Assistance on the go

• US 9,697,525 B1
• Filed: 12/04/2015
• Issued: 07/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate Corporation)
• Inventors: Kozlowski, Tara Cavallaro, Briggs, Ryan M., Iqbal, Imran
• Primary Examiner(s): Ortiz, Angela
• Assistant Examiner(s): Berns, Michael
• Application Number:
  US14/959,438
• Time in Patent Office: 578 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/388 using mutual authentication without cards, e.g. challenge-response
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0833 Card having specific functional components
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0967 Systems involving transmission of highway information, e.g. weather, speed limits transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• 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: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/487 Arrangements for providing information services, e.g. recorded voice services or time announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• 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 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A mobile computerized apparatus for use with a roadside assistance program to assist in identifying a service provider, such as a tow truck, is disclosed. The apparatus transmits relevant information to a remote server. The server in turn provides information about a plurality of service providers available to service the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining that a user'"'"'s membership level does not include a roadside assistance service;

generating an icon as deactivated at a mobile apparatus of the user;

receiving, at the mobile apparatus, an activation of the roadside assistance service;

displaying the icon as activated at the mobile apparatus of the user to indicate that the user'"'"'s membership level includes roadside assistance service;

transmitting, by a wireless component in the mobile apparatus at a location of an occurrence of a roadside event to a vehicle, relevant information to a remote server, the relevant information comprising a selected service, user identification information, and vehicle location information; and

receiving, at the mobile apparatus, information about a selected service provider to remedy the roadside event to the vehicle, where the selected service provider was selected by the remote server using an acceptance message comprising an estimated time of arrival by the selected service provider at the vehicle, and where the information about a selected service provider includes a name of the selected service provider and the estimated time of arrival by the selected service provider at the vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, at the mobile apparatus, updates from the remote server about the estimated time of arrival by the selected service provider at the vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing pre-registration information about the user;

when the displayed icon is activated, populating an electronic membership card with the pre-registration information; and

displaying an image of the electronic membership card on a display device.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

when the icon is displayed as deactivated, obscuring the image of the electronic membership card.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the obscuring comprises graying out the image of the electronic membership card.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, at the mobile apparatus, input information from the user; and

determining the pre-registration information from the input information.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

storing, at the mobile apparatus, the pre-registration information.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining feedback information from the user about the selected service while the user waits for the selected service provider; and

transmitting, by the wireless component, the feedback information to the remote server.

9. A smartphone comprising:

a video display device;

a tracking device determining vehicle location information about a vehicle from positioning data;

a wireless component;

a mobile device processor for executing computer-executable instructions;

a memory storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by the mobile device processor cause the smartphone to perform steps comprising;

determining that a user'"'"'s membership level does not include a roadside assistance service;

generating an icon as deactivated;

when an activation of the roadside assistance service occurs, accessing pre-registration information associated with the user from non-volatile memory at a remote server;

displaying the icon as activated on the video display device to indicate that the user'"'"'s membership level includes roadside assistance service;

transmitting, through the wireless component and at an occurrence location of a roadside event to the vehicle, relevant information to the remote server, the relevant information comprising a selected service, user identification information, and the vehicle location information; and

receiving, through the wireless component, selection information about a selected service provider to remedy the roadside event to the vehicle, where the selected service provider was selected by the remote server using an acceptance message comprising an estimated time of arrival by the selected service provider at the vehicle, and where the selection information about a selected service provider includes a name of the selected service provider and the estimated time of arrival by the selected service provider at the vehicle.

10. The smartphone of claim 9, wherein the memory storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by the mobile device processor cause the smartphone to perform steps further comprising:

receiving, at the smartphone, updates from the remote server about the estimated time of arrival by the selected service provider at the vehicle.

11. The smartphone of claim 9, wherein the memory storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by the mobile device processor cause the smartphone to perform steps further comprising:

when the displayed icon is activated, populating an electronic membership card with the pre-registration information; and

displaying an image of the electronic membership card on the video display device.

12. The smartphone of claim 11, wherein the memory storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by the mobile device processor cause the smartphone to perform steps further comprising:

when the icon is displayed as deactivated, obscuring the image of the electronic membership card.

13. The smartphone of claim 9, wherein the memory storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by the mobile device processor cause the smartphone to perform steps further comprising:

obtaining additional authorization information after the occurrence of a roadside event; and

sending a request for the activation of the roadside assistance service, wherein the request includes the additional authorization information.

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

determining that a user'"'"'s membership level does not include a roadside assistance service;

generating an icon as deactivated;

receiving an activation of the roadside assistance service, wherein the receiving includes accessing pre-registration information associated with the user;

displaying the icon as activated to indicate that the user'"'"'s membership level includes roadside assistance service;

transmitting at an occurrence location of a roadside event to a vehicle, relevant information to a remote server, the relevant information comprising a selected service, user identification information, and vehicle location information; and

receiving information about a selected service provider to remedy the roadside event to the vehicle, where the selected service provider was selected by the remote server using an acceptance message comprising an estimated time of arrival by the selected service provider at the vehicle, and where the information about a selected service provider includes a name of the selected service provider and the estimated time of arrival by the selected service provider at the vehicle.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, cause the processor to perform:

receiving updates from the remote server about the estimated time of arrival by the selected service provider at the vehicle.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, cause the processor to perform:

when the displayed icon is activated, populating an electronic membership card with the pre-registration information; and

displaying an image of the electronic membership card on a video display device.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, cause the processor to perform:

obtaining additional authorization information after the occurrence of a roadside event; and

sending a request for the activation of the roadside assistance service, wherein the request includes the additional authorization information.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, cause the processor to perform:

receiving updates about the estimated time of arrival by the selected service provider at the vehicle.