System and method for using a specialty vehicle data identifier to facilitate treatment of a vehicle damaged in a crash

• US 9,508,200 B1
• Filed: 08/31/2015
• Issued: 11/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Mullen, Christina P., Leise, William J., Graff, Douglas Albert
• Primary Examiner(s): ANTONUCCI, ANNE MARIE
• Application Number:
  US14/841,222
• Time in Patent Office: 456 Days
• Field of Search: 701/31.4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• 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 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005

Abstract

A system, method, and computer-readable medium to facilitate treatment of a damaged vehicle by gathering crash information, estimating an extent of vehicle damage, and transmitting information associated with treating the damaged vehicle.

Claims

1. A method implemented with a computer system for treating a vehicle damaged in a crash, the method comprising:

receiving, from one or more sensors monitoring operating characteristics of a vehicle damaged in a crash, crash information about the damaged vehicle;

receiving at least one segment of a plurality of segments of a specialty vehicle data identifier used to identify the damaged vehicle, wherein the at least one segment of the specialty vehicle data identifier is representative of a vehicle insurance data associated with a vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle;

requesting from a memory, by one or more processors of the computer system, vehicle collision data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle stored thereon, the vehicle collision data associated with the received at least one segment of the plurality of segments of the specialty vehicle data identifier;

receiving, by the one or more processors, the vehicle collision data from the memory in response to the request;

evaluating the received crash information with the vehicle collision data and the vehicle insurance data;

determining, by the one or more processors, a treatment complexity level associated with treating the damaged vehicle based on the evaluation of the received crash information, the treatment complexity level including a price schedule for treating the damaged vehicle or a time duration for completing treatment of the damaged vehicle, wherein treating the damaged vehicle includes repairing, salvaging, and/or scrapping the damaged vehicle;

selecting, by the one or more processors, a treatment facility for treating the damaged vehicle based on the determined treatment complexity level; and

transmitting information associated with treating the damaged vehicle to the selected treatment facility.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein evaluating the received crash information with the received vehicle collision data includes comparing the received crash information to the received vehicle collision data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving crash information about the damaged vehicle includes receiving a description of the damaged vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving crash information about the damaged vehicle includes receiving a verbal description of the damaged vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving crash information about the damaged vehicle includes receiving a visual description of the damaged vehicle.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving crash information about the damaged vehicle includes receiving, by the one or more processors, an electronic-based description of the damaged vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving crash information about the damaged vehicle includes receiving, by the one or more processors, operating information of the damaged vehicle attained by one or more sensors coupled to the damaged vehicle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting information includes a request for proposal to treat the damaged vehicle, and wherein the request includes a list of at least one undamaged replacement vehicle part that corresponds to at least one damaged vehicle part of the damaged vehicle, and further wherein the at least one undamaged replacement vehicle part is available from a storage of undamaged vehicle parts salvaged from other vehicle collisions.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle insurance data includes one or more of the following:

actuarial data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle, vehicle insurance rating data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle, vehicle underwriting data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle, and vehicle insurance claims data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle.

10. A system for treating a vehicle damaged in a crash, the system comprising:

one or more processors configured to receive, from one or more sensors monitoring operating characteristics of a vehicle damaged in a crash, crash information of the damaged vehicle, the crash information including at least one segment of a specialty vehicle data identifier used to identify the damaged vehicle, wherein the at least one segment of the specialty vehicle data identifier is representative of a vehicle insurance data associated with a vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle;

a user interface module coupled to the one or more processors and facilitating interaction between the system and a user;

one or more memory devices coupled to the one or more processors and including vehicle collision data stored thereon, the vehicle collision data associated with at least one segment of a plurality of segments of a specialty vehicle data identifier template used to facilitate translation of the specialty vehicle data identifier;

executable instructions stored on the one or more memory devices, which when executed by the one or more processors cause the computer system to evaluate the received crash information with the vehicle collision data and the vehicle insurance data to determine an output including a treatment complexity level for treating the damaged vehicle, the treatment complexity level including a price schedule for treating the damaged vehicle or a time duration for completing treatment of the damaged vehicle, wherein treating the damaged vehicle includes repairing, salvaging, and/or scrapping the damaged vehicle;

an output module operatively coupled to the one or more processors and providing the output in an accessible format; and

a communication module coupled to the one or more processors and configured to transmit information associated with the output.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the treatment complexity level further includes a damaged vehicle parts list including vehicle parts of the damaged vehicle estimated to be damaged by the crash.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

an interface module coupled to the one or more processors and configured to receive a request for the treatment complexity level of the damaged vehicle;

a search module operatively coupled to the one or more processors and configured to identify the vehicle collision data stored in the one or more memory devices and correlated with the at least one segment of the plurality of segments of the specialty vehicle data identifier template that substantially matches the received at least one segment of the specialty vehicle data identifier of the damaged vehicle; and

a compiler module operatively coupled to the one or more processors and configured to accumulate any identified vehicle collision data into the output.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the vehicle insurance data includes one or more of the following:

actuarial data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle, vehicle insurance rating data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle, vehicle underwriting data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle, and vehicle insurance claims data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a correlation module coupled to the one or more processors and configured to correlate the received crash information with the at least one segment of the plurality of segments of the specialty vehicle data identifier template.

15. A system for treating a vehicle damaged in a crash, the system comprising:

one or more processors coupled to one or more memory devices and one or more user interfaces, the one or more processors configured to receive crash information of the damaged vehicle, the crash information including a specialty vehicle data identifier used to identify the damaged vehicle, wherein the specialty vehicle data identifier includes a plurality of segments and at least one segment of the plurality of segments is representative of a vehicle insurance data associated with a vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle, and wherein the system is configured to automatically;

receive, from one or more sensors monitoring operating characteristics of a vehicle damaged in a crash, the crash information about the damaged vehicle;

receive at least one segment of the plurality of segments of the specialty vehicle data identifier;

request vehicle collision data from a memory, the requested vehicle collision data associated with one or more segments of a specialty vehicle data identifier template used to facilitate translation of the specialty vehicle data identifier;

receive the requested vehicle collision data from the memory in response to the request;

evaluate the received crash information with the vehicle collision data and the vehicle insurance data;

determine a treatment complexity level associated with treating the damaged vehicle based on the evaluation of the received crash information, the treatment complexity level including a price schedule for treating the damaged vehicle or a time duration for completing treatment of the damaged vehicle, wherein treating the damaged vehicle includes repairing, salvaging, and/or scrapping the damaged vehicle;

select a treatment facility for treating the damaged vehicle based on the determined treatment complexity level; and

transmit information associated with treating the damaged vehicle to the selected treatment facility.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the vehicle attribute includes one or more of the following:

actuarial data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle, vehicle insurance rating data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle, vehicle underwriting data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle, and vehicle insurance claims data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle.

17. A tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon for facilitating treatment of a vehicle damaged in a crash, the instructions, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the one or more processors to:

receive, from one or more sensors monitoring operating characteristics of a vehicle damaged in a crash, crash information about the damaged vehicle;

receive at least one segment of a plurality of segments of a specialty vehicle data identifier used to identify the damaged vehicle, wherein the at least one segment of the specialty vehicle data identifier is representative of a vehicle insurance data associated with a vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle;

request vehicle collision data from a memory, the requested vehicle collision data associated with one or more segments of a specialty vehicle data identifier template used to facilitate translation of the specialty vehicle data identifier;

receive the requested vehicle collision data from the memory in response to the request;

evaluate the received crash information with the vehicle collision data and the vehicle insurance data;

determine a treatment complexity level associated with treating the damaged vehicle based on the evaluation of the received crash information, the treatment complexity level including a price schedule for treating the damaged vehicle or a time duration for completing treatment of the damaged vehicle, wherein treating the damaged vehicle includes repairing, salvaging, and/or scrapping the damaged vehicle;

select a treatment facility for treating the damaged vehicle based on the determined treatment complexity level; and

transmit information associated with treating the damaged vehicle to the selected treatment facility.

18. The tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the vehicle attribute includes one or more of the following:

actuarial data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle, vehicle insurance rating data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle, vehicle underwriting data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle, and vehicle insurance claims data of the vehicle type that includes the damaged vehicle.