Risk unit based policies

• US 9,390,452 B1
• Filed: 01/28/2015
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arity International Limited (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Biemer, Edward A., Irey, Grady, Styrsky, Caryl M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Puttaiah, Asha
• Application Number:
  US14/607,662
• Publication Number:
  US 20160225095A1
• Time in Patent Office: 531 Days
• Field of Search: 705/4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/04 including control of propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/30 including control of auxiliary equipment, e.g. air-conditioning compressors or oil pumps
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• 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 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0816 Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like

Abstract

Methods, computer-readable media, systems and apparatuses for determining and implementing risk unit based insurance policies are presented. A user may receive a plurality of risk units associated with an insurance policy. The risk units may be stored in a risk unit account associated with the user, the vehicle, etc. During operation of the vehicle, sensor data may be received. The sensor data may provide information associated with driving behaviors of the user, environmental conditions in which the vehicle is being operated, and the like. A consumption rate of the risk units may be determined based, at least in part, on the received sensor data. If a number of risk units in a risk unit account is below a predetermined threshold, a notification may be transmitted to the user and/or a predetermined number of risk units may be automatically added to the risk unit account.

Claims

1. A risk unit based insurance system, comprising:

an on-board vehicle computing device including at least one processor and at least one memory storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the on-board vehicle computing device to;

receive, from at least one sensor arranged on a vehicle, driving data associated with at least one of;

a user operating a vehicle and an environment in which the vehicle is being operated;

analyze the received driving data to determine, in real-time, a consumption rate of risk units associated with a risk unit usage-based insurance policy associated with the vehicle, the risk unit usage-based insurance policy including a plurality of risk units forming a balance of risk units in a risk unit account, the balance of risk units being configured to be reduced upon operation of the vehicle, each risk unit representing a cost to insure an average user for a predetermined period of time and forming a portion of the risk unit usage-based insurance policy associated with the vehicle;

transmit, to an insurance system server, the determined consumption rate of the risk units;

an insurance system server having at least one processor and at least one memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the insurance system server to;

receive, from the on-board vehicle computing device, the determined consumption rate of the risk units;

reduce the balance of risk units in the risk unit account associated with the user based on operation of the vehicle, wherein a rate at which the balance of risk units is reduced is based on the determined consumption rate;

determine whether the balance of risk units in the risk unit account is below a predetermined threshold;

responsive to determining that the balance of risk units is below the predetermined threshold, provide a notification to the user that the balance of risk units is below the predetermined threshold; and

modify operation of at least one system of the vehicle including preventing the vehicle from starting.

2. The risk unit based insurance system of claim 1, wherein

modifying operation of the at least one system of the vehicle further includes at least one of:

causing headlights of the vehicle to flash and causing a horn of the vehicle to blare.

3. The risk unit based insurance system of claim 1, wherein modifying operation of at least one system of the vehicle further includes:

modifying operation of the at least one system of the vehicle until it is determined that the balance of risk units in the risk unit account is at or above the predetermined threshold.

4. The risk unit based insurance system of claim 1, wherein the notification is provided to the user via a mobile device of the user.

5. The risk unit based insurance system of claim 1, wherein the notification is provided to the user via a vehicle display associated with the on-board vehicle computing device.