Route Risk Mitigation

• US 20160171620A1
• Filed: 08/03/2015
• 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: Bogovich, Jason Brian, Jordan, Julie A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,037,580 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3407 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3415 Dynamic re-routing, e.g. recalculating the route when the user deviates from calculated route or after detecting real-time traffic data or accidents
• 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: 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 40/08 Insurance
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]

Abstract

A method is disclosed for mitigating the risks associated with driving by assigning risk values to road segments and using those risk values to select less risky travel routes. Various approaches to helping users mitigate risk are presented. A computing device is configured to generate a database of risk values. That device may receive accident information, geographic information, vehicle information, and other information from one or more data sources and calculate a risk value for the associated road segment. Subsequently, the computing device may provide the associated risk value to other devices. Furthermore, a personal navigation device may receive travel route information and use that information to retrieve risk values for the road segments in the travel route. An insurance company may use this information to determine whether to adjust a quote or premium of an insurance policy. This and other aspects relating to using geographically encoded information to promote and reward risk mitigation are disclosed.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a vehicle;

a location detection unit, located in the vehicle, configured to detect locations of the vehicle comprising at least a first location and a second location;

a computer processor in communication with the location detection unit;

a display device in communication with the computer processor; and

a computer memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to;

calculate a safety risk score for each of a plurality of routes of the vehicle between the first location and the second location, wherein calculating the safety risk score of each route of the vehicle comprises using direction of the vehicle through a segment of each route as a factor in calculating the safety risk score;

identify a lowest risk route between the first location and the second location, the lowest risk route having a lowest calculated safety risk score of the plurality of routes of the vehicle between the first location and the second location; and

based on a travelled route between the first location and the second location, adjust an insurance cost associated with the vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first location comprises a start location associated with a segment of the route and the second location comprises an end location of the segment of the route.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer processor and computer memory are part of a telematics device, which is in coupled to an onboard diagnostic system of the vehicle, configured to monitor and record consumption of safety risk units based on the safety risk score of the route.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the location detection unit is one of a mobile location tracking device and a global positioning satellite unit.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the safety risk score indicates safety risk of the route independent of a specific driver of the vehicle.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the segment of the route has a higher safety risk score for the vehicle travelling in a first direction and a lower risk score for the vehicle traveling in a second direction, wherein the first direction and the second direction are in opposite directions.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, further cause the system to:

based on the safety risk score of the route, calculate total safety risk units consumed by the vehicle traveling from the first location to the second location; and

transmit over a network the total safety risk units, wherein the adjusting of the insurance cost is further based on the total safety risk units.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer memory stores a risk tolerance value that is used in the calculating of the safety risk score of the route.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an ancillary data store storing information corresponding to at least one of;

road hazards, road features, weather, and traffic;

wherein the safety risk score of the route is based at least in part on at least one of;

a type of road topology in the route, a road feature along one or more segments of the route, and information accessed from the ancillary data store; and

wherein the type of road comprises at least one of;

highway, city street, country road, parking lot, and bridge.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an output device located in the vehicle comprising a speaker;

wherein the output device is configured to alert a driver to a high risk road segment; and

wherein the output device is configured to offer the driver an incentive for avoiding the high risk road segment.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein insurance costs are associated with a pay-as-you-drive vehicle insurance policy of the vehicle, and wherein the computer memory stores instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, further cause the system to:

notify an account holder of the account associated with the vehicle when a number of risk units consumed during a period of time is greater than estimated.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the computer memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, further cause the system to:

identify whether the vehicle has traveled a route different than an identified lowest risk route,

adjust the insurance costs associated with the vehicle based on the safety risk score of the traveled route.

13. A method comprising:

receiving, by a location detection unit located in a vehicle, a plurality of locations of the vehicle comprising at least a first location and a second location;

retrieving, by a risk unit consumption processor in communication with the location detection unit, segment risk values for a plurality of road segments comprising a route of the vehicle from the first location to the second location, wherein a segment risk value is based on two or more of accident information, road topology information, weather condition information, and a direction of vehicle travel through a corresponding road segment; and

aggregating, by the risk unit consumption processor, the segment values for the plurality of road segments to calculate a total route risk value for each route of a plurality of routes between the first location and the second location, wherein the total route risk value indicates safety risk of the route independent of a specific driver of the vehicle; and

determining a cost of insurance coverage for the vehicle based on an identified route of the plurality of routes having a lowest route risk value; and

adjusting, when the vehicle travels a route other than the identifier route having the lowest route risk value, the cost of insurance coverage for the vehicle based on a difference between the lowest route risk value and the route risk value corresponding to the route traveled by the vehicle.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first location comprises a start location associated with a segment of a route and the second location comprises an end location of the segment of the route.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the location detection unit is one of a mobile location tracking device and a global positioning satellite unit.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the road segment of the route has a higher segment value for travel in a first direction than for travel on the road segment in an opposite direction, and wherein the segment values are based on historical accident information comprising direction of vehicle travel at accident location and accident location.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

transmitting over a network the total route risk value and the adjusted cost of the insurance coverage.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the cost of insurance comprises one or more of a renewal cost, a premium cost, a discount, and a reward.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a telematics device, to:

calculate a first safety risk score of a first route of a vehicle between a first location and a second location based on a direction of the vehicle along the first route, wherein the first route is identified as having a lowest safety risk score of a plurality of routes between the first location and the second location;

calculate a second safety risk score of a second route of a vehicle between the first location and the second location based on a direction of the vehicle along the second route; and

identify whether the vehicle has traveled along the first route or the second route; and

adjust at least one of an insurance cost or an insurance reward based on the identified route along which the vehicle traveled.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a telematics device, to:

decrease an insurance cost or increase an insurance reward when the vehicle travels the first route; and

increase an insurance cost or decrease an insurance reward when the vehicle travels the second route.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the telematics device comprises a global positioning satellite unit configured to determine a location of the vehicle.