Methods Using a Mobile Device to Provide Data for Insurance Premiums to a Remote Computer

• US 20130151288A1
• Filed: 02/08/2013
• Published: 06/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Bowne, Benjamin F., Baker, Nicholas R., Christopulos, Nick U., Wilkerson, Bryan T., Peng, Jufeng "James", Marzinzik, Duane Lee, Riley, Matthew Eric Sr., Fields, Brian Mark, Wilson, J Lynn, Thurber, David W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,930,231 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3676 Overview of the route on the road map
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3697 Output of additional, non-guidance related information, e.g. low fuel level G01C21/3679 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• 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: 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 5/0858 wherein the data carrier is removable
• 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 4/026 using orientation information, e.g. compass
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]

Abstract

A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer or server for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium for a period of time based at least in part on collected vehicle operation data, wherein the method includes steps of: collecting vehicle operation data via a mobile device while the mobile device is associated with an operating vehicle, wherein the vehicle operation data has insurance risk predictive power; and transmitting the collected vehicle operation data from the mobile device to a remote computer. The remote computer or server receives collected vehicle operation data, stores the collected vehicle operation data in a database, a determines a vehicle insurance premium via a rating engine based at least in part on collected vehicle operation data.

Claims

1. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium for a period of time based at least in part on collected vehicle operation data, the method comprising:

collecting vehicle operation data via a mobile device while the mobile device is associated with an operating vehicle, wherein the vehicle operation data has insurance risk predictive power; and

transmitting the collected vehicle operation data from the mobile device to a remote computer.

2. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of vehicle insurance premium as claimed in claim 1, wherein said mobile device is a device selected from smartphone, cell phone, mobile telephone, personal digital assistant (PDA), laptop computer, and tablet-style computer.

3. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium as claimed in claim 1, wherein the collecting vehicle operation data comprises sensing a characteristic of the mobile computing device selected from distance traveled, location, time, and g-force dynamics.

4. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium as claimed in claim 1, wherein the collecting vehicle operation data comprises collecting vehicle operation data periodically during vehicle operation.

5. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transmitting the collected vehicle operation data from the mobile device to a remote computer comprises transmitting periodically.

6. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

loading a set of instructions onto a tangible readable storage medium of the mobile device, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor of the mobile device, perform the following steps;

collecting vehicle operation data via the mobile device while a vehicle is in operation; and

transmitting the collected vehicle operation data from the mobile device to a remote processing computer.

7. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium as claimed in claim 1, further comprising beginning to collect vehicle operation data in response to a triggering event selected from vehicle engine start, threshold vehicle engine RPM, and vehicle mobility.

8. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium as claimed in claim 1, further comprising stopping the collecting vehicle operation data in response to a triggering event selected from vehicle engine stop, threshold vehicle engine RPM, and vehicle immobility.

9. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting data from the remote processing computer to the mobile device, wherein the data comprises insurance premium information; and

displaying the transmitted data on the mobile device.

10. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

using one or more sensors associated with a mobile device to automatically collect driving data during a data collection session;

using one or more processors to execute computer readable instructions stored in non-transitory memory to;

calculate, based at least on the collected driving data, one or more metrics related to the driver'"'"'s driving behavior; and

transmitting the one or more metrics from the mobile device to a remote processing computer.

12. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of vehicle insurance premium as claimed in claim 1, wherein said mobile device is a device selected from smartphone, cell phone, mobile telephone, personal digital assistant (PDA), laptop computer, and tablet-style computer.

13. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium as claimed in claim 1, wherein the collecting vehicle operation data comprises sensing a characteristic of the mobile computing device selected from distance traveled, location, time, and g-force dynamics.

14. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium as claimed in claim 1, wherein the collecting vehicle operation data comprises collecting vehicle operation data periodically during vehicle operation.

15. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transmitting the collected vehicle operation data from the mobile device to a remote computer comprises transmitting periodically.

11. A method for providing vehicle operation data to a remote computer for calculation of a vehicle insurance premium for a period of time based at least in part on collected vehicle operation data, the method comprising:

collecting vehicle operation data via a mobile device while the mobile device is associated with an operating vehicle, wherein the vehicle operation data has insurance risk predictive power;

transmitting the collected vehicle operation data from the mobile device to a remote computer;

loading a set of instructions onto a tangible readable storage medium of the mobile device, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor of the mobile device, perform the following steps;

collecting vehicle operation data via the mobile device while a vehicle is in operation, the collecting comprising;

using one or more sensors associated with a mobile device to automatically collect driving data during a data collection session, and using one or more processors to execute computer readable instructions stored in non-transitory memory to calculate, based at least on the collected driving data, one or more metrics related to the driver'"'"'s driving behavior;

beginning to collect vehicle operation data in response to a triggering event selected from vehicle engine start, threshold vehicle engine RPM, and vehicle mobility;

stopping the collecting vehicle operation data in response to a triggering event selected from vehicle engine stop, threshold vehicle engine RPM, and vehicle immobility;

transmitting the collected vehicle operation data, including the one or more metrics, from the mobile device to a remote processing computer;

transmitting data from the remote processing computer to the mobile device, wherein the data comprises insurance premium information; and

displaying the transmitted data on the mobile device.