Apparatus and Method for Automated Vehicle Roadside Assistance

• US 20100332133A1
• Filed: 06/26/2009
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Esurance Insurance Services Incorporated (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Esurance Incorporated (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Sykes, Paul David, Harris, Frederick Miles, Swift, Philip James, Srinivasan, Deepak Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 8,583,320 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/211
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• 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: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to receive from a mobile device a request regarding a stranded vehicle. The request is processed to determine the location of the stranded vehicle. Additional information regarding the stranded vehicle may be retrieved. The location of the stranded vehicle and the additional information may be communicated as a dispatch request. The location of the stranded vehicle relative to a dispatched vehicle is delivered to the mobile device.

Claims

1. A computer readable storage medium comprising executable instructions to:

receive from a mobile device a request regarding a stranded vehicle;

process the request to determine the location of the stranded vehicle; and

deliver to the mobile device the location of the stranded vehicle relative to a dispatched vehicle.

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the request is received via a mobile web application in the mobile device.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the executable instructions to process the request comprise executable instructions to retrieve additional information regarding the stranded vehicle.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the additional information comprises vehicle status information, vehicle coverage information and vehicle insurance policy information.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the executable instructions to process the request further comprise executable instructions to automatically provision the dispatched vehicle to a user based on the additional information and the location of the stranded vehicle.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the executable instructions to deliver include executable instructions to automatically deliver a graphical map of location updates associated with the dispatched vehicle relative to the stranded vehicle.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the executable instructions to deliver include executable instructions to automatically deliver at least one of information from a short message service (SMS) and an email message comprising location updates associated with the dispatched vehicle relative to the stranded vehicle.

8. A computer readable storage medium comprising executable instructions to:

process a request from a mobile device to determine the location of a stranded vehicle;

retrieve additional information regarding the stranded vehicle; and

communicate the location and the additional information as a dispatch request.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the executable instructions to retrieve include executable instructions to access a mobile device location service.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the executable instructions to retrieve include executable instructions to access a map service.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the executable instructions to retrieve include executable instructions to retrieve information from an insurance policy database.