ROAD SEGMENT SAFETY RATING SYSTEM

• US 20160171521A1
• Filed: 02/04/2016
• Published: 06/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Ramirez, Philip Peter, Otten, Derek, Ferguson, Dana, Jordan Peters, Julie A., Madigan, Regina, McKenna, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 10,096,038 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3697 Output of additional, non-guidance related information, e.g. low fuel level G01C21/3679 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• 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: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/012 from other sources than vehicle or roadside beacons, e.g. mobile networks
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096816 where the complete route is transmitted to the vehicle at once
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096838 where the user preferences are taken into account or the user selects one route out of a plurality
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

Methods, computer-readable media, systems and apparatuses for determining a safest road segment for traveling between a first location and a second location are provided. In some cases, the road segment safety rating may be determined for a plurality of road segments between the first location and the second location based on historical data associated with the road segments (e.g., accident history data, traffic volume data, etc.) and/or based on driving behavior data of the operator of the vehicle. An indication of the road segment determined as being the safest may be provided to the operator of the vehicle. An actual route of travel of the vehicle can be captured and compared to the safest route. If the vehicle has traveled the safest route, the operator may earn an award. If not, the operator may be notified that an award may be earned when an indicated safest route is traveled.

Claims

1. A road segment safety rating system, comprising:

a computing device associated with a vehicle, the computing device comprising one or more processors and at least one non-transitory memory device storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to;

identify a start location and an end location of at least one route to be traveled by a vehicle based, at least in part, on information provided by a user of a mobile device;

determine, based on the start location and the end location, at least two road segments from the start location to the end location wherein the at least two road segments comprise different routes between the start location and the end location;

determine, based on historical data, a safety rating for each of the at least two road segments from the start location to the end location; and

provide, via a user interface device, an indication of the safety rating for each of the at least two road segments to an operator of the vehicle.

2. The road segment safety rating system of claim 1, the computing device further including instructions that, when executed, cause the mobile device to:

compare each of the determined safety ratings for the at least two road segments between the start location and the end location to determine a safest road segment of the at least two road segments;

present, via the user interface device, an indication of the safest road segment between the start location and the end location

3. The road segment safety rating system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a mobile computing device.

4. The road segment safety rating system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is an on-board vehicle computing device of the vehicle.

5. The road segment safety rating system of claim 1, wherein instructions that, when executed, cause the mobile device to determine, based on historical data, a safety rating for each of the at least two road segments from the start location to the end location, cause the computing device to:

compare each of the safety ratings of each of the at least two road segments to a criterion;

identify, from the road segments that meet the criterion, a safest road segment as the road segment associated with the safety rating that road segment that best meets the criterion.

6. The road segment safety rating system of claim 1, wherein the historical data includes at least accident frequency data associated with the road segment and traffic volume data associated with the road segment.

7. The road segment safety rating system of claim 1, wherein the historical data includes at least historical telematics information associated with the operator of the vehicle.

8. The road segment safety rating system of claim 7, wherein the telematics information associated with an identified operator of the vehicle is received by computing device from a telematics device associated with the vehicle.

9. The road segment safety rating system of claim 1, further comprising a remote server in communication with the computing device associated with the vehicle, the remote server including a processor and a non-transitory memory device storing instructions that, when executed, cause the remote server to:

identify the operator of the vehicle; and

communicate driving behavior information associated with the identified operator of the vehicle to the computing device associated with the vehicle, wherein the safety rating for each road segment is based on the historical data and driving behavior information associated with the operator of the vehicle.

10. The road segment safety rating system of claim 1, the computing device further including instructions that, when executed, cause the mobile device to:

notify the operator of the vehicle, via the user interface device, that travel along presented safest route is eligible for an insurance-based reward.

