Road Geometry and Weather Factors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016189305-A1
Application number	US-201514673150-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 30, 2015
Priority date	May 10, 2007
Publication date	Jun 30, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method is disclosed for mitigating the risks associated with driving by assigning risk values to road segments and using those risk values to select less risky travel routes. Various approaches to helping users mitigate risk are presented. A computing device is configured to generate a database of risk values. That device may receive accident information, geographic information, vehicle information, and other information from one or more data sources and calculate a risk value for the associated road segment. Subsequently, the computing device may provide the associated risk value to other devices. Furthermore, a personal navigation device may receive travel route information and use that information to retrieve risk values for the road segments in the travel route. An insurance company may use this information to determine whether to adjust a quote or premium of an insurance policy. This and other aspects relating to using geographically encoded information to promote and reward risk mitigation are disclosed.

First claim

1 . (canceled)

2 . A system comprising:
a vehicle; a location detection unit, located in the vehicle, configured to detect locations of the vehicle comprising at least a first location and a second location; a computer processor in communication with the location detection unit; and a computer memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to:
calculate a safety risk score of a route of the vehicle from the first location to the second location using at least road feature information, a direction of travel, a location of one or more road features along the route, and weather information;
wherein the calculating the safety risk score of the route of the vehicle comprises using direction of the vehicle through a segment of the route as a factor in calculating the safety risk score; and
based on the safety risk score of the route, debit an account associated with the vehicle.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the first location comprises a start location associated with a segment of a route and the second location comprises an end location of the segment of the route.

4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the computer processor and computer memory are part of a telematics device, which is in coupled to an onboard diagnostic system of the vehicle, configured to monitor and record consumption of safety risk units based on the safety risk score of the route.

5 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the location detection unit is one of a mobile location tracking device and a global positioning satellite unit.

6 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the safety risk score indicates safety risk of the route independent of a specific driver of the vehicle

7 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the segment of the route has a higher safety risk score for the vehicle travelling in a first direction and a lower risk score for the vehicle traveling in a second direction, wherein the first direction and second direction are in opposite directions

8 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the computer memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, further cause the system to:
based on the safety risk score of the route, calculate total safety risk units consumed by the vehicle traveling from the first location to the second location; and transmit over a network the total safety risk units, wherein the debiting of the account is further based on the total safety risk units.

9 . The system of claim 2 , where the computer memory stores a risk tolerance value that is a factor in the calculating of the safety risk score of the route.

10 . The system of claim 2 , further comprising:
an ancillary data store storing information corresponding to at least one of: road hazards, road features, weather, and traffic; wherein the safety risk score of the route is based at least in part on at least one of: a type of road topology in the route, a road feature along one or more segments of the route, and information accessed from the ancillary data store; and wherein the type of road comprises at least one of: highway, city street, country road, parking lot, and bridge.

11 . The system of claim 2 , further comprising:
an output device located in the vehicle comprising a speaker; wherein the output device is configured to alert a driver to a high risk road segment; and
wherein the output device is configured to offer the driver an incentive for avoiding the high risk road segment.

12 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the account is associated with a pay-as-you-drive vehicle insurance policy of the vehicle, and wherein the computer memory stores instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, further cause the system to:
notify an account holder of the account associated with the vehicle when a number of risk units consumed during a period of time is greater than estimated.

13 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the weather information comprises weather information retrieved in at least near real-time for association with one or more locations along the route.

14 . A method comprising:
receiving, by a location detection unit located in a vehicle, a plurality of locations of the vehicle comprising at least a first location and a second location; retrieving, by a risk unit consumption processor in communication with the location detection unit, segment values for a plurality of road segments comprising a route of the vehicle from the first location to the second location, wherein a segment value is based on two or more of road topology information associated with a corresponding road segment along the route of the vehicle, weather condition information associated with the corresponding road segment, and a direction of vehicle travel through the corresponding road segment; aggregating, by the risk unit consumption processor, the segment values for the plurality of road segments to calculate a total route risk value, wherein the total route risk value indicates safety risk of the route independent of a specific driver of the vehicle; and debiting an account associated with the vehicle based on the total route risk value.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the first location comprises a start location associated with a segment of a route and the second location comprises an end location of the segment of the route.

16 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the location detection unit is a global positioning satellite unit.

17 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the road segment of the route has a higher segment value for travel in a first direction than for travel on the road segment in an opposite direction, and wherein the segment values are based on historical accident information comprising direction of vehicle travel at accident location and accident location.

18 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
transmitting over a network the total route risk value.

19 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the segment values are further based on accident loss information.

20 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the segment value is based at least in part on at least one of: a topological feature of one or more road segments in the route, a topological feature of one or more turns in the route, and a current weather condition at one or more road segments in the route.

21 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a telematics device, to:
calculate a safety risk score of a segment of a route of a vehicle using road topology information associated with the segment and weather information associated with the segment, wherein the road topology information comprises direction of travel at a location along the segment of the route and the weather information includes a weather condition retrieved in near real-time, wherein the calculating comprises using direction of the vehicle through the segment as a factor in calculating the safety risk score of the segment; and debit an account associated with the vehicle based on at least the safety risk score of the segment.

22 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 21 , wherein the segment of the route has a higher safety risk score for the vehicle travelling in a first direction and a lower risk score for the vehicle traveling in an opposite direction, and wherein the safety risk score indicates safety risk of the route independent of a specific driver of the vehicle

Assignees

• Allstate Insurance Co

Inventors

• Bogovich Jason Brian
• Jordan Peters Julie A

Classifications

• G01C21/26

  specially adapted for navigation in a road network · CPC title

• G06Q40/08 Primary

  Insurance · CPC title

• G08G1/096838

  where the user preferences are taken into account or the user selects one route out of a plurality · CPC title

• G01C21/3415

  Dynamic re-routing, e.g. recalculating the route when the user deviates from calculated route or after detecting real-time traffic data or accidents · CPC title

• G01C21/3461

  Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types or segments such as motorways, toll roads or ferries · CPC title