System and method for determining vehicle odometer rollback

• US 7,505,838 B2
• Filed: 07/11/2005
• Issued: 03/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CARFAX Incorporated (S&P Global Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CARFAX Incorporated (S&P Global Inc.)
• Inventors: Korman, Steve, Raines, Richard T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hellner; Mark
• Application Number:
  US11/177,470
• Publication Number:
  US 20060009885A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,345 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/29, 701/30, 701/33, 701/34, 701/28
• US Class Current: 701/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A vehicle history information system adapted to determine vehicle odometer rollback. In one embodiment, the system includes a vehicle history report module adapted to retrieve vehicle history records associated with a particular vehicle, at least two vehicle history records having associated date information, odometer reading, and data source information. The system further includes an odometer rollback determination module adapted to analyze the vehicle history records to determine a likelihood of an odometer rollback at least partially based on the data source information.

Claims

1. A vehicle history information system adapted to determine vehicle odometer rollback comprising:

a vehicle history report module adapted to retrieve vehicle history records associated with a particular vehicle, at least two vehicle history records having associated date information, odometer reading, and data source information, said data source information being indicative of a level of accuracy of odometer data provided by a data source; and

an odometer rollback determination module is adapted to determine whether an odometer discrepancy exists between said at least two vehicle history records, determines whether an odometer discrepancy qualifies as a potential odometer rollback, and analyze said at least two vehicle history records to determine a likelihood of an odometer rollback at least partially based on a confidence in the data source providing accurate odometer data.

8. The vehicle history information system of claim 1, wherein said odometer rollback determination module determines that an odometer discrepancy qualifies as a potential odometer rollback if the odometer discrepancy is more than a predetermined number of miles.

17. The vehicle history information system of claim 1, further including a vehicle history database having vehicle history records relating to vehicle history of one or more vehicles, said vehicle history report module retrieving vehicle history records from said database.

18. The vehicle history information system of claim 17, wherein said vehicle history records relating to vehicle history of one or more vehicles stored in said database are obtained from a plurality of data sources.

19. The vehicle history information system of claim 1, further including a user interface module adapted to report the determined likelihood of an odometer rollback.

2. A vehicle history information system adapted to determine vehicle odometer rollback comprising:

a vehicle history report module adapted to retrieve vehicle history records associated with a particular vehicle, at least two vehicle history records having associated date information, odometer reading, and data source information; and

an odometer rollback determination module adapted to classify data sources of said at least two vehicle history records using said data source information corresponding to the level of confidence in accuracy of odometer reading provided by said data sources, and determine the likelihood of an odometer rollback at least partially based on the classifications of the data sources of said at least two vehicle history records.

20. The vehicle history information system of claim 2, wherein said at least two vehicle history records includes a trigger record and a target record, said target record having an associated date information that is later than said trigger record, and having an associated odometer reading that is less than said trigger record.

21. The vehicle history information system of claim 20, wherein said at least two vehicle history records further includes a validating record having at least associated date information that is later than said trigger record and said target record and data source information, said odometer rollback determination module further classifying data source associated with said validating record, and determining the likelihood of an odometer rollback based on classification of data sources of said validating record, said trigger record, and said target record.

22. The vehicle history information system of claim 21, wherein said odometer rollback determination module applies a rule based on classification of the data sources of said validating record, said trigger record, and said target record to determine the likelihood of an odometer rollback, said applied rule assigning a rollback classification tier indicating that an odometer discrepancy is an odometer rollback or a false-positive odometer rollback.

3. A method of determining vehicle odometer rollback comprising:

retrieving vehicle history records associated with a particular vehicle, at least two vehicle history records having associated date information, odometer reading, and data source information, said data source information being indicative of a level of accuracy of odometer data provided by a data source;

determining whether an odometer discrepancy exists between said at least two vehicle history records;

determining whether an odometer discrepancy qualifies as a potential odometer rollback; and

analyzing said at least two vehicle history records to determine a likelihood of an odometer rollback at least partially based on a confidence in the data source providing accurate odometer data.

23. The method of claim 3, wherein an odometer discrepancy qualifies as a potential odometer rollback if the odometer discrepancy is more than a predetermined number of miles.

32. The method of claim 3, further including providing a vehicle history database having vehicle history records relating to vehicle history of one or more vehicles.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein said vehicle history records relating to vehicle history of one or more vehicles stored in said vehicle history database are obtained from a plurality of data sources.

34. The method of claim 3, further including reporting the determined likelihood of an odometer rollback.

4. A computer readable storage medium comprising:

instructions for retrieving vehicle history records associated with a particular vehicle, at least two vehicle history records having associated date information, odometer reading, and data source information, said data source information being indicative of a level of accuracy of odometer data provided by a data source;

instructions for determining whether an odometer discrepancy exists between said at least two vehicle history records;

instructions for determining whether an odometer discrepancy qualifies as a potential odometer rollback; and

instructions for analyzing said at least two vehicle history records to determine a likelihood of an odometer rollback at least partially based on a confidence in the data source providing accurate odometer data.

35. The storage medium of claim 4, wherein an odometer discrepancy qualifies as a potential odometer rollback if the odometer discrepancy is more than a predetermined number of miles.

44. The storage medium of claim 4, further including a vehicle history database having vehicle history records relating to vehicle history of one or more vehicles.

45. The storage medium of claim 44, wherein said vehicle history records relating to vehicle history of one or more vehicles stored in said vehicle history database are obtained from a plurality of data sources.

46. The storage medium of claim 4, further including instructions for reporting the determined likelihood of an odometer rollback.

