Telematics based on handset movement within a moving vehicle

• US 9,672,570 B1
• Filed: 07/20/2015
• Issued: 06/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arity International Limited (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Kleinhenz, Joseph, Slusar, Mark V., Huls, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Edward
• Application Number:
  US14/803,446
• Time in Patent Office: 687 Days
• Field of Search: 705 38
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/227 Position in the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/02 using radio waves G01S19/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/00 Systems using the reflection or reradiation of radio waves, e.g. radar systems; Analogous systems using reflection or reradiation of waves whose nature or wavelength is irrelevant or unspecified
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/51 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/52 Determining velocity
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/01 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/09 for tracking people
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02 using radio waves using satellite radio beacon systems for determining position G01S19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning
• 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: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/017 identifying vehicles G08G1/015, G08G1/054 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/163 involving continuous checking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 : using movement velocity, acceleration information
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 : for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/48 : for in-vehicle communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

At least a system for providing telematics data associated with a vehicle being driven by a driver is described. The vehicular telematics data may be obtained by tracking the movements of a wireless communications device of a driver of the vehicle. The telematics data may provide, among other things, speed, acceleration, deceleration, times of operation, duration of operation, mileage driven per day, and day of the week the vehicle has been used. At least a system for determining risk behavior of a driver is also described. While a vehicle is being driven, data is obtained related to the position and movement of a wireless communications device. The data may indicate the type of behavior exhibited by the driver while the vehicle is being driven.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least three localization devices attached to a vehicle, wherein said at least three localization devices comprise RFID nodes;

a wireless communication device, used by a driver of said vehicle, for transmitting a signal to each of said at least three localization devices, wherein each of said at least three localization devices processes said signal to determine position data of said wireless communication device relative to said at least three localization devices attached to said vehicle over time;

a telematics processing module of a computing device configured to determine an actual movement of the vehicle after an adjusting is performed based on movement data obtained from a global positioning system (GPS); and

a risk assessment module of the computing device configured to;

analyze the position data of the wireless communication device inside the vehicle to determine an occurrence of a behavioral risk event of the driver, wherein the occurrence is based on the position data indicating that the wireless communication device is located at a height suitable for texting by the driver;

determine a probability of the occurrence of the behavioral risk event; and

categorize the driver into a risk category based on the probability.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said occurrence is based on said position data indicating that said wireless communication device is placed at a height corresponding to the head of said driver.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said determining a probability of said occurrence comprises measuring the duration of time of said speaking and dividing said duration of time by an average duration of said speaking.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said risk assessment module further uses an acceleration measured by said wireless communication device to determine an occurrence of said behavioral risk event.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said occurrence is based on said position data that indicates that said wireless communication device is located on the floor of said vehicle.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said occurrence is based on said position data indicating movement of said wireless communication device while said vehicle is being driven by said driver.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said position corresponds to the height of said driver seated in said vehicle and said event corresponds to said driver speaking while said wireless communication device is placed on an ear of said driver.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein insurance premium discounts are provided to an insured of said vehicle if said risk category indicates that said driver is associated with a good risk.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein an insurance premium of an insured is increased if said risk category indicates that said driver is associated with a bad risk.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein alerts are transmitted by a computing device to said wireless communication device if said position changes irregularly over time.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein an RFID tag is attached to said wireless communication device.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein said signal comprises a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signal.

13. A system comprising:

a processing module configured to determine an actual movement of a vehicle after an adjusting is performed based on movement data obtained from a global positioning system (GPS);

at least one memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory and configured to perform, based on instructions stored in the at least one memory;

periodically receiving data corresponding to a position of a wireless communication device relative to at least three localization devices, wherein the at least three localization devices comprise RFID nodes;

analyzing said data to determine one or more occurrences of one or more behavioral risk events, wherein the one or more occurrences is based on the position indicating that the wireless communication device is located at a height suitable for texting by a driver;

determining one or more probabilities of occurrence of said one or more behavioral risk events; and

based on said one or more probabilities, categorizing a driver of said vehicle into a risk category.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein said data is generated by way of said wireless communication device transmitting a signal to each of said at least three localization devices.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein said signal comprises a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signal.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein said at least three localization devices comprise RFID nodes.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein said position corresponds to the height of said driver seated in said vehicle and said event corresponds to said driver speaking while said wireless communication device is placed on an ear of said driver.

18. The system of claim 13 wherein insurance premium discounts are provided to an insured of said vehicle if said risk category indicates that said driver is associated with a good risk.

19. The system of claim 13 wherein alerts are transmitted to said wireless communication device if said position changes irregularly over time.

20. The system of claim 13 wherein an insurance premium of an insured is increased if said risk category indicates that said driver is associated with a bad risk.

21. The system of claim 13 wherein an RFID tag is attached to said wireless communication device.

22. A system comprising:

at least three localization devices attached to a vehicle, wherein the at least three localization devices comprise RFID nodes; and

a wireless communication device, used by a driver of said vehicle, for transmitting a signal to each of said at least three localization devices, wherein each of said at least three localization devices processes said signal to determine a position of said wireless communication device relative to said at least three localization devices over time, wherein said position is used to;

determine one or more occurrences of one or more events, wherein the one or more occurrences is based on the position indicating that the wireless communication device is located at a height suitable for texting by the driver,

determine one or more probabilities of occurrence of said one or more occurrences of said one or more events, and

based on said one or more probabilities, categorize said driver into a risk category.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein said position corresponds to the height of said driver seated in said vehicle and an event of said one or more events corresponds to said driver speaking while said wireless communication device is placed on an ear of said driver.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein insurance premium discounts are provided to an insured of said vehicle if said risk category indicates that said driver is associated with a good risk.

25. The system of claim 22 wherein alerts are transmitted by a computing device to said wireless communication device if said position changes irregularly over time.

26. The system of claim 22 wherein an insurance premium of an insured is increased if said risk category indicates that said driver is associated with a bad risk.

27. The system of claim 22 wherein said at least three localization devices comprise RFID nodes.

28. The system of claim 22 wherein an RFID tag is attached to said wireless communication device.

29. The system of claim 22 wherein said signal comprises a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signal.

30. The system of claim 22 wherein said at least three localization devices comprises four localization devices that are attached to said vehicle symmetrically.