Route Risk Mitigation

• US 20160171621A1
• Filed: 08/03/2015
• Published: 06/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Jordan, Julie A., Bogovich, Jason Brian
• Granted Patent: US 10,229,462 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3407 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3415 Dynamic re-routing, e.g. recalculating the route when the user deviates from calculated route or after detecting real-time traffic data or accidents
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096816 where the complete route is transmitted to the vehicle at once
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096838 where the user preferences are taken into account or the user selects one route out of a plurality
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]

Abstract

A method is disclosed for mitigating the risks associated with driving by assigning risk values to road segments and using those risk values to select less risky travel routes. Various approaches to helping users mitigate risk are presented. A computing device is configured to generate a database of risk values. That device may receive accident information, geographic information, vehicle information, and other information from one or more data sources and calculate a risk value for the associated road segment. Subsequently, the computing device may provide the associated risk value to other devices. Furthermore, a personal navigation device may receive travel route information and use that information to retrieve risk values for the road segments in the travel route. An insurance company may use this information to determine whether to adjust a quote or premium of an insurance policy. This and other aspects relating to using geographically encoded information to promote and reward risk mitigation are disclosed.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a vehicle;

a location detection unit, located in the vehicle, configured to detect locations of the vehicle comprising at least a first location and a second location;

a computer processor in communication with the location detection unit;

a display device in communication with the computer processor; and

a computer memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to;

calculate a safety risk score for each of a plurality of routes of the vehicle between the first location and the second location, wherein calculating the safety risk score of the route of the vehicle comprises using direction of the vehicle through a segment of the route as a factor in calculating the safety risk score;

associate a color of a plurality of colors to each of the plurality of routes of the vehicle between the first location and the second location, wherein each color of the plurality of colors is associated with a different safety risk score; and

display, on the display device, at least one of the plurality of routes using the color associated with the calculated safety risk score corresponding to the at least one displayed route.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first location comprises a start location associated with a segment of a route and the second location comprises an end location of the segment of the route.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer processor and computer memory are part of a telematics device, which is in coupled to an onboard diagnostic system of the vehicle, configured to monitor and record consumption of safety risk units based on the safety risk score of the route.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the location detection unit is one of a mobile location tracking device and a global positioning satellite unit.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the display device is associated with the location detection unit.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the safety risk score indicates safety risk of the route independent of a specific driver of the vehicle.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of routes has a higher safety risk score for the vehicle travelling in a first direction and a lower safety risk score for the vehicle traveling in a second direction, wherein the first direction and second direction are in opposite directions.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the display device displays a route using a first color associated with the higher safety risk score for the vehicle travelling in the first direction and displays the route using a second color associated with the lower safety risk score for the vehicle travelling in the second direction.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, further cause the system to:

based on the safety risk score of the route, calculate total safety risk units consumed by the vehicle traveling from the first location to the second location; and

transmit over a network the total safety risk units.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an output device located in the vehicle comprising a speaker;

wherein the output device is configured to alert a driver to a high risk road segment; and

wherein the output device is configured to offer the driver an incentive for avoiding the high risk road segment.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein insurance costs are associated with a pay-as-you-drive vehicle insurance policy of the vehicle, and wherein the computer memory stores instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, further cause the system to:

notify an account holder of the account associated with the vehicle when a number of risk units consumed during a period of time is greater than estimated.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the computer memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, further cause the system to:

identify whether the vehicle has traveled a route different than an identified lowest risk route,

adjust the insurance costs associated with the vehicle based on the safety risk score of the traveled route.

13. A method comprising:

receiving, by a location detection unit located in a vehicle, a plurality of locations of the vehicle comprising at least a first location and a second location;

determining, by a risk unit consumption processor in communication with the location detection unit, segment risk values for a plurality of road segments comprising a route of the vehicle from the first location to the second location, wherein a segment risk value is based on two or more of accident information, road topology information, weather condition information, and a direction of vehicle travel through a corresponding road segment; and

displaying, by a display device in communication with the location detection unit and the risk unit consumption processor, the plurality of road segments comprising the route of the vehicle from the first location to the second location, wherein a first segment is displayed using a first color associated with a higher segment risk value and a second segment is displayed using a second color associated with a lower segment risk value.

14. The method of claim 13 comprising:

aggregating, by the risk unit consumption processor, the segment risk values for the plurality of road segments to calculate a total route risk value for each route, wherein the total route risk value indicates safety risk of the route independent of a specific driver of the vehicle.

15. The method of claim 14, comprising:

displaying, by the display device, the route using a color associated with the total route risk value for the route of the vehicle from the first location to the second location, wherein color of the displayed route corresponds to whether the total risk value represents a high total route risk or a low total route risk.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the first location comprises a start location associated with a segment of a route and the second location comprises an end location of the segment of the route.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the location detection unit is one of a mobile location tracking device and a global positioning satellite unit.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a telematics device, to:

calculate a first safety risk score of a first route of a vehicle between a first location and a second location based on a direction of the vehicle along the first route, wherein the first route is identified as having a lowest safety risk score of a plurality of routes between the first location and the second location;

calculate a second safety risk score of a second route of a vehicle between the first location and the second location based on a direction of the vehicle along the second route; and

display, via a display device in communication with the telematics device, the first route using a first color representative of a low safety risk score and the second route using a second color representative of a safety risk score greater than the lowest safety risk score.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a telematics device, to:

identify whether the vehicle has traveled along the first route or the second route; and

adjust at least one of an insurance cost or an insurance reward based on the route traveled.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the telematics device comprises a global positioning satellite unit configured to determine a location of the vehicle.