Context-based grading

• US 10,029,696 B1
• Filed: 03/25/2016
• Issued: 07/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Ferguson, Dana
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Yuen H
• Application Number:
  US15/081,135
• Time in Patent Office: 851 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/146 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention

Abstract

A driving analysis server may be configured to receive vehicle operation data from mobile devices respectively disposed within the vehicles, and may use the data to group the vehicles into multiple groups. A driving pattern for each vehicle may be established and compared against a group driving pattern of its corresponding group to identify outliers. A driver score the outliers may be adjusted positively or negatively based on whether the outlier behaved in a manner more or less safe than its group. Further, unsafe driving events performed by the outlier that were the result of another vehicle'"'"'s unsafe driving event may be ignored or positively accounted for in determining or adjusting the outlier'"'"'s driver score.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a driving analysis server comprising;

a processing unit comprising a processor; and

a memory unit storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the system to;

receive telematics data associated with a plurality of vehicles;

determine, based on the telematics data, driving routes traversed by each of the vehicles;

determine, from the plurality of vehicles and based on the driving routes traversed by each of the vehicles, a group of vehicles, wherein each vehicle in the group of vehicles has traversed a same driving route;

determine, from the group of vehicles, a sub-group of vehicles, wherein a geographic location of each vehicle in the sub-group of vehicles is within a first preset distance from each other vehicle in the sub-group of vehicles;

determine a driving pattern for each vehicle in the sub-group of vehicles based on corresponding telematics data of each vehicle

determine a normalized group driving pattern representative of driving behavior of the sub-group of vehicles by comparing the driving pattern of each vehicle in the sub-group of vehicles with driving patterns of other vehicles in the sub-group of vehicles, wherein the normalized group driving pattern of the sub-group of vehicles is a first vector comprising a plurality of elements, wherein each element of the first vector is an average of values of each vector associated with each vehicle of the sub-group of vehicles;

determine that a first vehicle of the sub-group of vehicles has a driving pattern that is different from the first vector of the normalized group driving pattern representative of driving behavior of the sub-group of vehicles, wherein the driving pattern for the first vehicle is a second vector comprising a plurality elements representative of telematics data of the first vehicle;

in response to the determining that the second vector is different from the first vector, determine that the first vehicle performed one or more unsafe driving events based on the telematics data of the first vehicle;

in response to the determining that the first vehicle performed one or more unsafe driving events, determine whether a number of the one or more unsafe driving events performed by the first vehicle is less than an average number of unsafe driving events performed by the sub-group of vehicles;

in response to determining that the number of the one or more unsafe driving events performed by the first vehicle is less than the average number of unsafe driving events performed by the sub-group of vehicles, positively adjust a driver score of the first vehicle, wherein the driver score is an indication of the driving pattern of the first vehicle compared to the normalized group driving pattern representative of driving behavior of the sub-group of vehicles; and

output the driver score for display to a graphical user interface to a driver of the first vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, further cause the system to:

in response to determining that the number of the one or more unsafe driving events performed by the first vehicle is greater than the average number of unsafe driving events performed by the sub-group of vehicles, negatively adjust the driver score of the first vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, further cause the system to:

in response to determining that a second vehicle of the sub-group of vehicles caused the first vehicle to perform at least one unsafe driving event of the one or more unsafe driving events, ignore, in a calculation of the driver score for the first vehicle, the at least one unsafe driving event.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, further cause the system to:

in response to determining that a second vehicle of the sub-group of vehicles caused the first vehicle to perform at least one unsafe driving event of the one or more unsafe driving events, positively account for the at least one unsafe driving event in a calculation of the driver score for the first vehicle.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, further cause the system to:

determine that the second vehicle caused the first vehicle to perform the unsafe driving event based, at least in part, on the second vehicle being within a second preset distance of the first vehicle and performing another unsafe driving event within a preset timeframe prior to a time at which the first vehicle performed the at least one unsafe driving event.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein an unsafe driving event is one of a hard-braking event, a swerving event, an excessive-speed event, or a hard-acceleration event.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein each vehicle in the group of vehicles traversed the same driving route on a same date.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the telematics data are received from a plurality of mobile devices respectively disposed within the plurality of vehicles.

9. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, telematics data associated with a plurality of vehicles from a plurality of mobile devices respectively disposed within the plurality of vehicles;

grouping, by the computing device, the plurality of vehicles into a plurality of groups of vehicles, wherein each vehicle in a group of vehicles is traversing a same driving route;

determining, from a first group of vehicles, of the plurality of groups of vehicles, a sub-group of vehicles, wherein each vehicle in the sub-group of vehicles is within a first preset distance of each other vehicle in the sub-group of vehicles;

determining a driving pattern for each vehicle in the sub-group of vehicles based on corresponding telematics data of each vehicle;

determining a normalized group driving pattern representative of driving behavior of the sub-group of vehicles by comparing the driving pattern of each vehicle in the sub-group of vehicles with driving patterns of other vehicles in the sub-group of vehicles, wherein the normalized group driving pattern of the sub-group of vehicles is a first vector comprising a plurality of elements, wherein each element of the first vector is an average of values of each vector associated with each vehicle of the sub-group of vehicles;