11. A personal mobile device comprising:

a processor;

a user interface device communicably coupled to the processor; and

at least one non-transitory memory device storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the mobile device to;

receive, via the user interface device, a first location corresponding to a location along a route to be traveled by a vehicle;

determine, based on the first location and a second location that corresponds to a location of the vehicle, a plurality of road segments between the first location and the second location wherein the plurality of road segments comprise different routes between the first location and the second location;

determine, based at least in part on historical data, a safety rating for each of the plurality of road segments; and

provide, via the user interface device, an indication of a safest road segment of the plurality of road segments to an operator of the vehicle, wherein the safest road segment is determined using the safety rating determined for each of the plurality of road segments.

12. The personal mobile device of claim 11, further comprising:

a location detection unit communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein the location detection unit provides a location of the personal mobile device for use as the second location.

13. The personal mobile device of claim 12, wherein the location detection unit comprises one of a mobile location tracking device and a global positioning satellite unit.

14. The personal mobile device of claim 11, wherein the first location comprises an end location of each of the plurality of road segments and the second location comprises a start location of each of the plurality of road segments.

15. The personal mobile device of claim 11, the non-transitory memory device further storing instructions that, when executed, cause the mobile device to:

receive, from at least one sensor arranged on a vehicle, driving data associated with an operator of the vehicle;

analyze the received driving data to determine at least one driving behavior of the user;

transmit, to a remote server, the determined at least one driving behavior of the user and location information corresponding to the plurality of road segments including the first location and the second location; and

receive, from the remote server, information associated with at least one of;

historical accident data associated with the plurality of road segments and traffic volume data associated with the plurality of road segments; and

wherein the safety rating for each of the plurality of road segments is further determined using the historical accident data and the traffic volume data associated with each of the plurality of road segments.

16. The personal mobile device of claim 15, the non-transitory memory device further storing instructions that, when executed, cause the mobile device to:

receive, from the remote server, an indication of an award to be earned by the operator of the vehicle upon confirmation that the operator traveled the safest route segment; and

provide, to the operator of the vehicle via the user interface, an indication that the award can be earned when the operator travels the safest route between the first location and the second location.

17. The personal mobile device of claim 11, the non-transitory memory device further storing instructions that, when executed, cause the mobile device to:

receive, from a location detection unit, a plurality of locations of the vehicle as the vehicle travels to the first location from the second location;

determine, based on the received plurality of locations, whether the vehicle traveled along a safest route; and

provide, via the user interface, an indication that an award has been earned by the operator of the vehicle when the vehicle has traveled along the safest route.

18. A road segment safety rating system, comprising:

a mobile computing device associated with a vehicle, the mobile computing device comprising;

one or more first processors;

a location detection unit communicatively coupled to the processor; and

at least one first non-transitory memory device storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the mobile computing device to;

identify a start location and an end location of at least one route to be traveled by a vehicle based, at least in part, on information provided by a user of the mobile computing device; and

communicate, via a telecommunications network, the start location and the end location to a remote server;

the remote server comprising;

one or more second processors; and

at least one second non-transitory memory device storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more second processors, cause the remote server to;

determine, based on the start location and the end location, a plurality of road segments from the start location to the end location wherein the plurality of road segments comprise different routes between the start location and the end location;

determine, based on historical data, a safety rating for each of the plurality of road segments; and

transfer, via the network to the mobile computing device, an indication of the safety rating for each of the plurality of road segments for display to the user of the mobile computing device.

19. The road segment safety rating system of claim 18, wherein the mobile computing device comprises one of a personal computing device and a vehicle computing system.

20. The road segment safety rating system of claim 19, wherein:

the first non-transitory memory device further storing instructions that, when executed, cause the mobile computing device to;

receive, from at least one sensor arranged on a vehicle, driving data associated with an operator of the vehicle;

analyze the received driving data to determine at least one driving behavior of the user;

transmit, to the remote server, the determined at least one driving behavior of the user; and

the second non-transitory memory device further storing instructions that, when executed, cause the remote server to;

retrieve, from an insurance data repository, information associated with at least one of;

historical accident data associated with the plurality of road segments and traffic volume data associated with the plurality of road segments; and

wherein the safety rating for each of the plurality of road segments is further determined using the historical accident data and the traffic volume data associated with each of the plurality of road segments.