Systems and methods for insurance based upon status of vehicle software

• US 9,424,607 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2013
• Issued: 08/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Bowers, Jeffrey A., Hagelstein, Peter L., Hyde, Roderick A., Ishikawa, Muriel Y., Kare, Jordin T., Tegreene, Clarence T., Wood, Lowell L. Jr., Wood, Victoria Y. H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sample, Jonathan L
• Application Number:
  US14/033,062
• Publication Number:
  US 20150088334A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,068 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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

Abstract

A vehicle may be configured to determine a characteristic of a software program operating on the vehicle. The characteristic may be provided to an insurer, and the insurer may determine a property of an insurance policy based on the characteristic. The characteristic may be, for example, a feature, a setting, and/or a version of the software program. The insurer may indicate to a vehicle operator and/or owner how changing the characteristic may affect the property of the insurance policy. The insurance policy may be formalized and agreed to by the insurer and/or the insured. The vehicle may also or instead save pre-collision status data, such adjustable parameters, internal variables, dynamic decisions, and/or identification of a software program, when a collision is detected. The pre-collision status data may be used to diagnose problems with the software program, determine fault, and/or determine future properties of insurance policies.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

continuously or periodically capturing status data from at least one sensor associated with a collision avoidance system of a ground vehicle, wherein the collision avoidance system comprises a computer system configured to execute a collision avoidance software program;

detecting a collision involving the ground vehicle;

saving, on a computer-readable storage medium, pre-collision status data from the collision avoidance software program, the pre-collision status data comprising data about one or more adjustable parameters of the collision avoidance software program associated with the ground vehicle; and

adjusting at least one of the one or more adjustable parameters of the collision avoidance software program utilizing the saved pre-collision status data from the collision avoidance software program to avoid a subsequent collision;

implementing a collision avoidance decision based at least in part on the adjusted parameters to avoid the subsequent collision, the collision avoidance decision comprises at least one of a dynamic braking decision and a dynamic steering decision for the ground vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising transmitting the pre-collision status data to a remote entity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more adjustable parameters comprise a manufacturer-set adjustable parameter.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more adjustable parameters comprise a user-set adjustable parameter.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more adjustable parameters comprise an adjustable parameter set by a software update.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more adjustable parameters comprise a type of an active sensor.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more adjustable parameters comprise which types of vehicle data are gathered by the collision avoidance software program.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more adjustable parameters comprise a physics model parameter.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more adjustable parameters comprise a collision modeling parameter.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more adjustable parameters comprise an avoidance maneuver type.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more adjustable parameters comprise one or more occupant-based maneuver limits.

12. The method of claim 1, used in determining the collision avoidance decision comprise a parameter indicating object types to avoid.

13. The method of claim 1, the pre-collision status data used in determining the collision avoidance decision comprise a parameter specifying how aggressively to avoid a collision.

14. The method of claim 1, the pre-collision status data used in determining the collision avoidance decision comprise a risk tolerance parameter.

15. The method of claim 1, the pre-collision status data used in determining the collision avoidance decision comprise a risk-damage tradeoff parameter.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more adjustable parameters comprise a warning threshold at which a warning is signaled.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more adjustable parameters comprise a warning type.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more adjustable parameters comprise one or more parameters for a collision mitigation system.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the pre-collision status data to an insurer of an insurance policy.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the insurer determines a culpability level of a vehicle operator for the collision from the pre-collision status data.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the insurer determines a culpability level of the collision avoidance software program for the collision from the pre-collision status data.

22. A system comprising:

a storage module configured to continuously or periodically capture status data from a collision avoidance system of a ground vehicle, wherein the collision avoidance system comprises a computer system configured to execute a collision avoidance software program

a collision detection module configured to detect a collision involving the ground vehicle; and

wherein the storage module is further configured to save pre-collision status data from the collision avoidance software program,

wherein the pre-collision status data comprises data about one or more adjustable parameters of the collision avoidance software program, and

the collision avoidance software program further configured to adjust at least one of the one or more adjustable parameters utilizing the saved pre-collision status data from the collision avoidance software program to avoid a subsequent collision;

the collision avoidance software program further configured to implement a collision avoidance decision to avoid the subsequent collision, the collision avoidance decision comprises at least one of a dynamic braking decision and a dynamic steering decision for the ground vehicle.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the pre-collision status data comprises an identification of the collision avoidance software program.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the identification of the collision avoidance software program comprises at least one of a manufacturer, a model number, a serial number, a universal product code, a version number, a revision number, and a firmware revision number.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the identification of the collision avoidance software program comprises at least one of a make, a model, a style, and a year of the vehicle.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the pre-collision status data comprises an operational state of the collision avoidance software program.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the operational state indicates whether the collision avoidance software program was enabled.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the operational state includes kinematics of the vehicle.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein the operational state includes kinematics of another vehicle.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein the operational state includes operator control inputs.

31. The system of claim 22, wherein the pre-collision status data comprises a dynamic decision made by the collision avoidance software program.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the dynamic decision comprises the collision avoidance decision.

33. The system of claim 22, wherein the pre-collision status data comprises a value of an internal variable of the collision avoidance software program.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the internal variable comprises a variable for computing the collision avoidance decision.

35. The system of claim 33, wherein the internal variable comprises a confidence score for a collision avoidance action.

36. The system of claim 22, wherein the pre-collision status data comprises an error or exception of the collision avoidance software program.

37. The system of claim 22, wherein the storage module is further configured to:

continuously capture instantaneous status data; and

store the captured status data in a history window for a predetermined time period.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the storage module is configured to save the captured status data that is in the history window when the collision is detected.

39. The system of claim 37, wherein the storage module is configured to save the captured status data that is in the history window a predetermined time delay after the collision is detected.