the grade based upon the violations.

18. A method for grading the performance of a driver of a vehicle, comprising:

selecting one or more parameters to be monitored, wherein the parameters are associated with the operation of a vehicle, and wherein the parameters are monitored by a monitoring system in the vehicle;

selecting one or more violation conditions for each parameter;

detecting violation condition occurrences; and

calculating a grade based upon the violation condition occurrences.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the detecting violation condition occurrences corresponds violations that occur during an evaluation period.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

sending the grade to the driver.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

sending the grade to a parent or insurance company.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the insurance company uses the grade to select one or more insurance rates.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the grade is a letter grade.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein the grade is a numerical grade.

25. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

notifying the driver when selected violation conditions occur.

26. The method of claim 18, wherein one or more of the parameters are selected from the group consisting of:

vehicle speed;

vehicle acceleration;

seatbelt use;

turn signal use;

horn use;

wireless device use;

vehicle location;

time of vehicle use;

duration of vehicle use; and

length of trip.