Roadside assistance management

• US 10,268,975 B1
• Filed: 02/28/2018
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Briggs, Ryan M., Smith, Eva, Shah, Priya, Wilson, Thomas J., Jordan, William C., Burns, Lawrence David
• Primary Examiner(s): Marc, McDieunel
• Application Number:
  US15/907,653
• Time in Patent Office: 419 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/006 Indicating maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Methods, computer-readable media, software, and apparatuses provide a system for establishing base stations and allocating service vehicles to the base stations in order to provide roadside assistance. The system may include computing devices associated with customer vehicles and service vehicles as well as network computing devices. The system may receive a service request from a customer regarding a disabled vehicle. The system may then identify an appropriate service vehicle to assist the customer and assign the service request to the identified service vehicle. The system may select the appropriate service vehicle based on a location of the disabled vehicle. In an example, the system may choose a service vehicle from a base station closest to or within the shortest driving time to the disabled vehicle. By setting-up base stations in advance of service requests, service vehicles may reach disabled vehicles within a predetermined period of time.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining, by a first computing device, locations of a plurality of base stations at which a plurality of service vehicles are stationed;

receiving information from a second computing device, the information comprising;

information indicating that a vehicle is disabled, and

information indicating a location of the second computing device;

selecting, based on the location of the second computing device, a service vehicle of the plurality of service vehicles; and

transmitting, to a third computing device corresponding to the service vehicle, an instruction to provide service to the vehicle, wherein the instruction comprises the location of the second computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information indicating the location of the second computing device comprises Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the service vehicle comprises determining that the service vehicle is located closer to the location of the second computing device than any other service vehicle of the plurality of service vehicles.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the service vehicle comprises:

determining a base station, of the plurality of base stations, that is located closest to the location of the second computing device; and

determining that the service vehicle corresponds to the base station.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the third computing device, a response to the instruction, wherein the response indicates that a service request has been denied;

selecting, based on the location of the second computing device, a second service vehicle of the plurality of service vehicles; and

transmitting, to a fourth computing device corresponding to the second service vehicle, a second instruction to provide service to the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring a location of the service vehicle.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising transmitting, to the second computing device, the location of the service vehicle.

8. A method comprising:

determining, by a first computing device, locations of a plurality of service vehicles;

receiving information from a second computing device, the information comprising;

an indication that a vehicle is disabled, and

an indication of a location of the vehicle;

selecting a service vehicle, of the plurality of service vehicles, that is located closest to the location of the vehicle; and

transmitting, to a third computing device corresponding to the service vehicle, an instruction to provide service to the vehicle.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the instruction to provide service to the vehicle comprises an instruction to perform a repair to the vehicle or an instruction to tow the vehicle.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein selecting the service vehicle comprises determining that the service vehicle is geographically closest, of the plurality of service vehicles, to the location of the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein selecting the service vehicle comprises:

determining, for each service vehicle of the plurality of service vehicles, an estimated time of arrival to the location of the vehicle; and

determining that the service vehicle has a shortest estimated time of arrival of the plurality of service vehicles.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising monitoring a location of the service vehicle.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising transmitting, to the second computing device, a status of a service request.

14. A system, comprising:

a first computing device associated with a first vehicle;

a second computing device associated with a second vehicle; and

and a third computing device comprising;

at least one processor, and

memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the third computing device to;

receive, from the first computing device, information comprising;

a service request for the first vehicle, and

a location of the first vehicle;

select, based on the location of the first vehicle and from a plurality of vehicles, the second vehicle; and

transmit, to the second computing device, an instruction to provide service to the first vehicle.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the service request comprises a request to repair the first vehicle or a request to tow the first vehicle.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the third computing device to monitor a location of the second computing device.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the third computing device to transmit, to the first computing device, the location of the second computing device.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the first computing device comprises a Global Positioning System (GPS), and wherein the first computing device is configured to transmit, to the third computing device, coordinates determined by the GPS.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the third computing device to determine that the second vehicle is located nearest, of the plurality of vehicles, to the location of the first vehicle.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the third computing device to transmit, to the first computing device, a status of the service request.