SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING A SAFETY SCORE ASSOCIATED WITH A USER LOCATION

• US 20120123806A1
• Filed: 09/15/2011
• Published: 05/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Carges, Alex M., Kogan, Roza E., Lim, Ben Jade, Peak, David F., Schumann, Douglas D. Jr., Coleman, Mark S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,805,707 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station

Abstract

Pursuant to some embodiments, insurance systems, methods and devices are provided which include a data storage device for storing, updating and providing access to loss risk score data. In some embodiments, a request for information associated with a user'"'"'s location identified by user location data may be received over a communications network. A computer processing system may then be operated to generate a safety score associated with said use location data, the safety score being based on a plurality of loss risk factors associated with the user location data. A response, including the safety score, may then be transmitted to the user over the communications network.

Claims

1. An insurance system, comprising:

a data storage device for storing, updating and providing access to a plurality of loss risk factors associated with geographic locations;

a computer processor for executing program instructions and for retrieving the plurality of loss risk factors from the data storage device;

a memory, coupled to the computer processor, for storing program instructions for execution by the computer processor;

a communication device to receive a request for a safety score associated with data indicative of at least one user location; and

a scoring engine comprising program instructions stored in the memory for calculating a safety score based on the data indicative of the user location and the plurality of loss risk factors, wherein at least one loss risk factor is associated with civic improvement platform data based on participant safety reports received by a civic improvement platform.

2. The insurance system of claim 1, wherein the communication device is further to transmit a response, including the safety score, to the user.

3. The insurance system of claim 1, wherein a participant safety report is associated with at least one of:

(i) a road condition, (ii) a traffic sign condition, (iii) a streetlight condition, (iv) a traffic light condition, (v) an electrical wire condition, (vi) a water hazard, (vii) a weather hazard, (viii) a street condition, (ix) a plant hazard, (x) a sidewalk condition, (xi) a guardrail condition, or (xii) a criminal activity.

4. The insurance system of claim 1, further comprising modifying an element of an insurance policy based on the safety score.

5. The insurance system of claim 4, wherein the modified element of the insurance policy comprises at least one of:

(i) an insurance premium adjustment of an existing insurance policy, (ii) an insurance premium adjustment of a quoted insurance premium, (iii) a renewal decision associated with an existing insurance policy, or (iv) a quote associated with an underwriting process for a newly proposed insurance policy.

6. A computerized method, comprising:

receiving, from a remote user device via a communications network, a request for information associated with a plurality of potential user routes;

operating a computer processing system to generate a first safety score associated with a first potential user route;

operating the computer processing system to generate a second safety score associated with a second potential user route, said first and second safety scores being based on a plurality of loss risk factors associated with locations along the first and second potential user routes; and

transmitting, over the communications network, a response including the first and second safety scores, wherein the first and second safety scores are graphically displayed on the remote user device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first and second safety scores are graphically displayed via at least one of:

(i) a map, (ii) a numeric score, (iii) a safety symbol, (iv) a color, or (v) a plurality of sub-scores associated with different locations along the routes.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the safety scores are based at least in part on:

(i) road segment information, (ii) real time weather information, (iii) current traffic information, (iv) crime rates, (v) automobile accident information, (vi) a time of day, (vii) visibility conditions, (viii) police data, (ix) fire department response times, (x) topographical information, (xi) third-party accident data, (xii) governmental data, (xiii) internal insurance loss data, (xiv) video cameras, or (xv) police reports.

9. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing program code executable by a computer to:

receive, from a remote user device via a communications network, a user safety score preference;

receive, from the remote user device via the communications network, a request for information associated with a potential user route;

operate a computer processing system to generate a safety score associated with the potential user route, said safety score being based on a plurality of loss risk factors associated with locations along the potential user route; and

transmit, over the communications network, a response including the safety score, wherein the safety score is graphically displayed on the remote user device in accordance with the user safety score preference.

10. The medium of claim 9, wherein the user safety score preference indicates a range of safety score values that are to be displayed on the remote user device.

11. The medium of claim 9, wherein the user safety score preference indicates a type of safety score value that is not to be displayed on the remote user device.

12. A computerized method, comprising:

accessing police report data associated with automobile accidents;

correlating records of the police report data with supplemental information;

translating the police report data into translated police report data, wherein said translated police report data includes adding supplemental information to the police report data; and

operating a computer processing system to generate a safety score associated with a potential user route, said safety score being based on a plurality of loss risk factors associated with locations along the potential user route, wherein at least one of the loss risk factors is at least indirectly adjusted in accordance with the translated police report data.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the police report data includes at least one of:

(i) a date, (ii) location information, (iii) a time of day, (iv) a visibility condition, (v) a vehicle speed, (vi) damage information, (vii) weather information, or (viii) a mile marker.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the supplemental information includes at least one of:

(i) a speed limit, (ii) a geographic location, (iii) a road width, (iv) a number of traffic lanes, or (v) a road complexity.

15. A computerized method, comprising:

accessing road data associated with a potential user route;

segmenting the potential user routes into a number of segment;

computing a complexity score associated with the potential user route in accordance with road data for each segment in the potential user route; and

operating a computer processing system to generate a safety score associated with the potential user route, said safety score being based on a plurality of loss risk factors associated with locations along the potential user route, wherein at least one of the loss risk factors comprises the complexity score.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said generating comprises calculating a sub-score for each segment in the potential user route and combining the sub-scores to determine an overall safety score.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the complexity score is based at least in part on fractal dimension information.

18. A method of operating a computer system to facilitate a generation of location-based safety scores, the method comprising:

storing, in a computer storage unit, historical police report data associated with automobile accidents;

using the historical police report data to train and verify a predictive model, the predictive model to generate location-based safety scores based on a plurality of risk factors;

receiving, from a remote user device via a communications network, a request for information associated with a potential user route;

operating a computer processing system to generate a safety score associated with the potential user route in accordance with the trained and verified predictive model; and

transmitting, over the communications network, a response including the safety score to be graphically displayed on the remote user device.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the predictive model is associated with kriging spatial regression and/or smoothing.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein each of the plurality of risk factors is associated with a weight.