Accident fault determination for autonomous vehicles

• US 10,726,498 B1
• Filed: 11/14/2018
• Issued: 07/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Konrardy, Blake, Christensen, Scott T., Hayward, Gregory, Farris, Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Norman, Samica L
• Application Number:
  US16/190,765
• Time in Patent Office: 622 Days
• Field of Search: 705 4, 705 735, 701 315, 701 334, 701 322, 701 45, 340540, 3404255, 340935, 702 36
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 11/005 for lighting devices, e.g. indicating if lamps are burning or not
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 9/00 Arrangement or adaptation of signal devices not provided for in one of main groups B60Q1/00 - B60Q7/00 , e.g. haptic signalling
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/0027 Post collision measures, e.g. notifying emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/00 Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks safety belts or body harnesses in vehicles B60R22/00; devices, apparatus or methods for life-saving in general A62B; safety devices for propulsion unit control specially adapted for, or arranged in, vehicles B60K28/00; seats constructed to protect the occupant from the effect of abnormal g-forces, e.g. crash or safety seats, B60N2/42; energy-absorbing arrangements for hand wheels for steering vehicles B62D1/11; energy-absorbing arrangements for vehicle steering columns B62D1/19; harnessing in aircraft B64D25/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2040/0818 Inactivity or incapacity of driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0095 Automatic control mode change
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0096 Control during transition between modes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/16 Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/48 by combining or switching between position solutions derived from the satellite radio beacon positioning system and position solutions derived from a further system
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9318 Controlling the steering
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/15 Vehicle, aircraft or watercraft design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0855 involving a third party
• 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: G06Q 50/40 : Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/597 : Recognising the driver's state or behaviour, e.g. attention or drowsiness
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 : communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 : Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time
• 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 5/0816 : Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 : using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/06 : indicating a condition of sleep, e.g. anti-dozing alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/08 : using communication transmission lines G08B13/19658, G08B21/0286, G08B25/016 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/005 : including pedestrian guidance indicator
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096725 : where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 : where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09675 : where a selection from the received information takes place in the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096758 : where no selection takes place on the transmitted or the received information
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 : where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096783 : where the origin of the information is a roadside individual element
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096791 : where the origin of the information is another vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/143 : inside the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/147 : where the parking area is within an open public zone, e.g. city centre
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 : Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/165 : for passive traffic, e.g. including static obstacles, trees
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 : for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 : Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 : Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• 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 4/44 : for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 : for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 : Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

Methods and systems for determining fault for an accident involving a vehicle having one or more autonomous (and/or semi-autonomous) operation features are provided. According to certain aspects, operating data from sensors within or near the vehicle may be used to determine the occurrence of a vehicle accident, such as a collision. The operating data may further be used to determine an allocation of fault for the accident between a vehicle operator, the autonomous operation features, or a third party. The allocation of fault may be used to adjust risk levels or profiles associated with the vehicle operator or with the autonomous operation features.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining fault relating to a collision or other loss, comprising:

receiving, at one or more processors, operating data regarding operation of a vehicle during a time period including a time of an accident, wherein the operating data includes sensor data from one or more sensors disposed within the vehicle, and information regarding operation of one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle, including control signals generated by the one or more autonomous operation features to control the vehicle;

receiving, at one or more processors, information regarding use levels of the one or more autonomous operation features during the time period including the time of the accident, wherein the use levels indicate a value of at least one variable setting of at least one of the one or more autonomous operation features enabled at the time of the accident; and

automatically determining, by one or more processors and without human involvement, an allocation of fault for the accident using the received operating data and the use levels of the one or more autonomous operation features by (i) determining that the use levels indicate the one or more autonomous operation features were configured and operating to control an aspect of vehicle operation at the time of the accident, and (ii) determining, by comparing intended control actions of the one or more autonomous operation features indicated by the control signals against observed operation of the vehicle indicated by the sensor data from the one or more sensors, relative fault between the one or more autonomous operation features and other control components configured to implement control actions for the vehicle based upon the control signals.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the allocation of fault includes allocating, by one or more processors, fault for the accident between one or more of the following:

a vehicle operator, the one or more autonomous operation features as a group, each of the one or more autonomous operation features separately, or a third party.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by one or more processors, an adjustment to a cost associated with a vehicle insurance policy based at least in part upon the allocation of fault when the at least a portion of the fault is determined to be allocated to a vehicle operator.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the cost associated with the vehicle insurance policy includes at least one of the following:

a premium, a rate, or a rate category.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by one or more processors, an adjustment to a risk level associated with the one or more autonomous operation features based at least in part upon the allocation of fault when the at least a portion of the fault is determined to be allocated to the one or more autonomous operation features.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the allocation of fault further includes determining, by one or more processors, one or more of the following:

a point of impact on the vehicle, a point of impact on one or more additional vehicles, a velocity of the vehicle, a velocity of one or more additional vehicles, a movement of the vehicle, a movement of one or more additional vehicles, a location of one or more obstructions, a movement of one or more obstructions, a location of one or more pedestrians, a movement of one or more pedestrians, a measure of road surface integrity, a measure of road surface friction, a location of one or more traffic signs, a location of one or more traffic signals, or an indication of a state of one or more traffic signals.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the allocation of fault further includes determining, by one or more processors, a control signal generated by one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the allocation of fault further includes determining, by one or more processors, a control signal generated by one or more autonomous operation features of one or more additional vehicles.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting, via a display, the automatically determined allocation of fault to a human reviewer.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the operating data includes communication data from external sources.

