Method and system for categorizing vehicle treatment facilities into treatment complexity levels

• US 9,898,784 B1
• Filed: 10/06/2016
• Issued: 02/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Leise, William J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Marc, McDieunel
• Application Number:
  US15/287,178
• Time in Patent Office: 502 Days
• Field of Search: 701 291, 701 74
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/021 Means for detecting failure or malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0205 Diagnosing or detecting failures; Failure detection models
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 21/00 Measuring arrangements or details thereof, where the measuring technique is not covered by the other groups of this subclass, unspecified or not relevant
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 17/00 Testing of vehicles testing fluid tightness G01M3/00; testing elastic properties of bodies or chassis, e.g. torsion-testing, G01M5/00; testing alignment of vehicle headlight devices G01M11/06; testing of engines G01M15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/06 Position of source determined by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements G01S5/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0275 Fault isolation and identification, e.g. classify fault; estimate cause or root of failure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08355 Routing methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0185 Product, service or business identity fraud
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0639 Item locations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0825 using optical means
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0841 : Registering performance data recording measured values G01D; information storage G11B
• 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

To generate a repair code when repairing a damaged vehicle, impact characteristics are received for the damaged vehicle and damaged vehicle parts are identified based on the impact characteristics. An extent of the damage is identified for each vehicle part and a repair code is assigned to the vehicle part based on the type of vehicle part, the type of vehicle, the extent of the damage to the vehicle part, etc. The repair code may be from a set of repair codes, where each repair code is generated for a particular type of vehicle part, type of vehicle, extent of damage to the vehicle part, etc., and each repair code corresponds to a cost estimate for repairing or replacing the damaged vehicle part. Each of the repair codes assigned to the damaged vehicle parts are provided to a treatment facility for treating the damaged vehicle.

Claims

1. A method for generating repair codes when repairing a damaged vehicle, the method executed by one or more processors programmed to perform the method, the method comprising:

receiving, at the one or more processors, impact characteristics for a damaged vehicle based on at least one of;

vehicle part position data from spatial sensors disposed within the damaged vehicle, vehicle image data from an image capturing device disposed within the damaged vehicle, vehicle acceleration data from an accelerometer disposed within the damaged vehicle, vehicle velocity data from a positioning device disposed within the damaged vehicle, or vehicle direction data from the positioning device;

identifying, by the one or more processors, one or more damaged vehicle parts within the damaged vehicle based on the impact characteristics;

for each of the one or more damaged vehicle parts;

identifying, by the one or more processors, an extent of damage to the damaged vehicle part based on the impact characteristics; and

assigning, by the one or more processors, a repair code of a set of repair codes to the damaged vehicle part based on a type of the damaged vehicle part and the extent of the damage to the damaged vehicle part, wherein the repair code corresponds to a cost estimate for repairing or replacing the damaged vehicle part, and wherein each of the set of repair codes is generated for a type of vehicle part and an extent of damage to the vehicle part; and

providing, by the one or more processors, each of the repair codes assigned to the one or more damaged vehicle parts and a total cost estimate to a treatment facility for treating the damaged vehicle in accordance with the assigned repair codes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each repair code in the set of repair codes corresponds to a different combination of two or more vehicle characteristics, and the corresponding cost estimate for the repair code is determined based on historical loss information for one or more vehicles having the different combination of two or more vehicle characteristics.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the set of repair codes includes a plurality of subsets of repair codes, each subset of repair codes corresponding to a different type of vehicle from a plurality of vehicle types.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein a repair code is a salvage repair code and the corresponding cost estimate is a price estimate of a market value of a vehicle part based on at least one vehicle characteristic corresponding to the repair code.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining, by the one or more processors, an estimate of a total amount of value recovered by salvaging one or more vehicle parts for the damaged vehicle based on the aggregated cost estimates.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by one or more processors, a plurality of treatment complexity levels, each of the plurality of treatment complexity levels representing a different degree of difficulty associated with treating damaged vehicles;

receiving, at the one or more processors, a plurality of indications of treatment facilities;

assigning, by the one or more processors, each of the plurality of indications of treatment facilities to one of the plurality of treatment complexity levels;

determining, by the one or more processors, a treatment complexity level of the plurality of treatment complexity levels for treating the damaged vehicle based on the impact characteristics; and

selecting, by the one or more processors, the treatment facility for treating the damaged vehicle based on the assigned indications of treatment facilities corresponding to the determined treatment complexity level of the damaged vehicle.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each of the plurality of indications of treatment facilities is assigned to one of the plurality of treatment complexity levels based on at least one of:

a repair level capability of the treatment facility, or a work quality history of the treatment facility; and

wherein each of the plurality of treatment complexity levels includes a price schedule for treating the damaged vehicles, and a time duration for completing treatment of the damaged vehicles.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

for each of the plurality of treatment complexity levels, ranking, by the one or more processors, each of the plurality of indications of treatment facilities assigned to the treatment complexity level based on one or more treatment facility evaluation characteristics; and

