System, method and computer program product for geo-specific vehicle pricing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12423725-B2
Application number	US-202318315428-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 10, 2023
Priority date	Jun 30, 2011
Publication date	Sep 23, 2025
Grant date	Sep 23, 2025

Abstract

Disclosed are embodiments for the aggregation and analysis of vehicle prices via a geo-specific model. Data may be collected at various geo-specific levels such as a ZIP-Code level to provide greater data resolution. Data sets taken into account may include demarcation point data sets and data sets based on vehicle transactions. A demarcation point data set may be based on consumer market factors that influence car-buying behavior. Vehicle transactions may be classified into data sets for other vehicles having similar characteristics to the vehicle. A geo-specific statistical pricing model may then be applied to the data sets based on similar characteristics to a particular vehicle to produce a price estimation for the vehicle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for geo-specific vehicle pricing, the method comprising:
determining, by a vehicle data system operating on a server computer based on rules, a hierarchy of geographic entities;
classifying, by the vehicle data system, historical transaction records from distributed sources into a plurality of bins based on at least one vehicle attribute and the hierarchy of geographic entities;
receiving, by the vehicle data system over the Internet from a user device, a user-specified vehicle configuration and a user-specified location through a website supported by the vehicle data system, the user-specified vehicle configuration having the at least one vehicle attribute;
determining, by the vehicle data system, a geo-specific vehicle pricing model for estimating a geo-specific price for the user-specified vehicle configuration, the determining comprising:
evaluating the plurality of bins and the hierarchy of geographic entities in view of the user-specified vehicle configuration and the user-specified location; and
determining a geographic resolution at which a minimum threshold number of historical transaction records is met for every bin, wherein the geo-specific vehicle pricing model corresponds to the geographic resolution, and wherein the geographic resolution corresponds to a geographic entity in the hierarchy of geographic entities;

determining, by the vehicle data system utilizing the geo-specific vehicle pricing model and a bin having at least the minimum threshold number of historical transaction records with the at least one vehicle attribute of the user-specified vehicle configuration, an estimated geo-specific price for the user-specified vehicle configuration in the geographic entity;
wherein application of the geo-specific vehicle pricing model comprises:
determining a degradation factor value and a maximum transaction age over which transactions in the historical vehicle transaction records are not used in the geo-specific vehicle pricing model, the determining comprising analyzing historical performance of the historical vehicle transaction records using combinations of degradation factor values and transaction ages, selecting a combination of degradation factor value and transaction age which have the greatest relative performance, and weighing each transaction based on a corresponding transaction age and degradation factor value;
determining geo-specific socioeconomic data for a set of geo-specific socioeconomic variables of the geo-specific vehicle pricing model to account for differences in consumer behaviors across the hierarchy of geographic entities, the geo-specific socioeconomic data specific to the geographic entity;
determining inventory data for a set of supply and demand variables of the geo-specific vehicle pricing model, the inventory data including a number of days a vehicle spent at a physical location in the geographic entity before the vehicle is sold;
determining vehicle-specific features for a set of vehicle-specific variables of the geo-specific vehicle pricing model, the vehicle-specific features including a vehicle body type;
determining a predicted margin ratio representing a ratio of price over cost particular to the bin, the determining comprising solving a regression model with the set of geo-specific socioeconomic variables, the set of supply and demand variables, and the set of vehicle-specific variables; and

providing, by the vehicle data system over the Internet to the user device, the estimated geo-specific price for the user-specified vehicle configuration in the geographic entity to the website for display on the user device.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the rules comprise at least one of a polygon merging rule or a clustering rule, the rules based at least on spatial adjacency or a socioeconomic characteristic.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the hierarchy of geographic entities comprises a Designated Market Areas (DMA) region, a DMA group, a DMA, a subDMA, a Zip Code to Zip Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA), and a Zip Code.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
adjusting the estimated geo-specific price to account for an incentive applicable to the user-specified vehicle configuration in the geographic entity.

5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
prior to the classifying, appending data to the historical transaction records, the data including at least one of: configurator data, offset data, census data, customer and dealer incentives data, or industry data.

6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
assigning a temporal weight to each transaction of the historical transaction records based on age.

7. A vehicle data system comprising:
a processor;
a non-transitory computer readable medium; and
instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and translatable by the processor for:
determining, based on rules, a hierarchy of geographic entities;
classifying historical transaction records from distributed sources into a plurality of bins based on at least one vehicle attribute and the hierarchy of geographic entities;
receiving, over the Internet from a user device, a user-specified vehicle configuration and a user-specified location through a website supported by the vehicle data system, the user-specified vehicle configuration having the at least one vehicle attribute;
determining a geo-specific vehicle pricing model for estimating a geo-specific price for the user-specified vehicle configuration, the determining comprising:
evaluating the plurality of bins and the hierarchy of geographic entities in view of the user-specified vehicle configuration and the user-specified location; and
determining a geographic resolution at which a minimum threshold number of historical transaction records is met for every bin, wherein the geo-specific vehicle pricing model corresponds to the geographic resolution, and wherein the geographic resolution corresponds to a geographic entity in the hierarchy of geographic entities;

determining, utilizing the geo-specific vehicle pricing model and a bin having at least the minimum threshold number of historical transaction records with the at least one vehicle attribute of the user-specified vehicle configuration, an estimated geo-specific price for the user-specified vehicle configuration in the geographic entity;
wherein application of the geo-specific vehicle pricing model comprises:
determining a degradation factor value and a maximum transaction age over which transactions in the historical vehicle transaction records are not used in the geo-specific vehicle pricing model, the determining comprising analyzing historical performance of the historical vehicle transaction records using combinations of degradation factor values and transaction ages, selecting a combination of degradation factor value and transaction age which have the greatest relative performance, and weighing each transaction based on a corresponding transaction age and degradation factor value;
determining geo-specific socioeconomic data for a set of geo-specific socioeconomic variables of the geo-specific vehicle pricing model to account for differences in consumer behaviors across the hierarchy of geographic entities, the geo-specific socioeconomic data specific to the geographic entity;
determining inventory data for a set of supply and demand variables of the geo-specific vehicle pricing model, the inventory data including a number of days a vehicle spent at a physical location in the geographic entity before the vehicle is sold;
determining vehicle-specific features for a set of vehicle-specific variables of the geo-specific vehicle pricing model, the vehicle-specific features inc

Assignees

• Truecar Inc

Inventors

• Swinson Michael D
• Dhillon Param Pash Kaur
• Sullivan Thomas J
• Liu Xingchu

Classifications

• G06Q30/0205

  based on location or geographical consideration · CPC title

• G06Q30/02

  Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising · CPC title

• G06Q30/0206 Primary

  Price or cost determination based on market factors · CPC title