11. A computer system for determining fault relating to a collision or other loss, comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more communication modules adapted to communicate data; and

a non-transitory program memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the computer system to;

receive operating data regarding operation of a vehicle during a time period including a time of an accident, wherein the operating data includes sensor data from one or more sensors disposed within the vehicle, and information regarding operation of one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle, including control signals generated by the one or more autonomous operation features to control the vehicle;

receive information regarding use levels of the one or more autonomous operation features during the time period including the time of the accident, wherein the use levels indicate a value of at least one variable setting of at least one of the one or more autonomous operation features enabled at the time of the accident; and

automatically determine, without human involvement, an allocation of fault for the accident using the received operating data and the use levels of the one or more autonomous operation features by (i) determining whether the use levels indicate the one or more autonomous operation features were configured and operating to control an aspect of vehicle operation at the time of the accident, and (ii) determining, by comparing intended control actions of the one or more autonomous operation features indicated by control signals against observed operation of the vehicle indicated by the sensor data from the one or more sensors, relative fault between the one or more autonomous operation features and other control components configured to implement control actions for the vehicle based upon the control signals.

12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the instructions that cause the computer system to determine the allocation of fault further cause the computer system to allocate fault for the accident between one or more of the following:

a vehicle operator, the one or more autonomous operation features as a group, each of the one or more autonomous operation features separately, or a third party.

13. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the computer system to:

determine an adjustment to a cost associated with a vehicle insurance policy based upon the allocation of fault when the at least a portion of the fault is determined to be allocated to a vehicle operator.

14. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the computer system to:

determine an adjustment to a risk level associated with the one or more autonomous operation features based at least in part upon the allocation of fault when the at least a portion of the fault is determined to be allocated to the one or more autonomous operation features.

15. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the computer system to:

present the automatically determined allocation of fault to a human reviewer.

16. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the instructions that cause the computer system to determine the allocation of fault further include instructions that cause the computer system to determine one or more of the following:

a point of impact on the vehicle, a point of impact on one or more additional vehicles, a velocity of the vehicle, a velocity of one or more additional vehicles, a movement of the vehicle, a movement of one or more additional vehicles, a location of one or more obstructions, a movement of one or more obstructions, a location of one or more pedestrians, a movement of one or more pedestrians, a measure of road surface integrity, a measure of road surface friction, a location of one or more traffic signs, a location of one or more traffic signals, or an indication of a state of one or more traffic signals.

17. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the instructions that cause the computer system to determine the allocation of fault further include instructions that cause the computer system to determine one or more of the following:

a control signal generated by one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle, or a control signal generated by one or more autonomous operation features of one or more additional vehicles.

18. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for determining fault relating to a collision or other loss that, when executed by at least one processor of a computer system, cause the computer system to:

receive operating data regarding operation of the vehicle during a time period including a time of an accident, wherein the operating data includes sensor data from one or more sensors disposed within the vehicle and information regarding operation of one or more autonomous operation features of the vehicle, including control signals generated by the one or more autonomous operation features to control the vehicle;

receive information regarding use levels of the one or more autonomous operation features during the time period including the time of the accident, wherein the use levels indicate a value of at least one variable setting of at least one of the one or more autonomous operation features enabled at the time of the accident; and

automatically determine, without human involvement, an allocation of fault for the accident using the received operating data and the use levels of the one or more autonomous operation features by (i) determining whether the use levels indicate the one or more autonomous operation features were configured and operating to control an aspect of vehicle operation at the time of the accident, and (ii) determining, by comparing intended control actions of the one or more autonomous operation features indicated by the control signals against observed operation of the vehicle indicated by the sensor data from the one or more sensors, relative fault between the one or more autonomous operation features and other control components configured to implement control actions for the vehicle based upon the control signals.

19. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computer system, cause the computer system to determine the allocation of fault further cause the computer system to allocate fault for the accident between one or more of the following:

a vehicle operator, the one or more autonomous operation features as a group, each of the one or more autonomous operation features separately, or a third party.

20. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computer system, cause the computer system to:

determine an adjustment to a vehicle insurance policy based upon the allocation of fault when the at least a portion of the fault is determined to be allocated to a vehicle operator.