Vehicle Telematics System to Promote Good Driving Behavior Using Positive Feedback and Award Points

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2023316321-A1
Application number	US-202318132685-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 10, 2023
Priority date	Dec 31, 2012
Publication date	Oct 5, 2023
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed to promote good driving among users. A user-customizable good driving (GD) wish list may be created, populated, modified, and/or used to promote good driving. The GD wish list may be used in conjunction with a vehicle telematics unit (VTU) to monitor, process, detect, and/or record good driving events, and communicate and/or generate positive feedback for the user. In addition to positive feedback, good driving (GD) points may be accumulated based on driving behavior. The accumulated GD points may be used in conjunction with a product and/or service offering, such as by an insurance company. Furthermore, in some examples, the system encourages users to promote good driving behavior by pledging themselves to a challenging GD wish list that will earn them more GD points and the associated benefits.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A vehicle telematics unit configured for customization by a user-defined good driving (GD) wish list and for installation in a user's vehicle, the vehicle telematics unit comprising:
a processing unit comprising a processor; a memory unit storing the GD wish list, wherein the GD wish list comprises: (i) at least one user-selected combination of one or more characteristics of driving behavior, (ii) user-provided values, which are indicative of good driving behavior that the user wishes to follow, corresponding to the one or more characteristics of driving behavior, and (iii) an amount of good driving (GD) points corresponding to the at least one user-selected combination; and the memory unit further storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed by the processing unit, cause the vehicle telematics unit to:
monitor the user's driving behavior using at least one sensor unit associated with the vehicle telematics unit,
detect, by the processing unit, that the monitored driving behavior meets the requirements corresponding to the user-provided values for the characteristics of a first combination of the at least one user-selected combination in the GD wish list;
credit the user's account with the amount of GD points corresponding to the first user-selected combination; and
generate, by the processing unit based on the amount of credited GD points exceeding a predetermined threshold, a positive message configured for perception in the user's vehicle, to promote good driving behavior;
wherein for the same user performing the same driving behavior, a first vehicle telematics unit customized with a GD wish list with more challenging requirements accumulates more GD points than a second vehicle telematics unit customized with a GD wish list with less challenging requirements.

Assignees

• Allstate Insurance Co

Inventors

• Warden Thomas Michael
• Kraft Daniel
• Bryer Nathan M
• Huls Eric
• Brinkmann Margaret A

Classifications

• G06Q30/0226 Primary

  Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems · CPC title