5. A vehicle history information system adapted to determine vehicle odometer rollback comprising:

a vehicle history report module adapted to retrieve vehicle history records associated with a particular vehicle, at least two vehicle history records having associated date information, odometer reading, and data source information, said data source information being indicative of a level of accuracy of odometer data provided by a data source; and

an odometer rollback determination module adapted to analyze said at least two vehicle history records to determine a likelihood of an odometer rollback at least partially based on said data source information,

wherein said odometer rollback determination module is further adapted to classify data sources of said at least two vehicle history records based on the associated data source information, the classifications of data sources being indicative of level of confidence in accuracy of odometer reading provided by the data sources.

9. The vehicle history information system of claim 5, wherein said odometer rollback determination module determines the likelihood of an odometer rollback at least partially based on the classifications of the data sources.

10. The vehicle history information system of claim 9, wherein said at least two vehicle history records includes a trigger record and a target record, said target record having an associated date information that is later than said trigger record, and having an associated odometer reading that is less than said trigger record.

11. The vehicle history information system of claim 10, wherein said at least two vehicle history records further includes a validating record having at least associated date information and data source information, said validating record having an associated date information that is later than said trigger record and said target record.

12. The vehicle history information system of claim 11, wherein said odometer rollback determination module further classifies data source of said validating record, and determines the likelihood of an odometer rollback based on classification of data sources of said validating record, said trigger record, and said target record.

13. The vehicle history information system of claim 9, wherein said odometer rollback determination module applies a rule based on classification of the data sources of said at least two vehicle history records in determining the likelihood of an odometer rollback.

14. The vehicle history information system of claim 13, wherein the applied rule assigns a rollback classification tier indicating that an odometer discrepancy is an odometer rollback or a false-positive odometer rollback.

15. The vehicle history information system of claim 13, further including a rules database adapted to retrievably store a plurality of rules that are applied by said odometer rollback determination module based on classification of the data sources associated with the at least two vehicle history records.

16. The vehicle history information system of claim 15, wherein said rules database is further adapted to retrievably store said classification of said plurality of data sources.

6. A method of determining vehicle odometer rollback comprising:

retrieving vehicle history records associated with a particular vehicle, at least two vehicle history records having associated date information, odometer reading, and data source information, said data source information being indicative of a level of accuracy of odometer data provided by a data source; and

analyzing said at least two vehicle history records to determine a likelihood of an odometer rollback at least partially based on said data source information,

further including classifying data sources of said at least two vehicle records on the associated data source information, the classifications of data sources being indicative of level of confidence in accuracy of odometer reading provided by the data sources.

24. The method of claim 6, wherein determination of the likelihood of an odometer rollback is at least partially based on the classifications of the data sources.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein said at least two vehicle history records includes a trigger record and a target record, said target record having an associated date information that is later than said trigger record, and having an associated odometer reading that is less than said trigger record.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said at least two vehicle history records further includes a validating record having at least associated date information and data source information, said validating record having an associated date information that is later than said trigger record and said target record.

27. The method of claim 26, further including classifying source of said validating record, and determining of the likelihood of an odometer rollback is based on classification of data sources of said validating record, said trigger record, and said target record.

28. The method of claim 24, further including application of a rule based on classification of the data sources of said at least two vehicle history records in determining the likelihood of an odometer rollback.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the applied rule assigns a rollback classification tier indicating that an odometer discrepancy is an odometer rollback or a false-positive odometer rollback.

30. The method of claim 28, further including providing a rules database adapted to retrievably store a plurality of rules that are applied by said odometer rollback determination module based on classification of the data sources associated with the at least two vehicle history records.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein said rules database is further adapted to retrievably store said classification of said plurality of data sources.

7. A computer readable storage medium comprising:

instructions for retrieving vehicle history records associated with a particular vehicle, at least two vehicle history records having associated date information, odometer reading, and data source information, said data source information being indicative of a level of accuracy of odometer data provided by a data source; and

instructions for analyzing said at least two vehicle history records to determine a likelihood of an odometer rollback at least partially based on said data source information,

further including instructions for classifying data sources of said at least two history records based on the associated data source information, the classifications of data sources being indicative of level of confidence in accuracy of odometer reading provided by the data sources.

36. The storage medium of claim 7, wherein determination of the likelihood of an odometer rollback is at least partially based on the classifications of the data sources.

37. The storage medium of claim 36, wherein said at least two vehicle history records includes a trigger record and a target record, said target record having an associated date information that is later than said trigger record, and having an associated odometer reading that is less than said trigger record.

38. The storage medium of claim 37, wherein said at least two vehicle history records further includes a validating record having at least associated date information and data source information, said validating record having an associated date information that is later than said trigger record and said target record.

39. The storage medium of claim 38, further including instructions for classifying source of said validating record, and determining the likelihood of an odometer rollback is based on classification of data sources of said validating record, said trigger record, and said target record.

40. The storage medium of claim 36, further including instructions for application of a rule based on classification of the data sources of said at least two vehicle history records in determining the likelihood of an odometer rollback.

41. The storage medium of claim 40, wherein the applied rule assigns a rollback classification tier indicating that an odometer discrepancy is an odometer rollback or a false-positive odometer rollback.

42. The storage medium of claim 40, further including a rules database adapted to retrievably store a plurality of rules that are applied by said odometer rollback determination module based on classification of the data sources associated with the at least two vehicle history records.

43. The storage medium of claim 42, wherein said rules database is further adapted to retrievably store said classification of said plurality of data sources.