Distributed system for test drive conflict rescheduling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11893544-B2
Application number	US-202117474766-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 14, 2021
Priority date	Oct 10, 2019
Publication date	Feb 6, 2024
Grant date	Feb 6, 2024

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, based on received feedback from the device via an interactive calendar appointment, a first scheduled day for a test drive of one or more selected vehicles;
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 at one or more locations, wherein the one or more locations are associated with the one or more selected vehicles;
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;
determine, at the 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;
cause, by an application on the device and in response to a notification of the potential conflict, popup display of an option for the user to cancel or reschedule the test drive;
update, via two-way communication with the database and based on an interaction with the notification indicating a second request to schedule the test drive, the interactive calendar appointment; 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 a 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 further 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 level.

5. The management server of claim 1 , wherein the instructions cause the management server to determine the first scheduled day by:
determining a number of available employees for each of a plurality of possible dates; and
selecting the first scheduled day from the plurality of possible dates, wherein the first scheduled day corresponds to a day 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, 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 selected 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, and wherein the popup display comprises a push notification.

9. 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, based on received feedback from the device via an interactive calendar appointment, a first scheduled day for a test drive of one or more selected vehicles;
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 weather at one or more locations, wherein the one or more locations are associated with the one or more selected vehicles;
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;
determining, at the 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;
causing, by an application on the device and in response to a notification of the potential conflict, popup display of an option for the user to cancel or reschedule the test drive;
updating, via two-way communication with the database and based on an interaction with the notification indicating a second request to schedule the test drive, the interactive calendar appointment; and
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 on a second scheduled day.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the notification comprises an interactive option to reschedule the test drive, and wherein the interaction comprises a selection of the interactive option.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the determining the potential conflict further comprises determining 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.

12. The method of claim 9 , 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 level.

13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
determining a number of available employees for each of a plurality of possible dates; and
selecting the first scheduled day from the plurality of possible dates, wherein the first scheduled day corresponds to a day where the number of available employees exceeds a threshold.

14. The method of claim 9 , further comprising 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 selected vehicles.

15. The method of claim 9 , further comprising
determining, 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
transmitting, via two-way communication with the device, a recommended schedule to test drive the one or more additional vehicles.

16. The method of claim 9 , wherein

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

• G06Q10/1095 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F16/9535

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · 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