selecting, by the one or more processors, the treatment facility for treating the damaged vehicle based on the ranked indications of treatment facilities corresponding to the determined treatment complexity level of the damaged vehicle.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein ranking each of the plurality of indications of treatment facilities assigned to the treatment complexity level comprises:

assigning, by the one or more processors, a score for each of the one or more treatment facility evaluation characteristics to each of the treatment facilities assigned to the complexity level;

aggregating, by the one or more processors, the assigned scores for each of the treatment facilities to determine an overall score for the treatment facility; and

ranking, by the one or more processors, each of the indications of treatment facilities assigned to the treatment complexity level based on the overall score for the treatment facility.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more treatment facility evaluation characteristics includes at least one of:

duration data for the treatment facility, a treatment facility quality rating, a treatment facility availability, a price schedule for treating damaged vehicles, treatment facility location data, or a quality rating for one or more suppliers used by the treatment facility.

11. A system for generating repair codes when repairing a damaged vehicle, the system comprising:

a communication network; and

one or more computing devices communicatively coupled to the communication network, each of the one or more computing devices having a memory and one or more processors and at least one of the computing device configured to;

receive impact characteristics for a damaged vehicle based on at least one of;

vehicle part position data from spatial sensors disposed within the damaged vehicle, vehicle image data from an image capturing device disposed within the damaged vehicle, vehicle acceleration data from an accelerometer disposed within the damaged vehicle, vehicle velocity data from a positioning device disposed within the damaged vehicle, or vehicle direction data from the positioning device;

identify one or more damaged vehicle parts within the damaged vehicle based on the impact characteristics;

for each of the one or more damaged vehicle parts;

identify an extent of damage to the damaged vehicle part based on the impact characteristics; and

assign a repair code of a set of repair codes to the damaged vehicle part based on a type of the damaged vehicle part and the extent of the damage to the damaged vehicle part, wherein the repair code corresponds to a cost estimate for repairing or replacing the damaged vehicle part, and wherein each of the set of repair codes is generated for a type of vehicle part and an extent of damage to the vehicle part; and

provide, via the communication network, each of the repair codes assigned to the one or more damaged vehicle parts and a total cost estimate to a treatment facility for treating the damaged vehicle in accordance with the assigned repair codes.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each repair code in the set of repair codes corresponds to a different combination of two or more vehicle characteristics, and the corresponding cost estimate for the repair code is determined based on historical loss information for one or more vehicles having the different combination of two or more vehicle characteristics.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the set of repair codes includes a plurality of subsets of repair codes, each subset of repair codes corresponding to a different type of vehicle from a plurality of vehicle types.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein a repair code is a salvage repair code and the corresponding cost estimate is a price estimate of a market value of a vehicle part based on at least one vehicle characteristic corresponding to the repair code.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to:

determine an estimate of a total amount of value recovered by salvaging one or more vehicle parts for the damaged vehicle based on the aggregated cost estimates.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to:

generate a plurality of treatment complexity levels, each of the plurality of treatment complexity levels representing a different degree of difficulty associated with treating damaged vehicles;

receive a plurality of indications of treatment facilities;

assign each of the plurality of indications of treatment facilities to one of the plurality of treatment complexity levels;

determine a treatment complexity level of the plurality of treatment complexity levels for treating the damaged vehicle based on the impact characteristics; and

select the treatment facility for treating the damaged vehicle based on the assigned indications of treatment facilities corresponding to the determined treatment complexity level of the damaged vehicle.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein each of the plurality of indications of treatment facilities is assigned to one of the plurality of treatment complexity levels based on at least one of:

a repair level capability of the treatment facility, or a work quality history of the treatment facility; and

wherein each of the plurality of treatment complexity levels includes a price schedule for treating the damaged vehicles, and a time duration for completing treatment of the damaged vehicles.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to:

for each of the plurality of treatment complexity levels, rank each of the plurality of indications of treatment facilities assigned to the treatment complexity level based on one or more treatment facility evaluation characteristics; and

select the treatment facility for treating the damaged vehicle based on the ranked indications of treatment facilities corresponding to the determined treatment complexity level of the damaged vehicle.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein to rank each of the plurality of indications of treatment facilities assigned to the treatment complexity level, the at least one computing device is configured to:

assign a score for each of the one or more treatment facility evaluation characteristics to each of the treatment facilities assigned to the treatment complexity level,

aggregate the assigned scores for each of the treatment facilities to determine an overall score for the treatment facility, and

rank each of the indications of treatment facilities assigned to the complexity level based on the overall score for the treatment facility.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more treatment facility evaluation characteristics includes at least one of:

duration data for the treatment facility, a treatment facility quality rating, a treatment facility availability, a price schedule for treating damaged vehicles, treatment facility location data, or a quality rating for one or more suppliers used by the treatment facility.