determining, by the computing device, that a first vehicle of the sub-group of vehicles has a driving pattern that is different from the first vector of the normalized group driving pattern representative of driving behavior of the sub-group of vehicles, wherein the driving pattern of the first vehicle is a second vector comprising a plurality elements representative of telematics data of the first vehicle;

in response to the determining that the second vector is different from the first vector, determining that the first vehicle performed one or more unsafe driving events based on the telematics data of the first vehicle;

determining whether to positively adjust or negatively adjust a driver score of the first vehicle based on whether a number of unsafe driving events performed by the first vehicle is less than or greater than an average number of unsafe driving events performed by the sub-group of vehicles, wherein the driver score is an indication of the driving pattern of the first vehicle compared to the normalized group driving pattern representative of driving behavior of the sub-group of vehicles; and

outputting the driver score for display to a graphical user interface to a driver of the first vehicle.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

in response to determining that the number of unsafe driving events performed by the first vehicle is greater than the average number of unsafe driving events performed by the sub-group of vehicles, negatively adjust the driver score of the first vehicle.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

in response to determining that the number of unsafe driving events performed by the first vehicle is less than the average number of unsafe driving events performed by the sub-group of vehicles, positively adjust the driver score of the first vehicle.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

in response to determining that a second vehicle of the sub-group of vehicles caused the first vehicle to perform at least one unsafe driving event of the one or more unsafe driving events, ignoring, in a calculation of the driver score for the first vehicle, the at least one unsafe driving event.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

in response to determining that a second vehicle of the sub-group of vehicles caused the first vehicle to perform at least one unsafe driving event of the one or more unsafe driving events, positively accounting for the at least one unsafe driving event in a calculation of the driver score for the first vehicle.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

receive telematics data associated with a plurality of vehicles;

determine, based on the telematics data, driving routes traversed by each of the vehicles;

determine, from the plurality of vehicles and based on the driving routes traversed by each of the vehicles, a group of vehicles, wherein each vehicle in the group of vehicles has traversed a same driving route;

determine, from the group of vehicles, a sub-group of vehicles wherein a geographic location of each vehicle in the sub-group of vehicles is within a first preset distance from each other vehicle of the sub-group of vehicles;

determine a driving pattern for each vehicle in the sub-group of vehicles based on corresponding telematics data of each vehicle;

determine a normalized group driving pattern representative of driving behavior of the sub-group of vehicles by comparing the driving pattern of each vehicle in the sub-group of vehicles with driving patterns of other vehicles in the sub-group of vehicles, wherein the normalized group driving pattern of the sub-group of vehicles is a first vector comprising a plurality of elements, wherein each element of the first vector is an average of values of each vector associated with each vehicle of the sub-group of vehicles;

determine that a first vehicle of the sub-group of vehicles has a driving pattern that is different from the first vector of the normalized group driving pattern representative of driving behavior of the sub-group of vehicles, wherein the driving pattern for the first vehicle is a second vector comprising a plurality elements representative of telematics data of the first vehicle;

in response to the determining that the second vector is different from the first vector, determine that the first vehicle performed one or more unsafe driving events based on telematics data of the first vehicle;

in response to the determining that the first vehicle performed one or more unsafe driving events, determine whether a number of the one or more unsafe driving events performed by the first vehicle is less than an average number of unsafe driving events performed by the sub-group of vehicles;

in response to determining that the number of the one or more unsafe driving events performed by the first vehicle is less than the average number of unsafe driving events performed by the sub-group of vehicles, positively adjust a driver score of the first vehicle, wherein the driver score is an indication of the driving pattern of the first vehicle compared to the normalized group driving pattern representative of driving behavior of the sub-group of vehicles; and

output the driver score for display to a graphical user interface to a driver of the first vehicle.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, further storing instructions that, when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to:

in response to determining that the number of the one or more unsafe driving events performed by the first vehicle is greater than the average number of unsafe driving events performed by the sub-group of vehicles, negatively adjust the driver score of the first vehicle.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, further storing instructions that, when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to:

in response to determining that a second vehicle of the sub-group of vehicles caused the first vehicle to perform at least one unsafe driving event of the one or more unsafe driving events, ignore, in a calculation of the driver score for the first vehicle, the at least one unsafe driving event.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, further storing instructions that, when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to:

in response to determining that a second vehicle of the sub-group of vehicles caused the first vehicle to perform at least one unsafe driving event of the one or more unsafe driving events, positively account for the at least one unsafe driving event in a calculation of the driver score for the first vehicle.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, further storing instructions that, when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to:

determine that the second vehicle caused the first vehicle to perform the unsafe driving event based, at least in part, on the second vehicle being within a second preset distance of the first vehicle and performing another unsafe driving event within a preset timeframe prior to a time at which the first vehicle performed the at least one unsafe driving event.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein an unsafe driving event is one of a hard-braking event, a swerving event, an excessive-speed event, or a hard-acceleration event.