Distributed system for test drive conflict rescheduling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11157881-B2
Application number	US-201916598202-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 10, 2019
Priority date	Oct 10, 2019
Publication date	Oct 26, 2021
Grant date	Oct 26, 2021

Abstract

Aspects discussed herein may relate to methods and techniques for automatically generating a test drive schedule for a user based on known inventory, user preferences, demographic information, employee availability, and other factors, as well as detecting conflicts and rescheduling test drives in response to those conflicts. This may allow for easier access to test drives for the consumer, which may promote more test drives and higher resultant sales, as well as allowing for rescheduling in advance of conflicts, which may reduce lost consumers due to test drives that were conflicted.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A management server comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the management server to:
receive, via two-way communication with a device associated with a user, a first request to schedule a test drive, wherein the first request comprises user preferences for a vehicle, wherein two-way communication comprises communication via a streaming data platform;
determine, via two-way communication with a database and based on the user preferences, a first availability of one or more vehicles;
update, via two-way communication with the device and a dealer server, an interactive calendar appointment associated with the first availability, wherein the interactive calendar appointment is accessible by the device and the dealer server;
determine, based on received feedback from the dealer server via the interactive calendar appointment, a first set of dates for the test drive;
cause, via the interactive calendar appointment, display of the first set of dates on the device;
receive, based on received feedback from the device via the interactive calendar appointment, a first scheduled day for the test drive of one or more selected vehicles of the one or more vehicles;
update, via two-way communication with the database, the database to indicate that the one or more selected vehicles are reserved during the test drive;
automatically determine, based on one or more capabilities of the one or more selected vehicles, a weather threshold for each of the one or more selected vehicles;
monitor weather for the weather threshold at one or more locations, wherein the one or more locations are associated with the one or more selected vehicles;
automatically determine, based on the monitoring and at a threshold time before the first scheduled day, a chance of bad weather at a location for the test drive, wherein the location is one of the one or more locations;
automatically determine, at a threshold time before the first scheduled day and based on the chance of bad weather exceeding the weather threshold, a potential conflict for the first scheduled day at the location for the test drive;
transmit, via two-way communication with the device, based on the potential conflict, a notification to the device indicating the potential conflict;
cause, by an application on the device and in response to the notification, popup display of an option for the user to cancel or reschedule the test drive;
receive, in response to the popup display and via two-way communication with the device, an interaction with the notification indicating a second request to schedule the test drive;
determine, via two-way communication with the database, a second availability of the one or more vehicles, wherein the second availability is at a threshold time after the potential conflict;
update, via two-way communication with the dealer server and based on the second availability, the interactive calendar appointment;
update, via two-way communication with the device, the application to display the second availability;
determine, based on feedback received via the application, a second set of dates for the test drive;
cause, via the updated interactive calendar appointment, display of the second set of dates on the device;
receive, based on received feedback from the device via the interactive calendar appointment, a second scheduled day for the test drive of the one or more selected vehicles; and
update, via two-way communication with the database, the database to indicate that the one or more selected vehicles are reserved during the test drive on the second scheduled day.

2. The management server of claim 1 , wherein the notification comprises an interactive option to reschedule the test drive, and wherein the interaction comprises a selection of the interactive option.

3. The management server of claim 1 , wherein the instructions cause the management server to automatically determine the potential conflict by determining that a ratio of test drives scheduled for the first scheduled day to a number of available salesman exceeds a threshold.

4. The management server of claim 1 , wherein the weather threshold comprises at least one of:
a precipitation percentage,
a precipitation amount,
a precipitation type,
a temperature,
a wind speed, or
a weather service warning.

5. The management server of claim 1 , wherein the instructions cause the management server to determine the first set of dates by:
determining a number of available employees for each of a plurality of possible dates; and
selecting the first set of dates from the plurality of possible dates, wherein the first set of dates correspond to days where the number of available employees exceeds a threshold.

6. The management server of claim 1 , wherein the instructions cause the management server to determine the one or more vehicles by determining, based on correlating demographic information associated with the user with the user preferences and known demographic information for past test drives of a plurality of vehicles, the one or more vehicles.

7. The management server of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the management server to:
determine, based on demographic information associated with the user, and based on a third availability of one or more additional vehicles associated with an additional dealer, one or more additional vehicles for the test drive; and
transmit, via two-way communication with the device, a recommended schedule to test drive the one or more additional vehicles.

8. The management server of claim 1 , wherein the device comprises a smartphone.

9. The management server of claim 8 , wherein the popup display comprises a push notification.

10. A method comprising:
receiving, via two-way communication with a device associated with a user, a first request to schedule a test drive, wherein the first request comprises user preferences for a vehicle, wherein two-way communication comprises communication via a streaming data platform;
determining, via two-way communication with a database and based on the user preferences, a first availability of one or more vehicles;
updating, via two-way communication with the device and a dealer server, an interactive calendar appointment associated with the first availability, wherein the interactive calendar appointment is accessible by the device and the dealer server;
determining, based on received feedback from the dealer server via the interactive calendar appointment, a first set of dates for the test drive;
causing, via the interactive calendar appointment, display of the first set of dates on the device;
receiving, based on received feedback from the device via the interactive calendar appointment, a first scheduled day for the test drive of one or more selected vehicles of the one or more vehicles;
updating, via two-way communication with the database, the database to indicate that the one or more selected vehicles are reserved during the test drive;
automatically determining, based on one or more capabilities of the one or more selected vehicles, a weather threshold for each of the one or more selected vehicles;
monitoring, by a management server, weather for the weather threshold at one or more locations, wherein the one or more locations are associated with the one or more selected vehicles;
automatically determining, based on the monitoring and at a threshold time before the first scheduled day, a chance of bad weather at a location for the test drive, wherein the location is one of the one or more locations;
automatically determining, at a threshold time before the first sc

Assignees

• Capital One Services Llc

Inventors

• Hiremath Vishwanath
• Chikkaveerappa Satish
• Subramanian Ponnazhakan

Classifications

• G06Q10/1093 Primary

  Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups · CPC title

• G06Q10/109

  Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting · CPC title

• G06Q30/0252

  based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals · CPC title

• G06F16/9535

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title

• G06Q10/1095 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic