SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DEVELOPING A DRIVER SAFETY RATING

• US 20140278574A1
• Filed: 03/06/2014
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ernest W. Barber
• Original Assignee: Ernest W. Barber
• Inventors: BARBER, Ernest W.
• Application Number:
  US14/199,033
• Publication Number:
  US 20140278574A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0075 Automatic parameter input, automatic initialising or calibrating means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/10 Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Driver performance is assessed using existing datasets derived from conventional highway travel, such as a datasets from wireless highway toll payment systems. Existing datasets are processed to develop a driver safety rating and/or otherwise assess driver performance to determine a level of driver performance and/or risk, and to determine suitability for insurance discounts, etc. An exemplary system and method for providing a driver risk rating representative of driver performance involves: receiving from a toll transaction system toll trip data, the toll trip data reflecting data recorded as a result of operation of an automobile associated with at least one driver; processing the toll trip data to determine toll trip metrics as a function of the toll trip data; and processing the toll trip metrics in accordance with predefined data processing logic to develop a driver risk rating for each driver as a function of the toll trip data.

Claims

1. A method for providing a driver risk rating representative of driver performance using a computer-implemented system comprising a microprocessor and a memory, and instructions stored in the memory for implementing the method, the method comprising:

receiving from a toll transaction system toll trip data, the toll trip data reflecting data recorded as a result of operation of an automobile associated with at least one driver;

processing the toll trip data to determine toll trip metrics as a function of the toll trip data; and

processing the toll trip metrics in accordance with predefined data processing logic to develop a driver risk rating for each driver as a function of the toll trip data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving from a toll transaction system comprises receiving toll trip data from a toll transaction system operated under governmental authority.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the toll trip data comprises receiving data captured via an RFID transponder.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the RFID transponder is associated with a unique identification number, and wherein said driver risk rating is stored in association with the unique identification number apart from any personally identifiable information of the driver.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the toll trip data comprises receiving aggregated data for a plurality of drivers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the toll trip data comprises processing toll trip data for a plurality of drivers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said toll trip data comprises data recorded by a tolling agency as a routine operation associated with operation of a toll highway, and wherein processing the toll trip data comprises processing an existing datastore of toll trip data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the toll trip data from the toll transaction system comprises receiving the toll trip data during a trip reconciliation process of the toll transaction system, prior to association of the toll trip data with any personally identifiable information of the driver.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said toll trip data comprises data recorded over a plurality of years.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the toll trip data to determine the toll trip metrics comprises making comparisons among a single driver'"'"'s trip data.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the toll trip data to determine the toll trip metrics comprises making comparisons between a single driver'"'"'s trip data, and aggregated trip data for a plurality of drivers.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the toll trip metrics to determine the driver risk rating comprises making comparisons between a single driver'"'"'s toll trip metrics, and aggregated toll trip metrics for a plurality of drivers.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the toll trip metrics to determine the driver risk rating comprises determining the driver risk rating as a function of contextual information.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the contextual information relates to at least one of a location, a weather condition, a time of day, a day of week, and a time of year.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving via a communications network a request for the driver'"'"'s risk rating; and

transmitting via the communications network, the driver'"'"'s risk rating.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the driver risk rating is a numerical score within a predefined numerical range.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the receiving the request comprises receiving a transponder number associated with the driver.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

retrieving from a data store insurance rate information as a function of the driver'"'"'s risk rating; and

transmitting via the communications network information for displaying the insurance rate information.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving and processing are performed for each of a plurality of drivers to calculate a plurality of driver risk ratings, the method further comprising:

assigning to each driver a ranking reflecting each driver'"'"'s risk rating relative to other drivers'"'"' risk ratings.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying to a driver a menu of user-selectable toll trip metrics; and

receiving from a driver input identifying at least one user-excluded toll trip metric;

wherein processing the toll trip metrics to determining the driver'"'"'s risk rating comprises excluding consideration of the user-excluded toll trip metric.

23. A tangible computer-readable medium storing a software application comprising a first instruction set for causing a computing device to perform the method of claim 1.

20. The method 1, further comprising:

receiving from an external data store information identifying environmental factors;

identifying environmental parameters associated with the driver'"'"'s trips as a function of the driver'"'"'s toll trip data; and

processing the toll trip data and environmental parameters in accordance with pre-defined data processing logic to develop the driver risk rating.

22. A driver risk assessment system for providing a driver risk rating representative of driver performance, the system comprising:

a processor;

a memory operably connected to the processor for storing instructions; and

instructions stored in the memory for causing the system to;

receive from a toll transaction system toll trip data, the toll trip data reflecting data recorded as a result of operation of an automobile associated with at least one driver;

process the toll trip data to determine toll trip metrics as a function of the toll trip data; and

process the toll trip metrics in accordance with predefined data processing logic to develop a driver risk rating for each driver as a function of the toll trip data.